A Community Contribution from Chip Joyce

After retiring from being the most successful professional cyclist in history, Lance returned to the sport in his late 30s to compete, for the eighth time, in one of the most challenging athletic competitions: the Tour de France. During training, however, he crashed and broke his collarbone, was in a lot of pain, and faced surgery and physical therapy. It was the first major crash of his career.

In an article on VeloNews.com, Lance recounted, “Sitting on the side of the road in Spain, headed to an anonymous hospital… I wanted to never come back,” to the sport. His long-time team manager and mentor, Johan Bruyneel, said, “I could feel he was really down. I had a feeling he was ready to walk away.” [Read more →]

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Hey there Kindle Fans, did you know that GTD Times is available for your Kindle?  Check it out.  We’ve also optimized GTD Times to read it more easily through your iPhone browser.  And, if you just want the highlights of what’s been posted, follow GTD Times on Twitter.

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One of the features of our GTD Connect program is “Ask the Coaches,” which gives members a chance submit email questions to our Coaches on anything challenging to them in learning or implementing GTD.  Here’s an example of one that came in from a member about how to deal with voluminous and relevant reading input. We get this question so often that we wanted to share it with the whole GTD community.

Dear Coaches at GTD Connect,

I am struggling with how to incorporate the GTD methodology into a specific, but important, part of my job.

Surely I am not the first GTD Connect member with this challenge.  I am a Portfolio Manager and Investment Analyst for a wealth and investment management firm.  Daily, I receive about 100 emails containing research reports from various Wall Street and independent research firms.  In addition, there are a few investment-related research websites that I should check on a daily basis to read what reports and analyses have recently been published by those firms. [Read more →]

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The key to innovation is to really care about solving a problem or achieving a result that’s never been done, or a new and better way to make something happen.  And persistence. – David Allen

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“What I need is more real estate in which to think, and tools to facilitate the process. I need it to be systematized intelligently so that when I engage with it I’m stimulated, not stupefied.” – David Allen

David Allen was on a roll this month with his having space to think and create.  He talks about it in this video on GTD & Cloud Computing and in his latest column on Wired UK.  Read more…

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Let’s talk about the Horizons of Focus.  In my experience, this is one of the parts of the GTD approach that can take a little time for people to get their arms around. This is where priorities and perspective live. Whereas traditional time management approaches attempted to give people an ABC type coding system for defining their priorities, David Allen’s GTD approach has always been that priority codes are too simple for the complexity of most people’s changing lives, as the only measure of what to do. For example, assigning an “A” priority to something (or flagging is the popular method in email programs these days) could change with the next new piece of input you get. Plus, in my experience, people tend to get lazy with that code or flag without really deciding the next action. A flag, or #1, or lighting the email on fire still doesn’t tell you what your next action is. So is David saying to never use those? Of course not.  Just be sure that what you are marking as high priority has a a clearly defined next action and be willing to change that priority the moment your world changes–which it will. [Read more →]

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One of the cool things about GTD is that you don’t have to look far to find other GTD enthusiasts in your community.  From Meetups, to study groups, to book clubs and coffee chats, there are people into GTD all around the world.  The Austin American-Statesman newspaper caught up with a group of GTD fans in Austin, Texas.  Read how they are making GTD work for them.

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For those of you looking for the best ways to implement GTD with Lotus Notes®, join the next Webinar class on GTD Connect, our subscription-based online learning center.  It will be held February 4th at 12pm Pacific Time.  If you can’t make the live event, the replay will be posted to the GTD Connect Media Library (screenshot shows all of the replays currently available.)

GTD Connect is a great way to get practical & tactical coaching advice on implementing GTD.   Webinars are held about twice a month on a wide range of topics for GTD’ers.  If you’re not a GTD Connect member, check out the free trial (which will also allow you to take a Webinar class during your trial membership.)  If you decide to join beyond your trial, it’s only $48 a month and you can cancel anytime.  The free trial is a great way to see if GTD Connect is for you.  Trial members can access to the full site except for podcasts and downloads.

I’m a retired teacher who now has a tiny gem or a business called ‘Life in the Flow Lane.’  I read Getting Things Done a couple of years ago and implemented some things.  I am a GTD Connect newbie.  The Webinars are simply invaluable.  You have given me a much greater understanding of the whole GTD process.  For example, I really get that I need to have a list that attracts rather than repels me!  It seems obvious, but you show how to make that happen.  All the resources on Connect work well together.  I think the mix you have put together is simply outstanding. – Sharry Teague

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