The ability to quickly capture a thought and get it off your mind makes all the difference in how well you can focus on what you’re doing right now.  Having a capture tool that’s with you when you’re out and about is essential.  The elegant GTD NoteTaker Wallet will capture all those random thoughts that occur at the most unexpected times and places.

All styles and accessories on sale now for 30% off the regular price.  It’s a great time to get one for yourself or as a gift.

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Chip Joyce, an Account Executive with the David Allen Company, took this photo of his home office. His comment about the photo was, “I’m violating a GTD best practice: something’s on my desk that’s not reference, equipment, decoration, or supplies.”

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You can get 20% off GTD productivity gear, including physical and digital products.  The sale is on now in the David Allen Company online store.

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For those of you who like to customize your workspace so that it’s an integral part of your GTD system, you’ll enjoy seeing Lifehacker’s most popular featured workspaces of 2012. Alas, the one that’s missing is David Allen’s workspace.

Most Popular Featured Workspaces of 2012

Seeing how others have organized and set up their workspaces can be great inspiration for creating your own perfect workspace. This year, we had lots of inspiration. Whether your taste leans towards a minimalist approach or more eclectic style, here are the most popular featured workspaces of 2012 to get your ideas flowing.

You can see the full post here.

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Now that making phone calls is only the 5th most popular thing that people do with a smartphone, perhaps more people are using their smartphones as GTD digital collection devices. But even though most people always carry their phone, some of the most savvy GTDers also use pen and paper for collection. The key is to know what methods reduce the friction in your system. If the device is not easy to use for getting stuff off your mind and into your trusted GTD system, you’ll tend to use it less.

How do you get things off your mind when you are mobile? Digital, paper, or a combination?

For those of you who already use paper for on-the-go collection, and those who want to give it a try, David Allen’s favorite tool, the NoteTaker Wallet, is on sale for 30% off throughout July.

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BlackBerry maker Research in Motion has given prototypes of their new BlackBerry 10 to developers this week.  The new model is slated to be released for consumers by the end of the year. This week’s alpha gives developers a head start on apps.  The jury is still out on productivity improvements.

Will you be an early adopter of the new BlackBerry?  How do you decide among BlackBerry, iPhone, Android, or … a Windows Phone?

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This thought-provoking Harvard Business Review blog post is sure to stir up conversation, in person or by smartphone.

Is Your Smartphone Making You Less Productive?

2:09 PM Friday April 6, 2012
by Ndubuisi Ekekwe

Mobile devices have exacerbated an always-on work culture where employees work anytime, anywhere. They’ve contributed to the blurred distinction between when you’re “on the clock” and when you’re not. Service industry professionals are especially tethered to these devices. There’s an assumption that using smart devices boosts productivity, since they allow us to work constantly. But, we’re also jeopardizing long-term productivity by eliminating predictable time off that ensures balance in our lives. Is the obsession of regularly checking email really helping anyone’s bottom line? Are the unrealistic expectations these devices facilitate not setting staff up for burnout?

You can read the full post here.

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Wouldn’t it be cool if your GTD system could read your mind? It would automagically prioritize your action lists according to your context, time available, energy level, and what most has your attention in that moment.

Meet the iBrain. According to the developer, NeuroVigil, “The iBrain™ is a miniature electronics box attached to a light and flexible elastic head harness and electrodes that can effortlessly be applied to the head during sleep.” So far it’s just for tracking brain activity at night. But who knows? Maybe soon a miniaturized version will be the hardware that signals your leading-edge GTD software to help you make trusted choices throughout the day.

(The video is streaming from YouTube, so it may take a moment to load.)

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Organize, by far, is one of the most talked about parts of GTD.  And why not? It’s all about cool gear!  With GTD, choosing your tools is up to you and there’s incredible freedom in that.  David Allen is not telling you what tools to use, but how to use your tools.  So let’s dive in to look at what’s helpful to know about this phase.

WHAT TO ORGANIZE:

Organizing identifies the various placeholders or “buckets” where actions and support material are stored that you’ve processed. David Allen has also described organizing as simply “things are stored based on what they mean to you.”  The four primary action lists are:

• Projects
• Next Actions (with optional subcategories by context such as Calls, Computer, Office, Home, Errands, Agendas (people and meetings) and Anywhere)
• Waiting For
• Calendar (for time-specific actions, day-specific actions, and day-specific information only)

Organizing also includes setting up your workspace, a reference system for non-actionable information, and incubation systems (Someday Maybe and Tickler Systems) for possible later actions.

[Read more →]

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This is a Community Contribution from Mike Vardy

I’m a fan of gadgets. I love shiny new objects that promise to deliver bigger, stronger and faster results. The problem with a lot of these shiny new objects is that there is a learning curve for most (if not all) of them and even when the knowledge is set firmly in place, they are only part of the equation. It’s the other part that often lets us down. That other part is us.

We often get bogged down in the details, mired in a slew of hidden tasks that pile up in our electronic folders and leave us with our heads spinning. And as a bit of a technophile myself, I’ve had it happen to me on several occasions. When this happens, I turn over my trusted system to a device that I can trust with its implementation: paper.

Paper is a powerful device in its own right.  It is simple in both design and execution. You write something down, and [Read more →]

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