Watch this informal and insightful interview with David Allen, inventor of the Getting Things Done methodology. It was recorded at the SANG Conference in 2012. Hear David candidly talk about why people need GTD, simple steps to get started, why we procrastinate, and more.

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

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Earned Attention, by Klaas Weima, is an interactive handbook for social communication in the digital age. David Allen contributed his thoughts on how to make this “digital cocktail party” work for you.

There you are. Staring at your screen. Your smartphone in your hand, laptop in front of you and a pile of papers on your desk. All ‘to do’. As quickly and as accurately as possible. David Allen can help.

David Allen is well known for his simplicity. With a few simple rules you can change your behaviour and get a grip on your overloaded inbox. Allen prevents you from drowning in the flood of messages.

This interview covers the following topics:
1. How do you keep more than one million Twitter followers happy?
2. The simplicity and logic of the GTD methodology.
3. Besides practical also spiritual tips.
4. Why you should see your smartphone as a bucket.
5. In five steps from unrest to overview.

The interview is available here. (May take a couple of minutes to download.) And click the Play button below for an overview of Earned Attention.

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David Allen’s interview with Dose of Leadership is now available as a free podcast.

Highlights from this Podcast:

• David gives an overview of the Getting Things Done (GTD) Process and how you can get started today.
• GTD is less about organization and more about “Freeing space in the mind”.
• Leaders at every level need to free up bandwidth to maximize their leadership potential.
• David discusses his famous “Mind Like Water” concept.

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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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Hi Folks,

It’s natural to want to create a system for priority coding (like “A, B, C” or the flagging feature that’s showing up in a lot of software programs) to tell you the most important things to do. But it’s a short-term insurance policy that won’t give you the trust you need when the time comes to take action.

All the best,

DAVID’S FOOD FOR THOUGHT

LEAPING FROM HOPE TO TRUST

Every decision we make about what action to take at any point in time is an intuitive risk. I have twenty minutes before my next meeting—should I call Bob, work on chapter eight, or go get Susan’s opinion on the new software?

The over-simplicity of “A, B, C” or “high, medium, low” priorities or daily to-do lists can never really answer that question sufficiently for any of us. No matter how organized we get, how squeaky-clean our systems and our processes are, or how current our strategic and tactical planning is, we have to ultimately trust our hunches about the best thing for us to do at 10:43am or 3:22pm today. It’s true that we can utilize those prioritizing frameworks to good advantage, from time to time, to help us focus constructively. But to the degree they potentially limit our options unnecessarily and constrict spontaneous, creative thinking that is dynamic to the moment, they do us a disservice.

This excerpt is from the most recent issue of David’s “Productive Living” newsletter. 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.

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In my experience, the greatest successes don’t come from grandiose scenarios of good intentions engendered by temporarily pumped-up motivation. Rather, the most lasting and significant positive effects result from small things, done consistently, in strategic places.—David Allen

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David Allen talks about your GTD tools, and how important they are.

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

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This excerpt is from a recent issue of David Allen’s “Productive Living” newsletter. It’s free and sent about every 4 weeks. You’ll find essays from David, thought-provoking quotes, and productivity tips you can use every day.

Hi Folks,

Is it possible to still be productive when you feel like you are drowning in a culture of interruptions? You bet. But, the strategies won’t come from traditional time-management approaches. My Food For Thought this month shares my approach to interruptions and how to effectively manage them versus how to just tolerate them.

All the best,

DAVID’S FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Curing Interruptitis

I often get this question/pushback as I’m teaching: “All this personal productivity methodology sounds fine and good, but what about all those interruptions that plague me during my day?”

There are plenty of traditional “time-management” suggestions about dealing with “time wasters.” But I’d rather not waste time dealing with time wasters. For most of the people I interact with, the standard tips are either self-evident and in play, or impossible.

So I don’t spend a lot of time on time management tips. Not that they don’t have value—many of them do. But there are a billion exceptions to the rules. I have a more radical suggestion. Two actually.

1. Keep the inventory of everything you have to do current, complete, effectively organized, regularly reviewed, and instantly retrievable at a moment’s notice, while maintaining regular thinking about the projects and bigger things that you really want to accomplish. Then you can much more confidently and maturely differentiate between inappropriate disturbances and unexpected opportunities or useful interactions as they show up.

2. Get your act together about how easily and quickly you can take in any input, store it safely, and effortlessly glide back to whatever you were or now need to be doing, without having to process or complete it in that moment, knowing it will get handled at a better time.

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Trust yourself to do what you really feel like doing, and what you feel like doing will change. Don’t, and it will plague you.—David Allen

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David Allen shares tips for staying productive when you travel. He talks about preparing for travel, maximizing your productivity in those windows of weird time, keeping it together on the road, cool tools, and surviving reentry. This is a recording from a public event David did last year.

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

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