Two Key Priority Questions
One of the first things to do to trust your priority decisions is to make sure you’ve got a current inventory of everything you’ve said “yes” to. Turn over every rock. Look everywhere you’ve allowed input in—especially your head—and make decisions about what each one of those things means and what you want to do about it. If you’re like most people, that will leave you with a pretty healthy (and long) list of things to do. When it comes time to choose what to do, you will first be limited by your context, time available, and current resources. Good chance though, that will still leave you wondering, “Which one should I choose?” This is where priority comes in.

There are two key questions I have found to be enormously helpful with priorities. Ask yourself:

• What’s the value in getting this done?
• What’s the risk if I don’t?

Try asking yourself those questions next time you’re staring at your list and deciding how to best invest your time and attention.
—Kelly

Kelly Forrister is a Senior Coach & Presenter with the David Allen Company.

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Join David Allen and Senior Coach Meg Edwards for a GTD Connect webinar about “Customizing Your GTD System.” They’ll talk about what you can customize without affecting the integrity of the GTD methodology, signs you’ve over- or under-customized, and creative ways to make your GTD system more your own. No matter where you are in your journey with GTD—just getting a system off the ground or looking for fine-tuning to optimize your workflow—this webinar will give you helpful coaching about ways you can customize your system to work better for you, including your tools, contexts, projects, and the Weekly Review.

Open to all monthly and annual GTD Connect members. Tuesday, May 14, 10am—11am PT.

Not a member? Join for $48 and get this webinar and the wealth of content on GTD Connect for 30 days.

(Please note: live webinars like this one with David, podcasts, and public seminar special rates are not available for free guest pass members.)

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For those of you still trying to figure out how to make GTD work in Outlook, Senior Coach Meg Edwards will be leading the popular GTD & Outlook webinar this Thursday, May 9. Meg will lead you through a deep dive into using Tasks for projects & next actions, getting email to zero, and what belongs on your calendar. This event will sell out, so register soon if you’d like to attend.  Click here for more details and to register.

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Collect, Process, Organize, Review, and Do. Those are the five phases of your GTD workflow. You’ll learn the best practices for each of those phases in the Keys to Getting Things Done webinar, this Thursday, May 2, at 10:00AM Pacific time.

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How did your weekly review go last week? Could you use some support to get that practice onto cruise control?

The Guided GTD Weekly Review webinar is just what you need. It’s a 75-minute “working webinar” where you will be led step-by-step through what David Allen calls the “critical success factor” for GTD. Get a taste of Getting Clear (processing inboxes to zero), Getting Current (reviewing Project, Next Action, and Waiting For lists), and Getting Creative (being creative & courageous).

The webinar is this Thursday, April 25, from 10:00-11:15am Pacific time. Click here for more information and to register. At $49, it’s a great investment in your current and future productivity. Imagine how great next weekend will be after you’ve done a full weekly review this week.

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Procrastination. I hear about it all the time. My clients confide in me, “I am procrastinating on sending in the contract/mailing the gift/fixing the appliance/etc.” You name it, I’ve heard it. And just between us, I used to think I was the ultimate procrastinator.

Then I heard David Allen say that creative, bright and sensitive people procrastinate the most. I perked up and thought to myself, “Hey, that’s me, smart and imaginative! How did he know? And how very kind of him to describe us (people who procrastinate) that way.”

The GTD methodology resolves procrastination. An example happened to me many years ago. The engine light flashed on in my car. My first thought was, “This is going to cost me thousands of dollars and that’s not in my budget.” I didn’t want to think past the doom and gloom of how much it was going to cost. Also, the idea of getting my car fixed meant figuring out so many other logistics: Do I take it to the Subaru dealer or my own mechanic? How do I coordinate carpooling for my family and myself? The general inconvenience and the unknown overwhelmed me. Every time I got in the car the engine light went on and triggered all those thoughts in my head. For a couple of seconds I would feel the anxiety, but then I distracted myself with something else and forgot about it.

Three months later, after seeing the engine light go on yet again, I thought to myself, “OK, this is ridiculous. I need to practice what I preach.” I took out some paper and asked myself [Read more →]

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David Allen talks about your GTD tools, and how important they are.

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

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Have you heard others talk about inbox zero but thought it was out of your reach?

Most people are not getting their email inboxes to zero on a regular basis, for one or more of these three reasons.
1. They don’t know how to process their email.
2. They don’t know where to put processed email, i.e. how to organize it.
3. They don’t create the time to process their email to zero.

The GTD Managing Email webinar on April 18 addresses all three of these reasons. This webinar will share the best practices of managing email and getting your inbox to zero on a regular basis. The focus will include strategies for dealing with backlog email, structuring email to support action management, the GTD models for processing and organizing email, and storing reference information.

Yes, you can achieve inbox zero!

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We have three terrific public GTD webinars coming up in April. These webinars are 60-75 minutes long, and are held via GoToWebinar.  Tuition is $49 per registration.

• Keys to Getting Things Done on April 11
• Managing Email on April 18
• Guided GTD Weekly Review on April 25

Click here to learn more about GTD webinars.

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Learn the keys to mind like water in our next “Keys to Getting Things Done” webinar. It’s coming up this Thursday, March 7th from 10am-11am Pacific Time.

We have about 20 seats still available. Register now.

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