Hi Folks,

The real power in GTD is not really in the hand writing or typing we do onto lists—it’s in the executive and creative thinking triggered as we engage with them. This month I explore the one list that can easily be the most powerful in terms of maintaining ongoing control and focus in work and life—the Projects list. Here’s a cautionary tale for anyone who thinks they can get along without it.

All the best,

DAVID’S FOOD FOR THOUGHT

IS A PROJECTS LIST NECESSARY?

People started keeping calendars a century ago. Why? Because life’s time-based commitments got more complex than they could trust their mind to manage. If you think that a Projects list is unnecessary, then throw away your calendar and trust life will just let you know what you should be doing, in the moment. [Read more →]

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In a guest post on the Workshifting blog, read tips from Mike Williams, CEO for the David Allen Company (and vetted GTD coach!) on some simple ways to apply GTD. His post also includes an experiment for making your next meeting more effective.

Are there meeting tips that you have found helpful that others could benefit from? Share them here. Other GTD Times readers like to hear what works for you.

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With all the news leading up to the Mega Millions $640 million jackpot, lots of people have been asking each other, “What would you do if you won the lottery?”

Along a similar line, David Allen recently asked in a tweet, “With nothing left to do, what would you do?”  Some people have leveraged that question to consider what they would still choose to put on their to do lists, even if all the items that they have to do because of money were no longer there.  Of course winning the lottery could mean you’d have a whole new set of financial projects and actions.  But for the moment, set aside financial management on the runway to 20,000 levels.  Assume your new fortune is on cruise control, and you can put your attention anywhere else you choose.

How would winning a jackpot change the way your to do list represents your goals and purposes in the higher levels of the horizons of focus model?  And is there any of that you can start moving forward on, even before you win the lottery?

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People who are enjoying the benefits of getting started with GTD often ask how their organization can be persuaded to adopt the GTD methods.

“The microcosm of how people deal with their in-baskets, e-mail, and conversations with others will be reflected in the macro-reality of their culture and organization. If balls are dropped, if decisions about what to do are resisted on the front end, if not all the open loops are managed responsibly, that will be magnified in the group, and the culture will sustain a stressful fire-and-crisis siege mentality. If, in contrast, individuals are implementing the principles of Getting Things Done, the culture will expect and experience a new standard of high performance.”

—David Allen, Getting Things Done

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When you define the successful outcome of a goal or project clearly, your brain starts finding ways to achieve that outcome. Or, as David Allen crisply phrases it in chapter 13 of Getting Things Done:

• Make it up.
• Make it happen.

A recent article entitled Your Brain on Fiction summarizes new research to support this idea. “The brain, it seems, does not make much of a distinction between reading about an experience and encountering it in real life; in each case, the same neurological regions are stimulated.” Reading fiction is like having your brain run a computer simulation program.

You might have heard David say in his seminars that the human nervous system doesn’t distinguish between a well-imagined thought and reality. Once you have identified an outcome, your brain’s reticular activating system will start organizing incoming information in ways that help you get the outcome you’ve defined. So go ahead and let your imagination savor the experience while you read your lists of successful outcomes—your projects and goals—as your brain helps you convert what you read into your reality.

Reticular formation of the brain, from Gray's Anatomy

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That’s the question David Allen addresses in a feature article in the New York Times. 

When Office Technology Overwhelms, Get Organized

By DAVID ALLEN
Published: March 17, 2012

HOW do you think most workers would respond if you asked them, “Do you feel more productive now than you did several years ago?” I doubt that the answer would be a resounding yes. In fact, even as workplace technology and processes steadily improve, many professionals feel less productive than ever.

It may seem a paradox, but these very tools are undermining our ability to get work done. They are causing us to become paralyzed by the dizzying number of options that they spawn.

Is there a way out of this quandary? Yes, but it’s not going to come from the usual quarters. To be successful in the new world of work, we need to create a structure for capturing, clarifying and organizing all the forces that assail us; and to ensure time and space for thinking, reflecting and decision making.

Read the complete article here, or on page 1 of the March 18 print edition’s Business Day section.

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“I’m overwhelmed by the amount of email I have to handle.” Many people are dealing with this situation every day, these days. They’re trying to do more, in less time. Maybe they’re even having to do the work that others were doing before the economy changed, and so many companies downsized.

You may have heard the buzz about urban hipsters getting back to a simpler time by relaxing mentally in an idyllic, low-tech cabin.

But it’s not just urbanites who feel the pressure. People who commute from the suburbs, or work at home, or already live in a rural cabin are also looking for ways to get a break from the volume of work and personal input—email, voicemail, calls, meetings, and more. Anyone who lives on the grid needs an up-to-date method for productively managing life’s input, so there’s still time for reflection. Sound familiar?

It’s natural that people who are interested in being more productive look to GTD for solutions. GTD’s systematic approach relieves the stress, and makes the busy-ness of our modern lives sustainable. Like a cabin on a mind-like-water lake.

(Please note that the cabin site may load slowly. It has lots of pictures, and—ironically—lots of traffic.)

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Are there times when it’s more effective for you to relax than pressure yourself?  After you read this quote from David Allen, please post your comments on how you handle this self-management challenge.

“What compounds the challenges of the self-management game is that often the most effective thing to do feels like the last thing you’re capable of doing. When you most need to plan is when you least think you have the time. When you most need to relax is when you feel most pressured to push hard. And when you most need to deal with cleaning up the minutiae of your life is when you feel most compelled to try to stay focused on something ‘more strategic.’”

—David Allen, Making It All Work

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David Allen says that he “created GTD out of a personal desire to be freer with more space and energy in my life and let go of whatever was holding me back from…whatever. I would bet that for some of you, your resistance to fully embracing GTD is not about GTD or your ability to implement it, but comes from your resistance to letting go of your familiar structures, even if they are constricting you. So, what would it take for you to be free to feel free?”

DAVID’S FOOD FOR THOUGHT

ARE YOU FREE TO FEEL FREE?

If you want to have the feeling of freedom regularly, you’ve got to get used to it. Literally.

What’s the greatest obstacle to living in the relaxed state of mind that is possible with the methods I coach? People simply aren’t used to it. And anything your nervous system experiences as unique or unusual will likely be “rejected” unconsciously in short order, because it is not in the comfort zone.

This excerpt is from a recent issue of David’s Productive Living newsletter. It’s free and sent about every 4 weeks. You’ll find essays from David Allen, thought-provoking quotes, and productivity tips you can use every day.

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The Atlantic’s Media Diet series asks well-known people how they deal with what seems like an overwheleming amount of stuff to read.  Here’s how David Allen responded when asked what he reads.
 

David Allen: What I Read

How do people deal with the torrent of information pouring down on us all? What sources can’t they live without? We regularly reach out to prominent figures in media, entertainment, politics, the arts and the literary world, to hear their answers. This is drawn from a conversation with David Allen, author of the New York Times bestseller Getting Things Done and founder of David Allen Co.

I have one of the more non-traditional schedules so the only thing I do regularly is wake up. And even that’s questionable. But the first thing I typically do is open my iPad to The New York Times, read an article or two on the front page and then check out the Dining & Wine or Business Day section. 

For magazines, I just love The Atlantic, and I’m not just saying that. I get the print edition and the digital version on my iPad and I often read each issue cover to cover. I also love The Week in print because of its expansive and in-depth take on the week’s events. Every so often I’ll get through The Economist but that’s usually only when I’m in travel mode.

Click here to read the full article.

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