Click on the link below to get a free podcast of David Allen’s conversation with Charles Duhigg. Come on in to the mind of an investigative journalist with a GTD spin on it. Duhigg, a multiple award-winning reporter for the New York Times and author of The Power of Habit, talks with David about his career and how he does his work, his dedication to GTD, and the fascinating discoveries he has researched in the arena of habits and how we can change them.
http://www.davidco.com/individuals/podcasts

2 Comments »

“You’ve gotta keep control of your time,” Buffett says, “and you can’t unless you say no. You can’t let people set your agenda in life.”

Fast Company has an article on Why Productive People Have Empty Schedules. Buffett and other leaders emphasize the importance of saying “no” in taking control of your schedule.

GTD emphasizes the value of having a complete and current inventory of your commitments.  That way you’ll know what you can say yes to, and when saying no is more productive.

1 Comment »

Earned Attention, by Klaas Weima, is an interactive handbook for social communication in the digital age. David Allen contributed his thoughts on how to make this “digital cocktail party” work for you.

There you are. Staring at your screen. Your smartphone in your hand, laptop in front of you and a pile of papers on your desk. All ‘to do’. As quickly and as accurately as possible. David Allen can help.

David Allen is well known for his simplicity. With a few simple rules you can change your behaviour and get a grip on your overloaded inbox. Allen prevents you from drowning in the flood of messages.

This interview covers the following topics:
1. How do you keep more than one million Twitter followers happy?
2. The simplicity and logic of the GTD methodology.
3. Besides practical also spiritual tips.
4. Why you should see your smartphone as a bucket.
5. In five steps from unrest to overview.

The interview is available here. (May take a couple of minutes to download.) And click the Play button below for an overview of Earned Attention.

No Comments »

David Allen’s interview with Dose of Leadership is now available as a free podcast.

Highlights from this Podcast:

• David gives an overview of the Getting Things Done (GTD) Process and how you can get started today.
• GTD is less about organization and more about “Freeing space in the mind”.
• Leaders at every level need to free up bandwidth to maximize their leadership potential.
• David discusses his famous “Mind Like Water” concept.

2 Comments »

This excerpt is from an interview that Mike Williams, President and CEO of David Allen Company, did with Inc.

 

 

 

OWNER’S MANUAL | Jeff Haden  Mar 5, 2013

Best Way to Start, Well, Anything

The road to success starts with asking–and answering–one simple question.

To be more productive and truly engage other people, always start with that one question: What does a wildly successful outcome for this meeting, this project, this sales call, etc. look like?

Don’t start anything until you know the answer.

Read the full article here.

No Comments »

Epipheo.TV talked with David Allen about how to hack through your to-do list and free up your mind to focus on what’s most important to you. It’s a very short, very fun video.

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

1 Comment »

Question: At what point did answering email become my job?

David Allen’s answer: Well, at what point did answering anything—your mail, having conversations in your hallway—become your job? It’s all your job. You just have to decide what your work is. As the late, great Peter Drucker said, that’s your biggest job, to define what your work is.

So how do you define what your work is, and therefore should you be doing that? The good news about this overwhelm is that it’s forcing people to make executive decisions that they never felt like they had to make before. “I need to do everything that comes my way.” No, you can’t anymore, sorry. You are going to have to do triage. That means you are going to have to have a conversation with your boss. You are going to have to show up with a list of everything he or she has given you and have a conversation. “Gee, thanks for these new things, can we talk? Because I am not going to be able to do them all.” It’s forcing those kinds of conversations.

That’s why people have this attraction/repulsion to GTD. It ain’t lightweight stuff. If you are really going to work this, that’s what’s going to start to show up.

Excerpted from David’s interview with Xconomy.com.

1 Comment »

David Allen did a live Q&A with Fast Company today.  Click here to see the questions that were submitted, along with David’s answers.  From runway to projects to goals, there are plenty of examples of how people like you are applying GTD in their lives.

No Comments »

David Allen will be doing a live Q&A with Fast Company.

GTD! Q&A With “Getting Things Done” Author David Allen Live

Join Fast Company as we chat with the popular productivity expert.

Join Fast Company on Tuesday, November 20th at 3pm ET for a live Q&A with David Allen, author of Getting Things Done.

Click here at 3pm ET on November 20th.

No Comments »

This is a different spin on email overload, from David Allen’s interview with Wade Roush of Xconomy.

Punching the “Clear Your Head” Button

Xconomy: To me one of the most obvious irritants today is e-mail. The average number of emails that an office worker gets is around 125 a day and is going up at 15 percent per year. Do you feel that your system is capable of coping with that level of incoming volume?

DA: As opposed to what? Stopping getting it? Or letting it pile up and blow up on you? What are your options?

X: It just seems to me that e-mail overload presents an opportunity for innovation.

DA: Well, here’s another spin that you could put on this. [Read more →]

No Comments »