“Yes, but not the way most people seem to understand goal setting. In my experience, the real value of defining desired futures is not so much in the world they describe, but the change in perception the process of setting goals fosters.”

DAVID’S FOOD FOR THOUGHT

THE VALUE OF GOALS

What we focus on changes what we notice. Our brain filters information, seeing one thing in a situation instead of something else, based on what we identify with, what we have our attention on, what we’re looking for—more or less consciously.

The reason for long-term goals is the permission they give us to identify with the greatest value we can so it changes our filtered perceptions. The future never shows up (have you noticed?—it’s always today!). But playing with it as a working blueprint can be a remarkably useful tool to see things (and how to do and have them) that you never saw before.

Subscribe to Productive Living. It’s free and sent about every 4 weeks. You’ll find essays from David Allen, thought-provoking quotes, and productivity tips you can use every day.

I want something more than that, though.

I don’t want to have to “recover” from Christmas. I don’t want to start the new year eight pounds heavier. I don’t want my children focused only on the electronic gadgets they hope Santa brings. But everything I don’t want will probably become my reality–unless I take the initiative to implement what I do want.

David Allen’s Natural Planning Model seriously saves my sanity on everything from birthday party planning to creating new programs for my website, so this year, I decided to use the five steps of the Natural Planning Model to create a Christmas experience that is both magical and meaningful.

Step One: Defining Purpose and Principles

For this part, I sat down with my children and gave them the following prompts:

• What’s the purpose of this season?
• What do you want this Christmas to feel like for our family?
• Please finish this sentence: “I would be happy with any Christmas celebration, as long as . . .”

Then I took good notes, and the beauty of their responses continues to amaze me.

Step Two: Outcome Visioning

We did this part on a separate day with an informal breakfast discussion, which basically took our ideas from Step One to a deeper level.

My 11-year-old was the scribe:

We agreed that we want to be well-rested, reasonably-paced, and organized throughout the holiday, and we’re going to continue exercising and eating well so we’ll be in better health by the time the tree comes down.　

We’re all going to be happy with our Christmas gifts–even if we don’t get the “big” stuff that all the kids at school are talking about. We’ll purchase and wrap our presents by the first week of December, shop together for a beautiful tree that will be trimmed with homemade decorations, and focus the majority of our activities and expenses on making others happy.

Just typing these things out gets me so excited about the holiday season. Certainly, there will be days that won’t go as planned (probably most days), and some of us will be whiny or emotional while others will be frustrated or exhausted, but that’s just life. We can still aim high, can’t we?

On to Step Three: Brainstorming

This step is my favorite because it gives us a place to write all the ideas we’ve been cooking up over the past few months.　

We looked carefully at our notes from the first two steps and then gathered as a family one evening to brainstorm around seven areas of focus. Here they are:

• Activities and Outings
• Helping Others
• Uplifting Media
• Christmas Cards
• Gifts
• Meaningful Traditions
• Healthy Food

Then my daughter added an eighth area called, “Unhealthy food.” (She needed a place to include the gingerbread house.)

Photo courtesy of Shawni Pothier

Seeing our areas of focus as clusters on one page helps us to realize that the “all-consuming” holiday planning really is finite. We can create boundaries around our time, we can control our expenditures, and we can make sure our energy is spent on what’s most important.　

In many areas, there’s a clear overlap. Can’t we create meaningful traditions that help others? Can’t healthy Christmas goodies and beautiful music be part of our Christmas-gift giving? Looking at the big picture clarifies everything.

Step Four: Organizing

This part initially feels hard. How am I going to take all these brainstorms and make them manageable?

Simply jump in.

I wrote out all the components and sub-components on little slips of paper.

Then I moved them around and organized them according to priority and sequence.

Here are my three sub-clusters: things to do this week, things to do before December 1st, and things to do in early December.

I noticed that four of these slips contained two-minute tasks, so I quickly accomplished those and then moved onto the next step.

Step Five: Identifying Next Actions

As I was getting all my ideas out onto Post-it Notes, I realized that some things I wrote down were projects, while others were tasks.　

I created a list of Current Christmas Projects,

and then I created two Next Actions Lists: one for immediate Next Actions–things to accomplish within the next week, and one for important Next Actions–things to accomplish as soon as it’s convenient.

Then I simply put these sheets into my inbox to organize during my next Weekly Review.

I’ll create calendar triggers for the Christmas plans that mean the most to me, and then I’ll just do my best with the rest, knowing that ultimately, spontaneous events might replace those I’ve planned, some of these projects might not seem as important three weeks from now, and what really matters is how this holiday feels.

Your family’s Christmas planning will likely be much different than ours. There’s no one “right” way to do this, but I hope that this exercise using the Natural Planning Model will help you to create a wonderful Christmas for you and the ones you love.

April Perry is the mother of four children and Co-Director of The Power of Moms.

Does your company plan things correctly? Or are meetings unproductive due to poor planning? We continue our Leadership Hall of Fame series . . .

How Bad Plans And “Good Ideas” Ruin Meetings

BY David AllenTue Nov 1, 2011

When the “Good Idea” Is a Bad Idea

Have you ever hear a well-intentioned manager start a meeting with the question, “OK, so who’s got a good idea about this?”

What is the assumption here? Before any evaluation of what’s a “good idea” can be trusted, the purpose must be clear, the vision must be well defined, and all the relevant data must have been collected (brainstormed) and analyzed (organized). “What’s a good idea?” is a good question, but only when you’re about 80 percent of the way through your thinking! Starting there would probably blow anyone’s creative mental fuses. 

You can read the complete article here.

Here’s a great reminder of how helpful GTD is for any project, personal or professional.

Our team at the David Allen Company is planning a baby shower for  a co-worker.  We met today to do the following:

1. Brainstorm and mind map the project
2. Decide on next actions
3. Assign people to the identified next actions
4. Decide when to loop around again for further planning

Here was our simple mind map that helped clarify the tasks:

Our 20-minute meeting allowed everyone to move forward on this fun project with their own clearly-defined tasks.

GTD can help integrate your professional and personal life. Simple, easy, and fun planning — that’s a “GTD” baby shower!

When: Thursday, August 25, 11am-12pm Pacific Time

Who: Hosted by GTD Connect–the online learning center for the David Allen Company

How: Login to gtdconnect.com to pre-register. Free for all GTD Connect members and current guest pass members.

Some people need silence to be productive. Some people need music. Some people need an extreme amount of light. Some people don’t need anything specific. Some people don’t need anything at all.

To anyone who falls into one “some” category, they are not likely to fall into another. There’s a subjective nature to working environments. The same goes for distractions.

For example, I can actually watch certain television shows in the background as I write. Now, it depends on what I’m working on, but generally when I’m creating content I can have the TV on and have it actually spur me on as opposed to distract me. I know well enough which shows these are (I’m looking at you professional wrestling), so I don’t put on shows that demand my exclusive attention. I also don’t try to work on stuff that demands the same kind of attention from me when I’m watching wrestlers defend championships either.

As I write this, I’m listening to music — music that has lyrics. I know a lot of people listen to instrumental music if they are going to have any on at all, but I can work either way. I also work fine with silence…but I generally save that for when everyone is asleep (before 8am and after 10pm), and that’s when I can get the “heavy lifting” done.

Distractions come in all shapes and sizes.  They can vary, depending on where you are and what you’re doing. Time of day has an impact on what you can not only do, but what you can take in. I find that the morning is my “set up” time for the day, so I like it mellow at first before I kick it into high gear. When I do kick it into that gear, I find that my musical selections tend to kick up a notch as well, both in terms of genre and volume. Depending on how my day goes, I find that the occasional distraction is warranted.

What are the things that distract me no matter what time of day it is? Email and social media sites are the usual culprits. But I’ve learned that the reward of getting stuff done is more valuable than reacting to stuff not done yet  (email), or hearing about what others are doing (social media). That’s not to say I don’t check in every once in a while, I have just decided that it will be only “once in a while” as opposed to “several times a day.”

If you’re not able to be productive (a la GTD), one of the things you need to do is a Distraction Check. If you find that silence isn’t helping you, try playing some music. If instrumental music doesn’t work, try some with lyrics. Maybe put on the television in the background while you work on low impact action items to see if you slow down at all. Change up your atmosphere. Mix it up.

Keep in mind that the more you discover what distracts you and what you can work with or around, the better equipped you’ll be to perform in different circumstances and environments.  This knowledge can also serve to “childproof” your working habits, as I’ve learned from personal experience.

David Allen received this email from a student:

Most of the time I feel like I’m wasting my time, and would rather be doing something else. I always feel I ought to organize, so I make a nice, tight schedule. But after a couple of days it’s gone, and I’m back at the beginning.

If I had to describe the last 10 years of my life in a sentence I would say: “I woke up every morning to row in yet another direction.”

I have read your book and tried to apply roughly your technique. I have to admit that it works to some extent, but it did not bring the radical change in my life that I expected.

David replied:
Thank you for reaching out with your email. I empathize with your situation — I’ve been there myself many times in my earlier life.

The best thing to do is to ask yourself, “What do I really want to be experiencing in my life?” And then, when you have that short list in front of you, ask yourself, “What is the most immediate thing I could commit to, that would start to move me in the direction of getting those experiences?”

You may find that the experiences will show up sooner than you think!

I hope that may be of some help to you. And you have my best wishes.

David Allen’s answer: Regarding defining existence and personal fulfillment, I’d put that more in the category of 50,000-ft thinking (in the GTD Horizons of Focus) or standards. It could be phrased something like, “continually exploring and expanding the fulfillment of my destiny on the planet.” That’s not something you ever finish (unless it is). But operationally it’s a standard to hold re: your internal focus, and then potentially the visions, goals, objectives, projects and actions that emerge as commitments for you in the process of “exploring and expanding…”

If you’re doing and being the best you can be, in the moment, given all you know and sense and the context and limitations within which you find yourself, you’re probably not being bothered by your issue, but rather enjoying it. If you’re not, your standard about that will probably be bugging you to do what you need to do, to get back in that saddle. Might be work harder, work less, finish the phone call, take out the garbage, hold some nice thoughts, or whatever…

Account and $ numbers- credit card #s, PIN #s, etc. (make sure wherever you keep these, it is safe and secure.)
Affirmations- personal self-talk scripts for positive internal programming.
Basic personal numbers (self and family members)- drivers license, social security, insurance policies, Whatever you may need for yourself and others when filling out forms. (Again, make sure wherever you keep these, it is safe and secure.)
Birthdays- (if you don’t put them on your digital calendar system), group by date, as reviewable (those during a month, put in tickler for that month, etc.)
Borrowed stuff- things you’ve loaned folks and might care to get back someday.
Checklists- Travel, Take sailing…, Personal New Habits to Create, etc.
Gifts- organized by people and/or a general list of neat things to buy for others. Great for birthdays, ad-hoc niceness, and holidays.
Ideas I don’t know what to do with, now that I’ve had them…- we all have them, and they don’t fit anywhere except in an “they don’t fit anywhere” place.
Jokes- the current ones that you’d like to get some more mileage out of (but damn! they disappear out of our brain so fast.)
Might wanna buy…- could be one mega-list, or (more commonly) grouped by the type of thing it is: cds, wines, books, videos.
Might wanna do when…- possibilities when you’re in a certain location or doing a certain activity. By city, country, or region (things to do/think about when I’m in Napa Valley, London, Santiago.) Or by activity (Web surfing places to visit.)
Might wanna do with…- if you’re into any animate or inanimate objects: my kids, my spouse, my dogs, my piano, my woodcarving tools, my garden, my computer.
Previous addresses and employers- keep at least your last three. (What a pain when you have to supply them and you don’t have them!)
Quotes- quotes I’d like to see again from time to time.
Restaurants- for business or pleasure, to review for ideas instead of same-old same-old.
Style or product numbers I may need when I’m buying things- oil filter, vacuum cleaner bags, labeler cassettes, etc.
Tips/Shortcuts- speed-key codes, shortcut codes for new systems (voicemail, answering machine, pager, software apps, new Palm III, etc.) Any new skill set you’re learning can have a remind-me-about list specific to its features and activities until they are habitual and under your belt.
Vacation things to do- those things that you might like to do if you are into seriously doing nothing (take pictures, hike, hotels to stay in for a night, spa treatments, places to explore, etc.)

Coach Julie Ireland weighs in:

I tend to rebel against too much structure/planning. At the same time I do need a certain amount of structure, otherwise my creative energy gets drained from the uncertainty of not being clear about what my commitments are. The beauty of GTD lies in putting enough time and energy into what we call “defining our work and responsibilities”, so that when we have discretionary time we can choose very consciously and purposely to work off of our pre-defined lists, or in my case go and play in my art studio. There is real power in making that choice as the most appropriate thing for me to do, vs. attempting to work in my studio because I’m either avoiding my responsibilities or simply haven’t defined them clearly enough.

As a GTD evangelist myself, last March I was fortunate to attend the GTD Summit in San Francisco. This was a first-ever event hosted by David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, and his company, David Allen Company. It was a networking event which brought together all of the best and brightest GTD practicers from literally around the world. It was at the GTD Summit that I met Ken Case – the President of the Omni Group.  Being a Technology Director at a school district in Maine and a GTD evangelist, I encouraged him to consider donating OmniFocus to the MLTI program as a first step in exposing the educational community within Maine to the benefits of the GTD system.  Read more–>

TheBrain also just launched a new hosting service for PersonalBrain users called WebBrain, with a great example about GTD.

Some people got a sneak preview of it at the GTD Summit in March, and a few bootleg copies of it are floating around the Internet.  We’re getting dozens of emails a day now from GTD’ers hungry for this new piece of the GTD story.  We are pleased to announce that the new GTD Workflow Map will be officially available in the DavidCo store next month.  This new $49 product will include:

• A full-color 20″x30″ (51x76cm) poster
• A full-color 11″x17″ (28x43cm) poster
• An in-depth DVD of David Allen giving a guided tour of the Map

We will announce its release on GTD Times and in our free Productive Living newsletter (formerly known as Productivity Principles and GTD Tips & Special Offers.)  Sign up for Productive Living and you will also receive the fascinating case study being completed by xplane on the production of the map.

Dear David Allen,

I discovered GTD about a year ago while listening to “The Sound of Young America” podcast interview of Merlin Mann. Jesse Thorne asked Merlin to produce his “Hipster PDA” and Merlin complied. I was intrigued, did the research, and bought Getting Things Done shortly thereafter. Since that time, I’ve been tweeking my GTD system.

My Ubiquitous Capture Device is a pocket-sized Moleskine Cahier notebook with a few index cards stuck in the pocket. Pictured on my Flickr account are photos of my set up at work. I like to think of my desk as a GTD cockpit.

The basic building block is my homemade 3×5 Context Card with a large check box to follow my progress and a series of check boxes to denote into which context the Next Action falls. I keep a template on my computer and print cards periodically to make sure I’m never without one. I also use the Project Planner and the Agenda cards from the DIY hPDA designed by Douglas Johnson. I took the PDF of those cards to a printing store and had a ton made shortly after I began GTD. I think I may have a three-year supply.

At my desk, I have three areas to organize my cards: a bill organizer that I use for a tickler file which I check each morning, bins for each context to keep my Context Cards sorted for easy access, and card bleachers from Levenger which I use to display my Agenda Cards. The bins are made out of plastic index card boxes cut into a “mini-Inbox”. They are labeled: @Computer, @Email, @Work, @Office, @Calls, Waiting, Inbox, and Reference.

I keep Agenda Cards for co-workers, committees, and meetings. When I need to call someone or know I’ll be around his/her office, I’ll grab the Agenda Card with their name on it and go. For on-the-go list management, I repurposed a Readbles brand pocket folio. I used post-it tabs to label the pockets, all of which are the same as the bins in my office except I replaced “Reference” with “Home.” If I need access to any of these Next Actions while I’m away from the office, I can store them in my folio. On the inside cover, I keep an icon key for my Next Actions that I found on the internet. I’d like to give credit to the person who originated the icons, but I can’t find the link again.

For all other paper stuff, I have a cubby hole set on my desk comprised of an Inbox, Pending, Home, Read/Review, Financial Filing portions. The Pending File holds reference materials that pertain to meetings listed on my Agenda Cards or referenced in my Tickler File.

I use both an electronic calendar and a paper calendar. I “sync” the two at the end of the day. I use Outlook for digital reminders. It also syncs with my iPod Touch. Right now, I’m using a Moleskine Cahier a la Mike Rhode for my paper calendar, but only until I can use my Moleskine 18-month Red Twin Planner.

I keep my Active Projects and Someday/Maybe lists in a binder with tabs deliniating Project Planner pages to collect ideas related to each. This comes in most handy when I’m at the end of my Next Actions lists and/or during the Weekly Review. I use pocket-sized Moleskine notebooks for meeting notes which I include in my Weekly Review. I use a post-it flag to mark the last reviewed page.

I’m looking for new ideas and ways to streamline without adding or eliminating too much. Each component of my workspace has a particular size and location for a particular purpose. It works well for me for now. I look forward to hearing your feedback and seeing what others post as well!

Here are photos of my setup.

Sincerely,

Sam Mauck
Jackson, TN
Profession: Associate Dean of Students and Director of Career Development

If you would like to share your GTD system, please send your story and photos to us. We’d love to see how you’ve made the GTD approach work for you.

I am always running experiments with my kids (queue the evil scientist laugh!).  I would love to share these experiments or test new things (experiments, gear) to help start the GTD thinking at an earlier age.

Here is a recent post I wrote on one of my experiments.  It resonated with several GTD moms and dads at the GTD Summit.

I am also experimenting with home design, backpack gear, homework routines, school routines and home routines to build systems that enable the GTD systemic approach.

Read more about Mike’s experiment>>

We’ve all heard the benefits of taking naps or practicing meditation during your workday can result in one being more productive. We’ve also heard how these things aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive – sometimes (often by accident) they go hand in hand. However, depending on your work environment these suggestions may not be applicable…or even possible.

I’m certain that many employers wouldn’t take it too kindly  if you were seen napping – break or otherwise – on site. That may not be fair, but welcome to life.  I also know that achieving a meditative state can be difficult, unless you work in a church, monastery or perhaps a library. What I would suggest to replace napping and/or meditation is that you look back to your youth, back when you were in grade school. Remember what it was like to have recess.

I had two short recesses and one long recess each day, the latter being sandwiched between the two (amongst classes, of course). The shorter ones were fifteen minutes long and they allowed for quick escapes into the outdoors and away from the rigors of schoolwork. We played foot hockey (only needing a tennis ball and a “borrowed” piece of chalk from the classroom to mark the goal posts at either end of the blacktop), role played our favorite television shows of the era (ours was V, and I generally played as Ham Tyler – Michael Ironside is the Canadian Clint Eastwood) or simply read a Choose Your Own Adventure book. No matter what we did, recess gave us a chance to recharge – and often that is the best way to get refocused.

Fast forward to today. We’re given (or giving ourselves) very little time to take breaks and recharge. Many of us eat lunch at our desks while working, while some don’t rest at all. The old saying “no rest for the wicked” may apply here, but I think it applies to the habit as opposed to the individual. In grade school we used to get a long recess that would accommodate both our lunch break and “mind break.” If you calculate the combined forces of both the short recesses and the long one, that’s an hour of recharging right there. Some of us barely get thirty minutes to eat in our daily routine. It’s amazing how our past recess has become today’s “regress.”

It even started as we moved along the educational chain.

As we moved from grade school into high school, short recesses became abandoned for a simple long lunch hour. This is when skipping class became a popular hobby for most students, myself included. Intense study began to replace interaction between studying. No more foot hockey (unless you happened to go to a school where they had a varsity team – highly unlikely), no more role playing (unless you were in the Dramatic Arts or spending time in the school psychologist’s office) and the only choosing you did during breaks was what you were going to major in.
Then came college or university. This is when the places you went to learn were described as “institutions.” Some made it through, some dropped out and some are still there – or go back because there’s always more to learn. There’s nothing wrong with learning and challenging yourself to be the best you can be. But even the best need breaks to reflect, recharge and refocus. Even Michael Jordan got a break between quarters (and a larger one between halves).

You see, recess equals progress.

We need to take breaks, and we need to take them often. I can’t say how many or how long you may need to take, but you need to take them. I don’t think anyone could – or should – try to absorb something that is vital in a short amount of time. David Allen has suggested that even if you “get” GTD after reading the book, you should read it again. And again. And again some more.

So I’ll leave you with the following “choices.” Now that you’ve absorbed the idea of reintroducing recess into your life, do you:

a) Increase the amount of work you do to offset the recesses you’re now going to take? If so, go to #1.

b) Dismiss this article as mere fantasy and continue on as usual? If so, go to #2.

c) Start your first recess right away? If so, go to #3.

Your adventure has been chosen…

1) You find it impossible to balance more stuff and your co-workers find you weeks later buried amongst papers in your inbox.

2) I’m surprised you took the time to read this. Think about that.

3) You bring the tennis ball; I’ve still got the chalk.

“Simply type in your ideas. Drag and drop files and web pages. Any idea can be linked to anything else. Using your digital Brain is like cruising through a Web of your thinking. See new relationships. Discover connections. Go from the big picture of everything to a specific detail in seconds.”

Wednesday, June 3rd, 11am Pacific Time. Register for free.

In his regular column on GTD Connect, David shared about how this came to be:

“The associate editor, Ben Hammersley, became a big GTD fan when he wrote about it for The Guardian; and he now wanted to include my thinking in with the new publication’s intended focus on “life going forward.” Ben’s enthusiasm to make it “the best combination of New Yorker, the Atlantic, and the Economist, with an edge” was infectious, and I think a perfect venue for a more sophisticated spin of GTD-ness. Having scanned the first two issues, I’d say Ben’s on track.”

We believe GTD enhances creativity.  Some of the most creative, intelligent people are drawn to GTD because they see what’s beyond the lists.  Lists are a means to an outcome.  Consider that the spirit of GTD is about finding and using the most energy-efficient, effective, and least stressful ways of getting things done. That means:

• Capturing anything and everything that has your attention
• Defining actionable things discretely into outcomes and concrete next steps
• Organizing reminders and information in the most streamlined way, in appropriate categories, based on how and when you need to access them
• Keeping current and “on your game” with appropriately frequent reviews of the six horizons of your commitments (purpose, vision, goals, areas of focus, projects, and actions)
• So that you can focus clearly, view your world from optimal angles and make trusted choices about what to do (and not do) at any moment.

In our experience, we’ve seen as many ways to work this approach as there are people working it.  If you follow David Allen on Twitter, he recently mentioned a client (well-known creative artist in Hollywood) who felt the most creative way to “do” GTD would be on 3×5 index cards.   Musician Evan Taubenfeld recently did a wonderful podcast with David for our GTD Connect members where he credits GTD with helping him to be more creative in his songwriting process.

Michael Bungay Stanier has done a wonderful series with David on Connect called Creative Questioning, as well as a new one available on Michael’s website.

As we often say, GTD is an approach, not a system.  Dive deeper and you may find that GTD is actually one of the best things you can do to tap into your creativity.