Longtime GTDer Jacki shared this on our GTD Facebook Fan Page about her experience with the GTD Weekly Review:

For the longest time I avoided the Weekly Review and just moved from day to day reacting to what came up – in other words, I had not implemented the most effective part of GTD. Then I set aside an hour on Sunday, turned off the phone and TV, and put on a pot of tea and some relaxing music. During that time I asked myself why was I avoiding the Weekly Review? I found the answer to be that once I knew how many things needed to be done in my personal and business life, I felt overwhelmed. But then I realized that once I had it all out in front of me, I could pick and choose what I could do when, delegate in some instances, and negotiate deadlines on some items, and put off some indefinitely. I started with just telling myself to do it for 15 minutes, and that stretched to an hour. Now that golden hour every week helps me face whatever comes my way. I can make adjustments and still get through the week with confidence and with most of my life and business tasks accomplished.

What has your experience been doing (or not doing) the Weekly Review?

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A Community Contribution from Pam, who wrote to David with her story

Since the moment that I graduated from college about a year ago, I have been dealing with a copious amount of change, some good, some bad but mostly I was dealing with a deep lack of direction.  I finally determined that a lot of it had to do with my inability to get a grip of my ‘To-Dos’ and a lack of planning and organizing in nearly everything about my life. I can say that I am now more organized whereas my past self would stubbornly deny that I was ever any other way. You see, I would organize in parts so everything was sorted in its “designated” area (or anything that looked like it could be together) and resolved the part done. But none of these parts worked together and there’s a long list of unfinished projects to prove it. Most of my time was spent finding parts and ideas that were stuffed into random, sorted parts and by the end of it, I would just give up. [Read more →]

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GTD showed me how to bring balance back into my busy personal and professional schedule.  More specifically, I was able to customize the GTD workflow process to handle the crush of Emails I get from prospective students who want to join my martial arts studio.  Furthermore, I also customized the GTD Outlook 2007 “Waiting For” folders into a very easy to use “lead tracking” process – in a blink of an eye I can easily tell how many prospects are scheduled for Initial Appointments, Trial Lessons, and Enrollment Conversations.  I know when to follow up with a prospect by integrating my lead tracking process with my Outlook 2007 Calendar.  I am very happy to say that David Allen’s GTD system not only allowed me to bring balance back to my life, but it also showed me how to set up a very easy-to-use, trusted system for keeping track of my very busy sales cycle.

Michael Veltri is a 4th degree black belt in the Japanese martial art of Aikido.  He both lives and runs his martial arts studio in Washington, DC.

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Community Contribution from Jason Verly

On April 3, 2010, Apple released the iPad to the world.  A day later I completely changed how I do my weekly reviews.  Like most avid GTD’ers, I kept my weekly review to be a sacred and solemn time.  I normally did my reviews on Sunday evening in my home office so I could really dig into what was happening so I could get clear about what I had coming up the next week.  My weekly review was anchored to a time and place where I believed I needed to be to get through my lists.  Not anymore.

The weekend the iPad came out my weekly review was done on the couch sitting next to my 5y old son while he watched a movie.  I have to tell you, it was great.  I was in a relaxed place, with little distraction, and I was able to focus and process like never before.  Now before you hit enter on your comment asking how could I concentrate while sitting next to my son while he was watching a movie or stating there is no way someone could get a good weekly review done in that kind of setting, see if you can give me two more minutes to explain.  I’ll bet I can convince you it can be done in that kind of setting and it is so worth it. [Read more →]

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Community Contribution from April Perry

Mothers need Getting Things Done as much as (or more than!) any other group.  Why?  Let me show you a glimpse into my life “pre-GTD.”

My 7-year-old son, Ethan: Mom, want to see this cool toy lizard I got as a prize today?

Me: Yep.  Ooh.  That’s neat.  (Then in my head)  I need to buy paper towels, we have ants in the bathroom, it’s my niece’s birthday Friday, there’s a permission slip form somewhere around here I need to sign…

Ethan:  Mom, you’re not even looking!

Me:  Sorry.  Okay.  Yes, I really do like that lizard.  What’s his name?  I didn’t even exercise today.  I’ll remember tomorrow.  Don’t I need a sitter for Friday night?  How’s the laundry doing?  If I could just get that laundry room organized, I would feel so much better.  Where’s that book I was reading?  I need to remember to get some chocolate chips at the store.  The carpet needs to be vacuumed.  Where’s the baby? [Read more →]

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Rev. Chip Granthan sent this letter along to the facilitator who led the GTD Public Seminar he attended in Atlanta. Chip was happy to have this shared with our GTD Times readers too.

I’d been trying to find the tool to bring clarity to my situation and had stumbled upon the GTD Coordinator® that Staples sells back in November.  I’d liked the layout, and had followed up by getting a copy of David’s book.

I’d read Getting Things Done 3 or 4 months ago.  I’d tried to absorb it and get my arms around it.  I picked it up about 6 weeks ago and read it again.  I’d gone online to DAC’s website, and had seen the information on the Atlanta seminar.  I’d downloaded the free materials and had purchased the GTD and OUTLOOK 2003 guide.  I’d signed up for the seminar, and in the interim I started actually processing my email the GTD way.  What a difference!  I started looking at the changes I needed to make in my office.  I am a stacker and a packrat. I’ve always known what was where in what stack, [Read more →]

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This is a Community Contribution from Don Khouri, based on his personal experience with GTD and personality assessment tools.

You may wonder how your personality supports your ability to get things done.  In this article, I will elaborate on various preferences and the connection to Getting Things Done® (GTD®).  This is a follow-up to my response to David’s post about GTD and Personality Types.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® instrument (MBTI®) is a self-assessment which measures people’s behavioral preferences across four dimensions.  Learn more from the creators of this instrument.

Let’s start with the fourth MBTI dimension which is our attitude toward the external world and how we orient ourselves to it.  Judgers (Js) prefer structure and lists; Perceivers (Ps) prefer experience, flexibility, and options.  Js like GTD because they like to plan, enjoy having lists, and finishing things.  Ps do not like making lists as much as the Js do; they like having options available to them.  GTD facilitates this very nicely because when making decisions on what to do, there are options available based on your energy level, time available, and context. [Read more →]

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A Community Contribution from Augusto Pinaud, a GTD enthusiast and long-time GTD Connect member

Take the free GTD-Q assessment at GTDIQ.com to see how you’re doing with control & perspective.

As GTDers, the goal for many of us is to increase Control and improve Perspective.  That will bring you to the place that David Allen calls ” Captain and Commander.”  But what what happens when you are suffering from the opposite– you are losing Control and lacking in Perspective?

We all lose control and perspective.  What a true GTD “Black Belt” (in my case a Brown Belt with Black Stains) can do, is to identify that stage and do what we know to do to get back in control and perspective. The challenge of course is to notice that you are losing control and lacking perspective in a moment, and make the correction.  Often we notice in the chaos stage, not at the beginning. [Read more →]

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A Community Contribution from Brian Isikoff, sharing how he manages GTD lists on his new iPad

I’m a four+ year adoptee of GTD, an IT Procurement professional since 1992, podcast producer, writer, and all around nice guy. Lastly, I’m the owner of a sparkly new iPad.

That iPad has quickly become the center of my GTD system. The form factor is the key for me.  The device is highly portable – certainly around the house, neighborhood, and many of my favorite destinations. The iPad’s planner-ish size and capabilities allow me to not only implement GTD but take many of actions captured in the system. To complement the native Apple calendar, contacts, and email, I added Toodledo (which syncs with the free web service of the same name.)

My iPhone  also running a synced copy of Toodledo (and calendar, email, safari, etc.) which provides the little notepad / Moleskine equivalent to my system. It’s also a little more discrete than pulling out an iPad – ideal for the BART train, while on a walk, coffee break or arriving at a meeting a little early.

Implementation Specifics [Read more →]

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We were thrilled to see that GTD Times ranked #7 among quite a prestigious list of the top management and leadership blogs.  We just passed our 2-year anniversary with GTD Times.  Thanks to all who have contributed over the years.  If you’d like to contribute a personal story about your journey with GTD, we’d love to hear from you!

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