GTD Times » Coaching Secrets

You are in control when you can see it all

GTD Times Team — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 17:58:19 +0000

No matter what level or field we find ourselves on, whether it is the corporate/professional aspect or our personal/home life, we set priorities and act on what we think is important. We could call that “simplifying” our lives. And by that we do not mean lowering our standards, but rather focusing on the ones that are most important to us.

This same world view somehow seems to be plagued with jargon about priorities: how to set them, how to classify them, and how to sort them out. It claims to give us a sense that we are somehow in control. Several of my clients are feeling overwhelmed by the amount of the stuff they have to process and even more so as their resources to make the things they need to make happen get reduced, sometimes to the point of scarcity. So their question is “how do I set my priorities in any given day, so I know I am not wasting my time? So I know I am doing the right thing?” The underlying question may well be, “How do I know that I am in control, so that what I am doing is the most relevant; the one that adds the most value?”
No one really knows what the best choice is until everything that is really “on his or her plate” can be seen accurately. Our suggestion is that you work from a complete life-list, where the inventories of everything you need to do, have agreed to do, be responsible for, would love in your life, are waiting for, etc. is listed and reviewed regularly. When that happens, you can rest assured that any decision you make regarding what you do is the best possible decision you can make.

That is because you really have got all the elements at play and the good feeling you will have about a particular choice, that excludes other actions that could also be acted upon, will come from knowing exactly what your choices are.

“You have more to do than you can possibly do. You just need to feel good about your choices.” David Allen

In the Getting Things Done seminar, we go over a model for choosing actions in the moment, based on 4 criteria: Context, Time Available, Energy Available, and Priority. Context refers to the location and setting you’re in. Are you in the location where the action can happen; do you have the tools you need: office, home, phone, computer, etc. The time available will determine what kind of work you’re willing and able to do. If you have 5 minutes or 2 hours, time will affect your choices. The third criterion is your energy level. How much energy do you have? There are times when you’re fresh and ready for clients, and other times when you’re toast and it’s best to purge the files, water the plants and/or fill your stapler… And finally, after you’ve considered your context, time and energy, now you can ask, “What’s the best thing for me to be doing?” (This info can be found in more detail in David’s book, Getting Things Done, Chapter 9, “Doing: Making the Best Action Choices.”)

“Every decision to act is an intuitive one. The challenge is to migrate from hoping it’s the right choice to trusting it’s the right choice.” David Allen

David Allen has said it more than once, “You can only feel good about what you are not doing, when you know what you are not doing.” It is important then to keep collecting, processing and organizing information, so that the system you review periodically earns your trust. Paradoxically, your outer environment will still do what it does, regardless of your efforts to make it do something “better.” Creating a system that captures the “whims” of the outer environment does and will help you do the best you can with what you’ve got. Thus it is called “controlling” your inner environment.

Ana Maria Gonzalez is responsible for comprehensive planning and management of the international expansion strategy for the David Allen Company. Ana Maria has more than 10 years of experience as executive coach and trilingual management development trainer with The David Allen Company.

Is that a problem or a project?

GTD Times Team — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:08:24 +0000

GTD Secrets: True Confessions of a GTD Coach – Episode 4

One of the things that I have seen over the years is a lot of incomplete Project Lists. And I think some of it is because we have a tendency to have a narrow view about what a project is. Years ago, David said in a seminar, “Hey folks, you don’t have problems; you have projects.” And one of the things that I see is people not necessarily bringing their “problems” into their GTD system. It just doesn’t really occur to them, and it was the same with me. When I’m coaching people now, and they start sharing about their “problems”, I’m like, “Look, it sounds like you’ve got a possible project with some actions.” And they’re like, “Wow, I’ve never thought about it that way.”

I thought that I would share a personal example that really supported me in terms of making a very difficult situation into a successful outcome. Years ago, I had a situation with a family member that was very challenging and very difficult, and it got to the point where we weren’t speaking. Needless to say, the family really was not happy about this, and neither were we. I was losing a lot of sleep over this. I was very stressed, and obviously it was on my mind. It never even occurred to me to bring it into my GTD system. And so one day I realized, “Wow, I really think that I have a project here.” And I actually decided not to make it a project at first. I actually put it on my Someday/Maybe list because I wasn’t ready to move forward on it. And every week in the weekly review, I would review it, and say, “Nope, not this week. I’m not going to do anything about this.”

After doing this for about a month and a half, I decided that I was ready to turn this into a project with a successful outcome. Not a negative outcome, but a really successful outcome to resolve this relationship. I had a next action on my Home List, which was to write a letter to this person. I was procrastinating on it, and again in the weekly review, I was reviewing it and realizing that I couldn’t even write the letter. I needed to talk to somebody first, and really get a clearer picture of what I wanted to say. So that got moved to my Agendas List, then I had a conversation with somebody, and it eventually got moved back to my Home List. I wrote the letter, sent the letter, and the letter went on my Waiting For List, because I was waiting to hear back from this family member. And all through this, I was no longer losing sleep over this. That was the power of really understanding how GTD can transform the way so many of us think in terms of problems into thinking in terms of outcomes and Actions. And so eventually I heard back from this person. And about eight months later, we resolved this relationship, and I was able to check this project off as “done.”

Ever since that time, the minute I start thinking, “Wow, I’ve got a problem here,” I am really quick to say, “Wait a minute, I don’t have a problem– What’s my outcome? What’s my next action?” And it has just transformed my life. Sometimes I look around and see people continuously thinking in terms of problems. And I just thought that I would really share this with you, because in all my coaching, when people have that concept of “I’m really trying to resolve this problem here.” I say, “Okay, let’s do a paradigm shift and look at this in terms of outcomes and actions.”

So I hope that maybe you’ll take a look at your project list and say, “Have I missed identifying any open loops that are keeping me up at night or causing me stress?” You can have emotional open loops, like I just shared with you. You can have physical open loops. I fell on the ice a couple of years ago, and had to go into some physical therapy for my shoulder, and that was a project. You can have mental open loops. You can have spiritual open loops. I hope this gives you some insight into creating a very robust personal and professional Project List.

Listen to the audio version of Meg’s post.

Learn more about Meg and her coaching work for the David Allen Company.

Check out all of the episodes in Meg’s GTD Coaching Secrets series.

How do you know if your projects list is complete?

GTD Times Team — Tue, 19 May 2009 18:56:04 +0000

GTD Secrets: True Confessions of a GTD Coach – Episode 3

Have you ever been stumped by the difference between a Project and an Area of Focus?

In this great 5 minute podcast, David Allen Company senior coach Meg Edwards talks about the GTD best practices for creating a Projects list. She gives tips on:

understanding the difference between a project vs. an area of focus
getting to a complete projects list vs. one that is “semi-complete”
why most people have a projects list that doesn’t really work
when to “bump up” or “bump down” in looking at your Horizons of Focus

In the podcast, she references her own Areas of Focus, which she captured in a mindmap:

Add yourself to the David Allen Company podcast feed.

Tips for setting up GTD lists

GTD Times Team — Wed, 06 May 2009 20:54:32 +0000

GTD Secrets: True Confessions of a GTD Coach – Episode 2

In this great 5 minute podcast, David Allen Company coach Meg Edwards shares her journey with setting up her GTD lists. If you’ve ever wondered if you have this “list thing” down, listen to Meg’s coaching on:

- Do you need to setup the lists exactly like David does?
- How many lists do you need?
- How do you know if a list is working for you or not?

What is GTD?

GTD Times Team — Fri, 01 May 2009 19:57:30 +0000

GTD Secrets: True Confessions of a GTD Coach – Episode 1

We are thrilled to have Meg Edwards, one of the masters of GTD at the David Allen Company, providing her perspective, humor and wisdom on the world of GTD. She will be doing a new series for GTD Times called “GTD Secrets: True Confessions of a GTD Coach”. With over a decade of working with people, helping them to implement and master GTD, many of you have likely experienced Meg through her telecoaching and individual coaching work. She also adds great content to our Coaches’ Connection feature on GTD Connect.

As a working mom, Meg is a wonderful example of getting things done–when it often feels like you have more to do than you can do–with grace, humor and balance.

Meg recorded a new podcast on “What is GTD?” How would you respond if an old friend you met on the street asked you about GTD? Listen as Meg shares what GTD means to her as she practices it in her work and personal life.