A great way to kick off the New Year is with a review of GTD’s five phases of Mastering Workflow:

Collect

Process

Organize

Review

Do

For each area, ask yourself:

What’s working well for me in this area now?

What would I like to improve upon in the coming year in each of these areas?

How I could support myself more in that?

Acknowledge yourself for how far you’ve come. Be realistic in your commitments about where you want to be.  GTD is a journey…

Happy New Year!

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For those of you on Outlook 2010, we just released a new Setup Guide to assist you in creating a rock-solid GTD system in Outlook.  Since  the 2010 version changed some ways things are done in Outlook, we created a new Guide specific to this version.  A few of the updates in this new 45-page Guide include:

• Updated instructions and screenshots for setting up Tasks
• A new way to track Waiting For items when you send email
• Suggestions for using ‘Quick Steps’ to process email

Read a free sample from the email section

Buy now from the DAC Store

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Several GTD Times readers asked us to post this video of David Allen presenting at Google. This is a classic from David’s presentation at Google a couple of years ago.

Watch this special video presentation to hear what David has to say about GTD and the two keys to sustaining a healthy life and work style.
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(The video is streaming from YouTube, so you may need to give it a moment to load.)

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I was leading a GTD class recently, and one of the participants was asking me how to be better at delegating. In my experience, issues with delegation typically come down to some common factors:

• It’s not clear who should do it (i.e. unclear Areas of Focus)
• If the person delegating is not clear on their own inventory, in their integrity and confidence they won’t feel like they can hand off things to others (doesn’t quite fly to say, “I can’t do this because I have a gnawing sense of overwhelm–but can you?”)
• If the person delegating doesn’t have a clear way to track what they are handing off (a la Waiting For or Agenda lists) they won’t feel confident in handing things off
• Perfection (anyone ever have the feeling “I can do it better/faster myself?”)
• People often feel funny using the word “delegate” with peers or their managers–so just call it “hand off” instead (truly–tricks that like can work)
• The person delegating is not clear what they are even delegating

My Agenda and Waiting For lists are often my longest lists. I have Agendas for all of the key people I meet with or report to on a regular basis. My Waiting For list (currently 68 items) tracks anything and everything I may want to rein back in at some point.  To me, these lists are like fishing lines off a boat and I just need trusted and easy ways to reel things back in when I need them.

How well do you handle delegation? Do you ever hesitate to delegate something to others? If so, why?

Kelly Forrister is a senior coach and presenter with the David Allen Company

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By popular request, here is a list of all of the FREE GTD resources offered by David Allen Company:

• GTD Times – This is the the official blog for the David Allen Company. Loads of helpful advice, tips, special offers, tricks & strategies for implementing GTD.
• Podcasts - Includes the GTD best practices series with David & his team.
• GTD Connect – The two-week free trial is a fully-functional experience of our online learning center (except for downloads.) There’s no obligation, no payment required, and nothing to cancel. [Read more →]

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David Allen discusses the 6 Horizons of Focus

Aside from the fact that the volume of what people need to organize is often light-years beyond what they imagine, there is much more to getting a grip on your “work” than most realize. Managing the flow of work can be approached from many altitudes, as there are many different levels of defining what your “work” really is. Whereas we may have some lower levels in control, there are often incomplete and unclear issues at higher levels that can and need to be addressed, to really get it all under control. And often there are issues about the nature and volume of work that cannot be resolved viewing it from an inappropriate level. We have roughly categorized “work” into six levels, or horizons of focus. [Read more →]

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We’re excited to announce that our new 6-CD audio set on the GTD best practices for managing your projects is now available in the David Allen Company store.  We’ve compiled all of the GTD best practices and common questions.   It’s a great way to get control of your projects and manage them seamlessly–the GTD way.

GTD Connect members save 10% on this product.  Be sure to log in to GTD Connect first, then head to the store for your member discounts to apply.  Not a member? Try a free guest pass.

Order your GTD Managing Projects set today.  Limited quantities available.

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Coming in October to GTD Connect:  the continuation of our popular “boot camp” style webinars.  Two of our senior coaches lead fast-paced webinars geared toward more advanced GTDers.

Oct 1  - Creating a Fantastic Workspace
Oct 15  - Maintaining Control & Perspective in the Daily Grind
Oct 29  - What Really Has Your Attention?

Register on GTDConnect.com.  These webinars are free for all GTD Connect members.  If you want to take these webinar classes, but don’t want a long-term membership in Connect, try the $48 monthly membership.  It’s easy to cancel–we promise!

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We are pleased to announce the release of a resource that many of you have been asking for:  a  GTD & BlackBerry Guide.  A few of us are now on BlackBerry as our portable solution and we put together a Guide on the best GTD tips, tricks, and practices for making your BlackBerry rock for GTD.

It’s chock-full of 45 pages of coaching advice on getting the most out of shortcuts, Email, Tasks, the Calendar and MemoPad using the built-in features of a BlackBerry (which means you won’t find any  requirements of any 3rd-party software to buy to apply what’s in the Guide.)

Download a free sample

Buy the Guide now (only $10 for a PDF)

So…the next question that’s been pouring into our customer service department today:  What about a GTD Guide for iPhone users? [Read more →]

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Hello GTDers!  David Allen and the team have created a new step-by-step guide for implementing GTD. It’s chock full of helpful tips, instructions, suggested supplies, and even time estimates on how long you can expect each step to take.  It’s a terrific way to coach yourself through really getting all aspects of GTD off the ground–from lists to inboxes and everything in between.

See a sample

Buy the Guide now

What people are saying on our Forums about the new Guide:

“As are all the GTD products I have purchased, the new GTD Implementation Guide is of very high quality. This guide outlines completely, yet succinctly, how you can implement and maintain the GTD process.”

“I’m no GTD rookie and STILL I bought this new product! I’m glad I did! There are things in here that will help me get closer to black belt. This would have cut 3 months off my initial implementation easily!”

Learn more…

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