Q: How did you get involved in GTD and workflow coaching, and what motivates you to continue?

David Allen: When I started out doing management consulting, I was interested in thinking/processing models that worked universally to provide value and improve conditions for people and organizations. That, combined with my own awareness of the strategic and psychological value of clear space had me quickly develop a way to research and apply a set of best practices that invariably worked for the executives and entrepreneurs I worked with. I’m continually motivated to keep doing this work, because it never stops being quite transformational for anyone who applies the principles, and there are few things I’ve ever come across that provide as much reward for so little risk.

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A contribution from Michael Dolan, a senior coach with the David Allen Company

Q: I’m in sales and have a customer relationship management system (CRM) whereby we add reminders to call people back and or manage projects as they relate to people there. I use Microsoft Outlook as well to keep all of my projects and contexts in one place. My question is how would you blend these two together?

A: I can very much appreciate this question since we seem to be hearing about this overlap more and more. Sales management systems, sometimes referred to as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, have come a long way in the past 10-15 years. They not only can help an individual or team track progress, agreements and forecasting in one, interwoven place, but they can also help automate some of the workflow that happens between team members in a company. They tend to be fairly contact / company centric in that records and reference about certain conversations and emails sent in the sales cycle are kept in relationship to specific contacts or sales initiatives. For example, [Read more →]

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We just released an A4* size of our new GTD & BlackBerry Guide. For those of you who will print the Guide and prefer this size instead of the standard U.S. letter size, you will now find it in our David Allen Company online store.

This 45 page Guide, created by David Allen and the senior coaches, will show you how to:

• Manage your email effectively on the BlackBerry–including how to get email to zero
• Use BlackBerry Tasks for your Projects and Actions–including descriptions and examples of what goes on different lists
• Use the Calendar as a critical foundation for actions–with shortcuts for switching between different views
• Create useful reference lists in MemoPad–for managing the “non-action” part of your life as well
• Move faster with speed keys and shortcuts–referenced throughout the Guide and on handy quick reference sheet
• Navigate around the BlackBerry easily–with tips on customizing some settings to match the way you work

*210 MM wide and 297 MM tall (about 8 1/4 x 11 3/4 inch), used in Europe, and rest of the world, except the US and some neighboring countries where ‘letter-size’ paper (8 1/2 x 11 inch) is used.

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Q: I write down everything but I always seem to end up having problems controlling all the pieces of paper and lists; what are your suggestions?

Coach Janet Riley: Writing everything down is a great first step.  All those “notes” where you’ve captured and collected what’s in your head, need to be put into an “IN” box and then within a day or two they need to be “processed” so that you make decisions about what the work is to be done (an email to send, a call to make, etc.).  Once you process them, put reminders of the work to be done in your Next Action lists or on your calendar.  If you travel, your “IN” box can be a folder, for example. On a regular basis, stop to gather up any notes, business cards, loose papers, etc. that you might have left in a pocket, briefcase, wallet, or which are still on a notepad (tear them off) and put all those in the “IN” box or tray to be processed.  You can read more about Collection and Processing best practices in David’s first book Getting Things Done and we have loads of Webinars and educational resources on GTD Connect about this.

Listen to David’s podcast on the Mind Sweep process for clearing your head. Check out the GTD System Folders or create your own.

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Question: When/where do I evaluate what to do?

Coach Danny Bader: I am evaluating my options for “doing” anytime I have doing time. The first place I look is my calendar to see what specific things I have committed to doing on the day.  The next place I review is my action lists depending on context  — calls, home, computer, etc.  I will also evaluate the volume of new inputs that are in my collection buckets — email, legal pads, etc – to determine if Processing & Organizing is where I need to focus.

During my Weekly Review I do a thorough evaluation of my entire GTD system to ensure that it is clean, current and complete.

This daily engagement with my calendar and action lists — as well as the “deeper” evaluation of my system during the Weekly Review allows me trust that what I am doing is what I should be doing.

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Clear your head with the man himself…

This is an excerpt from a Webinar David did for GTD Connect, our online learning center.

Listen now (20 min)

We have hundreds of audio and video selections like this on GTD Connect, with more added every week.  Hook into the most active Getting Things Done community in the world.  Check out a free guest pass (no credit card required and we won’t nag you when you’re done!)

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Dear David Allen: You mention you only “think once a week”.  Does that mean you have a script rule about planning out your weeks as opposed to day-to-day? Could you explain that a little more?

David: When I say I only think once a week, I’m making an exaggerated point that doing a thorough GTD Weekly Review sufficiently sets up my sense of priorities so that I don’t have to do a lot of re-thinking or over-structuring, as I go day to day.  Usually we don’t have the time in the busy pace we work to stop and do “forest management instead of tree-hugging”.  Because most people don’t build in that reflection time–regarding actions, projects, and commitments–they’re constantly thinking that they should be thinking about their priorities, but they never really do.

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In response to our recent Productive Living newsletter, a GTDer wrote to David Allen and said:

Please provide a less complex version of the basic GTD chart/system for me and the hundreds of thousands of organizationally challenged managers just like me who have tried and failed to maintain the GTD system. Simpler is better.

David responded:

I empathize with desire for the “GTD for Dummies” approach.  I suggest just not letting the visual chart get in your way… it’s as simple as:

Write it down
Decide what’s next about it
Park that somewhere you’ll trust you’ll look at as a reminder
Keep your head empty and your list(s) current

Hope that helps.

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