By Steve Borsch

In a time when uncertainty is accelerating, budgets have been cut and revenues downtrending, threats from terrorism and epidemics (e.g., avian flu) are increasingly driving companies and individuals to better anticipate and manage risk, we all need better tools. The embrace of the Getting Things Done system by an ever increasing number of individuals and organizations — and those of us who recognize that collaboration is more critical than ever before — continue to seek tools that are easy to use, fast, intuitive while helping us to be more productive, creative and efficient, especially as we’re increasingly mobile.

The mobile reality is that more of us are accelerating our mobile and multiple internet-connected device usage (e.g., laptops or smartphones accessing over wifi or wireless cellular networks) — while still desiring the use of data that originates on our desktop machines or that which resides online in the ‘cloud’ — and you have the key motivators that were behind the creation of a new, collaborative application with a GTD twist.

A successful entrepreneur and chief technologist (he was formerly CTO of HighJump Software), CEO Steve Kickert’s Riverock Technologies recently launched OnePlace, an online collaboration and GTD tool that has a good shot at being a hub positioned directly in the sweet spot of what’s needed today.

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Mac Alert: This setup would work for Mac users only.

David Allen recommends that you always have Material that you want to read separately stacked or filed in a “To Read” shelf or a “To Read” tray or “To Read” folder. Well, what about the material to which you would like to listen or watch? During the many hours that you spend traveling from home to office or the many business trips that you might be taking, if you are in the mood to listen to or watch something, what do you do? Do you force feed yourself the material that’s lying around in the plane or just randomly play something in your iPod? Well here’s a step by step guide to always having just the stuff you would like “to hear” or “to watch” in your iPod.

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Rob Thompson, an obvious fan of GTD has taken the time to compile a fairly exhaustive list of GTD related content, sites and resources.  There are sites on here even I haven’t seen before so I’m sure there are plenty of resources you’ll find useful too.  You might as well take a fifteen minute break right now and check it out.  Productivity porn at its finest!  (Even if Rob did leave out GTDtimes.  I’m trying <sniff> not to take that personally)

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Editor’s Note:  Here’s a short inspirational post by GTD Facilitator Maurice Gavin.  He challenges himself as well as all of us to ask ourselves a tough question; Why Not?  He doesn’t stop there, either.  He goes on to ask “What if?”  In your life you may only get a few moments where the answer to these questions can change your own future or possibly even everyone’s future.  Back when I was still racing my bike, a great Italian Champion, Francesco Moser said something to me that changed my career forever.  He said to me “to win the big races you must first risk losing them.”  I think that Maurice is making the same point only on a bigger and more important canvas than simply winning a bike race.  Take Maurice up on his challenge and ask yourself these two big questions.  For the courageous among you, how about sharing your answers in the comments below?  The best answers - according to Maurice, myself and some of the other GTDtimes contributors will get something nice from DavidCo for being so brave…

“What if you really could achieve the dreams  you conceive for yourself and your corner of this world?”

“What if you could overcome any obstacle set  before you in your life and in the lives of others at will and on  demand?”

 ”What if you saw every problem as an  opportunity to face yourself, overcome yourself and expand yourself without  fear or uncertainty during the process?”

 ”What if you could inspire others by your  example to change themselves for the better and to want to model your success  and your personal standards of integrity and excellence?”

As I write this I am doing so to challenge myself as much as to reach out to you the reader.

I have moved past

“What if”

and am now asking

“Why not?”

In fact, to be honest I am now saying to myself, if even in a whisper,

“Why not now? Right now?”

Regardless of what you do or think about this or anything else…

“What are the questions that are secretly  plaguing you from within?”

 ”What would you try anew if you were guaranteed  you couldn’t fail?”

“What is the highest level you could achieve across the  various spectrum of your life’s experiences if you were to intensify your  focus and apply yourself without regard for time required or the fear of  failure?”

What If and Why Not Right Now…!

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Frank Tomizuka has just posted a great tutorial on how to make your very own hipster PDA over at Instructables - the world’s largest “How To” website.  For those of you that have never heard of a Hipster PDA, Merlin Mann introduced the idea over at 43Folders way back in September of 2004.  If you’d like a decidedly lower tech solution instead of a high tech device this may be just what you’re looking for…

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