Hi Folks,

Why did calendars show up and become ubiquitous tools for most people in the last few decades? Pretty simple: Life’s commitments got more complex than our heads could effectively manage. Yet people resist managing everything else in the same trusted way. I’ll expand, below.

All the best,

DAVID’S FOOD FOR THOUGHT

THE ONE LIST PEOPLE TRUST

If you’re like me, with quite a number of lists of many next actions, projects, someday/maybe’s, etc., you’re likely to encounter people who question your efficiency if not your sanity. “You’ve got so many lists! That’s just too much work!” (Sound familiar?) If you ever feel like you need to defend your lists, ask your skeptical friend if they are sitting around trying to remember what appointments they have on their calendar for next month. They’re probably not biting their nails about where they need to be a week from next Thursday at 4pm. They’re probably not even thinking about it. Why? Because they have their appointments tracked in a system they trust—a calendar they trust they’ll review at the appropriate time and place.

So, why not have the same lack of distraction about all the things that you need to be reminded of?

A calendar is nothing more than [Read more →]

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A recent comment on our Facebook page asked about the best app to sync Android with Outlook.  Anyone on GTD Times have an opinion about that?

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Posting on The Health Care Blog, David Allen talks about how the core elements of triage from an emergency room can help you get you into your productivity zone. He outlines three steps to reach “serenity now.”

What’s the Real Emergency Room?

By David Allen
My summer job before I left for college in 1965 was the night admitting clerk in the emergency room in the Huntsville, Alabama county hospital – a facility built to support a few thousand in a small rural community but now taxed with serving hundreds of thousands, brought to town by the new Apollo missile program. Saturday nights in the small emergency room were often pure chaos, with auto wreck victims lined up on gurneys in the hallway. Those shifts passed the quickest for me, and I slept the best, afterwards.

Crisis promotes a kind of serenity. Why do people commonly tend get into their “zone” then? It’s because of what the situation demands: appropriate engagement. Think about the last time you were in such a circumstance. What were the fundamental components of your experience and behavior? Immediate integration of potentially meaningful inputs; clear definition of desired outcomes; trust in your intuitive judgment; decisions about specific next actions and physical movement on the most critical; consistent recalibration of all factors as required; acceptance of what can’t and needn’t be done at that moment. Those are all core elements of triage, and, actually, appropriate engagement with anything. Put together they’ll get you into your “zone.”

Try this: In the next twenty-four hours (1) Do a “capture” of everything and anything that has your attention – write or type that list somewhere; (2) take at least one of those items that really is tugging at you and decide what your desired outcome is, and the very next action required to move forward on it; and (3) take a half hour to step back and consider all the things you should be considering, in order to truly relax about what you’re not doing tonight.

You’re doing versions of this already, to some degree, or you wouldn’t be reading this. But make these practices more conscious, complete, consistent, and applied in the important arenas of your life and work, and notice how much more time will disappear and restful sleep you’ll have.

Read the full blog post here.

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 ”If you’re at zero backlog, it’s a whole lot easier to change priorities.”
—David Allen

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One of our younger fans describes how he uses GTD to make amazing things happen.

(This video is streaming from YouTube, so it may take a few seconds to load.)

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David Allen describes the profound operational principle of knowledge work as:
You have to think about your stuff more than you realize but not as much as you’re afraid you might.

Asked to expand on that, here is David’s reply:
It actually comes from my experience that most people are avoiding thinking about their “stuff” appropriately – i.e. clarifying what it means to them and what they intend to do about it. It only takes a few seconds to decide if something is actionable, and if so, what the next action is. But people avoid that decision like the plague. They think if they think at all about it, there’s way too much to think about…so they don’t think at all! And then it’s hung up like a psychic albatross around their neck.

Hope that helps,
David

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Are you relying on email and other text-based communication methods, when reaching out by phone or in person would be more effective?  When you’re deciding which GTD context list is right for that next communication, consider whether email is a rich enough medium.  You may decide that what you’re telling or asking that person about requires a medium with more nuance.  In that case, you could add the action to your calls list, or to an agenda list for the next time you meet with that person. An article from Strategy+ Business—excerpted here—explores the benefits of offline management. 

The Offline Executive

A manager’s effectiveness depends not only on using e-mail and other electronic communication, but also on learning to shut it down.

by Henry Mintzberg and Peter Todd

Missing the Meaning

Using only words ― sending a text message or an e-mail ― takes away the nuance that comes from seeing and hearing people, from exchanging points of view and working toward agreements.

Indeed, managers who are in touch only through their keyboard are out of touch with the vast world beyond it. They risk substituting breadth for depth. Managers who believe that they can learn about their department through e-mail …  may find themselves in trouble. They’ll gather the facts, but they may miss the meaning. And the increasing use of 140-character tweets to convey impressions of an organization or a person will likely result in an even greater loss of nuance.

Read the full post here.

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Do you work in an educational, governmental, or nonprofit organization? Then you qualify for a substantial discount on your GTD Connect® membership.

The GTD Connect Team is pleased to announce a new monthly membership opportunity for nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, students, and government agencies.

Now you can access the wealth of productivity tools on GTD Connect, David Allen’s online learning center, with a new nonprofit monthly membership of only $36 per month (a 25% savings over our standard monthly membership of $48 per month). This flexible membership allows you to cancel anytime.

Your GTD Connect membership includes:

• GTD Getting Started & Refresher Series to master your workflow
• Extensive skill-building audio, video, and document library, including downloadable GTD Setup Guides
• Engaging interviews with GTD champions and enthusiasts, sharing how they make GTD work personally and professionally
• Lively discussion forums sharing ideas, tips, and tricks

To qualify for this special membership rate, please email your request to connect@davidco.com. Please make sure you use the email address from the nonprofit, educational institution or government agency that would qualify you for this special rate. Upon a simple approval process, we will send you the special links to purchase a membership through our online store.

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Much of your work, as a knowledge worker, is to decide the meaning of all the “stuff” that comes your way. Using GTD tools, you create value by converting what may seem like an overwhelming amount of input, into meaningfully defined projects and actions, based on your areas of responsibility. So you get to decide whether busyness is bad, or whether you’re just busy taking care of the business of your life. This Harvard Business Review blog post talks more about how the answer to “how busy is too busy?” isn’t a simple yes or no.

Is Busyness Bad for Business?

by Susan David  |   8:00 AM August 3, 2012

Perhaps we are not so much caught in a “busy trap”, as a “meaning trap”. A meaningful life involves pursuing what we truly value, a sense of contribution in our work, as well as time outside of work to relax, enjoy hobbies, and spend time with loved ones.

Read the full HBR Blog Network post here.

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Check out this free podcast from David Allen. In just over two minutes, he gives practical tips for getting started with GTD. It’s available for download now on the David Allen Company podcast page.

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