The Examiner.com has a post called “The Thirty Day File” that reads as follows:

Ok, You have started using GTD. You  have 43 Folders in the desk drawer file cabinet. You are still inundated by requests for your time - all of which are urgent. Try the 30 day file approach. It could be a bit dangerous - but that’s up to you.

• Step 1 - When you get a request for some activity or task, date it and file it in your 30 day file.
• Step 2 - If at the end of 30 days no one has gotten back to you on this item - trash it.
• Step 3 - If your boss asks you how it’s coming - say “Great”, pull it out of the file and move it to your active stack.

Try it. It works!

Since the author opens by stating that “you are using GTD and the 43 Folders approach towards productivity” it makes sense to assume that this author is also using GTD to some degree.

Given that I have to ask how this “Thirty Day File” approach towards prioritizing what needs to be done aligns with GTD in any way shape or form?

From my perspective this seems like abrogating control to whomever in your life asks you for things the most frequently and it appears to have nothing whatsoever to do with the Natural Planning Model.  In fact it seems more like the evil opposite of GTD a demon we call “Latest and Loudest”.

Even if you ignore the obvious question “Yes, but what if I’m my own boss and only I schedule what I need to do and when I need to do it?” this approach appears to be fraught with potential disasters from almost every angle imaginable.

What’s ironic about this is that the advice comes from what appears to be a highly authoritative source. Howard Flomberg has some impressive credentials and would appear to be someone that should understand GTD and be able to apply its concepts correctly both to his own life and by extension to the lives of people that take his advice.

Now I’m not claiming to be the definitive source on GTD - as those of you that have been reading GTDtimes from day one are aware, I am a relative new-comer to this practice.  That said, if it is obvious to me that this approach is pretty much the antithesis of GTD than it must seem even more agregious to those of you that have been practicing GTD for years.

On the other hand, perhaps I am misunderstanding something fundamental either about this method of prioritization or about GTD.  Thus what I’d like to do is ask your opinion:  is this GTD or is this GTD’s arch nemesis disguised as GTD by a well meaning expert on workplace productivity who doesn’t quite grasp the nuances of GTD as David Allen conceives it?

I trust that you’ll let me know what you think in the comments.  And, if you happen to be Mr. Flomberg I would welcome your comments and critical analysis as well.

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By Steve Borsch

In a time when uncertainty is accelerating, budgets have been cut and revenues downtrending, threats from terrorism and epidemics (e.g., avian flu) are increasingly driving companies and individuals to better anticipate and manage risk, we all need better tools. The embrace of the Getting Things Done system by an ever increasing number of individuals and organizations — and those of us who recognize that collaboration is more critical than ever before — continue to seek tools that are easy to use, fast, intuitive while helping us to be more productive, creative and efficient, especially as we’re increasingly mobile.

The mobile reality is that more of us are accelerating our mobile and multiple internet-connected device usage (e.g., laptops or smartphones accessing over wifi or wireless cellular networks) — while still desiring the use of data that originates on our desktop machines or that which resides online in the ‘cloud’ — and you have the key motivators that were behind the creation of a new, collaborative application with a GTD twist.

A successful entrepreneur and chief technologist (he was formerly CTO of HighJump Software), CEO Steve Kickert’s Riverock Technologies recently launched OnePlace, an online collaboration and GTD tool that has a good shot at being a hub positioned directly in the sweet spot of what’s needed today.

[Read more →]

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Mac Alert: This setup would work for Mac users only.

David Allen recommends that you always have Material that you want to read separately stacked or filed in a “To Read” shelf or a “To Read” tray or “To Read” folder. Well, what about the material to which you would like to listen or watch? During the many hours that you spend traveling from home to office or the many business trips that you might be taking, if you are in the mood to listen to or watch something, what do you do? Do you force feed yourself the material that’s lying around in the plane or just randomly play something in your iPod? Well here’s a step by step guide to always having just the stuff you would like “to hear” or “to watch” in your iPod.

[Read more →]

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“Work and play are words used for the same thing under differing conditions” —Mark Twain
All good things come in three’s—just like the steps of the weekly review:

1. Get Clear
2. Get Current
3. Get Creative

Getting work done

First get clear. Collect everything in one place—the loose bits of paper, assignments, toys, (school) books and randomly ordered thoughts. Put it all in one place, like the IN basket. Then work it down until you get it is empty.

Doing this for myself regularly keeps me in control. Similarly with my children, the effects are most obvious when I am not asked where the clean socks or trousers are—the wash-IN basket is empty.

Or where that missing library book is to be found. And when my daughter has the conversation with me about doing less English at school so that she can concentrate more on her Russian. (We speak German together at home).

The balance between work and play

Then get current. Connecting with everything and identifying what to do with or about it, is a balancing act.

This is most obvious to me in the moment of now. In reviewing everything, I know how and when to keep in balance. That careful balancing act between work and play.

“The richest and fullest lives attempt to achieve inner balance between 3 realms: work, love and play. That to pursue one realm to the disregard of the other is to open oneself to ultimate sadness in older age. Whereas to pursue all 3 with equal dedication, is to make possible a life not only with achievement but with serenity.” —Doris Kearns Goodwin.
Doris Kearns Goodwin on learning from past presidents | Video on TED.com

How often do you get to play?

Get creative. Creative ideas seem easy for kids. Wild outrageous and seriously fun things are so easy for kids because it’s most like play.

Sometimes it is also important to do just nothing. Sit out in the garden and enjoy the view of how the seasons change. Or enjoy a coffee in your favorite café—doing nothing. Not even with your notebook. Just doing nothing can be the most productive time of the day. Kids do it (almost) all the time.

“Hey what are you doing?” — “Oh? Nothing!”

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The Getting Things Done in Academia blog has a great post up right now featuring a fascinating segment of a conversation between Obama and Torry Tory leader David Cameron of the UK.

Seeing as how we are mere days away from deciding whether this man becomes our next president or not I thought it was particularly interesting to get a glimpse of what he thinks is important and especially exciting to see how what he said aligns with the philosophy of GTD.

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In case you live under a rock and only check your email and RSS feeds every other week you might not have heard about the contest we’re having for a free day of Executive Workflow Coaching courtesy of the David Allen Company and GTDtimes.

This is your chance to have one of David’s personally certified GTD Workflow Coaches come to your home or office location and spend a full day helping you implement or fine tune your GTD workflow. The prize includes the full cost of a day of coaching including the expense to bring the coach to your specified locale.

It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to save thousands of dollars on training that has the potential to change your life by making your radically more productive. The testimonials that we’ve heard from people that have experienced this life-enhancing training are nothing short of amazing. Wouldn’t you like to add your testimonial to the list?

Well don’t delay. We’re only acceptling entries until the end of the day on October 24th so hurry over to this site and fill out an entry. THere’s nothing to buy and the hoops you have to jump through and very small. Even a caveman could do it - whether a caveman can practice GTD is debatable, however.

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GTD-Free is a new, platform independent piece of freeware based on GTD.  I first saw reference to the application on WebTechPoint, a website dedicated to bringing readers up to date information on software and hardware along with useful tips and assorted “how to” information.  It’s a useful site.

GTD-Free looks interesting.  The application strives to be lightweight and is only 1.42 megs in size (it’s a Java Application: you’ll need Java 1.6 in order for it to work).

The author of the post claims that this application follows David’s GTD methodology closely however I noticed several key differences without even trying the application; namely that there are priorities added and that contexts are absent.  In other respects, however, it does appear to be structurally well thought out and according the post has a pretty quick leaning curve.

I tried to do a quick install to play with it but it isn’t liking my Mac at the moment so I haven’t had the opportunity to play with it myself.  If an intrepid reader wants to test this out and write a review for GTDtimes I’ll find something fun in my GTD gift box for whomever gets a review in to me first.  Send it to:

editor at GTDtimes dot com.  Thanks.

There’s a lot more detail in a post over at FreeWareGenius.com - which, as the name implies, has plenty of free applications for you to check out just in case you’ve already managed to get everything done and have nothing better to do.

I on the other hand am buried reading entries for the Free Day of Exenutive Workflow Coaching compliments of the David Allen Company and GTDtimes.  If you haven’t entered yet what are you waiting for?  You’ve only got a day left before the entry deadline expires and you can’t win if you don’t play.

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Friend of David Allen and the David Allen Company, James Fallows was kind enough to give GTDtimes a very favorable mention in the Atlantic, one of the most lauded and influential publications in the country.

Apparently James is quite a fan of LifeHacker (who isn’t?) but feels like GTDtimes has been doing a good enough job of providing useful information that he felt it compares favorably.

James, that’s high praise and a very generous compliment especially coming from a nationally recognized journalist like yourself.  Thanks so much for your encouragement and kind words.  Please don’t forget that any time you would like to pen a post for GTDtimes, we’d be more than delighted to publish anything you would like to send our way.

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Yes!  You heard it correctly.  One lucky person is going to win a full day of Workflow Coaching with one of David Allen’s executive coaches.  This is the same coaching that the David Allen Company provides to executives in some of the world’s most progressive organizations…

Now - courtesy of  GTDtimes - one lucky person is going to cash in big and get this life changing experience absolutely free.  This prize includes the complete cost (travel, etc.) for the executive coach to come to your office  and spend a full day with you to fine tune your  GTD System, work through your current projects list, capture your commitments, blaze through piles of stuff that have been there for way too long and generally help you  to become a lean, mean, productive machine.

So if you’re the sort of person that thinks that a day with a world class GTD professional would do you some good here’s what you have to do to enter:

1. Click on this link:  <GTD Executive Workflow Contest>
2. Fill out the questionnaire (it’s short and painless, we promise)
3. Explain in fifty words or less why you think a day of workflow coaching would change your life or send in a picture of your office with a caption that sums it up (please email your image and caption to    editor at GTDtimes dot com)
4. Wait patiently to be notified who got the big win

That’s it.  Nothing to mail. No purchase necessary either.  The team at GTDtimes and the David Allen Company will select the winner from all entries within one  week of the close of the contest. *

In addition to the Grand Prize there will also be a number of “runner up” prizes awarded to a few lucky people chosen at random.

Be sure to get your entries in by October 24th, 2008  so that you don’t miss your chance to win big.  Finally, be sure to subscribe to GTDtimes via RSS or email so that you don’t miss out on other contests or special events in the near future.

If you enjoy this publication, please help spread the word.  Would someone you know appreciate the information and advice that you get from GTDtimes?  Don’t keep us a secret!

*Please note the decision of the team at GTDtimes and the David Allen Company are final.  Employees of the David Allen Company and GTDtimes as well as their families are not eligible for this contest. For this contest you must live in the United States to be eligible.  Winners will be  announced on GTDtimes and the individual winners will also be notified by email and will have 48 hours in which to respond to claim the day of coaching. If the prize is not claimed within the 48 hour period, the offer will be rescinded and another winner will be declared. The coaching day must be completed by December 31, 2008. This coaching day has no cash value and may not be transferred, sold or otherwise assigned.
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Well, the guys over at Morning Paper got the scoop on the latest GTD application for the current “must have” device, Apple’s iPhone.  Having read the post, I immediately cruised over to the App Store and ponied up my $0.99 to add this latest tool to my burgeoning toolbox.

Like the post that lead me to this application says, this is a pretty nifty little application.  There’s not a whole let to write or say about a countdown timer but what I can say is that there are some nice little touches here that make this one worth the buck it costs.  For example, the timer rotates with the screen taking advantage of the accelerometer functionality of the phone and allowing you to get the larger view that the landscape orientation affords.

You can choose the alarm sound at the conclusion of your two minutes (and you can also select any other time you wish to count down from 59:59 to 00:01.  The display is clean, the features are intuitive and the wheels make satisfying little clicks when you spin them to set the time.  All in all it is a solid little application that will help you keep your two minute tasks within the two minutes you’re supposed to- something that I know this application will be helping me to improve for certain!

Because many applications are iterative and improve over time I thought I would also throw in my $0.02 about what simply improvements I’d sugggest for future updates.  Principally there are two:  first, I would allow the timer to also be capable of counting up - yep, make it a stopwatch too.  That’s easy enough to do and would basically double the utility of the application.  Secondly, allow the user to customize the colors.  Maybe we want high contrast or perhaps sudued hues, whatever the case this is another very easy upgrade that will make this little tool all that much more appealing.

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