Hey GTD’ers–for those of you who use the Getting Things Done® Outlook® Add-In by NetCentrics, make sure you grab the critical update before Sunday. Here’s what they say:

NetCentrics has released an update for the Getting Things Done Outlook Add-In, Version 3.0.40.  This update is critical and provides you with the latest version of the Getting Things Done Add-In and offers the highest levels of stability.  This update needs to be installed before the Daylight Savings Time change (November 1, 2009) in the U.S. This update corrects the issues of the Add-In losing its activation status during Daylight Savings changes and time zone changes.

You can get it directly from the NetCentrics site. Note: please be sure to contact NetCentrics, the developer,  if you need support on this. They are the best ones to answer your questions (versus DavidCo.)  We just know so many of you use the product so we wanted to pass this along.

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David Allen has a regular column on Wired UK these days.  One of his recent articles, Focus on the Unimportant, is a great read for those of you who are still looking for more guidance on the priorities piece of GTD.

“A vast majority of professionals are in “emergency scanning” mode. Their self-management consists of checking for and acting on the loudest immediacies – in email, in the hallways and on the phone. Everything else is shoved to the side of the desk, and to the back of their mind. Because they’re focused only on “priorities”, and are paying attention only to the most in their- face stuff, everyone else has to raise the noise level to “emergency” mode to get any audience at all.”  – David Allen, Wired UK article July 2009.

Other free articles from David on Wired UK you might like too:   Be creative amid chaos,   How to reap what you sow,   How to make space to think,    How to know what to do with your life and   How to cope without your autopilot

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Dean, an architect, wrote to David to ask for detail on using mindmaps in his GTD system.  Here’s the whole thread:

Hi David,

I have enjoyed reading Getting Things Done and Making It All Work.  I own an architecture firm in Michigan, and have been implementing your GTD system into my work and life plan.  I am very close to a smooth-flowing GTD process; However, I have one obstacle to overcome, and I would greatly appreciate your recommendation…

[Read more →]

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What’s out there for Lotus Notes users who want to sync To Do’s to their iPhone? Nothing.  As far as I know.  Believe me, I’ve searched for nearly a year. As a Notes user who was enchanted with an iPhone, I thought surely a To Do synching solution could not be far behind.  Nope. Nothing. You can sync Calendar and Email, but not To Do’s. It’s not a complete mobile GTD solution for me without To Do’s.

Because the iPhone was built without a Tasks application it means building not only a secure syncing solution, but a corresponding App on the iPhone. I thought Lotus would be doing that, but not from any releases I’ve seen so far.

A guy wrote to me this morning to ask what solutions are out there for this, as he’s about to roll out iPhones to their entire workforce. They use Lotus Notes and he’s been unable to find anything that will sync Notes To Do’s to the iPhone.  He asked if we are building it (no plans to.)

Has anyone heard of anything coming or available that will sync Lotus Notes To Do’s to the iPhone?  We’d love to hear about it.

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Here is a list of all of the FREE GTD resources offered by the David Allen Company:

• GTD Times – This is the the official blog for the David Allen Company.  Loads of helpful advice, tips, special offers, tricks & strategies for implementing GTD.
• Podcasts - Includes the GTD best practices series with David & his team.
• GTD Connect – The two-week free trial is a fully-functional experience of our online learning center (except for downloads.) There’s no obligation, no payment required, and nothing to cancel. [Read more →]

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We’ve all had experiences in life that feel like an sucker punch to our world.  In a matter of minutes, things are not as they were.  We received this heartfelt letter from André, who wanted other GTD’ers to know how he dealt with a difficult family situation using the GTD principles and practices.

The last three weeks were the most bizarre in my life so far. Thanks to GTD I didn’t get lost. I want to share my story with you and all interested GTD’ers:

On Saturday 26 September 2009 my dad passed away because of a sudden brain hemorrhage. He was on a trip in Israel with members of his church. It was his dream for 35 years to see The Promised Land himself.

Wednesday 16 September 2009, 16:07h. It was my second workday after a four-week-holiday. I had my Areas of Focus clear and my Project list straight to get back on track again. Ready to dive into the details.

Then the phone rang. It was my dad’s pastor calling from Eilat, Israel. My dad had an accident on the beach of the Red Sea. His body functions had stopped. After a succesful reanimation he came back to life. Immediately he was transported by ambulance to the Intensive Care of the nearest hospital. Dad was in coma and has not come out of it again. [Read more →]

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We GTDers sure do like showing off our workspaces. And, naturally, we show them off when they are looking their best: inboxes in a near-pristine state and folders lined up tidily with their labels gleaming in the sunlight. Honestly, I love it. Like many other GTD geeks, I get a perverse pleasure from looking at other people’s workstations. I get  inspired and sometimes even pick up an idea for a new way of doing something (like my new Tickler file – LOVE IT!).

But, I also think it’s important to acknowledge that GTD isn’t about always being tidy. In fact, the moments when GTD is most valuable are the messiest and ugliest moments. Take this recent snapshot of my desk, for example.

This is what it looks like after a week that included four speaking gigs, two road trips (to get to some of the aforementioned speaking gigs), an all-day conference, and two birthdays (my husband’s 40th and my son’s first). Oh, and that’s in addition to my full-time job [Read more →]

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Clearing the mind is one of my favorite things with GTD.  You cannot lose. To me, it’s one of the quickest ways to feel better if I’m stressed out, feeling overwhelmed or trying to mentally manage the ankle-biting things that have my attention. In a short period of time, I can sweep my brain of any nagging bits–from buying stamps to wondering what’s I should do with my investments.  And what’s amazing to me, as easily as the brain will hold on to that stuff, it will just as easily let it go. It’s not a strong fighter if it trusts I will process, organize & review what I’m collecting. All 5 of those GTD phases are interconnected like an ecosystem that works together.

In my GTD Twitter class this morning, doing a Guided Mindsweep, a few people asked why they would write things down in a mindsweep that are already on their lists? There are a few common reasons why things will creep back into your mind:

You didn’t clarify enough. If your mind thinks there is more planning or brainstorming to do about that, or what you captured as a next action is not the next physical, visible step, it will take it back.

You’re not reviewing enough. If your mind doesn’t trust you’re looking at that choice often enough (Are we doing anything about this??), it will take the job back.  The Weekly Review is gold.  It’s not just clean-up time, it’s reassurance time for your mind that you’re “on it,” even if that’s a decision to let it incubate some more on Someday.

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Having a total and seamless system of organization gives you tremendous power because it allows your mind to let go of the lower-level thinking and graduate to intuitive focusing, undistracted by matters that haven’t been dealt with appropriately. – David Allen

In other words…get a seamless, leakproof system for tracking everything you can’t do in the moment–personally and professionally.  And make sure you trust it more than holding stuff in your brain.

In our podcast series on the best practices of GTD, we’re moving on to the 3rd stage of mastering workflow: organize. Once you’ve collected and processed your work, then you just need to put it into places that you trust.

For those of you who want even more on this topic, the Getting Things Done book club on GTD Connect is just about to move to Chapter 7 of the book, which is all about organizing.  The book club is a great way to make sure you really “get” all of the pieces of GTD to put together a complete and intuitive system that makes sense for you.

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I will be hosting another free GTD Twitter class this Thursday, October 15th at 9am Pacific Time.  Just 30 minutes of clearing your mind. Here’s the scoop:

What: It will be a working Twitter session. I’ll guide people through the GTD Mindsweep process through a series of Tweets.  Mindsweep is part of the Collect phase of GTD (read chapter 5 of the Getting Things Done book to get a quick overview of this process.)  It will be up to you to then process & organize it (chapters 6 & 7 of the book.)  When I’ve done these Guided Mindsweeps for GTD Connect members, many commented how great it was to have someone else jogging their brain on things they hadn’t thought of on their own. They did a much more thorough collection of the loose bits in their brain.

When: Thursday, October 15th – 9am PDT (Los Angeles time) Find your local time.

How: Follow @GTDSpecialEvent or just launch this web page during the event to follow the Tweets. Have a blank electronic document or pad & pen handy to do the exercise.

Who:  Anyone who wants a clear head. Truly.

If you’re like most people, you’ll move too fast and be engaged in too many things during the course of a week to get all your ideas and commitments outside your head. But it should become an ideal standard that keeps you motivated to consistently “clean house” of all the things about your work and life that have attention. – David Allen

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