If you haven’t subscribed to GTD Connect and you want to take your GTD ability to the next level – you might just want to reconsider. In addition to the information coming directly from David and the other David Allen Company coaches there are members-only forums accessible from the David Allen Company website that often have great questions and equally great advice. Take the following example. [Read more →]

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Editors Note: This great piece has been contributed by GTD Community Member Joe Ely who was kind enough to offer to share his personal GTD system with us in the following post.

A bit about Joe: Joe Ely is the Director of Operations at Cook Biotech, Inc, a medical device manufacturing company in West Lafayette, Indiana. He writes the blog Learning About Lean, a study of Lean Manufacturing. In his spare time he enjoys distance running and the Chicago Cubs, both avocations requiring great endurance.

By Joe Ely joeely618 at gmail.com

Coach Kelly Forrister recently blogged on what makes a good GTD list manager? One of the beauties of GTD is its flexibility; as such, the “best system” will vary for each individual. Being a systems geek myself, however, I’ve been working for sometime to find what works for me. Kelly and Oliver invited me to share my decidedly low-tech system which, for me, meets all of Kelly’s criteria… [Read more →]

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Many of you probably already know the name Eric Mack. He’s a long standing and highly respected member of the GTD community and he’s been authoring multiple blogs related to productivity and Getting Things Done for some time: : EricMackOnline and NotesOnProductivity .  For the past 15 years, Eric has served David Allen in a number of roles, as his personal technologist, chief technology advisor, and director of technology

Eric has been a technologist since his early teens. He built his first computer system at age 15, and quickly branched into software development when, at 16, he designed and developed flight-planning software for a Lear Jet charter company. At 18, Eric launched his first consulting firm to help organizations deploy microcomputer technology in a pre-IBM PC era.

Over the next two decades, Eric lent his technological expertise to numerous businesses and organizations, including the U.S. Air Force, which asked him to help establish its first microcomputer system. Through his software company, Peloria Technology Corporation (founded in 1992), Eric developed wireless messaging and server-based agent technology for messaging applications. His MailScout software sold more than 500,000 licenses.

Today, through his new company, ICA.COM, Inc., Eric promotes his ICA consulting model for eProductivity. His eProductivity suite of software for Lotus Notes (launched in 2007) implements the Getting Things Done methodology espoused by Eric’s friend David Allen.

Eric and his wife, Kathy, live in a tiny resort community in the mountains of Southern California, where they home educate their four daughters. Eric holds a degree in Organizational Management and is currently pursuing a graduate degree in Information and Knowledge Management.

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I read with interest Matthew Cornell’s piece on 10 GTD “holes” (and how to plug them). I was particularly interested in the section on simplified GTD, as that’s something I’ve practiced myself. I also empathized with many of the other points he made regarding implementation challenges. And I do agree that many people need to do some time use analysis, if nothing else as a personal wake-up call. [Read more →]

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ARE YOU MICRO-MANAGING YOUR MIND?
One of the greatest traps in growing a business is also a pitfall for self management: if you don’t trust your system, you can’t let go of operational details and you’ll limit your ability to create at a bigger level.

Many successful entrepreneurs I have worked with over the years could be characterized (and have been, by their employees and friends) as “highly creative control freaks.” It’s understandable because usually it takes that kind of strong, directed energy to create a business, to make something out of nothing. Much like a parent will go to superhuman lengths to protect its vulnerable offspring, someone who gives birth to an enterprise almost of-necessity must have skin as thick as an elephant’s and the aggressive/defensive capacity of a samurai warrior. It takes tremendous focus, determination, and, yes, a certain lack of sensitivity, to create something new and get it to stick around in this world. [Read more →]

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Not that this is specific to GTD, this TED Talk, delivered by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a brain scientist, details her very personal experience with brain trauma as she had a ringside seat to her very own stroke. This is a powerful presentation with an important message – well worth the 20 minutes to view. Enjoy.

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Lifehack.org has an interesting article on what they call “Project Space” which they say is the frame of mind required to tackle the meat of the work of any substantial creative project – writing a white paper, for example. The author contends that “Project Space” is where GTD leaves off and creative thinking begins.

I beg to differ. [Read more →]

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China Daily has a short piece on the practice of GTD in China. While it seems to me they need David to pay a visit and help them understand his methods to an even greater degree, it is nevertheless fascinating to see how the broad appeal and true value of GTD cuts across all ethnic, social and cultural boundaries and offers life improving benefits to anyone, anywhere at virtually any point in their lives.

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Randy Pausch has a unique perspective on managing his time, you see, he’s got pancreatic cancer and is aware that only a vanishingly small percentage of people survive this disease. This lecture is over one hour in length including a long introduction but given the speaker and the message I would say it is well worth the time. Watch now.

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Big news today from the David Allen Company. For the first time ever David Allen is making available the complete audio CDs of his world famous two-day intensive GTD Seminar. GTDLive!

This is a unique opportunity for anyone that has ever wanted to attend a David Allen seminar but for whatever reason hasn’t been able to make that happen. This is a complete Ten-CD Boxed Set that is an actual live recording of David delivering his life-changing training to a real audience. The product is as comprehensive a tool for getting started with GTD as you can possibly get short of actually attending a session with David for yourself, and at half the price of a single-day seminar you’re getting an incredible deal on top of the incredible learning experience.

From my perspective, this isn’t just a tool for people that haven’t attended a GTD seminar with David. As anyone that has been to one of his sessions knows, there is so much information for you to absorb in a limited time that something like a live audio recording of the event would be an incredible resource to help refresh the memory from time to time. Having the live CDs on hand would also allow you to clarify points that perhaps got fuzzy after two days of intense learning, and it could even be a valuable tool that you can use to share with friends and associates who themselves might be curious about GTD.

If you’re interested in this product you should click on over to the DavidCo store and grab a copy now. My understanding is that there are only a limited number of these 10-CD sets available. According to the information on the DavidCo site in addition to the 10-CD set the package will include a second multi-CD set of David Allen’s “In Conversation” interviews as well as the work-flow templates mentioned in the presentation.

Another good reason to pay a visit to the David Allen site is that there are several nice audio samples of the contents of the GTD Live CD’s that you can listen to. It’s definitely worth a few minutes of your time to hear David present GTD.

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