One of the categories of Action lists David Allen recommends in Getting Things Done is “Agendas.”  This is a great category for tracking items that you want to discuss with people or teams you meet with regularly.  Your Agendas lists become a trusted parking lot for things to bring up the next time you have the opportunity to have a discussion.  Many people will use Agendas for the staff they manage, and for the manager they report to.  Agenda lists can also work well for family members and recurring team meetings.

Here’s how Community Contributor Meghan Wilker uses them:

In the workplace, one of the best ways to distinguish yourself is by being effective. And, in this era of constant — and I mean CONSTANT — interruption, one of the best ways to be effective is to be strategic about how you communicate with others.

Humanity has been stricken with several email-related diseases over the past few years. Two in particular are insidious contributors to the interruptive environment. [Read more →]

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David Allen discusses the 6 Horizons of Focus

Aside from the fact that the volume of what people need to organize is often light-years beyond what they imagine, there is much more to getting a grip on your “work” than most realize. Managing the flow of work can be approached from many altitudes, as there are many different levels of defining what your “work” really is. Whereas we may have some lower levels in control, there are often incomplete and unclear issues at higher levels that can and need to be addressed, to really get it all under control. And often there are issues about the nature and volume of work that cannot be resolved viewing it from an inappropriate level. We have roughly categorized “work” into six levels, or horizons of focus. [Read more →]

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For those of you who use Microsoft Outlook® for your GTD system, we hope you’ll tune in to our next webinar on GTD Connect.  Senior Coach Kelly Forrister will walk you through the essentials of optimizing your productivity with Outlook.  You’ll see examples of how to set up the Task lists for projects and actions, best practices for the calendar, email, and much more.  Outlook 2007 will be shown, but most of what will be demonstrated will be universal to all Outlook versions, and applicable to all Outlook users.

Join us on Thursday, January 27th from 10am-11am Pacific Time.

Free for all GTD Connect guest pass, monthly and annual members. To register for the webinar, log in to GTD Connect and follow the link on the home page.

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David Allen received this email from a student:
I consider myself to be very smart and imaginative. The people that get to know me always have a very good impression of me and have great expectations from me. More importantly, I have a lot of dreams and ideas. But I’m not very practical and everything ends at a theoretical phase. I never have clear objectives and I’m always confused by dozens of thoughts and can’t focus properly on what I do.

Most of the time I feel like I’m wasting my time, and would rather be doing something else. I always feel I ought to organize, so I make a nice, tight schedule. But after a couple of days it’s gone, and I’m back at the beginning.

If I had to describe the last 10 years of my life in a sentence I would say: “I woke up every morning to row in yet another direction.”

[Read more →]

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Robert Pagliarini is a self-proclaimed ”productivity/efficiency nut,” who became a fan of David Allen’s book Getting Things Done.  He’s also a regular contributor to CBS MoneyWatch.  We found his useful introduction to GTD from a few months back.  Like his other columns, it’s timely at any time.

GTD has transformed my life. I’ve gone from trying to keep everything in my head or on notepads, to having a systematic way to address any kind of physical, electronic, or mental information. Plus, I always know where I stand with all my personal and professional projects, what next step is needed to move each project forward, and who needs to get back to me.

His brief introduction includes a description of GTD, objectives, and steps.  Enjoy!

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Most of the fancy features of most organizing software go unused, as do most forms and lines and boxes in most paper-based planners.  Most of what’s out there to help is grossly overbuilt.  Once you realize that you only need to define your projects with the next actions on them and keep track of all that in a complete but simple set of lists, you won’t need to bother yourself with much else. – David Allen

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David Allen’s essay in the new Productive Living is about two key questions that make a big and positive difference for us. 

DAVID’S FOOD FOR THOUGHT 

The everyday outcome focus challenge . . .

 

The two questions that bring clarity to most anything on this level are: What’s the successful outcome? And, what’s the next action to make it happen? These provide fundamental clarity for Getting Things Done, and they lie at the core of most everything I teach.

Keep reading David’s article. 

Subscribe to Productive Living.  It’s free and sent about every 3 weeks.  You’ll find essays from David Allen, thought-provoking quotes, and productivity tips you can use every day.

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GTD Times reader Heather asked: I’ve been feeling really in the zone with GTD lately. I know what I need to do, the system is working, BUT the “waiting fors” are going to give me a stroke.

I use the Things for Mac application and noticed that consistently about 25-30 percent of my next actions are under the tag “waiting for.” I work on deadlines and am constantly having to call or email others to remind them to get me something. Most often the responses I get is, “Oh, I forgot,” or “Was I supposed to do that?” or “Right! Thanks for the reminder.” But I’m not their secretary or their mother.

How do I remain “in the zone” when so many of my next actions end up being “Remind Joe to do this” and most of my projects I can’t move on because of other people’s lack of organization and clarity? [Read more →]

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A Community Contribution from Erik Hanberg

There’s an idea I’ve read about when it comes to how different kinds of people schedule their day.  It’s maker versus manager.  Like me, many people work as both maker and manager.

Managers tend to schedule in one hour blocks.  There’s usually not a question about whether or not there’s a meeting at 2:00; it’s a question of who that meeting is with.

Makers tend to think in half-day blocks, scheduling three, four, or more hours for a single task.  Writing, coding, creative problem solving, etc., are all done best with a lot of hours put toward them all at once.

I’ve found the same tension in my own schedule as well.  Some of my work makes perfect sense in hour-long segments.  But some of it really needs to be in half-day chunks: building websites really requires at least two hours of solid attention to get anything significant accomplished, and often more.

I’ve gotten much better at scheduling meetings to give me the half-day chunks I want for coding or writing.  Here are some of the ways I’ve balanced it:

• [Read more →]

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What does David Allen say the most common misconceptions are about GTD?  What did David want to be when he was growing up?  Does Getting Things Done really save time versus just doing the work?  Listen to this fun, informative podcast with GTD Times community contributor Mike Vardy and David Allen. (23 minutes)

Listen to more free podcasts from the David Allen Company

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