A community contribution by self-professed productivity expert Mike Vardy

We’ve all heard the benefits of taking naps or practicing meditation during your workday can result in one being more productive. We’ve also heard how these things aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive - sometimes (often by accident) they go hand in hand. However, depending on your work environment these suggestions may not be applicable…or even possible.

I’m certain that many employers wouldn’t take it too kindly  if you were seen napping - break or otherwise - on site. That may not be fair, but welcome to life.  I also know that achieving a meditative state can be difficult, unless you work in a church, monastery or perhaps a library. What I would suggest to replace napping and/or meditation is that you look back to your youth, back when you were in grade school. Remember what it was like to have recess. [Read more →]

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A basic principle of the Getting Things Done approach to managing your commitments is to keep nothing in your head.  We here at David Allen Company believe our head is a “great place for having ideas, but a bad place to attempt to hold on to them.”   This is true because we believe you’ll forget something stored in your head - we call it psychic RAM - as new inputs show up in your life and compete for your valuable mental real estate.

When I present this concept in GTD classes, it’s without exception that someone makes a humorous remark about age, saying something like, “Oh, I thought it was just happening to me more when I hit 40.”  No, I remind them, it’s not so much about age as it is about the design of the brain.  Most of you’ve heard or seen the research that the average person can only hold onto 7 concepts (+/- 2) in their head at one time.

Last week I was reminded again of the unreliable nature of our brain to hold onto simple tasks…by my 14 year-old son.  It goes like this.  My youngest child lost a tooth, a molar to be specific.  As you can imagine she was very excited because in  the Bader house - perhaps like your own - the Tooth Fairy pays a visit to exchange some cash for the tooth.  Any of you that have or know 8 year-olds will agree this is a big deal.  Plus my daughter’s tooth was a molar, a larger back tooth.  Somewhere in her beautiful mind she developed the reasonable  - to her - assumption that the larger the tooth, the more money she gets.  This did turn out to be the truth, but not because of her reasoning, and you will see why.

[Read more →]

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Mike Vardy, the character behind the satirical productivity website Effing the Dog, recently interviewed David Allen.  We think you might find the humor in it, as we did.

Interview - Part One

Interview - Part Two

Enjoy!

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Since the last book I gave away garnered so many requests I’ve decided to do it again.  Actually, I’d been meaning to write about Jim Clemmer’s Moose on the Table for some time now it’s an enjoyable story that in spite of its entertaining disguise contains some very useful techniques to help improve your communication skills.

With the exception of those few people that seem to have the magic ability to communicate effectively seemingly under all circumstances and with anybody, most of us occasionally struggle with one of the most crucial aspects of our day to day lives - communicating effectively with others.  Whether with an employee that you are hoping to motivate to step it up a notch, to a surly teen that thinks she or he knows everything (after all they heard it on MySpace, right?) or your grumpy division director who always seems ready to make life miserable just because she can; the higher the stakes in a given conversation the higher the likelihood you won’t be understood the way you wished.

Anyone that has ever had a conversation do the dreaded 180 (read any guy who has had their girlfriend ask if she looks fat in something) knows exactly what this feels like and I’m certain I’m not alone when I say that any resource that can help you learn ways to prevent this from happening in the future is well worth the time spent to gain that knowledge.  (when it comes to the dreaded “Do I look fat in this?” I suggest running from the room screaming “the dog is on fire!” or anything else bizarre enough that you can make the door before your loved one figures out you don’t wish to have this particular discussion at this time - however this advice is much less likely to be effective in a board meeting when asked for this month’s sales numbers)

All humor aside, Jim, who has penned multiple other works including “Vip Strategy“, “Firing on All Cylinders”, “Pathways to Performance” and other books takes us on an entertaining journey featuring an individual who looks like he’s got it all but who is really barely holding it together.

In many respects this book parallels “The Myth of Multitasking” in the way it delivers the knowledge the author wishes to impart upon the reader.  While I wouldn’t call this great literature I would definitely say that it’s a fun way to learn some new and very useful methods to get your point across, lead more effecitvely and build consensus among co-workers.

So…if you’re a GTDtimes reader who would like one of the two copies of “Moose on the Table” here’s what you need to do:  simply write to me via email at editor at GTDtimes dot com and provide me with the answer to the question below as well as your full name and mailing address.

Here’s the question:  Recently David Allen come up with a brand new set of concepts related to software for GTD.  He referred to this as “the five I’s” of software.  What you need to do is be one of the first two people to write me who correctly provides the five I’s in the correct sequence.  (and no, I’m not going to make it easy by providing a link.  You have to find the information for yourselves.  Good luck to one and all.

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Okay, after a brief hiatus, I figured I would try another contest to guess the theme running across these three videos (by the way, we still don’t have a winner for the video in the link in the middle of this sentence).  The first person who posts a comment* with the correct answer (to either this week, or the earlier one, or both) will win a prize from the David Allen Company.  Everyone else that posts an incorrect guess will have their name entered into a drawing for another prize also from the David Allen Company.  This drawing will be done at the end of August and will include everyone that has posted a comment/guess for any of the Sunday Video Contests.

In case you are wondering, it’s worth it to take the time to guess. Previous prizes have included things such as complete CD sets of In Conversation with David Allen, and other similar items that you probably don’t have but are likely to enjoy a great deal if  you’re interested in GTD and David Allen’s thoughts on the subject.

*You can make more than one guess, but each guess must be in a separate comment.  Regardless of how many incorrect guesses an entrant makes, only one entry per week will be added to the end of month prize drawings.

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