Steve was just at the recent GTD Global Summit and took the time post event to write to the David Allen Company to let them know how much he enjoyed the experience and to share this image of himself at work.

The brief note that accompanied the photo is also below.

Janet,
I really enjoyed talking with you at the summit.  I can’t believe how quickly the two days went by!  I hope you guys decide it was enough of a success to do it again.

Attached is the picture we talked about at the summit.  This is me, in an old Iraqi building, at my desk.  I have my Beretta M9 on my leg and a copy of GTD on my desk.  I was stationed at Balad Air Base which is about 30 minutes north of Baghdad.  GTD really helped me keep my head cool in a totally new environment that had more intensity and stress than I ever imagined.  Enjoy.

-Steve

“Making it All Work:  Winning at the Game of Work and the Business of Life” is that something. And I’m not just talking about the book, either.  David has worked for years to clarify, refine, broaden, deepen and in some ways complete the work he began with his original program of GTD.

For most people I suspect that the abbreviated Making it All Work presentation that David delivered today felt both familiar yet new at the same time.  That’s because it was.

I think that David retained much of the best of his original program but has fleshed out and added more material to those areas that people have occasionally said were not clear enough in the original.

Here are some basic outline notes from David’s slides for the presentation.  They are pretty much self explanatory.  The goal is to help you see more clearly what David means by each of the subcategories that he uses to define the various aspects of GTD.

They are as follows:

“If my brain had a brain I wouldn’t need a system.” – David Allen

Capture, Clarify, Organize, Reflect

This leads to having control and perspective

Control is simply cooperating with reality with conscious intent
Capturing
Clarifying
Organizing
Reflecting
Engaging

Perspective
Capture: write it down
Clarifying: what does this mean to me?
Organizing: put it where it goes
Reflecting: look through the whole
Engage: Do

Purpose/ Principles – 50,000  How: how do I want to operate as a human being?
Vision – 40,000 Feet  How do I see my self and my life
Goals – 30,000 Feet  What do I want to accomplish both long term and in the next two years?
Responsibilities – 20,000 Feet  What do I have to do
Projects – 10,000 Feet
Actions – Runway

System: build, fill, use

“You are here for a purpose.  You are either on purpose or you’re not.” David Allen

“Focus on what has your attention and you’ll find out what really has your attention.” – David Allen

This post rambles a bit as it’s a live blogging effort to cover the real key questions and associated answers that this group of accomplished entrepreneurs provided during an hour plus panel discussion about the trials and tribulations of starting your own company.

Topics included what personality characteristics should you have to thrive as an entrepreneur.  What are the most common mistakes that they see entrepreneurs making (or which they’ve made themselves).  They discussed their biggest fears and how they’ve overcome them and even why right now is actually a really good time to begin planning an entrepreneurial venture.

Panel Discussion

Peter Gallant: serial entrepreneur, Pathogen Detection Systems

Execution is the biggest risk facing start up companies.  The plan is usually not the problem. The execution is.  Knowing when to do what needs to be done.
Recommended reading “The War of Art”  it is very rare for entrepreneurs to really know what the milestones the must be achieved are. when they need to achieve those goals and how to forecast whether or not they are on track or behind or in real trouble.

He hasn’t met an entrepreneur that has a complete broad focus across all the horizons of focus

John de Souza, serial entrepreneur, founded the product that became Microsoft Messenger

Do you have the right temperment, the right skill set and is it the right timing.  Once you are an entrepreneur, it gets going, you’re excited about it and suddently…what’s next?  You need to get the company going and for this GTD can be extremely important.

How does being an entrepreneur impact your family?  What if you fail?  What if you have no money?

Buzz Bruggeman:  Active Words.  His belief is that computers should understand us.  Problem:  voice is not really a viable option.  Active Words lets people name things.  For example setting up the keystroke NT for directly navigation to New York Times.  ( also like Quicksilver)

Frode Odegard:  Founded several companies including one before he was 18.  What is the nature of a true entrepreneur:  restless by nature. potentially reckless, frequently fall into the “crazy maker” quadrant.

What’s important is that entrepreneurs tend to underestimate and possibly even feel resentful towards the needs to spend time simply thinking.

“If you don’t have a good framework to manage your commitments you will just drown”.

EDS: Entrepreneurial Dysfunction Syndrome

Buzz:  the single biggest problem for him is the weekly review.  Part of it is the issue of having the time to make an appointment with himself.

Once you’re an entrepreneur and you have built the product you are faced with two new problems:  Distribution and Adoption.
They’re talking to HP so Buzz emails every single person from HP that downloaded their application and he asks them for help

If you can’t handle rejection you should probably just work for a big company.

If there’s anything you wished you knew earlier

Buzz:

1.  The inventor should NOT be the CEO

2.  Take Smart Money of Just Money

3.  Use GTD to maintain sufficient discipline to keep wandering to a minimum

Frode

1.  Having the right revenue model.   Understanding what works in a given economy

Frode:  My biggest fear is relationships.  Can I trust these people?  What are their intentions

Buzz: Biggest Fear:  The serious maybe…

de Souza:  Hiring the wrong senior person.  As soon as you realize there’s a problem take action.

Gallant:  making a wrong effort from a time, talent or investment perspective

Odegard:  What’s your definition of success for an experience?

Gallant:   A call to action:  imagine that you’ve lost your job.  What sort of entrepreneurial venture would you start next?  This is a great time to be planning a start-up company.  There’s sufficient cash, it is simply that the VC’s are being especially cautious.

Buzz:  If I did not have a partner with a skill set he didn’t have they would have been dead.

These are in reverse chronological order so you can take a trip back in time from present moment to last night’s cocktail party or you can start at the bottom and work your way forward in time to see the event blossom in the way that it actually has.  Either way there are some wonderful pearls here as many of the tweets are actual quotes from the speakers presenting at the conference.

Tweets are here as a PDF:  twitters_eye_view_gtdsummit

I’m wearing several hats here so my coverage will be as real time as I can deliver it.  I’ll also try to get some coverage over on Qik if bandwidth allows.

Keynote:

David’s powerful initial remarks to put this event and GTD in context.  If you have never seen David speak you simply cannot imagine the incredible authenticity and integrity of this man.  I have attended literally hundreds of conferences and heard perhaps thousands of speakers yet he is by far the most genuine, transparent and honest speaker that I have ever had the good fortune to hear.

His opening remarks were testimony to this as one of the first things he mentioned was the fact that just before we did this conference he had to cut 40% of his workforce.  … He said that for this conference he wanted to look for the silver lining in this current crisis. To find that silver lining and learn how self improvement is even more essential in times of crisis…that’s the overarching theme for the summit.

Keynote Interview with Guy Kawasaki to Follow

If you want to get eProductivity at the best price ever and you want to go to the GTD Global Summit without having to pay the regular admission, you’d better move fast.  I wouldn’t be surprised if Eric has already given out all ten passes by the middle of the day today.

The GTD Summit is only three weeks away, can you really afford NOT to attend?  If you or your team are one of the many people that are suddenly being asked to do more with less, attending the GTD Global Summit might actually be one of the most important investments you could make.

The knowledge you can acquire from the world-class line up of experts on not only GTD, but also entrepreneurship, creativity, productivity in general, life hacking, military strategy, leadership, ethics and more will be far more enduring than any other use of funds we can imagine.

Nevertheless, we understand that for some people it simply isn’t possible to take two days off from your job, school, or family, while for others, the full price of the summit might simply be out of reach at this time.

Regardless of your reasons, the team at the David Allen Company is sensitive to your situation.  It should go without saying that David’s commitment to helping people achieve more, learn more and get more out of life goes far beyond any financial element and this attitude permeates the entire company.  It is for this reason that the team decided that unlike many conferences that are an all-or-nothing sort of affair, the GTD Global Summit will be different and will offer people the ability to attend just a single day of their choice if that is what someone wants to do.

Day passes are now available for each of the two days.  Pick one day or two.

Each day pass includes:
Autographed copy of David’s new book.
Exhibitor Expo
Coach’s Corner – your chance to sit down with a GTD coach one on one
Coach’s Theater – “how to” presentations from senior GTD facilitators
Breakout sessions with high impact presenters and moderators
All meals and beverages

The Best Part?

You will see and hear from some of the world’s leading minds on productivity, making change and adapting to our changing world. Intelligent conversations.  Compelling speakers. And more.

HOW TO REGISTER:
Pick the day pass that best suits your schedule.

Thursday, March 12th

Friday, March 13th

DAY ONE PASS – MARCH 12th

David Allen & Guy Kawasaki: Welcome & Keynote
James Fallows, Marshall Goldsmith and General Randy Fullhart
Breakout Session One
Self Management as Strategy: GTD and Leadership
Good Things Getting Done: GTD Serving Service
GTD at Home: From the Boardroom to the Living Room
Breakout Session Two
A GTD Workforce – Is There a New Industry Standard?
Innovation – Getting New Stuff Done.
GTD as Super Charger and Safety Net: Life Transitions and Transformations.
Breakout Session Three
Entrepreneurs and GTD – Making it up and Making it Happen
GTD and Education: Reading, Writing. Arithmetic and GTD
The Virtual Workplace – Does it Work?
Book Signing – David and other authors
Exhibitor Expo Wine and Cheese Reception.

Register here for your Thursday, March 12th Day Pass

DAY TWO PASS – MARCH 13th

David Allen presents “GTD Making It All Work”
Plenary Session – How the world works, and should we care?
Dave Logan
Ron Kaufman
Sanjiv Mirchandani
Michael Winston
David Allen
Breakout Session Four
Best Practices to Good Habits: Can I Make GTD Stick?
Your Brain on GTD: Why it Works
Productivity Tech: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Breakout Session Five
Critical Behaviors in the Crunch – GTD and Organizational Change
GTD and Sales. Customers and Relationships
Creativity and Clear Space – Inseparable, or Mutually Exclusive?
David Allen Final Remarks
Book Signing – David and other authors
Exhibitor Expo Wine and Cheese Reception.
Register here for your Friday, March 13th Day Pass

HOW TO REGISTER:

Pick the day that works best for you and register now. A limited number of day passes are available. See you there!

Day Pass for Thursday, March 12th

Day Pass for Friday, March 13th

Maj. Gen. Randal D. “Randy” Fullhart is Director, Global Reach Programs, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Washington, D.C. As the capability director, General Fullhart is responsible to the Air Force acquisition executive for airlift, air refueling, training and special operations programs.  You can read more of Major General Fullhart’s biography here.

Meeting Details:  Wednesday, Feb 18 from 1:30pm – 2:30pm in his office in Roslyn.

Upon arriving and going through security, I was escorted upstairs to his waiting area. The General walked out into the waiting area to greet me (as opposed to having his assistant usher me into his office…like a lot of high ranking officers and others in business, government, and academia do….this was a big deal to me..very cool and classy on his part)

As I entered his office, he was working at his conference table and had 50+ copies of GTD stacked on it. I loved it! He did too. He was excited for me to see them all. I took his picture with them all (see below) He was getting ready to teach a Leadership course. We had a instantaneous “connection”.

He opened by asking me how I got involved with DAC. I told him the story. We were right across from the Marriott Key Bridge where I first met David and Kathryn on Sept 30.  I shared with him the new outside sales initiative. He asked me about my target audience. I told him of the “three-legged stool”:  Government, Private Sector, and Associations. He loved it and concurred, and added, “I’m surprised you didn’t mention Colleges & Universities.” To which I told him of our pilot under way at Champlain and some of the discussions with Graduate Schools in Business. I told him David has it for now on his “Someday/Maybe” list. General Fullhart is very interested in this sector, and likely will want to talk with David about it in San Francisco.

He is really enthused about speaking at the Summit. He shared with me his outline for his eight minute address. Said he thinks now David has him leading off. “NO pressure”, he remarked laughingly. He said he is most anxious to meet Kathryn.

We then discussed our shared interest in Civil War history and Leadership development. We went back and forth on similar stories of Joshua Chamberlain, Robert E. Lee, and many others. He asked me to send him my “Leadership Lessons from the Civil War” podcasts and a copy of my powerpoint slides on Gettysburg.
He told me about his very close association with Frances Hezzelblein and her work on Leadership. He also likes The Goal   (by Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt) and The Effective Executive (by Peter Drucker) both mentioned in his “In Conversation” CD.

He also recommended  Leading in a World That’s Round  (by Robert Greenleaf) He spent 20 minutes drawing out his concept on paper and discussing his views on the new organization charts and communication in leading-edge organizations.

He has a giant ornamental sword on his desk. It must be 4-5 feet long and it is inscribed and engraved with scenes and sayings from Don Quixote. He is very proud of it. It is from his time at the National Security Agency. He offered to speak at some prospect organizations. I have followed up with him and he has already written me.

I am also attaching a Video of a recent interview he did on our local Defense Industry television channel three weeks ago.

Sincerely,

Philip

was visiting the Making it all Work seminar featuring David Allen in Amsterdam yesterday. The seminar was organized by the David Allen Company and Life Architect. It was my third time that I visited one of David Allen’s seminars. I also listen regularly to the audio version of the seminar. It was as usual a very good seminar, relaxed, focused and entertaining. It looks like it doesn’t cost him any energy. Because I know what it is to have to present in a different time zone, it is amazing how he does it. With humor but with great persuasion he tells his story about productivity. You can read elsewhere on Internet about the content of the seminar.

There are two things I want to write about in this post regarding the seminar. First, David demoed his own system with Lotus Notes with the eProductivity add-on from Eric Mack. He also showed his extensive use of MindManager. By doing this he showed first hand how it works in his own personal and professional life. I must say this was quite powerful. It resembled much of how I have set up my own system in Evernote.

If you haven’t been to a seminar that is personally lead by David Allen you are missing an experience that at a minimum is an exceptional learning opportunity and for many people is literally transformational.  Of course for a truly transformational experience you should consider attending the GTD Global Summit which is taking place in San Francisco March 11th-13th of this year.

In addition to David Allen, Guy Kawasaki will be delivering a keynote and there will be presentations by other notable GTD’ers, entrepreneurs, and experts on everything from technology to entrepreneurship.  You’ll also have the chance to meet and mingle with a couple hundred other like minded people from companies both big and small.  Already, the summit has registrations for individuals from companies like Meade, Xerox, UPS, Federal Express (those last two probably know a few things about how to get things done, eh?) and many more.

Latest word is that for people registering in groups of 2 or more there’s a sliding scale of discounts that can be quite significant, especially for groups of 5 plus.  If you’ve got a couple of friends that you think could benefit from a few days of intensive GTD therapy, this is a great chance to get them on board and at a serious reduction from the standard price for the event.

David Allen has long been aware of this association and it has been an underlying premise of all of his work even that which predates his first book; “Getting Things Done: the art of stress free productivity”.

As the economic crises becomes deeper and as it cuts across an even broader swath of the global community, corporate leaders are becoming more and more acutely aware of the fact that people simply have to do more with fewer resources, at the same time they understand that putting more pressure on already pressured people might make things worse, not better.

Some of the savviest managers realize that the only way around this inherent conflict of getting people to do more with less while at the same time not applying pressure is to do what less savvy individuals find unthinkable in a recession.  Invest in training.  They have learned – and studies such as the one below bear this out – that investments in training can make the difference between getting more out of a calm, controlled and productive employee and one that is going crazy and making those around him crazy as a result.

One event where you can get training of this sort for your employees and for yourself is the upcoming GTD Global Summit the 11th-13th of March at the Hotel Intercontinental in San Francisco.     You can find more details by clicking the link above.

Relief for Government Workers: Easing Information Overload Will Uncover
Cost Savings, Relieve Stress

NORWALK, Conn., Feb., 19, 2009 – More efficient management of the
increasing influx of information may be an untapped opportunity for
government and education cost savings, according to a new survey of the
U.S. public sector conducted jointly by Xerox Corporation (NYSE: XRX)
and Harris Interactive.

Findings indicated that 58 percent of surveyed U.S. government and
education workers said they spend nearly half of their average workday
filing, deleting or sorting paper or digital information.  According to
Basex, a knowledge economy research firm, this amounts to at least $31
billion spent managing information each year by local, state and federal
governments.

“Government agencies are being asked to maintain the same level of
service to constituents while staring at severely slashed budgets,” said
Jonathan Spira, chief analyst of Basex.  “Tackling the information
overload problem is a good place to start recapturing some of those
costs.”

Other responses from the survey suggest taking steps to ease information
overload will help speed up work processes, reduce employee stress and
ultimately save time and money for government and education agencies.
Of the workers surveyed:

*                 57 percent say not finding the right information for their jobs
is more frustrating than being stuck in a traffic jam
*                 38 percent said they have had to redo reports or other work
*                 24 percent said they have used the wrong information
*                 23 percent missed deadlines as a result of inefficient
management
*                 37 percent strongly to somewhat agree that their organizations
are drowning in paper
*                 50 percent strongly to somewhat agree that their organization’s
business processes are paper-based
*                 45 percent felt increased stress and anxiety about their work

“Information overload is creating huge challenges for knowledge workers
in both the public and private sectors,” said Greg Jones, senior vice
president of Public Service Operations, Xerox Corporation.  “With the
current economic pressures, it is critical for businesses to address the
gaps in their work processes and implement smarter strategies that
deliver results.”

Businesses in both the public and private sector have uncovered
significant cost savings by working with Xerox to streamline information
management.

*                 The Oklahoma Employment Security Commission boosted productivity
by up to 35 percent after implementing a paperless claims process using
Xerox DocuShare(r), a web-based content management software solution.
Instead of manually storing and retrieving employment, insurance and tax
data, workers now instantly access a database of more than two million
files.
*                 Penn State’s Multimedia and Print Center, inundated with
requests to print, duplicate and distribute volumes of paperwork, used
Xerox digital presses and production printers, and a Web portal
storefront, to streamline its operations – improving the bottom line by
50 percent.
*                 The Wilkes Barre School District in Pennsylvania simplified the
student registration process with Xerox DocuShare, reducing time spent
from two weeks per child to just 30 minutes.

Moving into the digital age
The survey, which polled government and education workers across the
U.S., revealed that workers see paper as a facilitator of information
overload and are looking to technology to help manage it.  When
considering a technology investment to bring them into the digital age,
almost half (42 percent) ranked improved efficiency as the number one
priority for doing so.  For those surveyed that have started the digital
migration, 63 percent somewhat to strongly disagree that their
organization is completely digital, leaving room for improvement down
the line.

After launching the “sharing” era with the first xerographic copier 70
years ago, Xerox now helps customers navigate the flood of information.
The company has kept pace with innovations that help clear the path
between paper and digital content, cut through the clutter and make
information relevant again.  For more on information overload, visit:
http://www.infooverload.com; for information about Xerox, visit:

http://www.xerox.com.

Survey Methodology
This Information Overload Survey was conducted online within the U.S. by
Harris Interactive on behalf of Xerox between October 13 and October 30,
2008 among 316 full time employees working in education or government
industries.  All respondents are employed full time with 25 percent
holding C-level titles and 85 percent sharing in the decisions for
document management technology at their organization.  Results are not
weighted.

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability
sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often
not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage
error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question
wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments.
Therefore, Harris Interactive avoids the words “margin of error” as they
are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible
sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted,
random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical
because no published polls come close to this ideal.

Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have
agreed to participate in Harris Interactive surveys. Because the sample
is based on those who agreed to be invited to participate in the Harris
Interactive online research panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling
error can be calculated.

About Harris Interactive
Harris Interactive is a global leader in custom market research. With a
long and rich history in multimodal research, powered by our science and
technology, we assist clients in achieving business results. Harris
Interactive serves clients globally through our North American, European
and Asian offices and a network of independent market research firms.
For more information, please visit http://www.harrisinteractive.com/.

-XXX-

Media Contacts:
Michael Moeller, Xerox Corporation, +1-203-849-2469,
Michael.Moeller@Xerox.com

Elissa Nesbitt, Xerox Corporation, +1-585-423-3591,
Elissa.Nesbitt@Xerox.com

Note: For more information on Xerox, visit
http://www.xerox.com/innovation  or http://www.infooverload.com.   For
open commentary and industry perspectives, visit
http://www.xerox.com/blogs or http://www.xerox.com/podcasts.

Xerox(r), DocuShare(r), the Xerox wordmark and the spherical connection
symbol are trademarks of Xerox Corporation in the United States and/or
other countries.

Robert was very impressed and had nothing but good things to say about the experience and the fact that in spite of his working for Microsoft for ages, his coach taught him a thing or two about Outlook that he didn’t know.

Anyway, head on over to Scobleizer.com and check it out!

No more!  iamplify a company with the world’s largest selection of downloadable audios and videos has partnered with the David Allen Company to put the GTD Weekly Review, GTD Live, David Allen’s Full 2 Day Seminar, and In Conversation with David Allen into the convenient (and instantly yours) format of MP3.  Now you can easily take your GTD recordings with you wherever you go and the price is lower than the same products on physical media so it’s a win all the way around.

More recordings are sure to come so if you’re a fan of MP3′s be sure to check back with iamplify to see what new titles they add next.  This product will also be available in the DavidCo GTD Store in a few weeks.

So if you are interested in what David has to say – or as Twitter says – “what David is doing” you should make it a point to go to Twitter and follow GTDGuy aka David Allen.

If the survey is to be believed — and there’s no reason why it should not — then there’s never been a better time to institute GTD either was an individual or within your company…

Based upon the study, 30% of CFOs felt that increasing productivity was their top challenge, followed by boosting profitability (20% of respondents).  1400 CFOs working for firms with at least 20 emplooyees from across the country were queried in telephone interviews to generate the results.

They were asked:  “Which one of the following was the greatest challenge you faced in your first 100 days in your current position?” Their responses:

Increasing productivity
30%
Increasing profitability
20%
Personnel decisions, such as hiring or staff reductions
13%
Building rapport with new staff
13%
Building rapport with your CEO
8%
None
9%
Other/don’t know
7%

100%
From the original article:

“New financial managers need to make an immediate impact,” said Paul McDonald, executive director of Robert Half Management Resources. “In today’s economy, especially, executives may have less time to prove themselves and are expected to demonstrate tangible results.”
McDonald noted that while just 13 percent of CFOs cited building rapport with staff as their top priority, managers should not overlook this critical step. “A creative and motivated team is essential to enhanced productivity. Corporate leaders need to connect with their employees and understand what motivates them to perform at their highest levels.”
About the Survey
The national study was developed by Robert Half Management Resources. It was conducted by an independent research firm and is based on more than 1,400 telephone interviews with CFOs from a random sample of U.S. companies with 20 or more employees. For the study to be statistically representative and ensure that companies from all segments are represented, the sample was stratified by geographic region and number of employees. The results were then weighted to reflect the proper proportion of employees within each region.
About Robert Half Management Resources
Robert Half Management Resources has more than 150 locations worldwide and offers online job search services at www.roberthalfmr.com.

I’m in Ojai today and at the moment I should be over at the Ojai Valley Inn participating in the David Allen Company’s annual retreat.  I really should be over there, but last night I had a discussion with a GTD coach that resulted in a major shift in my understanding of GTD.

I’ve been thinking about this all night and this morning while I was getting ready to head over to the conference my thoughts clarified into a post.  I’ve been writing long enough to know that when that happens I should just sit down and pound on the keyboard or I risk losing my best thoughts as other things in my world start to interfere with my focus and ultimately kludge up what I want to write.

Originally I had planned on writing an introductory post about a new contributor to GTDtimes, Meg Edwards.  Meg is a long time GTD practitioner and one of the most experienced GTD coaches working with DAC.  For a variety of reasons that I will get into when I do her formal introduction, Meg typically ends up coaching the problem cases.  Or as she puts it “the people who are stuck”.

According to Meg, what often happens is that people who get stuck have some issue or other that interfers with their ability to focus correctly on some part of the GTD process.  For example, people with ADHD or those that have difficulty dealing with sequential processing.

David Allen, Meg says, basically assumes that people reading “Getting Things Done” (or “MIAW”), have pretty much normal executive function.  However if they don’t…well, they end up getting some help from Meg if they’re lucky.

Now I don’t have too much trouble with executive function- usually.  Those of you that have read my other posts may recall that I tend to be late so I can “self-medicate” with adrenaline by driving like a bat out of hell – I don’t do this intentionally, but the brain is a tricky and manipulative creature – sometimes I wonder who’s running the show in my case – me or my brain.  Does that make sense?

Anyway, I was talking to Meg about the fact that I have started feeling sort of numb to my lists lately.  I’ve been using Things for almost a year now and I realized that I am starting to develop an aversion to even clicking on the icon to check what needs to be done each day.  Then, after several days go by I open Things and have to tick off a dozen or more items that I’ve completed (or realize in horror that I missed something important).

Obviously this is not a terribly GTD way to go about things and worse, for me it means that I have fallen back into my old habit of remembering everything (or almost everything since I’m still pretending like my trusted system is capturing everything which of course it can’t possibly be since I’m not opening it every day, right?)

Mark would be kicking my butt if he were around.  This is not the black belt approach to GTD he followed.  It isn’t even a brown belt approach.  In fact, it’s more like a grey belt approach – you know, the sort of gray color that comes when you wash something white with a new pair of blue jeans??  This is hardly the color belt that the editor of GTDtimes ought to be wearing, is it? But I digress…

At any rate, I was explaining this to Meg and she was asking me some questions about what is going on in my world and in particular she asked me what I do when I have a task that I don’t particularly care for.  Needless to say she wasn’t surprised to hear me explain that there are certain things that I detest doing so much that it practically takes an act of God (or one very pissed off female) to get me to get on with the getting done.

Shortly thereafter we started talking about another topic and didn’t really close the loop on this discussion.  When we were walking out to the parking lot however I showed her one of my lasers (I’m the biggest nerd).  This lead to my showing her video that I’ve taken of something that I believe may actually represent a somewhat significant scientific discovery that I may have made (this is a long story in and of itself, but if you want to see the footage you can find it here.
).

Meg was intrigued and after talking about this for a few minutes she asked me what my next action was.  I explained that I was waiting to hear back from one of several microbiologists that I had written to in an effort to get confirmation.

Meg then asked me what my ultimate goal was with this project.  “It’s not really a project I said; I’ve been playing around with this for years before I did GTD.”

“Do you know what your desired outcome looks like?” Meg asked me.

I told her I did and explained what my goals were.  she asked me why I didn’t have a project for this and why it wasn’t anywhere within my lists including my long-term horizons of focus.

I tried to explain again that this was just a hobby and that…

You can see where this is going right?  Of course this should be listed.  It should have concrete next actions, it should have an ultimate final step to allow me to close the loop and if I am not really working on it seriously then I should park it in “Someday, Maybe”.  What I shouldn’t do is spend thousands of hours a year on this “hobby” without stating my objective and having a systematic approach to  getting to that point.

I tried once more to tell Meg that I didn’t have this as part of my trusted system because I just worked on this stuff for fun.

This was the “ah ha!” moment.  “Fun?” she said.  “Yes”, I explained. ” I do this for fun so I don’t need to put it in my system.”

Meg said to me “is everything in your trusted system something that you don’t want to do but know you have to do?”

“Of course” I said.  That’s how I stay on top of that stuff and make sure that I can keep myself on track.  There are some things I hate doing so much that in order to make myself do them I have to promise myself little rewards in order to get them completed.

“No wonder you are going numb to your trusted system”, Meg explained.  “Anyone would if everything in there was a hateful task that you have to force yourself to do it.  Why don’t you put things you like to do in your system?

I didn’t have an answer to this last question.  I should have one.  I would have liked to have had one.  I told Meg that I needed to go back to my hotel and digest.

End result?  After digesting all night – <burp> – I have come to a conclusion.  Mind you I still  don’t have an answer to the confounding question of the night prior but I have a solution just the same.  I can avoid having to answer that particular question by making one simple change.

I need some new lists.  Lists that include things I actually want to do not only things that I have to do.  You know, I’m supposed to be pretty intelligent but sometimes I wonder what gave me (or anyone) that idea.  Has anyone else failed to incorporate things that they like doing into their GTD lists?  Or am I uniquely incompetent in this particular regard.  Well, someone has to be the “dumbest wolf”*, I guess today it’s me – but I’ll bet you didn’t have an epiphany today, did you?  You’ve got to take the bad with the good.  It’s just the way of the world.

*the “Dumbest Wolf” is a reference to a story I used to tell about contextually relevant intelligence.  Basically what it means is that if any one of us were suddenly turned into a wolf (a-la- King Arthur), in spite of the fact that our human intelligence is far greater than that of a wolf in our own domain- even this huge intellectual advantage isn’t sufficient to overcome the handicap of lacking the domain specific knowledge and expertise required to be a functional wolf.  Thus, in spite of all our brain power, in the context of being a wolf, every sing one of us would be the dumbest wolf – and most likely the first one shot, trapped, hurt, or killed by the pack for being so stupid that we were too much of a liability.

Whenever I start to think I’m so smart I take a deep breath and remind myself that but for the grace of whatever divine power exists in the cosmos I could be the dumbest wolf or something even worse.

Well known for their incredibly successful “At A Glance” products, Meade is introducing a number of items including note-taker wallets, GTD Coordinators, tickler files, in baskets and more.  In total there are 13 new products that have been developed by the partnership.

Distribution of these new items will be via the David Allen Company online store as well as select Staples locations nationwide.  For more information about specific products please visit either on www.ataglance.com/GTD or www.davidco.com.

The full press release can be found here.

Eric Mack, eProductivity creator

If you’re attending LotusSphere be sure to attend the two sessions being presented by David Allen and Eric Mack.

The first session, Best Practices Session, BP304:
“IBM Lotus Notes and Me: Maximizing Personal Productivity with Lotus Notes” will take place at 5:00 PM on January 19, at the Swan Hotel (SW 7-10). Due to the top down approach employed by most corporations in conjunction with Lotus Notes, many users see Notes as a “company” tool and not “their” tool. When tools become “personal,” productivity increases and when personal productivity increases so does the productivity of the work group and the organization. This session will show both expert and novice Notes users how they can use Notes coupled with proven best practices to make them
immediately more productive.

The second session: Birds of a feather session, BOF408: “Getting Things Done with IBM Lotus Notes” will take place at 7:00 AM on January 20, at the Swan Hotel (SW Mockingbird 1-2)

Here’s the Abstract:
This session will explore ways to make using Lotus Notes more productive by making it “personal.” This interactive discussion will bring together expert and novice Lotus Notes users to share how they are using Notes for personal action and information management.

About David Allen
David Allen is widely recognized as the world’s leading expert on personal and
organizational productivity. His twenty-five-year pioneering research and coaching to
corporate managers and CEOs of some of America’s most prestigious corporations and
institutions has earned him Forbes’ recognition as one of the top five executive coaches
in the world and Business 2.0 magazine’s inclusion in their list of the “50 Who Matter
Now.” Fast Company Magazine has also called David “one of the world’s most
influential thinkers” in the arena of personal productivity.

David is the international bestselling author of Making It All Work: Winning at the Game
of Work and the Business of Life, Getting Things Done: the Art of Stress-Free
Productivity, and Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Work and Life. He is
also the engineer of GTD, the popular Getting Things Done methodology that has
shown millions how to transform a fast-paced, overwhelming, over committed life into
one that is balanced, integrated, relaxed, and has more successful outcomes.

For additional information about David Allen and GTD, please visit www.DavidCo.com

About Eric Mack
Eric Mack is the founder and president of ICA.COM, Inc. (ICA), a professional
consulting organization, based in California, USA. In 2007, Eric celebrated 25 years in
business as an technologist, software developer, public speaker, and productivity
consultant. He has provided expert consulting services to more than 350 corporate and
government clients, most notably in the area of information, communication, and action
management. An articulate speaker, Eric has also shared his technological insights with
more than 10,000 people around the world through his eProductivity coaching and
seminars. Eric has been a featured speaker at the Office 2.0 and KMWORLD
conferences and was the keynote and featured presenter for the Beyond Planning
Conference in Manila, Philippines.

Eric is also the creator of eProductivity™, a GTD® implementation solution for Lotus
Notes that is both used and recommended by David Allen.

For additional information about Eric Mack or ICA, please visit www.ICA.com

In a mammoth post Venkat relays how a day that starts off terribly and only manages to get worse is made not merely manageable, but actually successful by virtue of his GTD habits.  What’s more he manages to gracefully articulate exactly why GTD proved invaluable in the trying circumstances he describes and even more surprisingly he seamlessly weaves in an insightful review of David’s new book, Making It All Work, and even puts it in context alongside David’s first book, Getting Things Done.

Although only an overachiever like Venkatesh would consider an epic like the one he’s penned a mere blog post, it is absolutely worth the ten or fifteen minutes it will take you to read and digest his post.  Not only is it time well spent because of the information it contains and the inspiration it will provide but also for the powerful examples he delivers in what was a very personal blow by blow of a day that he artfully shows us was saved by David Allen and a pair of swim trunks.

Editor’s Note:  Venkatesh has previously contributed to GTDtimes.  You can find his other post here.

Here’s the current schedule of dates, times and locations but be sure to double check here to be sure that none of the information has been updated.

Please note that the Chicago event also includes a question and answer session.  This event is open to the general public however a ticket must be purchased in order to attend.  Business Casual attire is also required for the Chicago event. To reserve a seat please contact the Book Stall at: 847-446-8880

Los Angeles, CA
Tuesday, January 6
VROMAN’S – in store signing 7:00 PM
695 E Colorado Blvd.
Pasadena, CA 91101

Philadelphia, PA
Thursday, January 8
Philadelphia Free Library – 7:30 PM
Talk and Signing
1901 Vine St
Philadelphia, PA 19103

Chicago, IL
Friday, January 9
University Club of Chicago – 12:15 PM
76 East Monroe Street, Chicago
Question and Answer and Book Signing Co-hosted  with book sales by The Book Stall. This is a ticketed event ($25/head) for non-members to reserve space by calling the Book Stall in advance. UCC dress code applies: (business casual, no denim or athletic gear; collared shirts required for men.)

Seattle, WA
Monday, January 12
Legends and Leaders Lunch – 12:00 PM
Lunch, Talk, Moderated Q&A and Book Signing
Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce
Grand Hyatt, Seattle, Grand Princessa Ballroom
Seattle, WA

University Bookstore – 7:00 PM
4326 University Way NE
Seattle, WA 98105

San Francisco, CA
Wednesday, January 14
CNET/BNET HQ – 3:00 PM
Post Interview Signing
235 2nd St
San Francisco, CA

(Sorry, just learned that the signing above is not one that is open to the public.  Please check back for updated information in case this should change)

Commonwealth Club – 6:00 PM
Talk and Signing
Business and Leadership Forum
595 Market Street
San Francisco, CA

Dallas, TX
Thursday, January 15
University of Texas at Dallas – 6:30 PM
Book Signing
Graduate School of Management
Davidson Auditorium
Plano, TX

“Making it All Work” does not disappoint him.  The review is the most comprehensive I’ve seen to date and provides an excellent summary of what to expect from reading the book completely.  What Trent does that you might find especially useful is to help place “Making It All Work” in context – both in the  broader sense – which includes explaining how it fits alongside Getting Things Done, but also on a section by section basis by walking us through a good portion of what we can expect to gain by reading the book.

This is not the type of review that leaves you wondering if the author actually read the book he’s reviewing and then just did the most cursory analysis – it is patently obvious that Trent not only read “Making it All Work“, but has taken real time to consider what it means and how to employ that advice in his own life.

If you really want to know what “Making it All Work” is about and more importantly want to know what to expect from reading it this review is the best place you could possibly hope to start.  In addition, Trent’s site in general is a wealth of information on personal finance and provides some excellent advice and tools for getting your personal finances under control and getting out from under any debt you might have.  During these trying times, we can all benefit from being both more productive as well as more frugal – TheSimpleDollar can help you to do both.

Mark Walsh of Integration Journal

Mark Walsh who writes the Integration Journal authored a great post on GTD last week.  I just came across it today and wanted to share it with you.  This post might be especially interesting for you if you know that you need to change something to get a handle on your commitments but  aren’t certain if GTD is the solution for you.

One such company, Costco, has a publication that they send to almost six million small business owners.  It is having a house list such as this that makes Costco one of the most successful businesses of its kind in the history of the world.

Thus, it is a tremendous honor for everyone involved with David Allen and the David Allen Company that David is featured on the cover of this month’s Costco Connection as well as in a multi-page article on the inside. It’s free so be sure to check it out!

Here’s the abstract for the session:

Session abstract People often talk about Lotus Notes being an “organizational” productivity tool; that’s the way Lotus Notes is marketed and it’s often the way organizations deploy it – as a top down solution. Seldom do you hear about Lotus Notes being used for “personal” productivity or knowledge management. As a consequence many users see Notes as a “company” tool and not “their” tool. When tools become “personal,” productivity increases and when personal productivity increases so does the productivity of the workgroup and the organization. This session will show both expert and novice Notes users how they can use Notes coupled with proven best practices to make them immediately more productive.

Registration begins at 9AM and the event runs from 9:30 to 12:30.  Here is your chance to get a preview of David’s new “Making It All Work” seminar, the next generation of his popular RoadMap training.

If you want some keys for staying in the driver’s seat in the unfamiliar territory of this economy,  need to get a better handle on everything or just wish to ensure you begin the coming year with a fresh start, then this event is for you.

This special program is also the kick off for David’s new marketing campaign for 2009. Our goal for this campaign is be to reach a broader audience with the GTD message, and we are hope you will help spread the word..

In preparation for the campaign, we will be filming this event so that we can capture testimonials and some really great visual footage.  Please come dressed in business casual attire.

Registration is free: simply click here!

Seats are limited, so be sure to  sign up now to guarantee yourself a spot.

I been doing the GTD for the last 6 months and this has changed my day completely in a way that I’m more proactive, organized, and I have full control of work time due to the way that I manage my time through the GTD process.

This is an idea that I want to share with you all.  I do a lot of projects and it was not easy to keep track of every step that a project has as a different task.  What I do now is to write down all the steps in the body of the task and as I go to each task I mark the preceeding one “DONE”.   I change the subject, I type the new step # and change the due date and or category. Any thing new I’ll add it to the body and that way I keep track of the complete project in one task.

I shared this with the management team GTD meeting in our Division in Orlando and they like it. Hope you like it too, thanks.