USA Today has an article in their Money Quick Tips section, on how to Make Telecommuting Work for You.

The article points out that ten percent of workers work at home for some or all of their time on the job, so it’s important to make that home office a productive environment.  Expect to be distracted, by things like these:

1. Children and family wanting attention.

2. Children, family, pets disturbing work telephone calls.

3. Difficulties accessing office equipment.

You can make your telecommuting more productive by having clear agreements with family members about whether it’s okay to interrupt you when you’re working at home. Ask for as much IT support as your employer will provide, including remote access to files. And be sure to set boundaries on how much time you’ll spend working, if you find you tend to work more hours just because the line between home and work has been blurred.

How has telecommuting affected your productivity?

And if you’re not telecommuting, how much of your job could you do remotely, if your employer supported that option?

2 Comments »

The Power of Moms has a very useful post on how to methodically get your house organized. There’s even a handy PDF download.

A Seven-Step Plan to Organize the House

by April Perry on Jan 8, 2013

I want my home to be a simple, functional, happy environment that enables every family member to thrive.

But if I want it to get there–and stay there, I have to have a plan.

Over the past 12 years, with 9 moves, 4 children, and a bustling schedule (like yours, I’m sure) I’ve refined my home-simplification process down to seven steps that work every single time.

Many aspects of this process are based on David Allen’s best-setter, Getting Things Done (a wonderful book you must read).  Corporate executives worldwide live and breathe this kind of training, and now we’re going to have a great time applying it to our homes.

Read the full post here.

1 Comment »

One of our younger fans describes how he uses GTD to make amazing things happen.

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

2 Comments »

If you are a parent, teacher, or child care provider, you’ve probably wondered how you can inspire kids and teens to use the GTD methods. Maybe you have helped a kid work on a project the night before it’s due, and recognized that the Natural Planning Model would have made the whole thing easier. Or you’ve listened to a teen who’s trying to balance classwork with extracurricular activities, and known that the Horizons of Focus would clarify the situation.

How do you go about communicating the benefits of GTD to kids and teens? Here are some resources for you.

David Allen did a free podcast entitled Describing GTD to Teens that’s a great starting point.

You can also use your free trial membership in GTD Connect to view these additional webinars and listen to podcasts.

David Allen Company CEO Mike Williams and Senior Coach Meg Edwards have just started a new podcast series on GTD Connect called “GTD for Caring Adults and Young People,” that focuses on taking that GTD journey with kids. The first episode talks about family projects.  More to come!

In the Sharing GTD with Kids and Teens webinar, Mike and Meg discuss fun, creative, and practical ways to share the GTD best practices with your kids and teens.

In this audio clip, Meg talks about her experience of sharing about GTD with her daughter, and ways to make GTD fun for kids.  In addition, Meg talks about creative ways to plan for anything—and specifically for summer camp—in Planning Projects with Kids.

3 Comments »

GTD can be for anyone.  Here’s a blog post on Baby + You, pointing out that expectant mothers in the third trimester can benefit from the project management and delegation advice in Getting Things Done.

“Slow down. Be easy and don’t push yourself too hard,” advises Mark Moore, M.D., an anesthesiologist in Tallahassee, Fla., with a sub-specialization in obstetric and gynecologic anesthesia. His advice: Avoid rushing and overscheduling, especially in the late third trimester. “Control the nesting urges — the feeling of needing to have everything perfect before the baby comes.”

You don’t have to fight the feeling completely. Here are some safe and fun ways to indulge the pregnancy nesting urge and prepare for baby’s arrival:

Make lists and delegate. Act as project manager and have hubby or helpful family handle strenuous tasks like installing shelves, putting together furniture or painting the baby’s room.

Read the complete post here.

No Comments »

An Opinionator piece in The New York Times called The Busy Trap has been generating a lot of discussion in the last few days. The author, Tim Kreider, challenges some popular assumptions about whether it’s good to be busy, and whether we’re busy with what matters.

“Even children are busy now, scheduled down to the half-hour with classes and extracurricular activities. They come home at the end of the day as tired as grown-ups.”

How about your kids, or the kids you know? Do they have enough unstructured time?

“Busyness serves as a kind of existential reassurance, a hedge against emptiness; obviously your life cannot possibly be silly or trivial or meaningless if you are so busy, completely booked, in demand every hour of the day.”

And how about you? Does your schedule reflect what is meaningful for you? If you’re not sure, have a look at David Allen’s summary of the 6 Horizons of Focus. It can help you create a schedule that aligns your next actions, projects, and higher goals.

No Comments »

If you’re looking for practical time management training, watch a busy mom for a day. You’ll learn that moms are experts when it comes to organizing their to do lists by contexts. They can move forward on projects, even when others might not see the possibility for progress. Some might call it multitasking, but in fact it’s more the ability to rapidly refocus, using whatever technology is at hand, including Facebook.

Moms Rely on Facebook More Than Other Women

by Leslie Meredith, Senior Writer, TechNewsDaily
12 April 2012 07:30 PM ET

Forget the weekly playgroup to compare notes with other moms — many now head straight to Facebook. Moms use the social media site more frequently than women without kids, and with far more finesse.

Marketing firm Performics yesterday (April 12) released its study of 3,000 active U.S. social networkers, and found moms were more proficient than other women at getting information from Facebook. Fifty-six percent of moms considered themselves to be “experts” at using social networks compared with 36 percent of other women.

You can click here to read the complete article.

No Comments »

Have you wanted to get your kids or teens to use GTD tools? Then this webinar is for you. Join David Allen Company CEO and GTD expert Mike Williams and Senior Coach Meg Edwards as they discuss some fun and engaging ways to share GTD with kids and teens.  The live webinar is on Wednesday, December 14, 2011 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM PST. 

This webinar is free for GTD Connect members.  You can sign up for a free trial membership, and when you log in, you’ll find the webinar information on the home page of GTD Connect.  You’ll also see an extensive list of previous webinars you can access in the archives. (Partial listing shown here.)

The free trial membership is easy to begin—just first name and email address—with no cost or commitment.

No Comments »

Sometimes Christmas feels like an all-consuming project that sends us racing through malls, jumping from party to party, and being busy-busy-busy as we fill our time with lots of Christmas fluff.

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 . . .”

[Read more →]

11 Comments »

This post on planning a baby shower is from the Art department at the David Allen Company.

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!

No Comments »