One of our GTD fans on Facebook recently posted about dramatically reducing her email backlog. Good job! How much email backlog do you still have? How would you tackle that as a project? Post a comment about how you would phrase the successful outcome (what does done look like with backlog?), and what your next action is.

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You can get practical, targeted GTD training with webinars scheduled in September and October. Choose from these topics: Keys to Getting Things Done®, GTD® & Outlook®, and Guided GTD Weekly Review®.

Whether you are setting up your GTD system for the first time, or want to get better at working what you already have, these webinars are the way to go. You’ll get tips for improving your productivity right away in these lively, interactive, bite-sized chunks of GTD learning.

The overview is here, or you can learn more by clicking on the date below that works for you.

Keys to Getting Things Done
Friday, September 14, from 10:00am-11:00am Pacific Time
Thursday, October 18, from 10:00am-11:00am Pacific Time

GTD & Outlook
Friday, October 26, from 10:00am-11:00am Pacific Time

Guided GTD Weekly Review
Friday, September 28, from 10:00am-11:00am Pacific Time

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Here’s concise advice from David Allen, on asking yourself two questions that can calm the waters of your mind.

Everything that is outstanding in your world and mind, that hasn’t been somehow put onto “cruise control,” will be holding some part of your psyche hostage.

So, simply ask yourself, “What has my attention now?” And then ask, “What do I need to decide, do, handle, and organize, to be able to have my mind let that go?”

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Check out this free podcast from David Allen. In just over two minutes, he gives practical tips for getting started with GTD. It’s available for download now on the David Allen Company podcast page.

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Peter Drucker said that “most of the tasks of the executive require, for minimum effectiveness, a fairly large quantum of time.” That’s from the Know Thy Time chaper in The Effective Executive, published almost half a century ago.

Sure, every knowledge worker could benefit from having large blocks of time for doing pre-defined work. But the practical reality is that most workers have schedules that are more fragmented than what Drucker might have imagined.  When he wrote that book, the workers he was addressing didn’t have cell phones and laptops. They didn’t use air travel for mass transit they way workers do today. They didn’t have Skype meetings with overseas clients outside the 9-5 workday.

GTD to the rescue! If you’ve organized your next actions into contexts that work for you, you’ll find that you can take advantage of small chunks of time to plow through lots of tasks. By organizing with your busy schedule in mind, you’ll be able to use those few minutes here and there to get things done that you would need to get done anyway, at some time. This is not to say you can neglect to schedule those large blocks of time for doing executive tasks. Just be smart by planning for how you’ll use the small windows of time as well.

What can you do with 15 minutes, before your meeting at 11:30?

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This fall David Allen will be presenting his “Making It All Work” seminar in San Francisco and London.  This is a great opportunity to enjoy David’s entertaining and inspiring approach to GTD education.

What you’ll learn:

• How to get immediate control of “current reality”
• How to keep track of the total inventory of your commitments, including examples from David’s personal system
• What decisions are critical to make, about what, and when
• Why most “personal management systems” don’t work
• How to evaluate the best tools to use to stay in control
• Why organizational issues are often personal process issues
• Why it’s so challenging to really change the simplest habits, and the secret key to make it easier
• How to use procrastination to your advantage
• How to continually self-consult to get back “on your game”
• How to install simple tricks that create profound results

You can find out more about the seminar by clicking here.

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Too many next actions? DA weighs in…

Question: I have done a good job of getting all my commitments in Outlook tasks and out of my head, but here is my dilemma: I have written down every work and personal task I need to do, including converting emails to action items and now I have 580 work tasks, 346 personal tasks, 266 tasks for my assistant and 117 honey-dos for my husband! I have them organized by project and date, but am feeling overwhelmed by the sheer volume of it all! Any advice? Thanks so much for your work.

David Allen: Well, you have as many commitments as you have, and unless you want eternal subliminal stress, you need to get them objectively out of your head and reviewable. As you’ve discovered, your next task to get more stress-free is to determine which ones are really “someday” vs. which ones need to be on the front shelf. Essentially, everything that you’re not doing at any moment is “someday,” but the psyche feels much better when you have made some distinctions between the active ones that you really want/need to get done within a reasonable time vs. those that can wait. Ultimately you’ll have to decide what kind of overview/map you need and want to see, to feel OK about what you’re doing. So there’s no right or wrong answer about any of this—only what’s most workable for you.

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Question: You claim that in most of the situations we are guilty for being stressed and frustrated. What can we do to avoid these frustrations?

Answer from David Allen: Clarify what your desired outcome is, what the next action required to move it forward is (and who’s going to do it); and evaluate those commitments consistently within your total context of commitments about work and life.

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If you live in Portland, Oregon, or just want a great reason to visit this lively northwest city, here’s news for you. David Allen Company is presenting a Mastering Workflow for Business Leaders public seminar in Portland on Tuesday, July 10th. This seminar is ideal if you need better productivity solutions for a small team, large division, or your entire company. It’s based on the popular and effective Mastering Workflow seminar. You’ll get practical GTD implementation help for the challenging real-world issues that you face as a business leader. You can also network with other leaders from prominent, dynamic organizations who are already registered.

Click here for more information.

Since many organizations find extra value in encouraging workgroups to attend together, there are special rates for groups, as well as for Mastering Workflow alumni, not-for-profit employees, and GTD Connect members. To find out more please email customerservice@davidco.com.

For other Mastering Workflow for Business Leaders locations, click here.

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Here’s some great news for Microsoft Outlook users. Netcentrics has released version 3.2 of their Getting Things Done® Outlook® Add-In. You can review the new features and benefits here and read their press release with additional details by clicking the …more link below.

Netcentrics offers a free 30-day trial, so you have plenty of time to take this terrific new software for a test drive. [Read more →]

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