Question: How can we apply the GTD principles in our lives, where we are often burdened by stress and other pressures of a hyper-competitive world?

David Allen’s answer: The opportunities to apply the key principles of GTD are both immediate and infinite. We live in a continual flow of making and renegotiating our agreements with ourselves and others — whatever it is that we think we might want to do or experience that we haven’t yet. This can range from a poem we feel like writing, to a company we want to start, to a walk we want to take, to the feeling we should clean up our old emails. The point is not to finish everything, but to be constructively engaged with our process of creating and completing.

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Question: Any advice on how to “make myself” (or entice myself to) sit down and do the things that are less easy to do given my bias toward creation v. completion?

David Allen’s answer: Read Charles Duhigg’s book, The Power of Habit, about habit change. Build in the simple but potentially keystone habit of doing the hardest/most-resisted thing first, especially early in the day when you still have decision-making muscle. Look forward to the easier and more fun and interesting stuff you’ll do the rest of the day as reward.

Review your higher-level commitments to yourself, and ask yourself if you’re on track with them. If you are, then who cares whether you’re creating or completing.

Build a simple habit of finishing something (anything, little or big) before you do your “create” thing.

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Our friends at Think Visual developed this cool visual harvest of a recent GTD Weekly Review webinar. It really captures the creative fun you can have while getting your weekly review productivity boost.

Click on Start Prezi in the center of the screen.  When it starts in a couple seconds, you can advance the slides manually by clicking on the arrow, or choose Autoplay from the lower-right. You’ll see it zoom into each step, and you may still want to click the full screen option.  Enjoy!

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Epipheo.TV talked with David Allen about how to hack through your to-do list and free up your mind to focus on what’s most important to you. It’s a very short, very fun video.

(This video is streaming from YouTube, so it may take a few seconds to load.)

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Hi Folks,

Is there anything in your world you need to declare “done” but haven’t yet?

I’ll take a deeper look at completing the past to prepare for the future in a public webinar I’m doing in January on Creating Wild Success in 2013. We’d love to have you join us online for that.

Until then, my essay this month should give you some good direction about going back to those things you need to unhook from and how to be complete with that.

All the best,

DAVID’S FOOD FOR THOUGHT

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO STOP DOING?

We’ve got to learn to declare things DONE. Especially when they’re not. Not completed, that is, to the level of perfection or result that we initially visualized or committed to.

The world changes, and our creative focus along with it. So do our standards. We will always maintain some inventory or backlog of projects to complete, of things to do. But if we’re not careful and take responsibility for unhooking from those that have outlived their seat on our active list, they can easily constipate our creative process. [Read more →]

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GOOD RIDDANCE

It’s time to purge.

The end of a year and start of the new is a great metaphorical event to use to enhance a critical aspect of your constructive creativity—get rid of everything that you can.

Your psyche has a certain quota of open loops and incompletions that it can tolerate, and it will unconsciously block the engagement with new material if it has reached its limit. Release some memory.

Want more business? Get rid of all the old energy in the business you’ve done. Are there any open loops left with any of your clients? Any agreements or disagreements that have not been completed or resolved? Any agendas and communications that need to be expressed? Clean the slate.

Want more clothes? Go through your closets and storage areas and cart to your local donation center everything that you haven’t worn in the last 24 months. And anything that doesn’t feel or look just right when you wear it.

Want to be freer to go where you want to, when you want to, with new transportation? Clean out your glove compartments and trunks of your cars. And for heaven’s sake, get those little things fixed that have been bugging you.

Do you want more wealth? Unhook from the investments and resources that have been nagging at you to change. (And give more than usual do to someone or something that inspires you to do so.)

Do you want to feel more useful? Hand off anything that you are under-utilizing to someone who can employ it better.

Want some new visions for your life and work? Clean up and organize your boxes of old photographs. Want to know what to do with your life when you grow up? Start by cleaning the center drawer of your desk.

You will have to do all this anyway, sometime. Right now don’t worry about the new. It’s coming toward you at lightning speed, no matter what. Just get the decks clear so you’re really ready to rock ‘n’ roll.

—David Allen

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Autumn is one of the four most likely seasons for procrastination to show up.  If you’re curious about why bright people like Gwendolyn procrastinate the most, have a look at chapter 12 of David Allen’s Getting Things Done.

Used with permission from Debbie Ridpath Ohi at Inkygirl.com.

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The GTD Natural Planning Model is a great way to plan any project.  A key step in the model, after deciding on the purpose and sucessful outcome, is to do some brainstorming. Here’s a key for successful brainstorming: Have lots of ideas! How? By encouraging everyone to present their ideas without censoring. Sometimes the apparently bad ideas need to get expressed to clear the way for the obviously good ideas. In the brainstorming phase, do your best to encourage complete expression, be open, non-judgmental, and resist critical analysis. Don’t worry—an idea that really doesn’t fit will get sorted out in the organizing and next action phases. And who knows? The idea that doesn’t fit for this project may be just what is needed for another project.

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In the Job Market section of the New York Times, you’ll find an interesting article on the value of working with paper. David Allen weighs in on how he uses paper, in addition to doing his writing on a computer.

In Defense of the Power of Paper

By PHYLLIS KORKKI
Published: September 8, 2012

Paper, says the productivity expert David Allen, is “in your face.” Its physical presence can be a goad to completing tasks, whereas computer files can easily be hidden and thus forgotten, he said. Some of his clients are returning to paper planners for this very reason, he added.

Mr. Allen, the author of Getting Things Done, does much of his writing on a computer, but there are still times when writing with a fountain pen on a notepad “allows me to get my head in the right place,” he said.

Read the complete article here.

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The Creativity of Getting Things Done – Part One
by Wayne Pepper

GTD for creatives? While many of our enthusiasts love the systematic approach of GTD, we’re seeing more and more creative types embracing Getting Things Done, including musicians, comedians, and television writers. This article (written in two parts) will address two ideas. The first is that being “creative” is no excuse for not doing GTD, and the second is about using GTD within the creative process itself.

First let’s define creativity. Creativity can be thought of as “art” and that certainly can be a valid and true definition, but perhaps one that’s too narrow for our purposes. Let’s define creativity more broadly. Let’s think of creativity as any effort where we are bringing our creative energy, thinking, or forces to bear. That could be starting a new company, brainstorming a solution to a management problem, organizing a launch party, envisioning a branding approach, creating ad copy, or designing a new video game—and everything in between. [Read more →]

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