What mobile tools are you using for your productivity? iPad? Android? iPhone? BlackBerry? Other? What works really well about the mobile tools you use (features you can’t live without) and what’s challenging about them (you’d be a productivity rock star if only…)?  We’d love to hear from you!

(please disclose to readers if you have an affiliation with the product you are recommending)

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Question: Do you review your lists/@folders everyday in the AM, decide what you are going to do, and then leave them or constantly flip through them?  I only ask because it’s 11 separate pages of lists (calls, computer, at home office, etc.)  Is the weekly review when you update with checking things off as you go during the week?

David Allen: You need to review everything on your list as often as you need to, to feel comfortable about whatever you’re doing, and that you’re not missing something that you should be doing instead. As you start doing regularly weekly reviews, it shouldn’t take but a quick glance to know what you’re not doing. I’ve met some people who look thru their digital lists and make a 3×5 card hand-written list of the hottest items, and work from that during the day! Do whatever you need to do, to get to confidence about your choices.

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David Allen notes that, “if you’re like most people, you’ve experienced a positive shift in your energy and enthusiasm simply by identifying what you want to do about a project, situation, or opportunity…” His essay in the latest Productive Living newsletter explores getting free by naming what has your attention.

DAVID’S FOOD FOR THOUGHT

GETTING FREE

One of the reasons the GTD approach can be so empowering comes down to a simple, primal dynamic: When something is named, it is known; and when it is known, its hold on us is released. When things we have allowed into our inner or outer world are appropriately and accurately identified, we feel curiously freed from them. It’s all about clarifying what things mean to us and sorting them in our world appropriately.

Do you have any projects that you haven’t identified as projects yet? Got anything you’ve been thinking that needs clarification, resolution, or looking into, that you don’t have on a Projects list yet, that you look at regularly to keep actions moving toward?

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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Lots of interesting nuggets in this new interview recorded by Andrew Mason over at the 8BIT podcast.  David answers a wide range of questions, including if he personally procrastinates.  Here’s an excerpt from the interview:

“The ability to make a creative mess, I think, is the optimal state to be in terms of your productivity, creativity, and it’s just a cool place to be.”

-David Allen

Listen now (about 20 minutes)

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This article is from Momma Can …, a blog created and run by Pam List. Momma Can … is devoted to making life “less of a drudge of more of a joyful journey.”  Pam is a busy mother of two who says she would not have had time for the blog without GTD.

I am a big fan of David Allen’s GTD system. He has written what I feel is the greatest productivity book in the history of the world.  If you have not read it and you are an overwhelmed momma then please borrow from the library or buy yourself one.  It is what keeps me sane.  It allows me to find time in the crazy busy momma world. The best part of the system is the physical inbox, what I call my big fat inbox.

The book is called Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. It simply rocks.

His system in a very tiny nutshell for me is something like this.

1. Collect all the Stuff and Write all the Stuff –anything that comes into mommy land goes into my physical inbox.  Mail, school papers, work papers, catalogues.  Any awesome mommy idea that comes to my head gets written down and put into my physical inbox.  This includes recipe ideas, family outing ideas, article ideas, coupon inserts, field trip forms etc.  It can really get full.
2. Process the stuff into projects, tasks, or file it away for a rainy day, just in case, or a momma memory file. And clear out the box every single day all the way to the bottom. Projects can be planning family outing, planning purchases, meal planning or putting brochures in a file for my dream vacation.
3. Review, plan, do.  This really just means planning, scheduling for how and when all the things that need getting done will get done.
   
   [Read more →]

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Vacations enhance productivity, according to David Allen, quoted in Karen Leland’s column on Huffpost Business.

What’s your plan for a summer vacation? Or is it a staycation for enjoying your home? And how connected will you be to work, while you’re on vacation?

How Vacations Help the Business Brain

In exactly 12 days, I will be going away on a 10-day vacation. The thought of this impending time off from the daily in and out of work exhilarates me — and worries me.

On the pro side is the anticipation of rest, renewal and relaxation. Weighing in on the negatives are preparing to go in the first place and a heavier workload when I return. 

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Pedro from Brazil wrote:

Question: Since I’m always completing “old” tasks and “generating” new tasks, my “list” ALWAYS has tasks to be completed. GTD is nice because you can see all task and never lose track of anything, but on the other hand it’s weird because it gives me the feeling that it never ends!

David Allen: The answer to your question is very simple: you’re never finished until you’re dead (if even then, on other levels of our existence).  The essence of GTD is to get yourself “in the driver’s seat” about what you’re doing, and want and need to do. It’s not about finishing everything. You don’t have to finish something to be free of it. You simply need to decide what it means to you, park the outcomes and actions in the appropriate places that you trust will be reviewed at the right time… and you’re free.

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In the latest Productive Living newsletter, David Allen discusses how GTD is not like old school “time management.” You don’t manage your time better and find more hours in the day.

DAVID’S FOOD FOR THOUGHT

TIME MANAGEMENT IS NOT THE ISSUE

Most everyone these days admits they could use better “time management.” But the reason it has not really been addressed to any universal satisfaction is because time management isn’t about managing time. If it were, just buying and using a calendar (and a good watch) would handle it.

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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