Is it OK to block your calendar to work on something, even if it doesn’t have a concrete deadline? GTD’er Michael asked about the best ways to find time for the time-demanding projects that are important, but don’t have a deadline. One of our executive coaches replied with some helpful tips. [Read more →]
I recently spoke with Dean Hering of Netcentrics about the Getting Things Done Outlook Add-In. We had a fun chat about how the product came to be and what it does these days for GTD’ers on Outlook. Listen now.
Right before the podcast, I Tweeted that I’d be speaking with him and I asked Dean some of the questions some of you sent to me (such as getting tech support, Office 10 release, how it interfaces with Toodledo and more.)
I recently discovered that the musical I’d been working on for the past several years was no longer going to be viable. Not because it wasn’t a good story, or even a good idea. It’s because someone beat me to it.
I was surfing the web and discovered that not only had someone written a similar play, they had named it almost exactly the same and it was a smash hit! Talk about a body blow. I’d spent the last few years working on it sporadically, and now it was never going to see the light of day. [Read more →]
In our recent Productive Living newsletter, David Allen talks about “Toning up your thinking muscles.” Here’s a letter from Frederick Ross, a graduate fellow at The Rockefeller University who shared his perspective on the brain as a muscle.
I’m something between a theoretical physicist, mathematician, and theoretical biologist by profession, so I’ve had to be on very intimate terms with my thinking apparatus for many years.
The conscious, symbol manipulating part of our brain is very much like a muscle. It burns massive amounts of energy to use, it’s kind of puny for its purpose (just like human musculature — in comparison, someone once got a chimpanzee to lift a barbell, and kept adding weight…until the chimp got bored at tossed it across the room with no effort when there was 600lbs on it). [Read more →]
Jay, a college student, wrote in to GTD Times to ask about how to get things done in a largely volunteer-based organization. Can you still do GTD if other people around you don’t?
Dear GTD Times,
First off, let me say thanks for providing such a wonderful free GTD resource. It really means a lot to a student like me. I have a question that I was wondering if someone would answer for me or even write up a little article on. I’m not sure if GTD Times usually has a reader submitted question section or anything like that, but I figured I’d give this a whirl.
I am a full-time undergraduate college student and I dedicate a lot of my time to a handful of student activist organizations and one in particular. The organization’s mission is one that is very important to me and fits in with my visioning for myself, so I do not have any question about the time I dedicate to the group. However, I have run into a problem with managing workflow [Read more →]
Jesse, a GTD’er in Pittsburgh, sent David a write up about how he’s managing his GTD lists in a Google spreadsheet. The useful thing about spreadsheets for GTD is that they are very customizable and sortable. Google Spreadsheet also has a handy “Form” feature for quick capture into the form. Here’s what Jesse does: [Read more →]
This week, in our ongoing series giving you a look inside other people’s GTD setups, Andy Reed sent along some photos for our GTD Times readers.
On his desk, Andy uses Inbox, Pending and Read/Review trays.
Avid GTD’er Barb wanted to share her experience and review of the CDs that come with the new GTD System. She wrote:
If you’re fairly new or brand new to GTD: This product is definitely for you. It is much easier to understand than reading the book might be because there are stories to explain various points. Also, from what I can see, the 3-cd set called “Three Days to Clarity” is a quick start to the system. [Read more →]
This is how to apply GTD to managing sales and client accounts. Keeping true to the technologically-agnostic principle of GTD, I am going to describe the system as it would work in a paper-based way. You can adapt it to the various tools that you prefer or that are mandated by your employer.
A sales cycle is something like: prospecting, establishing the relationship, discovering a need, defining a solution, and closing the sale. Let’s put it in a GTD framework. [Read more →]
Thanks to all of you who joined the GTD “Tweekly” Review I did this morning. Hope you found value! Let me know if you’d like me to do another one. If the pace was a bit too speedy for you, you can always go back and review the Tweets I sent. Here are all 11 steps to the GTD Weekly Review, for your reference:
GET CLEAR
