A Community Contribution from April Perry

Just about every mother I know has a refrigerator that is completely covered with party invitations, handouts for school assignments, reminders for community events, coupons, and about 50 other things calling out, “Me! Me! Me!”  We’re so afraid of the “out of mind, out of sight” rule, that we want to keep everything that needs our attention smack dab in the middle of the kitchen.

Although this tactic might help us feel slightly organized, the drawbacks greatly outnumber the benefits.  For example, how are moms supposed to calmly make it through the dinner hour when every time they turn around, they’re reminded of all the things they’re not doing?  How are they going to remember which items have associated computer work or which ones require a run to the grocery store?  What happens if an important notice gets buried under alphabet magnets–or stolen by a toddler looking for something to color?  It just doesn’t work. [Read more →]

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Josh Kaufman wrote a succinct review of Getting Things Done on his blog, The Personal MBA.  David saw it and commented to Josh, “I’ve run across few people who have “grokked” GTD conceptually as well as you have.”  With Josh’s permission, we’re sharing his complete review here.

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If you’re ready to stop stressing and start accomplishing your goals, David Allen’s Getting Things Done can help you create a simple, effective personal productivity system.

About David Allen

David Allen is the author of the Personal MBA-recommended book Getting Things Done, as well as Ready For Anything, and Making It All Work. For more information about his work, check out David Allen’s website.

Here are 10 big ideas from David Allen’s Getting Things Done…

1. If your day-to-day life is out of control, it’s almost impossible to think strategically or plan effectively.

When you’re feeling overwhelmed about how much you have to do (and who isn’t, really?), it’s difficult to focus on ensuring your life and work is moving in the direction you want to go. That’s why it’s important to get control of your daily tasks before working on your big-picture life planning. [Read more →]

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In response to our recent Productive Living newsletter, a GTDer wrote to David Allen and said:

Please provide a less complex version of the basic GTD chart/system for me and the hundreds of thousands of organizationally challenged managers just like me who have tried and failed to maintain the GTD system. Simpler is better.

David responded:

I empathize with desire for the “GTD for Dummies” approach.  I suggest just not letting the visual chart get in your way… it’s as simple as:

Write it down
Decide what’s next about it
Park that somewhere you’ll trust you’ll look at as a reminder
Keep your head empty and your list(s) current

Hope that helps.

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The next Webinar on GTD Connect will be “Digging Out From Backlog”.  Two of our senior coaches will give you tips, tricks, and strategies for dealing with your piles of “stuff”.  If you feel like your backlog is holding you back from getting the most out of GTD, this Webinar is for you.  Free to all GTD Connect members (free trial members too).   Thursday, July 15 @ 11am PDT.  Register on the home page of GTD Connect.

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David Allen will only be doing 3 public seminars this year, so here’s your chance to learn the system with the master himself. The GTD Making It All Work course offers a higher level, more theoretical overview of the GTD concepts. It’s a fun, informative, and engaging day whether you are new to GTD or have experience with the system. You’ll get the big picture of the process, including prioritizing, applying the core GTD principles, and making change stick. Coming to San Francisco, London, and Washington, DC.  Register before July 15th with the code TIMES10 to receive 10% off any of David Allen Company public events.

Learn more…

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On our LinkedIn GTD Group, there’s an interesting discussion going on about how to get started with GTD.  Here’s what member Rosemarie had to say:

I have found that GTD is one of those things where you just need to jump in and try something. I find that my system is just altering a little bit here and there all the time anyway. It’s like gardening, you don’t “finish” as such because there’s always new tips and tricks to try out. But eventually you settle to a basic system that is the basis for your GTD stuff and you work from there.

I would say (and I’m no expert believe me, but this worked for me) just sit down and write out everything you need to do. Make a great big ‘to do’ list (the ‘capture’ part of the system) and then you can start sorting that into things that are actually projects, one-off items, etc. And you probably won’t get everything at that point anyway. But once you have your list and have started organising it and categorising it a bit, you will add things as you go along and you’re away.

Have fun!

Read the whole discussion thread on LinkedIn

You’ll also find great resources on GTD Connect (the 16-part GTD Getting Started series), the GTD System Starter Kit, and the GTD Implementation Guide.  And, as Rosemarie said so well, “jump in and try something!”

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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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The Tickler File is one of the “incubation” systems David recommends in Getting Things Done (p. 173).  It’s also where the phrase “43 folders” comes from, as it refers to the 12 monthly and 31 daily folders that make up a Tickler File system.  What is a Tickler File?  It’s a three-dimensional version of a Calendar that allows you to hold physical reminders of things that you want to see or remember–not now, but in the future.

A GTDer wrote to David to ask if there’s a “lite” version of a Tickler File system:

Q: I have set up a tickler file of the 43 described folders, but I find that I am not accessing the folders except every 7-10 days.  Most of my folders sit empty because things do not cross my desk in the way a typical person might expect.  I am a dentist, but take care of the majority of the administrative/ business type paperwork myself.  [Read more →]

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