Superman: The First "Getting Things Done" Follower

Maybe it’s been part of the “Superman” meme that’s been going around the ‘net lately (for starters, see the excellent online retrospective, Superman is a Dick), but lately I’ve been fascinated by Superman

comics, especially the old “Silver Age” ones (which date from 1959 to

1970). They were oddly, if unintentionally prescient, what with what is

probably the first use of the word “blog” in mainstream media, or their daring-for-the-time repeated use of cross-dressing.

Here’s another instance in which Superman comics unwittingly ride the cutting edge: he’s a follower of the Getting Things Done

(often called GTD for short) methodology! Like any good GTD’er, he’s

taken his undone tasks “out of his head” and put them into a master

list, or what followers of the GTD methodology would call the “Inbox”:

Apparently, Supes isn’t an “under-promise and over-deliver” kind of guy. Click the picture to read the comic!

Note that a real GTD Inbox is isn’t ordered — you simply just add

undone tasks to it as they come in. Mind you, Superman’s list must be

unordered, seeing as his primary mission, “Wipe out crime and evil”

come third, after the self-serving “Find antidote to green kryptonite”.

Unless, of course, he’s a dick (which apparently, he is).

For those of you interested in reading the rest of the comic, you can read it in its entirety online! Marvel at the completely ludicrous story in which Superman accomplishes his super-tasks by duplicating himself and giving each duplicate 100 times his original already-super-brainpower! Gasp as how both Supermen’s sattelites of anti-evil rays make Kruschev and Castro give up their evil ways! Chortle at the

super-dumbass solution these two super-geniuses devise to figure out

which one gets to marry Lana Lang and which one gets to marry Lois Lane!