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Today’s post is from Mike St. Pierre of The Daily Saint

Elegant. I’ve heard David Allen use this word many times in his writings and training events.  Most men don’t use this word, much less in the context of a dayplanner or to-do list.  The dictionary defines it as

“Characterized by or exhibiting refined, tasteful beauty of manner, form, or style.”

Now think of the last time that you felt that someone was elegantly dressed or appointed.  I think of a fundraiser that I was attending a few weeks  back.  One woman in particular (she happens to be my lovely wife) was clearly a cut above the rest, dressed stylishly and carrying herself with confidence.

We might also consider this a state of being “ok with yourself”, or knowing what you’re all about.  In my work, we often refer to this as being mission-based and having a sense of contentment about who we are and where we see ourselves going.  If you work in a competitive niche, this “ok-ness” is essential.  Without it, the soul of your company is lost.

As I think of the word elegant as David Allen refers to it, I’m mindful of a system that is thorough and captures ideas as they come, then processing them into actionable steps.  I think of a net of sorts that can ‘catch’ what needs to be retained and drop what’s useless.

With this said, how carefree is GTD?  Allen wrote last week about creating systems that are not beholden to the urgent.   This harkens back to what Covey called an “urgency addiction” and he noted as far back as 1988 that the truly successful people in life are looking beyond the ringing phone and email chime.

As I was driving to work this morning, I wondered how many miles my car has- 88K or 98K?  It runs like a champ and my commute is so short that an old pick-up would get me there in one piece.  As long as I take good care of it, I (and my car) will be ok.  This is of course how GTD works as well- when you know what you’re all about and do your work with consistency you can relax and get things done.

How elegant is that?