# The Rise and Fall of Getting Things Done
URL:: https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-rise-and-fall-of-getting-things-done
Author:: Cal Newport
## Highlights
> In the nineteen-nineties, the spread of e-mail had transformed knowledge work. With nearly all friction removed from professional communication, anyone could bother anyone else at any time ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gayvwm7dt2afr5qz9nkwrtx4))
> The knowledge sector’s insistence that productivity is a personal issue seems to have created a so-called “tragedy of the commons” scenario, in which individuals making reasonable decisions for themselves insure a negative group outcome. An office worker’s life is dramatically easier, in the moment, if she can send messages that demand immediate responses from her colleagues, or disseminate requests and tasks to others in an ad-hoc manner. But the cumulative effect of such constant, unstructured communication is cognitively harmful: on the receiving end, the deluge of information and demands makes work unmanageable. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gayw0y62ef1z9sk1e33ra236))
> In this context, the shortcomings of personal-productivity systems like G.T.D. become clear. They don’t directly address the fundamental problem: the insidiously haphazard way that work unfolds at the organizational level. They only help individuals cope with its effects ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gayw181pg3dep8900s76qzkf))
> Mann no longer uses the full G.T.D. system. He remains a fan of David Allen (“there’s a person for whom G.T.D. is a perfect fit,” he told me), but the nature of his current work doesn’t generate the overwhelming load of obligations that first drove him to the system, back in 2004. “ ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gayw2r3ssz9h74cym39d1x1k))
---
Title: The Rise and Fall of Getting Things Done
Author: Cal Newport
Tags: readwise, articles
date: 2024-01-30
---
# The Rise and Fall of Getting Things Done
URL:: https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-rise-and-fall-of-getting-things-done
Author:: Cal Newport
## AI-Generated Summary
In the early two-thousands, Merlin Mann, a Web designer and avowed Macintosh enthusiast, was working as a freelance project manager for software companies.
## Highlights
> In the nineteen-nineties, the spread of e-mail had transformed knowledge work. With nearly all friction removed from professional communication, anyone could bother anyone else at any time ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gayvwm7dt2afr5qz9nkwrtx4))
> The knowledge sector’s insistence that productivity is a personal issue seems to have created a so-called “tragedy of the commons” scenario, in which individuals making reasonable decisions for themselves insure a negative group outcome. An office worker’s life is dramatically easier, in the moment, if she can send messages that demand immediate responses from her colleagues, or disseminate requests and tasks to others in an ad-hoc manner. But the cumulative effect of such constant, unstructured communication is cognitively harmful: on the receiving end, the deluge of information and demands makes work unmanageable. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gayw0y62ef1z9sk1e33ra236))
> In this context, the shortcomings of personal-productivity systems like G.T.D. become clear. They don’t directly address the fundamental problem: the insidiously haphazard way that work unfolds at the organizational level. They only help individuals cope with its effects ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gayw181pg3dep8900s76qzkf))
> Mann no longer uses the full G.T.D. system. He remains a fan of David Allen (“there’s a person for whom G.T.D. is a perfect fit,” he told me), but the nature of his current work doesn’t generate the overwhelming load of obligations that first drove him to the system, back in 2004. “ ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gayw2r3ssz9h74cym39d1x1k))