Getting Things Done

Summary: The Zen of the In-Tray Date: June/July 2009
Work done: 3D modelling, lighting, texturing, animation, rendering, 2D compositing, sound effects.
Format: Full HD Duration: 56 seconds Completion time: 10 days

Getting Things Done is a philosophy and ‘action management method’ devised by a guy called David Allen. He’s basically the zen master of the in-tray, and GTD is employed as a day to day method by people all over the world. I’m not necessarily a subscriber to the philosophy, though I’m deeply drawn to it for many reasons. I first came across the idea when browsing Flickr. The image that caught my eye especially was this one.

It’s by a guy called Hawkexpress who, by all accounts, is one of many who have ritualised the forms and processes of GTD to a crazy extent, almost fetishising the objects and scenarios in which they practice GTD. In the notes to the photo above he instructs us that “by keeping clock close to writing environment, we can reduce effor to check time on time-stamping of index cards.”

I wonder how much time that actually saves. And how it reflects on this guy’s attitude towards time and productivity. The picture is so funny and tragic and attractive all at the same time, I love it so much. On a more general note, despite the whimsical nature of this piece, it’s symbolic of my wider interest in productivity and creativity as concepts and practices - my interest in fruit, for example, is driven by a deeper interest in how we signify productivity.

This piece took about 10 days, but would have taken less if I’d had a clear idea of what I wanted. I used After Effects, Maya and Photoshop, but the majority of the work took place in AE. Huge learning curve on this one - I’m now adept with After Effects 3D capability and I’m pretty much on top of the rest of it. The experimention is evidenced by the reams of discarded clips on my virtual cutting room floor. Oh, and one last thing - I made the soundtrack to this one as well (yeah, who’da thunk?). OK, so it’s a bit amateurish but it was fun to do.