A GTDer asked David Allen: Whenever I thoroughly complete the weekly review I feel as if a weight is lifted.  This is interesting because very few (if any) “action items” are completed with the weekly review. Do you have any explanation or insight on why the weekly review makes one feel like the weight is lifted?

David: Weight is lifted because the weekly review allows you to clarify and renegotiate all your agreements with yourself. That simple. Negative stress usually occurs because of inner conflict that can only be resolved with conscious dialogue with yourself and decisions made that resolve the discrepancies (you can’t do everything at once.)  I applaud your discipline to discover this!

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How would you know if you were Black Belt with GTD?  In this 2 minute audio clip, David Allen describes what he would see in someone who is at a level of Black Belt mastery with GTD.

Listen Now>>>

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Les McKeown, author of Predictable Success, is hosting a free Teleclass and David Allen is  a panelist.  They will discuss the roadmap to increase (and maintain) your sales, streamline your operations and achieve measurable success.  This is not specifically about GTD, but we wanted to pass it along in case it’s of interest to some of you out there in the midst of change and growth.  Here are the details:

Register Now >>>

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We just finished the 3-part Road to Black Belt “boot camp” series on GTD Connect.  They have been some of our most popular and highly attended Webinars yet.  They are now available for replay on the Connect site (for free trial members too!) and through podcast (members only.)  You’ll find them all on the home page of GTDConnect.com.

The June Webinars on GTD Connect will be:

Natural Planning Model® -Thursday, June 10 @ 11am Pacific Time

Senior Coaches Wayne Pepper and Kelly Forrister will lead participants through David’s project planning model (described on p. 54 of the Getting Things Done book).  This easy to follow model helps you define your projects, from purpose to next actions.

Fundamental Processing Lab with David Allen – Wednesday, June 23 @ 11am Pacific Time

David will lead a Mind Sweep and take participant examples to walk through deciding what their “stuff” is and what they are going to do about it.

Note:  Webinars are always free for GTD Connect members and are available to free trial members who have active trials at the time of the Webinar

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Hello GTDers!  David Allen and the team have created a new step-by-step guide for implementing GTD. It’s chock full of helpful tips, instructions, suggested supplies, and even time estimates on how long you can expect each step to take.  It’s a terrific way to coach yourself through really getting all aspects of GTD off the ground–from lists to inboxes and everything in between.

See a sample

Buy the Guide now

What people are saying on our Forums about the new Guide:

“As are all the GTD products I have purchased, the new GTD Implementation Guide is of very high quality. This guide outlines completely, yet succinctly, how you can implement and maintain the GTD process.”

“I’m no GTD rookie and STILL I bought this new product! I’m glad I did! There are things in here that will help me get closer to black belt. This would have cut 3 months off my initial implementation easily!”

Learn more…

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Q: What is the most important question that entrepreneurs should be asking themselves/their companies in 2010?

David Allen: Are we optimally set up to deal with surprise? Are the sensitivity and appropriateness of our responses to unexpected internal and external events what they need to be? Have we maximized our abilities to capture, clarity, organize, integrate, and reflect sufficiently to recalibrate our focus as rapidly as needed, to stay in command of our world instead of a victim of it?

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Q: What was the inspiration for GTD?  Was there an “a-ha” moment when you realized that the existing methods just didn’t work for you?

David Allen: No overnight epiphanies. Lots of trial and error,  but with a overriding interest in how to create and maintain “clear space”.  I hate unproductive stress, and as my awareness and sensitivities improved about that, so did my discoveries of what processes helped alleviate it.

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GTD showed me how to bring balance back into my busy personal and professional schedule.  More specifically, I was able to customize the GTD workflow process to handle the crush of Emails I get from prospective students who want to join my martial arts studio.  Furthermore, I also customized the GTD Outlook 2007 “Waiting For” folders into a very easy to use “lead tracking” process – in a blink of an eye I can easily tell how many prospects are scheduled for Initial Appointments, Trial Lessons, and Enrollment Conversations.  I know when to follow up with a prospect by integrating my lead tracking process with my Outlook 2007 Calendar.  I am very happy to say that David Allen’s GTD system not only allowed me to bring balance back to my life, but it also showed me how to set up a very easy-to-use, trusted system for keeping track of my very busy sales cycle.

Michael Veltri is a 4th degree black belt in the Japanese martial art of Aikido.  He both lives and runs his martial arts studio in Washington, DC.

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Question: I listened to your Webinar on Procrastination (you can find this Webinar on GTD Connect, our online learning center) and have found that I have trouble starting to “do” anything when I know there is a lot of unprocessed stuff.  I have the type of job whereby e-mails, paper, and other things accumulate rapidly so I am often “stuck” with the inability to start on the action list if my Inbox (both paper and electronic) are filling up  with unprocessed items.  I would be interested in any comments you may have.

I replied: I would say that I am similar. It’s natural actually to want to get In to zero before feeling free and confident in the Doing.  You won’t intuitively trust that the choice you are making is the best one if there are things lurking in the inbox that might be a better choice. However, as you get better and better at GTD and collecting/processing/organizing, a trust factor comes in to know you WILL get back to it when you can. David Allen often says that the more you trust you have a process, you will be more comfortable letting it get out of control.

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Les McKeown, author of Predictable Success®, interviewed David Allen recently.  It’s now available in our free public podcast feed.  It’s a great podcast for those of you in rapidly growing companies and changing environments. Listen now>> (37 min)

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