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.”

Tags: Events, Getting Things Done, Oliver Starr, Training, inspiration //