TY  - GEN
ID  - cogprints5904
UR  - http://cogprints.org/5904/
A1  - Heylighen, Francis
A1  - Vidal, Clément
TI  - Getting Things Done: The Science behind Stress-Free Productivity
Y1  - 2007/12/01/
N2  - Allen (2001) proposed the ?Getting Things Done? (GTD) method for personal productivity enhancement, and reduction of the stress caused by information overload. This paper argues that recent insights in psychology and cognitive science support and extend GTD?s recommendations. We first summarize GTD with the help of a flowchart. We then review the theories of situated, embodied and distributed cognition that purport to explain how the brain processes information and plans actions in the real world. The conclusion is that the brain heavily relies on the environment, to function as an external memory, a trigger for actions, and a source of affordances, disturbances and feedback. We then show how these principles are practically implemented in GTD, with its focus on organizing tasks into ?actionable? external memories, and on opportunistic, situation-dependent execution. Finally, we propose an extension of GTD to support collaborative work, inspired by the concept of stigmergy.
AV  - public
KW  - personal productivity
KW  -  personal information management
KW  -  time management
KW  -  task management
KW  -  praxeology
KW  -  situated and embodied cognition
KW  -  stigmergy
KW  -  information overload.
ER  -

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