I can hardly believe it.  Six months have already whizzed by since we launched GTDtimes.  It seems like only yesterday we were figuring out which CMS to use and deciding what the header should look like for the site.  Now, after hundreds of articles, thousands of reader comments, dozens of video clips and many, many visitors GTDtimes has established itself as one of the most useful and credible GTD resources available for anyone interested in learning more about GTD, for anyone interested in sharing their own GTD experiences or tips or tricks with the rest of the world, and for getting the word out about what is happening in the Getting Things Done community.

None of this would be possible if it weren’t for the readers, like you, who take the time to pay us a visit, add us to your RSS feed reader, or send us a contribution from time to time.  As a long time blog editor I never take the readers of a publication for granted.  I always do my best to identify the kinds of content that I believe people will find valuable, interesting, engaging, funny, inspiring or even, on occassion annoying (after all we all need a little controversy from time to time, right?)

I’ve heard it said that the job of the journalist is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable and while I don’t believe that phrase does justice to the whole range of emotions that a good journalist can touch I do believe that the maxim offers some bookends between which the journalist can ply his trade.  That, however, is only part of the equation and with the new forms of media such as this website, where readers have the opportunity to voice an opinion in nearly real time and to put that opinion right up there alongside the original article the medium has become much less a pulpit and much more a conversation where everyone is invited.

In an age where big media seems less and less democratic and more and more a mouthpiece for a small and select group of companies and corporate ideologies, it is important that those of us working in the new media arena not forget that which differentiates us most significantly - you!

To that end, we’re planning on making some changes at GTDtimes and we hope that those changes will be as a direct result of your feedback and will help to make GTDtimes even more interesting, more useful, more educational, more enjoyable and more valuable (though perhaps not any more controversial  :-P  ).  To do this what we need above all else is your feedback.  If you could be so kind as to comment on this post with changes that you’d like to see we will do our best to implement them in the near future.

To get you started and give you an idea of what sort of changes are in the works, here’s what we’re planning:

To make GTDtimes more convenient we are going to try to implement a more regular schedule of publishing on specific topics.  In other words we’ll be establishing topic specific columns published on specific days.  More like a newspaper where you know that the “Food” section is on Wednesdays and that Sunday always has the big classified advertising section, we plan on breaking out specific topic areas that we believe are of the greatest interest and utility based upon what you, the reader, tells us are most important to you.

Of course some of these topic sections are obvious:  Getting Started, Software, the Cognitive  Science of GTD, anything written by David Allen, Book Reviews, Software and Gadgets, etc.  That’s not to so that we we won’t continue to cover breaking news related to GTD - of course we will - or that we won’t be accepting submissions (we want more of those than ever) or that we won’t be pointing to other posts on other sites (after all, discovering new GTD content and new people writing about GTD is one of the primary missions for this site), but beyond this, we want to hear from you.

What topic areas do you find most useful?  Is there some area that we’ve overlooked?  Is there some topic that we should be covering but aren’t? Are their contributors that you especially liked whom you’d like to see more often?  In short, what can we do at GTDtimes to make this publication more exciting, educational and valuable to you and your family or friends?  We want to earn your continued attention and the best way we know to do that is to provide the information that you want in a way that works for you.

Please let us know how we can improve in the comments below.  If you would prefer to let us know anonymously that’s okay too:  you can email your suggestions directly to me at editor at GTDtimes dot com.  As an added incentive to get you to provide suggestions on how we can improve, GTDtimes will be giving a gift to everyone that offers a constructive suggestion.  If you comment or email, please also send me your mailing address.   Then, be sure to keep an eye on your mailbox for a special thank you gift from GTDtimes for helping us to make our publication a better resource for the GTD community.  Thanks!

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If you’re a GTD’er (or want to become one) and you happen to live overseas, your opportunity to learn from the master has just come much closer to home.  Nathaniel Stott, a contributor to GTDtimes has reported that he and his associates at Life Architect have been working on the details for months and now, finally, they are ready to release the information.

From Nathaniel:

“Life Architect is about helping people get more done. Achieving more with less stress. More time for fun! And the things we love to do in life. With this in mind we (started the company) invited David Allen to Holland and Germany to present his GTD Roadmap seminars on 17th and 19th February 2009. We are jointly organising these events with the David Allen Company. Its about getting your blueprint to a new life. Getting things done is the foundation on which Life Architect intends to continue building.”

This is less than a month before the GTD Global Summit in San Francisco so a lucky group of people might have the chance to use the Roadmap in Europe as a tune-up and then could follow David back across the Atlantic to join us for the grand-daddy of all GTD events on March 11th through the 13th of 2009.

GTDtimes would like to congratulate Nathaniel on his big news and wish him much success with Life Architect which is going live today.  Be sure to check it out.

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Editor’s Note:  This is the first part of an article by David Allen.  The rest of the article can be found in GTD Connect which is a product that requires a subscription.  However as part of our efforts to expose people to this great GTD resource we are offering a free 14-day trial of GTD Connect for anyone that cares to sign up.  Not only will you get the full article below but complete access to an unparalleled collection of GTD information including original articles and videos by David Allen, the member’s only forums and so much more.  To register for the free trial click here

Make It Up and Make It Happen
By David Allen

There are only two problems in life. Isn’t that nice to know? You only have two things you ever need to be concerned about. Not only are there only two problems – they are really quite simple. Ready?

Problem #1: You know what you want, and you don’t know how to get it.

Problem #2: You don’t know what you want.

Anything you can define as a problem can be reduced to one or both of those statements.

Now, since there are only two problems, it follows that there are only two solutions that you will ever need….

Link to full article on GTD  (remember this requires registration for the free trial of GTD Connect)

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Hey, I’ll be attending the AlwaysOn Going Green Conference at Covallo Lodge in Saulsalito today - if you happen to be up here give me a shout.  I’ll be in San Francisco the following two days and will be attending GigaOm’s Mobilize on the 18th.  Hope to catch up with some of you there.

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I’ve got some big news for GTD enthusiasts and followers of David Allen’s Getting Things Done systematic approach to personal productivity.  David in conjunction with the David Allen Company have just launched a new YouTube Channel dedicated to Getting Things Done. This new YouTube Channel is a compilation of those videos that David or his staff feel are especially useful for helping people to put David’s GTD methodology into practice.

If you’re a regular YouTube viewer you may have seen some of these before but in any case this new channel consolidates these useful videos into one location making them easier to find and more accessible to the community.  Be sure to subscribe so that you get notifications as new videos are added and, if you’ve made any GTD videos of your own, be sure to let them know so that those too can be made a part of this new resource.

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This morning I had a nice surprise in my email inbox when Evan Carmichael of EvanCarmichael.com wrote me a note to let me know that he’d just authored a post called the Top Ten GTDtimes Posts of 2008.  He runs through what he felt where the most informative and useful posts written for GTDtimes since we launched.  It’s a well thought out and nicely summarized list and I think it’s worth a visit to his site to check out what he’s recommending and why (his explanations are right on the money as far as I’m concerned).

If you are relatively new to GTDtimes, this might be a very good way for you to see some of the earlier posts that are most useful to readers.  Thanks Evan - we really appreciate the coverage!

On another note, I’m headed to the Bay Area for a couple of days to attend the AlwaysOn Stanford Summit at - you guessed it- Stanford University.  If you’re attending the conference, or happen to be in that part of the Bay and would like to meet up with me, send me a note (editor at GTDtimes dot com) and I’ll see what I can do about making that happen.  Look for some posts over the next few days featuring new companies, new gadgets and maybe even some interviews with highly productive people.

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Editors Note:  Erratum.  This article had a number of errors that have been corrected from the original version.

Applebriefs‘ Jeff Kabbe has done a spectacular job authoring a very detailed review of the GTD task management application Omnifocus. Mac owners have probably seen other applications developed by Omni Group, particuarly OmniOutliner  which comes preinstalled on many machines from Apple.  The company has also developed  OmniGraffle,  OmniPlan and roughly half a dozen other useful applications.    His review is so comprehensive that it makes no sense for me to do anything except refer you to his blog where you can read it for yourself.

Meanwhile, the guys folks at Omni Group  have made a splash of their own by giving folks a preview of their soon to be released iPhone application. In addition to supporting live sync - supposedly even capable of background syncing tasks to Apple’s new MobileMe service and being FREE to registered users of the desktop version of Omnifocus, the iPhone version is also location aware and thus can automatically identify various contexts and provide you with task details that are contextually appropriate.

As you might imagine there’s quite a lot of excitement about this forthcoming application.  Omni Group says that it will be released about the same time as the new 3G iPhone goes on sale.  You can learn about more about the soon-to-be-released application in the comments on the Omni Group blog

Lastly, there’s a small bit of news for GTDtimes..   Evan Carmichael maintains a list of the 50 top Productivity Blogs.  When the updated list was released recently I was dismayed to see that GTDtimes was not listed.  I suspected that this might be due to the fact that we only launched in March of this year and that with so many good productivity resources Evan might not have even come across GTDtimes yet.

I figured that I had nothing to lose by writing him a note to introduce ourselves and Evan surprised me by adding GTDtimes to his list as a special mention just below the top eight sites listed in the GTD Category.  I thought it was incredibly cool of Evan to take the time to do this - most folks running popular sites probably wouldn’t have been so readily accommodating.

Incidentally, Evan’s Top 50 list is a rich productivity resource and his site is packed with useful content for entrepreneurs, GTD’ers, and really anyone that wants to be more productive, more successful and more balanced in their approach to work and life.  I highly reccomend you check it out  (and mention that GTDtimes sent you).

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GTDtimes is pleased to be the first site anywhere in the world to announce news of a major event in the world of GTD…

For the first time anywhere  five hundred of the most intelligent, inspired and productive people on the planet will gather in San Francisco, California to learn, share, explore, inspire and most importantly to Get Things Done…

The Getting Things Done Global Summit!

Headlined by the inimitable David Allen, author of “Getting Things Done: the Art of Stress Free Productivity” this first GTD Global Summit, taking place on March 11th to the 13th, 2009,  promises to be a truly once-in-a-lifetime event.

Not only will attendees get the chance to  learn the latest on GTD by the man that created the strategy, David will also be sharing new material from his forthcoming book “Making it All Work: Winning at the Game of Business and Business of Life“.

Complimenting David will be a cadre of some of the most accomplished and effective people in the world:

• CEOs that have have had the insight and vision to implement a GTD culture throughout their organizations yielding extraordinary results

• Coaches who will share how implementing a GTD strategy has had profound benefits for their clients from world class athletes to struggling students

• David’s Senior GTD Facilitators who will lead hands on sessions to share their real-world techniques to help you implement GTD for yourself and your organization and maximize the success you will achieve as a result.

• Surprise guests that will inspire, awe and excite you with their stories of how they managed to achieve success, in some cases against unimagineable adversity and odds that would have been dramatically improved had they only been one in a million.

If  other conferences are about ideas and inspiration, the GTD Global Summit is about action and implementation.  No other event will have this level of practical, how to information to help you further refine your personal GTD strategy, troubleshoot your own implementation, or introduce you to new tools and techniques to take even the most advanced GTD Blackbelt to a whole new level.

In addition, demonstration areas will be reserved for attendees to check out the latest in high tech gadgetry- a veritable “geek’s paradise” of software, hardware, and accessories will be available for you to discover, test, and compare; from tried and true products you may have seen to the latest whiz-bang prototypes that you may not have even heard of, let alone seen or touched.

Of course one of the greatest benefits to attending the GTD Global Summit will be the opportunity to meet and network with five-hundred other GTD practitioners all in one place.  If you’re a GTD’er you already know that people that use GTD to help them stay on top of things are consistently among the most intelligent, informed and productive people on the planet.  Here’s your chance to make new friends, develop new professional relationships and capitalize on the energy and collective intelligence that only a group such as this can generate.   If you’ve attended special events in the past, you know that half the value lies in the people you meet and the friendships you establish.  Now take that prior experience and multiply it by 500 and imagine the possibilities.

The GTD Global Summit is scheduled to take place from the 11th to the 13th of March, 2009 at the unparalleled new Hotel Intercontinental in San Francisco, California.  Only five-hundred fortunate individuals will have the chance to attend this life-changing event.  Reservations can be made at the official GTD Global Summit Website.

Further news about the GTD Global Summit will be made available here as soon as we receive it.  The link to the conference website above is now live so be sure to make your reservation before it’s too late!

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There are some exciting developments in the work here at GTDtimes. I wanted to take a moment to share them with you so that you could be prepared since some of what we are doing will probably merit your attention.

First, we are preparing to launch a GTD Job Board. If you’re an employer looking for the most productive employees you can find, this should be your first stop when you place an ad. After all, the folks that read this site practice GTD which by default means that they are likely to be an order of magnitude more productive than a typical hire. Of course if you’re a company that already has a culture that practices GTD why would you want to hire someone that wasn’t already familiar with and using David Allen’s strategy?

Why spend time training someone when you can find an employee that can hit the ground running. The job board will be up within the next few weeks so if you are interested in having an ad as soon as possible, please contact us at “jobs at GTDtimes dot com”

We’re also getting ready to launch a classifieds section. This area will be focused on companies that have developed software for GTD practitioners as well as other sorts of GTD-specific gear and gadgets. For software developers a basic advertisement is free with additional advertising opportunities also available within the marketplace section that will enjoy featured placement and color images as well as room for descriptive text about your program or product. Please contact us at “classifieds at GTDtimes dot com” to submit information for a basic ad or to get additional details about premium placements.

Speaking of advertising, GTDtimes will have a limited number of slots available for premium site sponsors opening up in the next few weeks. If you’d like to have a headline banner on the home page, or a 125×125 advertisement featured above the fold, or even if you’d like to sponsor a specific topic such as “mobile” or “software”, please get in touch with me directly and I’ll get you some information on the various options available. “editor at GTDtimes dot com”.

On the content side I am very pleased to announce that we’ve had a phenomenal response to my request for a contributor with expertise in psychology and related fields. I’m not going to spoil the surprise yet but keep your eyes open for some new names added to our contributors roster. The posts that I expect to see from these new additions are sure to be among the most interesting, insightful and informative material you’ll find anywhere regarding GTD. If you ever wondered why it is you do what you do - GTDtimes will be the place to help you find an answer to that question.

Lastly, a thank you to everyone that’s been subscribing to GTDtimes or simply stopping by on a regular basis. GTDtimes has been enjoying some excellent growth lately - thanks also to so many of you who have linked to us, commented on posts or shared links to this site with friends. Our goal is to be a real resource for the GTD community and we are always on the lookout for great content posted on other GTD blogs.

If you’re writing something about Getting Things Done be sure to let us know. We want to help people find your content. If you’re a developer working on a GTD related project, be sure to tell us about it - we’d love to do a review. And if you’ve got a great personal GTD story (or some fun before and after photos of your office) send them on over and we’ll post them for you.

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