Nothing demonstrates lack of respect to an employee like ignoring one when you’re with them, yet that’s exactly what many people do thanks to the “continuous partial attention” caused by being plugged in while in a meeting. If you’ve ever had someone lose track of the discussion because they were simultaneously chatting on their laptop, or felt like your meeting had gone off track as people checked their Crackberry or sms’d someone from an iPhone not so cleverly concealed beneath the table, then perhaps you could benefit from going “topless”, too.

The LA Times is reporting that several Silicon Valley companies have taken the extraordinary step of banning the very technology they created from meetings; making laptops, iPhones, Blackberry devices and the like off limis during meetings. If you find yourself paying only half a mind to what’s being said by your colleagues while the other half is checking eBay or if you’ve ever been on the receiving end of a “Facebook fade-out” then this trend may just be one you’re ready to adopt early.

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We all do it. (occasionally) Johnny Kelly finally explains it with this wonderful brilliant film.

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Ryan McGeary has put together a really excellent and to the point screen cast on how he uses Remember the Milk for GTD. If you’re just getting into using Remember the Milk this could say you a tremendous amount of time in figuring out how to set up an application that is powerful because it is so flexible, yet for that same reason may be a challenge to set up initially. Ryan’s screen cast will save you a ton of time. Check it out!

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So I’m back from the Friday seminar on Extreme Productivity held and lead by Ismael Ghalimi of Intalio. The seminar was great. I mean really truly excellent in the most useful and positive way. I think everyone that attended would tell you essentially the same thing. If Ismael holds one of these in your area I highly recommend you make it a point to attend.Later on this evening I will be posting a full report on the seminar, my takeaways and the really interesting stuff I learned. There were a few things that Ismael said that I felt were really significant and I can’t wait to share them with you. I’d share them now but I’m still organizing my thoughts and this is also a shameless tease to get you to check back later today for the good stuff.

What can I say? I’m a blogger, please don’t hold it against me

On another note, an additional benefit of attending the seminar was that I met a number of other people whom I think will make excellent and very interesting GTD Times contributors and I’m counting on them to send in articles fairly soon - so you’ll definitely want to check back and make sure you don’t miss those either.

Last thing before I go back to organizing my thoughts; I wanted to mention something that happened yesterday that for me was incredibly personally gratifying …

As many of you know, my closest friend, Marc Orchant, who was originally slated to occupy the position that I currently hold passed away from a heart attack late last year. As a result it came to me to try to execute upon his vision for the GTD Times. I have certainly been doing my best but Marc left some very big shoes to fill so it is with a great deal of pride and no small amount of relief that I draw your attention to a comment I received on my own blog last night that meant a great deal to me - and not just me, but for the whole GTD Times team.

Please understand that while I do a large portion of the editorial, none of this would be possible if it weren’t for the support and incredibly good execution by a number of key people. I am not sure that they wish to be publicly identified but I wanted to let them - and you - know that their hard work and support has been absolutely essential to getting this site off the ground so quickly and making it possible to hit the ground running and build momentum so rapidly - so thanks from me and know that this comment is for each and every one one of the folks that makes it possible to bring the GTD Times to you:

Rebecca Orchant

“Oliver, this is amazing. My dad would be so unbelievably proud of you. My geek factor is nowhere near that of my dad’s, my brother’s, or yours, but I seriously look forward to following your progress in this endeavor and future ones. I think you’ve totally hit the nail on the head as far as his vision for this project. I’m sure that somewhere, he’s enjoying your participation immensely, and chuckling to himself that GTD may force you to arrive somewhere on time.

We miss you. Hope things are well.”

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Friend of David and GTD Times, Ismael Ghalimi is putting on what I’m anticipating will be a very intensive and highly educational seminar tomorrow at the Four Seasons Hotel in Palo Alto - The Extreme Productivity Seminar.  There are apparently a couple of tickets still available so if you’re in the area and would like to stretch your productivity skills a little I highly recommend you head on over to Ismael’s site and get the details and reserve yourself a seat.

Ismael also puts on the very highly regarded Office2.0 Event that generally takes place in the autumn - and, as anyone who’s been to that mutli day extravaganza can attest, Ismael puts on a conference like noone else.  If an O’Reilly conference is First Class, Ismael’s are “Sleeper” class - if you’ve ever been lucky enough to fly that way you know exactly what I mean.

I’ll be attending the event to cover it for GTD Times, so if you’re there, please introduce yourself to me - that goes double if you’re interested in contributing to GTD Times.  See you all tomorrow!

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