Oliver Starr served as editor and primary contributor to GTD Times from its launch, through early 2009. You can now reach him through his personal blog, through Twitter as “Stitchy”, or by email at oliver at owstarr dot com.
Oliver Starr served as editor and primary contributor to GTD Times from its launch, through early 2009. You can now reach him through his personal blog, through Twitter as “Stitchy”, or by email at oliver at owstarr dot com.
I had an email today from someone I know and respect a great deal. Someone that’s both an ardent believer in GTD and a personal fan of David Allen and the David Allen Company. She also happens to live in the bay area and yet she chose not to attend the GTD Global Summit even though she certainly could have afforded to do so had she wished to.
Her email explained why. She said that as she looked at the roster of speakers that were listed for the event it concerned her, upset her and ultimately turned her stomach. Strong words to be sure. Her problem?
The paucity of women in the line up. And the truth is she is right. If there was one thing about the GTD Global Summit that wasn’t perfect it was the women were seriously underrepresented on stage.
Now I know David Allen and sexist is not a word that comes to mind when I think of the man. In fact he’s as far from sexist as I can imagine. What’s more, his wife, Kathryn, a dynamic and powerful women, plays a huge role in David’s success and that of his company and I seriously doubt that she’d tolerate any such behavior from a spouse or an employee.
So if it isn’t that women were intentionally excluded from being invited to speak, and if there wasn’t some not-so-obvious reason why women were underrepresented at the event in general, than that begs the question; what gives?
Do women not get GTD? Is GTD somehow biased towards a male audience? Is it that women are so busy actually getting stuff done that they can’t be bothered to read a book about it? Is there some secret good-ol’-boys-club handshake that is taking place that keeps women from feeling like they can participate in the GTD world?
I honestly don’t know. I do know that I have no bias against women and that I have an equally accepting policy when it comes to submissions from both men and women, yet here at GTD times, a quick look at the list of contributors shows a similar trend; far too few women.
My friend who wrote the email that drew my attention back to this specific topic (it was actually mentioned at the Summit, incidentally) says that she plans to author a post on this topic herself soon. I hope she does and you can bet I’ll post it. I would love her opinion as to what is happening within the GTD world that turns women off.
If anyone reading this has thoughts on the topic, please comment. This is a serious subject and deserves some thoughtful responses from the community.
Getting back into the swing of things post the Summit I thought I would share a few recent discoveries that I’ve made that you might find very useful.
First off, a new search engine: Cuil. Pronounced “cool”, you might be wondering what’s so important about a new search engine? Isn’t Google good enough? Well, let me put it to you like this: Cuil is the first search engine that’s struck fear into the heart of “the Goog”.
Why? Mainly because Cuil is run by two former Googlers, Anna Patterson and Russell Power, the duo responsible for Tera-Google, Google’s large search index, a couple of other brilliant search architects, Tom Costello, from IBM and Bruce Baumgart from IBM’s Almaden Lab and Xerox Parc.
Also, because Cuil has managed to index 120 billion web pages to date (3 times more than google) and has managed to do so using a third the number of servers (I’ve been given this information from an authoritative inside source).
But still, why is Cuil useful for users? In their own words:
Cuil provides organized and relevant results based on Web page content analysis. The search engine goes beyond today’s search techniques of link analysis and traffic ranking to analyze the context of each page and the concepts behind each query. It then organizes similar search results into groups and sorts them by category.
Cuil gives users a richer display of results and offers organizing features, such as tabs to clarify subjects, images to identify topics and search refining suggestions to help guide users to the results they seek.
To learn more about Cuil’s features and see how they can help you find more relevant search results please check out their features page. One final thing about Cuil that I think you’ll like - because their method of identifying relevant content is based upon what’s on a page they have no need to capture your search history or even identify you in any way. This means no cookies, no saved searches and no privacy concerns. Check it out!
Second on my list is a new site based upon an age-old idea- sometimes we have stuff that we probably can’t sell but which is also likely to be worth more to someone else than it is to us. In the event this second party also has something that they want less than you do, perhaps you can arrange a trade. This is what SwapCove is all about.
Simply list the things you’d like to swap if the right offer came along or dive into the site and look for something you’d like to trade for. There are no rankings, no points, no fees either. The site is simple and well designed and, because they just launched, the founders are quick to implement ideas suggested by users.
If you’re like most of us, cash is one thing that’s in short supply lately. It’s nice to know that there are other ways to score something cool and clear up that buck-sucking storage unit at the same time.
Finally - and this is something I just discovered today: The Credit Info Center. This site is a treasure trove of information about credit. From how to clean it up to your rights when a collector calls. As you probably already know banks today are about as edgy as long tailed cats in a room full of rocking chairs and the surest way to get them to treat you poorly is to have any blemishes on your credit.
The information on the Credit Info Center’s pages can help you keep your credit report pristine - or to clean it up if you’ve had some troubles in the past.
I found the information concerning the statute of limitations for collecting judgments to be useful as well as the information about how long different kinds of contracts are considered enforcable in your state.
This is a site that defintely bears bookmarking as it has resources that could be handy now, or which could be equally helpful a few months down the road.
Do you have your own useful tools you’d like to share? Please share them in the comments!
If a picture is worth a thousand words, this one basically says it all. What could better illustrate the value of GTD than someone like Steve Pugh, pictured below, on duty in Iraq with a copy of “Getting Things Done” at his fingertips.
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
With all the recent attention that GTD has been receiving, especially since the incredible GTD Global Summit that just concluded, you might find yourself being asked to explain the “How To” of GTD to a curious colleague, friend or even spouse.
Unless you are David Allen himself, you might find yourself struggling to eloquently distill the practice of GTD down to a short and memorable set of concepts and equally simple and equally memorable steps that a novice can understand and even implement in short order to take those first few steps towards a lifetime of improved productivity, reduced stress, and the confidence that you are doing what you are best served to be doing at any given time.
It figures that someone whose title is “Editor in Chief” of a company called Goose Educational Media would be the one to do such an extrordinary job at creating such a document. Thankfully for the rest of us, Chris Taylor not only took the time to write this resource he has generously put it online where anyone can take advantage of it any time they like.
Beyond this truly excellent summary the Goose Educational Media site is a truly amazing resource. Founded upon the idea that sharing knowledge distilled from the top books about productivity, management, decision making and other disciplines can have a profound impact upon an individual’s effectiveness, Chris Taylor and a team he describes as a phenomenal team of dedicated individuals have created a resource that is intended to give an individual the tools and the resources to change his or her life, and thereby the power to change the world.
It is a selfless effort that can benefit each and every one of us. I urge you to take a look at the Golden Eggs of GTD and then to dig a bit deeper. The site has a tremendous amount to offer and such a gift should not be overlooked, especially in these difficult times where every one of us can be well served to find ways in which we can each improve ourselves.
For many people this is the session they came to see. After years of reading, re-reading, listening to, watching and discussing “Getting Things Done: the art of stress-free productivity” people, especially the majority of the people at the Summit who are serious about practicing GTD - are ready for something new from David.
“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
