1. Select Rules button from the ribbon

2. Click Manage Rules &  Alerts

3. Click on New Rule

4. Select Apply rule on messages I receive

5. Click Next

6. Check off from people or specific group. Then click on where people or public group is underlined and select yourself as the From contact (if you are not listed as a contact in your address book, you will need to create that first with the exact email address used by Outlook when you send email for this to work). Click OK. Click Next.

7. Check off move it to the specified folder. Then click on where specified folder is underlined and choose the “Waiting For Support” folder. Click OK. Click Next.

8. Check off except if my name is in the To or CC box

9. Name your rule.

Your final settings should look like this:

10. Click Finish.

Try it out by sending a test message to yourself and put yourself in the bcc: field. It should send a copy of the email to your Waiting For Support folder.

What this rule does is eliminate the step of having to dig through your Sent folder to find emails that you are waiting on a response.  Be sure to also track the Waiting For item on your Waiting For list in Tasks, unless you the discipline to review this Waiting For Support email folder with the same rigor you would your Action lists.

Collect

Process

Organize

Review

Do

For each area, ask yourself:

What’s working well for me in this area now?

What would I like to improve upon in the coming year in each of these areas?

How I could support myself more in that?

Acknowledge yourself for how far you’ve come. Be realistic in your commitments about where you want to be.  GTD is a journey…

Happy New Year!

What are you doing better than in previous years? What’s more habitual for you? What’s easier for you now with the GTD methodology? How far have you come from when you first started with GTD that you could acknowledge yourself for?

We’d love to hear from you!

Capture everything that has your attention (Collect)

Make decisions about what it means and what you are going to do about it (Process)

Park those decisions in trusted places (Organize)

Step back to reflect on those choices from a clear, current, and creative place (Review)

So that you can make the best action choice  (Do)

So how will that help narrow down a To Do list the length of your driveway? You’ll want to pull in the  Criteria for Choosing model:

Context – What place, tool, or person will the action require? This is the first limitation for choosing–it has to be. If you’re not in the right place, don’t have the right tool, or access to the required person, you can’t take the action.

Time available – How much time do you have to take the action? If you have 20 minutes, consider actions that will take less than 20 minute choices.

Resources – What is your energy like to take the action? You’re probably doing this now more than you realize. Brain alert usually means you’ll make different choices than brain dead. Watch that. Honor that.

Priorities – What’s the most important one to choose based on your roles (20k), 1-2 year goals (30k), 3-5+ year strategy (40k) or purpose (50k+)?

How do I know what my priorities are? This is where the Horizons of Focus model comes in. Every level of that is valuable, but the Areas of Focus level in particular can be helpful for people in setting priorities.  Know what your job really is and “no” will come a little easier.

Finally, I would look at how you’re spending your time Doing.  This is where the Three-fold Nature of Work model comes in. No, this isn’t a fancy way to fold a shirt. It’s a way to look at how you spend your time:

Doing pre-defined work – Choosing from choices you’ve already made on your Calendar & Next Action lists

Doing work as it appears – New things that show up that you choose to work on (not always a bad thing by the way, even though it gets a bad rap as being the demise of productivity)

Defining work - Processing new inputs (swing back to Collect, Wash, Rinse, Repeat.)

Of those three, where do you spend more time than you think you should? And which one doesn’t get enough of your time? Would love to hear your thoughts on that in the comments.

I hope this has been a helpful series for you all!

Just joining this series? Read part one on Collect, part two on Process, or part three on Organize, or part four on Review.  There’s also a fantastic “Road to Black Belt” webinar series I did with Coach Meg Edwards on these best practices that’s available on GTD Connect.

Kelly Forrister is a senior coach & seminar presenter with the David Allen Company

WHAT TO REVIEW:

There are 11 steps in the GTD Weekly Review.  David Allen recommends leading yourself through this every 7-10 days to get clear, current, and creative.

Get clear – ensure all your “stuff” is processed

Collect Loose Papers and Materials
Get “IN” to Zero
Empty Your Head
Get current – review your system and update lists

Review Action Lists
Review Previous Calendar Data
Review Upcoming Calendar
Review Waiting For List
Review Project (and Larger Outcome) Lists
Review Any Relevant Checklists

Get creative – follow your intuitive thinking

Review Someday Maybe List
Be Creative & Courageous

REVIEW SUCCESS FACTORS:

Review your system regularly.  Sounds simple and obvious enough, but this is a challenge for many GTDers.  The downside of letting Reviews lag is that you risk your mind starting to take back what it downloaded into your system. You start thinking about things more than they deserve and can start to get leaks in your system.

Any Review is better than no Review. Don’t have the recommended 1-2 hours to do a thorough Weekly Review? Dedicate whatever time you do have and choose the step that most has your attention for that week.

Give it time to make it a habit.  Try at least 4 Reviews before you decide you just can’t do them.  It takes time to groove new habits and create a new reference point. Once you really taste what clear, current, and creative feels like, you’ll move mountains to make it happen, regardless of how busy you are.

Stay focused on reviewing not doing. It’s tempting to get in to handling some things you find in your Review. That’s fine for the quick less than two-minute ones, but be careful that your Review doesn’t turn into a catch up on backlog time.

Pick a day and time that works for you. This is one of the most common questions we get asked as coaches. Any day works, as long as it works for you. Universally, Friday morning seems to be the most common day. Choose a time when you tend to be brain sharp, not brain toast. I would also pick a time that leaves you buffer room to handle things that would not be good to find/fix if no one else is around (like end of day Friday).

Hope this helps!

Just joining this series? Read part one on Collect, part two on Process, or part three on Organize. You’ll also find a few podcasts related to the Weekly Review in our free public podcast stream.  And David Allen has a Guided Weekly Review webinar on GTD Connect.

Kelly Forrister is a senior coach & seminar presenter with the David Allen Company

WHAT TO ORGANIZE:

Organizing identifies the various placeholders or “buckets” where actions and support material are stored that you’ve processed. David Allen has also described organizing as simply “things are stored based on what they mean to you.”  The four primary action lists are:

• Projects
• Next Actions (with optional subcategories by context such as Calls, Computer, Office, Home, Errands, Agendas (people and meetings) and Anywhere)
• Waiting For
• Calendar (for time-specific actions, day-specific actions, and day-specific information only)

Organizing also includes setting up your workspace, a reference system for non-actionable information, and incubation systems (Someday Maybe and Tickler Systems) for possible later actions.

SOME QUESTIONS TO ASK WHEN CHOOSING YOUR TOOLS:

• Are there any tools already in place that you plan/need to still use? Like a corporate calendar?
• Where is your email?  Not required, but certainly helps to have your email and lists near each other.
• Who else needs to see your data?   Does it need to be on a shared server or would local be fine if you go digital?
• What do you tend to be drawn to–paper or digital?
• Is security a concern? Are you okay with your information being in the cloud?
• How would you back it up, if needed?
• What are you willing to carry around?
• What tools are you already familiar with?
• Would you trust putting almost anything into it?
• Is it scalable?
• Can you easily learn how to use it?
• What are you willing to pay for it?
• What does it need to sync to?

 ORGANIZING SUCCESS FACTORS:

• A good rule of thumb when choosing tools (especially your Calendar, Waiting For and Next Action lists which will get the heaviest traffic) is “can I maintain this easily if I am sick in bed with the flu?” That will tell you whether you’ve overbuilt it or not.  Don’t build your system at the height of your creativity and complex thinking.  It’s too risky that you won’t be there all the time and won’t be able to easily work your system when you need to.
• Settle on something as a list manager.  Yup. This isn’t marriage. It’s just a list manager. Let go of the idea that the perfect list manager is out there, if it’s holding you back from picking something that will be good enough at least to try. You can always change it later if you really need to.
• If you’re still on a learning curve with GTD, you may not want to add to that learning curve by picking tools you’re not familiar with. Instead, start with something you already know, like a paper planner.

Now, I know I haven’t mentioned specific tools.  There are a rare few that David Allen has personally vetted for GTD. That doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of tools that will be a fantastic support for you though. And there are loads of suggestions from your fellow GTDers on this blog and in our Forums. Bottom line? Pick tools you’ll be more attracted to than repelled by.  Trust your lists for holding your reminders more than holding them in your mind, or your mind will fire you and take the job back.

Just joining this series? Read part one on Collect and part two on Process or part four on Review.

Kelly Forrister is a senior coach & seminar presenter with the David Allen Company

WHAT TO PROCESS:

Processing is the core fundamental thinking that defines the meaning of each item collected. Outcomes and next actions are determined for actionable items, and the non-actionable items are identified as trash, something potentially actionable in the future, or reference material. This decision process transforms unclear stuff into defined work.

Download a free version of the GTD Workflow Map illustrating Collect, Process, and Organize or view the classic version on page 32 of the Getting Things Done book.

KEY PROCESSING QUESTIONS:

1. What is it?
2. Is it actionable?
3. What’s the desired outcome? If it is multi-step, write it on your Projects/Outcomes list.
4. What’s the next (physical/visible) action? Write it on the appropriate Next Actions list.

PROCESSING SUCCESS FACTORS:

Give yourself enough processing time*.  Most people need an hour to an hour and a half per day of total processing time to process new inputs.  You can estimate how much time you need by factoring 30 seconds to process each input. For example, if you get 60 emails a day, you’ll need 1/2 hour of total time to process your email inbox to zero. By total time, we don’t necessarily mean in one block of uninterrupted time. It can also mean total time throughout the day.

Processing is not doing, it’s deciding. The only “doing” time recommended during processing are those items that will take less than 2 minutes to complete.

*processing is considered “defining work” time in GTD’s Threefold Nature of Work model described on page 50 of the Getting Things Done book.

Just joining this series? Read part one on Collect or part three on Organize.

Kelly Forrister is a senior coach & seminar presenter with the David Allen Company

WHAT TO COLLECT:

Every commitment unfinished is an “open loop”; and when it is tracked in your psyche, instead of your system, it will require energy and attention to track and maintain. Once the open loops are captured, you can manage completion by using an external system that takes much less energy than keeping it in your head. Every commitment unfinished requires management in a trusted system until it is done or discontinued.

COLLECTION SUCCESS FACTORS:

Capture it all (Get it out of your head)
Every open loop must be in your collection system and out of your head. Keep collection tools nearby so that no matter where you are, you can capture anything that has your attention. The result of this practice is to have everything out of your head. The less you track in your mind, the clearer you will be, and the more important and functional the collection tools will become, which allows for your mind to be optimally clear. This will make your collection tools more important.

As few collection tools as possible (Minimal number of locations)
Have as many as you need, but as few as you can get by with. You need collection tools wherever you are, since things that you want to capture may show up anywhere. However, if you have too many collection areas you won’t be motivated to empty them regularly.

Process them to empty regularly
Emptying the collection tools to process and organize is part of the daily processing routine. Emptying the collection tools does not mean that you have to finish what is in voicemail, email, or an in-tray; it just means that you have to take it out of the container, decide what it is, and decide what has to be done with it. If it is still unfinished, organize it into your system. You don’t put it back into “in”!

By the way, the word “empty” doesn’t mean complete the work– just define it and organize it.

Just joining this series? Read part two on Process.

Kelly Forrister is a senior coach & seminar presenter with the David Allen Company

Senior Coach Kelly Forrister: I consider reading materials fall into two categories: nice to read and must read. Nice to read is like a newsstand. I can read it or not. Those are not tracked on any lists. they are organized into a plastic folder called “Read/Review”.  For must read items, those are tracked on my Next Action lists, just like any other action I am committed to complete. Those are organized based on where the reading takes place (@Office, @Home, @Anywhere or @Computer). The reading is typically stored in a project folder if it’s related to a project, an @Action email or hard copy folder, or I simply paste the URL if it’s a website into the note field of the next action in my list manager.

What are your productivity speed bumps?

• It’s not clear who should do it (i.e. unclear Areas of Focus)
• If the person delegating is not clear on their own inventory, in their integrity and confidence they won’t feel like they can hand off things to others (doesn’t quite fly to say, “I can’t do this because I have a gnawing sense of overwhelm–but can you?”)
• If the person delegating doesn’t have a clear way to track what they are handing off (a la Waiting For or Agenda lists) they won’t feel confident in handing things off
• Perfection (anyone ever have the feeling “I can do it better/faster myself?”)
• People often feel funny using the word “delegate” with peers or their managers–so just call it “hand off” instead (truly–tricks that like can work)
• The person delegating is not clear what they are even delegating

My Agenda and Waiting For lists are often my longest lists. I have Agendas for all of the key people I meet with or report to on a regular basis. My Waiting For list (currently 68 items) tracks anything and everything I may want to rein back in at some point.  To me, these lists are like fishing lines off a boat and I just need trusted and easy ways to reel things back in when I need them.

How well do you handle delegation? Do you ever hesitate to delegate something to others? If so, why?

Kelly Forrister is a senior coach and presenter with the David Allen Company

Do you need to review every list every day? Of course not. But use those weird windows of time that show up in your day to pop over to a list for a little visit. You might start to find it’s like meeting up with a good friend who is happy to see you.

More about Kelly…

Buy the new GTD Implementation Guide in PDF, and David’s first book. Read them carefully and use paper for a few weeks. You will become a far-better informed shopper for any digital solution for managing lists. -  rdgeorge

The GTD Implemenation Guide

David’s first book, Getting Things Done

Coach Kelly Forrister’s article on How to Choose a GTD System

It’s chock-full of 45 pages of coaching advice on getting the most out of shortcuts, Email, Tasks, the Calendar and MemoPad using the built-in features of a BlackBerry (which means you won’t find any  requirements of any 3rd-party software to buy to apply what’s in the Guide.)

Download a free sample

Buy the Guide now (only $10 for a PDF)

So…the next question that’s been pouring into our customer service department today:  What about a GTD Guide for iPhone users? The iPhone is a different animal because it was built without a Tasks application.   So users need something that enables them to view Tasks on the iPhone and a service to share that information with the desktop.  We do not have a solution we confidently recommend for that yet (except OmniFocus for Mac users), based on our testing, but I am tracking this all closely (as an iPhone user and BlackBerry user) and will create a Guide as soon as I feel confident we have something solid to recommend for Tasks.

I replied: I would say that I am similar. It’s natural actually to want to get In to zero before feeling free and confident in the Doing.  You won’t intuitively trust that the choice you are making is the best one if there are things lurking in the inbox that might be a better choice. However, as you get better and better at GTD and collecting/processing/organizing, a trust factor comes in to know you WILL get back to it when you can. David Allen often says that the more you trust you have a process, you will be more comfortable letting it get out of control.

“If you’re just borrowing ideas from GTD here and there, like the idea of grouping your to-do lists by context, you’re missing almost everything GTD has to offer, which is a terrible shame.”

This article is worth a read on tapping into the full power of GTD + OmniFocus.  Read more…

Coach Kelly: I personally don’t use the subproject feature of software.  For me, everything is just a Project. But if you do decide to use it, it can be a nice way to sort major components of a large project. For example, let’s say you are getting married.  You could have “Get married” as the project that you track, however, there would be many, many
steps that would fall under that.  Some people would choose to create subprojects for each of the major components, such as:

Project =
Get Married

Subprojects =
Rehearsal Dinner
Ceremony
Reception
Honeymoon

I’d say it’s an optional feature in the Add-In, not required. Only use it if it helps you. Don’t use that feature if it seems confusing or more complicated than you need. [Addendum: this is my universal feedback for people on creating your system.  Use as many features as you need, but as few as you can get by with.]

Over the past few months, I’ve gone through Getting Things Done (GTD) with the proverbial fine-toothed comb, reviewing one chapter each week. During this time, I’ve completed a second draft of a novella and moved into a new apartment.

At the very least, GTD prepared me to fully complete these two tasks and any other task that I might happen upon. The novella is a complete story, beginning to end. I’ve organized my new apartment into a livable space, and I’m completely unpacked.  Learning how to identify a task and follow it to completion has been a key element of my GTD learning experience.

Most important GTD tool for me has been defining actions. For example, I know what action I need to take in regard to my application to a writer’s workshop is to “complete the required components, print, and mail by March 31” makes the process much easier. First, I know the parameters of the task. Second, I’m confident that following this task will get my application to the right place, at the right time. I don’t need to worry that I’ll miss a scholarship or fellowship, either of which could save me a lot of money

What GTD really gives me is confidence. I know that as long as I do my weekly review and keep everything on a list, nothing is going to fall through the cracks. However if something does, I am in a better position to deal with problems, as I know where everything else stands and when events are happening.

Some of the tips in GTD are very helpful, and I would not have tried them, if I had not gotten so much benefit from the rest of the book. At the top of this list is the labeler. When I first read about the labeler, I was convinced it was just an expensive toy. Frankly, I’m still convinced it’s an expensive toy, but I’m also convinced that it works wonders, anyway. I don’t know why the labeler works better than handwriting, it just does.

What got me started in GTD was a simple Google Search for “Getting Started in Life.” I was attracted to GTD because I already had the book, which means there’s a lot more to this book than just reading it or owning a copy. The work required to implement GTD to its effectiveness is a lot. It’s something I had to think about on a constant basis:

What is my relationship to my work?
What do I want to accomplish?
When do I want to accomplish it by?
Why does this need to be done?
How am I going to do it?
Which should I do first?

These are questions that GTD does not answer, but it helps me create an environment in which I can answer these questions. The beauty of GTD is that it allows my brain to prioritize by controlling the flow of stuff that needs to be processed. I still scan, look to see where the fires are, but I can identify fires before they light, now. I can look at something and say: This will take five minutes now or five hours two weeks from now.  I can deal with it accordingly and somewhat in advance.

I still have room for improvement. The filing system I have at home still needs work. Specifically, I’m short on hanging folders, and my cabinet just becomes a pile of mess if it doesn’t have hanging folders. I still have large projects, like write a screen play, which are ambiguously defined and have near deadlines in comparison to the amount of work they require.

By in large, next month looks like it’ll be better than this month. And, I get the feeling that I can keep improving month after month. This has a lot to do with GTD and organization.

Kelly, thanks for reading all my emails over these past months. For April, I’m turning my attention to Script Frenzy, which is to write 100 pages of script in a month. I hope to move on to Ready for Anything and Making It All Work very soon. These past two or three weeks especially, I’ve been doing just a little more than I feel comfortable with—probably only because of GTD that I can do that.

Best,

Michael

Some of the other great resources for the GTD Weekly Review:

• The Book. It’s all in there. Really!
• GTD System Guides (which has the 11 steps on a laminated card)
• Weekly Review Set on CD or MP3
• Audio, Video, Articles and Webinars on GTD Connect
• Blog articles on GTD Times
• Free Podcast on the Best Practices of Review

Cheers!   Kelly

What does the David Allen Company recommend for implementing GTD® Task lists on the iPhone?

The iPhone was not built with a Tasks application, so you will need to find an App that will support the GTD best practices for a list manager (e.g. sort by category/context, allow but not force due dates, allows related notes to be attached to the Task, etc.)  What you choose for the iPhone would depend primarily on what do you need to sync it to.  The corresponding application you want to sync it to (Mac, PC or Web) would narrow down the best application for you to install on the iPhone for Tasks. The end result is that you would have a Tasks application on the iPhone–>syncing through a service–>that then shares that information with a corresponding application on the web or desktop.

Also, be sure you understand what makes a good GTD list manager. For example, if you read Getting Things Done, or even any of our Setup Guides, there are some key things a good list manager would need to have to work well. It’s not just about storing a flat list of To Do’s.  If you understand the best practices, then you’ll find the sea of Apps in the iTunes store much easier to wade through.  If you’re starting from scratch on all of this, read this post on How to Choose a GTD system.

The only platform we have any specific recommendations for is Mac. We recommend and endorse OmniFocus for the Mac and iPhone.  For PC and Web users, there are many options, but we do not have any specific recommendations around that at this point. We will post updates if that changes.

What: It will be a working Twitter class.  Over an hour, I’ll guide people through the 11-steps of the GTD Weekly Review through a series of Tweets. You’ll want to be in front of your system (at least calendar, lists, email, inboxes etc.) to take action based on the Tweets.  While the purpose isn’t to bring you to completion with all of it, you’ll get to experience a bit of each step, and capture what’s next for you.  Remember, the Weekly Review is the critical success factor for GTD!  The better you know it, the better your system will be.

When: Friday, March 26th at 10am PDT/California time. Find your local time.

How: Follow @GTDSpecialEvent on Twitter or just launch this web page during the event to follow the Tweets. You’ll want to Refresh your Twitter page often to make sure you’re getting the latest Tweets.  They’ll come every few minutes.

Who: Probably good to have at some basic understanding of processing & organizing with GTD (also chapter 2 of the GTD book is great) and at least a basic structure of GTD setup for yourself already.

Read what others had to say about the last one.

I want  you know that since I have returned to GTD (over 2 months now), I have joined GTD Connect and listened to 38 podcasts out of the 145 from Connect that I have downloaded to my iPhone.  I cannot begin to tell you how much they have helped and inspired me. Hearing you, David, Meg and others patiently go over and over the concepts, pitfalls, suggestions, etc. have helped more than anything.  I not only feel like I have an intellectual grasp of the concepts, but I feel part of a support group that will be there with me over the long haul.  I actually feel a personal connection with you, David and Meg especially.  Plus, I am hearing it….really hearing it….if you know what I mean…..

The first time I got into GTD was a couple of years ago.  I did not sign up for Connect.  I didn’t do weekly reviews.  I did not use all the support available.  I ended up with lots of un-reviewed lists and everything back in my head along with all the chaos.  When I surrendered a couple of months ago, it was a deep surrender.  I am definitely “ALL IN.”

GTD Connect holds the world’s largest library of GTD podcasts, documents and articles.  Note: Podcasts are only an option for monthly or annual members (not free trial participants.  But the free trial will allow you to watch or listen to them on the site.)

As a GTD Coach, and also intimately involved in the education and offerings from David Allen, I would suggest one of the following products:

The GTD System – This is, in my opinion, one of the best educational products we offer.  You get a ton of resources to learn GTD at your own pace.  You get the GTD book, coaching CDs with David Allen, GTD Connect and more. Good stuff.

GTD Live – If you like to learn by listening, then this is for you.  It’s David presenting the full two-day GTD seminar.  Follow along as if you are in the audience. I’d personally love to see a video version of this as well, being more visual than auditory in my own learning style. But it’s a fantastic resource to learn directly from DA.

The Getting Started Series – GTD Connect has a 16-part Getting Started series. It walks you through all of the key topics of GTD and includes audio and video of David and the coaches chatting about the best practices.  A great way to get up and running in bite -sized chunks.

…and if any of those don’t do it for you, go back to the original manual for GTD: the book.  Can’t go wrong. After all these years, I still find new pearls of wisdom in it, but then again, I love this stuff.  Of course, seminars and coaching are the crown jewels, but as far as products you can do at your own pace, the list above is where I would start.

Cheers,

Kelly

more about me…

50,000 – Life Purpose
40,000 – 3-5 year Visions and Strategy
30,000 – 1-2 year Goals and Direction
20,000 – Areas of Focus and Responsibilities
10,000 – Current Projects
Runway – Current Actions

The best way I know of to work with these 6 levels is to go with where my attention is. I don’t find it often works to assign myself to go map those out perfectly, especially 30-50,000 levels. They will get subtler the higher you go up in your focus, but they will all help in choosing what to do.

Will knowing your 50,000 tell you exactly which email to read or meeting to go to? Probably not. But it will probably bring to the surface if you’re in the job you want. Play around with them. See where your attention goes. David’s latest book Making It All Work goes into lots more detail on Horizons of Focus and seems to have cleared up some of the mystery around that for people who read and implemented GTD.

Kelly Forrister is a senior coach and presenter with the David Allen Company.

• Are there any tools already in place that you plan/need to still use? Like a corporate calendar?
• Where is your email?  Not required, but certainly helps to have your email and lists near each other.
• Who else needs to see your data?   Does it need to be on a shared server or would local be fine if you go digital?
• What do you tend to be drawn to–paper or digital?
• Is security a concern?
• How would you back it up, if needed?
• What are you willing to carry around?
• What tools are you already familiar with?
• Would you trust putting almost anything into it?
• Is it scale-able?
• Can you easily learn how to use it?
• What are you willing to pay for it?
• What does it need to sync to?

Is there a perfect GTD system out there? Sure, it’s the one you trust and use so your mind is free.

A key principle within GTD is creating a system external to your mind–if you want the system to be seamless.  In fact, there’s a good chance if you’re trying to hold more than about 7 things in your mind at once, you’re dropping things all the time.  And guess what?  Your brain doesn’t care if what you dropped was important or not important, urgent or not urgent, about buying bread on the way home from work or solving world hunger.   If you’re trying to balance more than 7 things in there at any given time, something’s gonna drop.

Now, wait before you get riled up–this is not challenging how smart you are or how good you are at memorizing. This is working memory.  And for most of us, there are about 7 parking spaces in working memory, plus or minus 2, at any given time.  This phenomenon was also explored in the Science behind GTD article.

NPR’s Radiolab did an interesting podcast on this topic of working memory as well.  In fact, they cover something I hadn’t heard before, which is that when the brain is stressed at holding 7 it will make an emotional decision, not necessarily a rational one.  You’ll choose cake over a piece of fruit under stress. Fascinating stuff, especially if you look at how this applies to what you choose to Do. [Podcast is about 20 minutes.)

Curious if anyone has any tips/symbols or shortcuts for notetaking. I tend to write circles next to actionable items when I’m taking meeting notes and starring important items, but always looking for a better system.

Here is the tip I shared:

One tip I find useful is to create a separate page at the start of the meeting called “mindsweep” where I collect open items and next actions I create during the meeting.  I often have things on that too that have nothing to do with the meeting. Then, when I leave the meeting, processing the meeting notes is a separate item to handle from the mindsweep page.

Got a tip to share? We’d love to hear what works for you.  Leave a comment or email us at editor@gtdtimes.com.

Gmail Waiting For filter:

1. Create a label called @Waiting For if you don’t have one already
2. Go to Settings (top right corner), click on Filters tab
3. Click Create a New Filter
4. Add your email address to the From field
5. Add a unique keyword, such as *wf, in the Has the Words field
6. Click Next step
7. Check off Skip the Inbox” and “Apply the Label: @Waiting For”
8. Click Create Filter

Test it out by sending yourself a test message and put your unique code somewhere in the body of the message. What this will do is save you from having to cc: yourself (and then process it again out of In) or dig through Sent mail to get the stuff that you’re waiting on from someone else. A copy of your email will automatically get filed under your @Waiting For label.

Outlook Waiting For rule:

Here is how to create a very handy rule in Outlook for filing sent emails directly into a Waiting For email folder.

1. Create a new email folder (Ctrl+Shift+E) and name it @Waiting For.
The @ symbol will make it appear under your Inbox.
2. Click on Tools > Rules and Alerts.
3. Click the New Rule button.
4. At the top of the next box, select Start from a blank rule.
5. Highlight Check messages after sending, then click Next.
6. Check off With specific words in the body. Then click on where specific words is underlined and choose a unique keyword for your rule, such as *wf*. Click Add, then OK, then Next.
7. Check off Move a copy to the specified folder. Then click on the where specific Folder is underlined and choose the @Waiting For folder.
8. Click Finish.

Try it out by sending a test message to yourself and typing *wf* in the body of the email somewhere, such as under your signature file. It should send a copy of the email to your @Waiting for folder.  What this rule does is eliminate the step of having to CC: yourself or dig through your Sent file to find emails that you are waiting for a response.

I am struggling with how to file electronic documents.  Some of the documents live in email, some live in folder and some in the tasks in Outlook.  I end up checking all three places to find the most recent copy of a document.  Do you have any suggestions on the best way to handle this?

A great way to do this in Outlook is to insert a hyperlink of the file, not the actual file attachment.  From within a Task note field, select to attach a file. Then choose “Insert as Hyperlink.”

There are 3 components to consider with your projects:
1. Tracking the outcome on a Projects list(s) that serves as an master inventory of your Projects.  For example, “Complete 2010 Budget.”
2. Tracking the project support, future actions and reference for your projects.  For example, budget research you have been gathering, than you will use when working on the project.
3.  Tracking the next actions for the projects, on your context-sorted next action lists.  For example, “Call Jose in marketing for his dept. budget figures,” or “Book meeting to go over taxes.”

The key to your next action lists is that they only hold your next actions. So if you have a project that has 10 steps, but only 1 of those is a next action (meaning you have all of the information you need to take the action) then only that 1 would be organized on a next action list.  Many people will have some kind of keyword or enough in the description of the next action to tell them what project it relates to. And some programs (like the GTD Outlook Add-In or eProductivity for Lotus Notes) will link your next actions to your Projects automatically.  All 9 other actions that you cannot do yet are project support–until they become next actions.

Our latest newsletter, called Productive Living, has an essay and coaching tips by David Allen on projects.   There is also a free podcast on How to Organize Project Actions.  And, there are a wealth of resources on GTD Connect, our online learning center, about projects.