DAVID ALLEN
Bestselling author and inventor of
Getting Things Done

Click on the link below to find free articles and diagrams on getting email under control, reference filling, organizing your workspace, time management, and more. You can select from individual articles, or select a zip file to download all at once.

Free GTD articles and handouts.

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This is from a recent issue of the “Productive Living” newsletter.

Hi Folks,

The major complaint about our Getting Things Done methodology is not that it doesn’t work or that the principles aren’t sound—it’s that people don’t work the system. I’ve learned that many times the problem is not lack of motivation or discipline, but instead some rather mundane and practical behaviors that can be easily changed to make things work much better. I’ve identified three in this essay. If you do a quality check on your own system and where you notice you have cracks and stress fractures, it could likely include at least one of them.

All the best,

DAVID’S FOOD FOR THOUGHT

THREE COMMON REASONS WHY PEOPLE FLOUNDER

There are three common reasons why most people seem to flounder with their personal workflow. At least part of their systems lack one or more of three essential variables: consistent, current, and contextually available. This was reaffirmed for me in a coaching session I did with a senior executive. Here’s what showed up: [Read more →]

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“People often remark to me that “GTD does take a lot of discipline!” Actually, it doesn’t, any more than taking showers and brushing your teeth require discipline, once the initial unfamiliarity has been overcome. How long does it take to get there? As long as it takes. You’ll be another day older tomorrow, no matter what. So just keep returning, when you stray. Write things down. Decide outcomes and actions. Organize and review them. And you’ll feel more and more uncomfortable when you don’t.”
–David Allen

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David Allen has announced a partnership with SMCOV to expand the GTD productivity coaching internationally.

International Expansion

Productivity Expert and Author of Getting Things Done, David Allen Goes Global with SMCOV

David Allen, the pioneer of the modern productivity movement and the author of the seminal business book Getting Things Done, announced today a partnership with SMCOV that will help the David Allen Company bring his productivity coaching to an international audience. Founded by co-CEO’s Stephan Mardyks and David Covey, SMCOV is a leader in global training distribution.

Through the partnership, SMCOV will distribute Allen’s world-class Intellectual Property (IP) based on his international bestseller, Getting Things Done, to the global business community. GTD® is the product of 30 years of studying productivity, and training millions of people to achieve greater performance in their daily lives. Allen’s philosophies, which have been wildly popular among the business and technology industries in the U.S., give people the tools to help alleviate the feeling of overwhelm, instilling focus and clarity while providing for a system of stress-free productivity.

The full press release is posted here.

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Hi Folks,

The elegance of productivity doesn’t just come from handling your “important” projects and actions, but also includes the rigor of managing the mundane and less important ones. Problem is, most people think they should consistently ignore the mundane and focus on only the important ones. There are limited times and contexts, though, in which you can do that effectively. For the most part, you have limited space or brainpower to tackle The Big Things. The trick is to know how to use the rest of your day, when your brain may be fried and your time constrained. You might find that handling the little stuff will help the other priorities along wonderfully.

All the best,

This excerpt is from a 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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“Priorities are determined from the top down—i.e., your purpose and values will drive your vision of the purpose being fulfilled, which will create goals and objectives, which will frame areas of focus and responsibility. All of those will generate projects, which will require actions to get them done.”

—David Allen, Making It All Work, Appendix vii, Horizons of Focus

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David Allen did a live Q&A with Fast Company today.  Click here to see the questions that were submitted, along with David’s answers.  From runway to projects to goals, there are plenty of examples of how people like you are applying GTD in their lives.

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David Allen will be doing a live Q&A with Fast Company.

GTD! Q&A With “Getting Things Done” Author David Allen Live

Join Fast Company as we chat with the popular productivity expert.

Join Fast Company on Tuesday, November 20th at 3pm ET for a live Q&A with David Allen, author of Getting Things Done.

Click here at 3pm ET on November 20th.

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Question: How do you keep from taking the “easy way out” of answering calls and responding to emails etc., to avoid the high-level work?

David Allen’s answer: It’s usually because of lack of sufficient reason to be doing the thing or lack of a sense of control in the initial engagement—physically, mentally, or emotionally. If the life of someone dear to you was dependent on you finishing the writing project in the next 24 hours (an outcome meaningful enough, I would guess), I think you’d find yourself breaking through some resistances to get that done.

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