David Allen describes the difference between what you’ll find on a next action list and a to do list:

90+ % of the to do lists I’ve seen are incomplete inventories of still-unclear things.  The Next Action definition (if you’re really getting down to having no ambiguity about the next visible physical activity required to move something forward), actually finishes the thinking you’ve implicitly agreed with yourself that you’ll do.  “Mom” is an unclarified to do item.  But when “Mom” is translated into “Celebrate Mom’s birthday with a party” as a project outcome, then “Call Sis about what we should do for Mom’s birthday” is a clear next action.  Because “Mom” is vague, it still triggers stress when you look at it on a list.  “Call Sis . . . ” triggers action and positive engagement.

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You will experience unnecessary mental fatigue and numbness in your environments and organizational systems by simply mixing up things that represent different agreements with yourself.  – David Allen

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A Community Contribution from Erik Hanberg

There’s an idea I’ve read about when it comes to how different kinds of people schedule their day.  It’s maker versus manager.  Like me, many people work as both maker and manager.

Managers tend to schedule in one hour blocks.  There’s usually not a question about whether or not there’s a meeting at 2:00; it’s a question of who that meeting is with.

Makers tend to think in half-day blocks, scheduling three, four, or more hours for a single task.  Writing, coding, creative problem solving, etc., are all done best with a lot of hours put toward them all at once.

I’ve found the same tension in my own schedule as well.  Some of my work makes perfect sense in hour-long segments.  But some of it really needs to be in half-day chunks: building websites really requires at least two hours of solid attention to get anything significant accomplished, and often more.

I’ve gotten much better at scheduling meetings to give me the half-day chunks I want for coding or writing.  Here are some of the ways I’ve balanced it:

• [Read more →]

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Deciding that you’re not going to do something is a subtle and critical component of Getting Things Done and is one of the most challenging aspects of self-management. – David Allen

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Want to have more energy and space to do what’s important to you? Consider getting rid of what’s no longer working for you. In the latest issue of Productive Living, David Allen shares some ideas that help you wrap up the current year and get ready for the next.

DAVID’S FOOD FOR THOUGHT

GOOD RIDDANCE

It’s time to purge.

The end of a year and start of the new is a great metaphorical event you can use to enhance a critical aspect of your constructive creativity—get rid of everything that you can.

Keep reading David’s article.

Subscribe to Productive Living. It’s free and sent about every 3 weeks.  You’ll find lots of great productivity tips, tricks and strategies.

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We received this email from Paul, about his journey from chaos to productivity with GTD:

GTD has transformed (and I do mean transformed) my life.  From chaos and stress two years ago, I have found peace and order today, mainly as a result of implementing GTD across my life.

It occurred to me recently when watching one of David’s talks where he explained that we are all trying to operate in a digital world with a stone-age brain, that there are a lot of parallels between physical and mental exercise. We need both in this world we have created that evolution has not prepared us for.  In the face of this challenge it’s as though GTD and mindfulness are to the mind as cardio and weights are to the body.

Thank you for all you guys do.

Best wishes,

Paul

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A Community Contribution from Erik Hanberg

For me, one of the easiest and yet most difficult concepts of David Allen’s Getting Things Done was thinking of everything as work.

After all, who wants to work all the time? But I quickly learned there was strength in the idea.

As I was implementing GTD for the first time, I understood the concept as a way to make sure that I didn’t lose track of the fun things in life. [Read more →]

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“Use your mind to think about your work, instead of thinking of it.

Your mind does not remember or remind very well, compared to what a good system can manage.  What it does do well is review options and available information and then put together “how-tos.”  It’s not free to do that if it’s trying to remember and remind. Without an airtight system, it must work at a lower level than it should and becomes a misused resource.”

-David Allen

Excerpted from Ready For Anything

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Q: How did you get involved in GTD and workflow coaching, and what motivates you to continue?

David Allen: When I started out doing management consulting, I was interested in thinking/processing models that worked universally to provide value and improve conditions for people and organizations. That, combined with my own awareness of the strategic and psychological value of clear space had me quickly develop a way to research and apply a set of best practices that invariably worked for the executives and entrepreneurs I worked with. I’m continually motivated to keep doing this work, because it never stops being quite transformational for anyone who applies the principles, and there are few things I’ve ever come across that provide as much reward for so little risk.

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No matter what level or field we find ourselves on, whether it is the corporate/professional aspect or our personal/home life, we set priorities and act on what we think is important. We could call that “simplifying” our lives. And by that we do not mean lowering our standards, but rather focusing on the ones that are most important to us.

This same world view somehow seems to be plagued with jargon about priorities: how to set them, how to classify them, and how to sort them out. It claims to give us a sense that we are somehow in control. Several of my clients are feeling overwhelmed by the amount of the stuff they have to process and even more so as their resources to make the things they need to make happen get reduced, sometimes to the point of scarcity. So their question is “how do I set my priorities in any given day, so I know I am not wasting my time? So I know I am doing the right thing?”  The underlying question may well be, “How do I know that I am in control, so that what I am doing is the most relevant; the one that adds the most value?” [Read more →]

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