A Community Contribution from Erik Hanberg

Here’s how I deal with email and keep from getting too overloaded:

1. I have one inbox. Everything goes to the same place (accounts either forward to Gmail or I’ve actually set Gmail up to reply from those accounts).
2. I only check email when I can reply to it easily. Unless I’m waiting for something specific, I try not to check email from my phone, because it’s a recipe for getting an email that requires a length reply that I don’t have the time to give on my phone. And that just stresses me out until I can reply appropriately.
3. I don’t use preview windows. It’s too easy to only get half the information and miss important stuff. When I used Outlook for work, this happened way more often that I would have liked. I thought it was a feature, but it turns out it wasn’t helpful at all. It made me browse email more than read email.
4. When I do check email, I start at the bottom and move my way up, going through email one at a time in the order sent. It’s the only way to know I haven’t missed anything.
5. I know my hot keys. By not using a mouse, I fly through emails much faster.
6. If I can reply quickly, I’ll do it right then. If I need to think on it, or know it will be a long reply with lots of edits, I’ll star it (a Gmail feature), so I don’t lose track of it. Alternatively, if you have folders, just move it to an Action folder.
7. Two or three times a year I’ll unsubscribe to newsletters I’m not using anymore. It’s amazing how easy it is to get onto newsletters without really trying.

Google says that Priority Inbox “automatically identifies your important email and separates it out from everything else, so you can focus on what really matters.”

So, what does David Allen say about this kind of tool and the questions about something that sorts your inbox being “anti-GTD?”

Having email sorting/filtering would be anti-GTD if you use it to avoid decision-making, but not if it’s just for evaluating what kind of attention to put on something. Using colors for certain people’s emails in  Lotus Notes (as I do) would also be “anti-GTD” if you never dealt with the non-colored ones. We’re not officially endorsing or recommending this.  Just saying it’s something that you can make work.  – David Allen

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.

I was the guy on the back row when you asked ‘How do these unfinished things make you feel?’ replied with ‘a failure’.

I’ve been using the concepts learned in class to process my work and personal email. (I use Exchange for work – GMail for personal.)  I have a shared Google calendar my wife and personal friends can see.  This lets them know when I am available and when I am taking personal time.

All I can say is wow.

I now leave work with an inbox of ZERO knowing that everything is in its place and I get reminded about everything.   I can now think about where I am and the moment.

Result:

• This past month I became / finished a Six Sigma Orange Belt Project (first in my department to do so).
• Working on a book for small businesses to be available via Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kindle, Nook, and Apple’s iTunes store.
• Earlier this year, as a result of looking at time / scheduling, my lovely bride signed me up for a fitness boot camp — at 5 a.m.
• I will be taking a boxing class right along side ‘professional’ boxers.  This would have been unthinkable a year ago.
• I’m doing consulting work for local non-profits and churches.  Two groups I have a fondness for.
• And, most importantly, we’re expecting our first addition to the family in December.

I’m thankful for GTD.  This has brought me out a chaotic state and into a ‘mind like water’ focus.

You can hear how David uses his new iPad on the latest Up Close with David podcast series on GTD Connect.

For those of you on Mac, our recommendation is OmniFocus. For those of you on PC or using Web-based apps, we have not vetted an iPhone application yet.  Rest assured, we’re working hard on this and will be sure to make an announcement when we find something that passes our rigorous vetting process.  Here are the only software applications that have earned David Allen’s recommendation.  And of those, just the Netcentrics GTD® Outlook® Add-In and eProductivity™ for Lotus Notes® have earned the coveted “GTD-Enabled” distinction.

In the meantime, tap into the wisdom and personal experience of your fellow GTDers by reading the many discussions about this :

• on GTD Times
• on our Getting Things Done Forums
• on our GTD Facebook Fan Page
• on our LinkedIn GTD Enthusiasts group

A Community Contribution from April Perry

The first day of school started out great.  My three oldest children dressed in their new clothes, laced up their new shoes, ate a healthy breakfast, and then headed off to school with homemade sack lunches and brightly-colored, fully-stocked pencil cases.  I felt like a wonderful mom.

They returned home seven hours later, happy but tired, toting folders overflowing with paperwork, and that’s when MY work started (I mean…continued).  As I shuffled through more than 50 sheets of fliers, forms, and date-specific notices, I started to feel a little dizzy.  The pile on my counter harbored a LOT of information, most of which needed my attention right that minute.  I was tempted to break into tears or bury my head in a carton of Rocky Road, but then I thought, “Wait a minute.  I’ve been trained in GTD.  I was MADE for situations like this.”  

Within 30 minutes, the papers were completely processed, and I was ready to move on with our evening.  And since I had such a glorious experience with my paper party, I thought I’d share some ideas that might help other moms manage the near-constant influx of papers that comes flying from their children’s backpacks.

Shall we begin?

Step #1: I did a quick initial sort, pulling everything out of the pile that belonged in the trash.  That was actually half the pile, since all three of my children received identical copies of each handout (maybe they’ll go digital someday?).  By removing the trash at the beginning, the remaining stack looked much less daunting.

Step #2: I went through the stack again and processed everything that would take two minutes or less.  I typed the teachers’ email addresses into my Contacts list, noted the date of the school’s 5K, and recorded all of the holiday breaks onto my calendar.  That eliminated seven or eight more sheets of paper.

Step #3: I gathered all the sheets I wanted to keep for reference (bell schedules, classroom rules, details about the school exercise program, etc.) and put them immediately into my filing cabinet in a clearly-labeled folder…just in case I need to find them quickly in the future.

Step #4: I made a decision on the school picture order form and then wrote a reminder on the next day’s calendar page to order the photos online (doing so enabled me to receive a few extra photos free of charge.  Wasn’t that a nice of them?).

Step #5: I got out my Next Actions list and recorded the three extra school supplies my daughter needed in the “Errands” context.

Step #6: I spread out all nine of the emergency cards and a few extra forms on the table, and my children and I filled them out together.  They wrote their names, address, phone number, etc., and then I added a few additional pieces of information and my signature.

That was it!  Piece of cake, right?  There’s no need to stress when you’re a “black-belt” at paper processing.

There was one little boy in my daughter’s Kindergarten class a few years ago whose mother NEVER emptied his backpack.  I’m serious.  Every morning, he came to school with a bulging backpack–full of paperwork that had been piling up for months.  I knew his mom a little bit, and I don’t think she was trying to be neglectful.  I think she just felt overwhelmed with her own paperwork and problems, and unzipping a backpack of “stuff” would have thrown her over the edge.

I feel like part of my mission in life is to help the moms of the world to get organized.  It takes some work, but it’s not that complicated, and the basic ideas presented in Getting Things Done have the power to make life much, much easier–whether it’s the first day of school or simply the first day of the rest of your life.

April Perry is the mother of four children and co-director of www.powerofmoms.com. She is a regular contributor to GTD Times.

Dear Danny,

First of all, thanks for a great class!  I really enjoyed it.  You are an awesome instructor – very engaging and really good at demonstrating practical applications of the GTD concept.

I will admit that I was a bit skeptical about the GTD concept as I have taken time management courses before and was never able to make the concepts work in the fast paced/put out 100 fires every day work of IT training development/delivery and IT technical support.  I wondered how constructed the  responses from people having implemented GTD saying “GTD changed my life!” were.  But hey, I will try anything once – twice if I like it.  So about a week after the class – I took two evenings (about 2 hours each day) and did the mind sweep, Outlook task setup, etc. following the guides and what we learned in class.  I also included home, family, and such in the setup.  I finished on a Friday evening and for the first time in my career – I will say it again – for the FIRST time in my career  – I went home and didn’t think ONCE about work!!!  That weekend I was even able to accomplish many of the little “@Home” tasks that had been swirling around in my head as needing to be done, but I would forget because I had not written them down and scheduled them.

Before GTD I was stressed out and down to the last minute on completing many of my tasks, not from procrastination but from lack of organization.  With GTD, I am now so “up to date” and “on track” with my projects and tasks that I have even received several “Thanks for the fast response!” emails and comments from several co-workers and upper management!!!  I am even able to quickly gather “Completed Tasks” for my monthly notes and program review reporting to management.  I completed my two sets of monthly reporting charts in record time because all of the information was literally at my fingertips!!!

I feel such a weight off my shoulders that I am still amazed every day at how well GTD works.  There are not words to describe the feeling of elation of going home each night and not worrying about work and what needs to be done.  I know it is all captured and ready for me to address tomorrow.  To be able to actually focus on my family and home life without work raging through my head is quite an amazing feeling.  I have even found time to take up training 3 times a week to run a 5K coming up in Oct.  My next short term goal – and yes it is on my GTD list – is to run a 10K next Spring and next long term goal is to run a Half Marathon next year in the Fall.  I have “Run a Full Marathon” in my 30,000 level “Someday/Maybe” list (not sure I will like running that much!).

GTD is working so well for me that I have asked my team to sign up for the next available GTD class and I will be sharing the concept and how it is working for me – doing what they do – with them at our offsite in October.  Some are getting a taste with the Outlooks “Assign Task” from my GTD list that they are getting from me already.

The two quotes from class that ring so true to me are:

“Your ability to generate power is directly proportional to your ability to relax.” – David Allen
“You can only feel good about what you are not doing, when you know what you are not doing.” – David Allen

So I can say without a doubt and with much enthusiasm that “GTD changed my life!”

GTD has changed my life so much at work that I actually felt guilty at first because I was not feeling that ever present swirl of turmoil in my head at all the things I needed to be doing that I figured I must not have enough to do.  LOL!!!  I soon came to realize that is the beauty of GTD – like you said – “mind clearing” – an amazing feeling to say the least.

Thank you again for a great class and when you see David Allen – give him a good ole’ Southern hug and a great big THANK YOU for me please!!!

• The habits and rituals to create
• What to do when you fall “off” GTD
• Creating a trusted home base for yourself
• Creating a supportive environment around you

We’re giving away 5 seats to attend this Webinar to the first 5 people who reply with a comment (directly on GTD Times–not other feed sites) letting us know one thing you’ve implemented with GTD that has worked well for you.

Q: I’m in sales and have a customer relationship management system (CRM) whereby we add reminders to call people back and or manage projects as they relate to people there. I use Microsoft Outlook as well to keep all of my projects and contexts in one place. My question is how would you blend these two together?

A: I can very much appreciate this question since we seem to be hearing about this overlap more and more. Sales management systems, sometimes referred to as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, have come a long way in the past 10-15 years. They not only can help an individual or team track progress, agreements and forecasting in one, interwoven place, but they can also help automate some of the workflow that happens between team members in a company. They tend to be fairly contact / company centric in that records and reference about certain conversations and emails sent in the sales cycle are kept in relationship to specific contacts or sales initiatives. For example, when John in sales confirms in the CRM that the sale has been closed and inputs the various parameters of the sale, then other key members of the product team might be automatically emailed or otherwise triggered to carry out the next specific step in the process to start delivering the product to that specific customer.

I have a unique role here at the David Allen Company in that I’m not only a coach, but I’m also responsible selling and booking a good amount of our coaching services. We happen to have also just upgraded our own CRM system in the past year. So I have seen our own exploration of exactly this subject through the lens of our entire business development team and how we’ve grown to use our new system.

Here’s the bottom line: Based on what you wrote –- that you keep your projects and actions in one place in Outlook –- it would probably make sense to keep it that way. The key distinction here is to look at everything in your CRM as either reference or active project support material, and everything in your outlook calendar and lists as your agreement management system. Yes, you may need to occasionally double-enter some information in Outlook and in a record in the CRM, but in my experience, this should be minimal. This is the way I happen to work with these two components.

This can get dicey if your team or company is actually using the CRM as the way to communicate requests and workflow triggers to each other. If this is the case, you’ll probably either 1) need to make sure to process that “inbox” of new messages and requests from with the CRM to your Outlook system, or 2) make it so that any specific workflow requests or messages from colleagues from within the CRM get automatically emailed to your regular inbox so that you can process them just like everything else.

I’m sure there are some very valid exceptions to what I wrote above. It’s likely that some fairly sophisticated folks have created work-around so that they can actually use their CRM as the entire GTD task/project management system. However, in our experience, that can get pretty clunky pretty quickly, especially if the projects and actions you want to manage through the CRM are not related to any specific contacts or companies.

This article originally appeared in Coaches’ Connection on GTD Connect, our online learning center.  Not a member? Try the 2-week free guest pass.  You’ll find dozens of articles like this in our Coaches’ Connection feature.

This 45 page Guide, created by David Allen and the senior coaches, will show you how to:

• Manage your email effectively on the BlackBerry–including how to get email to zero
• Use BlackBerry Tasks for your Projects and Actions–including descriptions and examples of what goes on different lists
• Use the Calendar as a critical foundation for actions–with shortcuts for switching between different views
• Create useful reference lists in MemoPad–for managing the “non-action” part of your life as well
• Move faster with speed keys and shortcuts–referenced throughout the Guide and on handy quick reference sheet
• Navigate around the BlackBerry easily–with tips on customizing some settings to match the way you work

*210 MM wide and 297 MM tall (about 8 1/4 x 11 3/4 inch), used in Europe, and rest of the world, except the US and some neighboring countries where ‘letter-size’ paper (8 1/2 x 11 inch) is used.

A Community Contribution from Nuno Donato on how he used the GTD Horizons of Focus model to gain clarity about a life change

About one and a half year ago I moved from a busy big city “A”: to a smaller one in the country side “B” to develop a project with an organization I volunteer with. My life changed in many ways due to this, and I enjoyed it a lot. Recently, lots of things on the personal and professional level changed and I felt that it might be good to go back to A.  Lots of things were involved in this, as some people and projects depend on where I am. I spent the last 3 months with the question of where should I be, on my mind. I tried getting all possible arguments, opinions, made a list of pros and cons, but nothing could really assure me that I was making a good decision. It was like my gut feeling was telling me not to trust anything. Sometimes my mind would give me some arguments in favor of A, my heart would ask me to stay in B…. and after a week they would switch places .  So it was getting very confusing and difficult to me.

Finally I thought, why not to use GTD to solve this problem? It was a wise decision! After a good weekly review I made a deep dive into my horizons of focus synchronizing my life with my mind and my heart at different levels. After I finished the map (mind-mapping is my favorite tool to do the horizons of focus), I took a look at the whole picture of my life and asked the question again, where should I go? The answer came it 2 seconds, and it was so crystal-clear that I could not believe it!

Being aware of where we are and where we are going short-and-mid term, knowing what is our purpose here, is such a valuable tool to make decisions that I can not thank David enough for giving us this! By the way, the answer was quite interesting: I will move to A for 2-3 years in order to accomplish some short-term goals which are very important, and then move back to B to walk in the direction of my long term goals and how I see myself living.

Take care,
Nuno

You can learn more about the Horizons of Focus in Getting Things Done and Making It All Work.

Coach Janet Riley: Writing everything down is a great first step.  All those “notes” where you’ve captured and collected what’s in your head, need to be put into an “IN” box and then within a day or two they need to be “processed” so that you make decisions about what the work is to be done (an email to send, a call to make, etc.).  Once you process them, put reminders of the work to be done in your Next Action lists or on your calendar.  If you travel, your “IN” box can be a folder, for example. On a regular basis, stop to gather up any notes, business cards, loose papers, etc. that you might have left in a pocket, briefcase, wallet, or which are still on a notepad (tear them off) and put all those in the “IN” box or tray to be processed.  You can read more about Collection and Processing best practices in David’s first book Getting Things Done and we have loads of Webinars and educational resources on GTD Connect about this.

Listen to David’s podcast on the Mind Sweep process for clearing your head. Check out the GTD System Folders or create your own.

Does your employer block productivity apps on your BlackBerry, iPhone, or Android Smartphone?

With the recent discussions about Apps and how consumers want the freedom to find, evaluate, and purchase Apps for their Smartphones, I wonder how many users are able download and use a productivity application and how many have policies that prevent them from doing so.

If you found a productivity application for your mobile device that was proven to increase your performance, would you: a) be allowed to install it? b) encounter resistance (or refusal) from IT to allow you to install it? c) make a business case to management for why this App should be allowed?

Please take a moment to take the quick poll then scroll down to share your comments.

I’m not asking whether you think Smartphones connected to enterprise systems should be locked down or not – there are many valid arguments for both sides of that discussion. What I most want to know is what the current climate is like when it comes to productivity applications on mobile devices and what organizations are doing to encourage/permit or discourage/restrict users from downloading and using productivity applications on their mobile devices.

- David Allen

Coach Wayne Pepper: From our perspective, project management tools are good for Project Support, not necessarily Next Action lists though.  In other words, if I have a project that is so complex and intertwined that it needs to be broken down into several sub-projects–many of which are contingent upon one another–then that kind of tool is a really good tool for supporting that project by capturing all those moving parts and pieces, and identifying how they relate to one another.  Those tools are not as good however, for capturing  and contextually categorizing all the discrete, granular next actions which support all those moving parts and pieces.  A simple list manager is often a better central hub for organizing ALL of your Next Action–related and not related to your projects.

Watch the Webinar Wayne did for our GTD Connect members on Organizing Project Plans.

I refuse to use the word “busy” because in this day and age we are all in the same boat. This year has been an enlightening one for me so far. Truthfully, I decided a couple months ago to take a step back from the constant search to improve. I found myself constantly reading books on getting better at work and life. Also, consistently reading GTD material and listening to podcasts, etc. While this worked for a long time and I tangibly saw the benefits of my learning, I found that it became a vicious pursuit of perfection. The pursuit of perfection is what most of us are after. It’s a noble pursuit. However, it can be an addicting one as well. You can really equate it to a drug addict or alcoholic in some ways. I found myself constantly reading. Finishing one book and picking up the next. Constantly thinking about how to achieve this or to achieve that. At the end of the day, this pursuit of perfection is all about a future state. I found it very difficult to enjoy what was happening in the now.

As I got to this saturation point, I literally stopped reading, stopped writing and stopped researching ways to get better. I didn’t stop working hard, both at work and life, but I decided to just work for the now. To really see if all that I’ve learned and have applied via GTD and other methods was working w/out constantly needing a “coach” around. It’s almost like a golfer who always has his swing coach with him, or his trainer, or his mental coach. While all serve a great purpose, can that golfer produce results on his own? Can he go to the range and figure out how to change his swing w/out someone telling him? When he pulls his drive into the trees late in a round, is he mentally strong enough to recover and execute on his own?

The long and short of it is this. The time that you spend away from the chase is more important than the daily pursuit of whatever it is you’re trying to accomplish. I firmly believe that. When you take a day off of work, don’t check your BlackBerry. When you’re on vacation, disconnect as much as possible. When you go to your kid’s soccer game, don’t even bring your phone with you — leave it in the car. When you’ve been working your butt off at the gym all week, take a day off and eat whatever you want. It will make it that much easier to get after it the following week. If you’re married and have kids, step back and don’t feel guilty about going away for a weekend with your husband or wife. It will make you a better parent and partner.

The same goes for GTD. Back off a bit. You don’t have to be perfect. Your systems are going to get out of whack. You’re email’s going to be out of control at times. Your office inbox is going to overflow. The key is to trust what you’ve learned. Trust that you can back off and apply your knowledge to getting yourself back on your game. It’s in this trust that the potential stresses of the craziness subside.

Be well and, again, thanks for sticking with me during this hiatus.

“Happiness is not in the pursuit, for it is in the silent corridors of this thing we call life.” – Unknown

I’ve been using GTD principles since I was first introduced to them in 1994-95. I was part of a consulting group at Polaroid responsible for supporting cross-functional new product development teams in the areas of effectiveness, organizational learning, and functional expertise. After some research, a colleague found the Time/Design system, and before long we had arranged for David Allen to come in and deliver what was then called the “MAP Seminar.” I don’t exaggerate when I say it changed my life, and I have applied the questions “What’s the desired outcome?” and “What’s the next action?” to every conceivable personal and professional issue since.

The thing that astounds me most about GTD is the fact that, 25 years later, I discover nuances and have epiphanies on a regular basis – this is truly an organic approach that grows with the user. My latest epiphany came a few weeks ago and concerns the dreaded Weekly Review. I thought: “If I feel stress in any given week, it’s because I’m trying to think about several ‘big pictures’ while simultaneously reigning in the chaos that threatens to run away with my sanity!” I realized that my ability to think clearly during the ebb and flow of my days, my ability to be with any input that arises for me, is directly proportional to the time I’ve spent that week in reflection. On a daily basis, I am calmer and more focused when I meditate in the morning. When I say “meditate,” I am using the term loosely – I mean that I’ve been able to have some quiet, non-thinking time either sitting and watching my breath, or perhaps staring out the window or writing in a stream of consciousness way. When I don’t have that little buffer between my sleep state and my full-on, awake, “handling things” state, then I find I’m a little off-kilter.

On a weekly basis, I have the Weekly Review. It is a time to reflect, and not do. Now when I do my Weekly Review, I treat it as a real meeting with a real assistant. When I frame the weekly review as a session, during which I get to delegate to an assistant (rather than figuring out what I need to do) then it takes on a liberating quality instead of feeling like another should. I suppose you could really file this approach under “acting as if,” but whatever you want to call it, it works for me. When I’m delegating to someone, I have to be very clear as to what I want them to do. I can’t vaguely say “Work on the Thompson Project.” I need to give that person specific tasks to accomplish. Tasks that I can review with them the following week in order to determine how much progress has been made. That way I can re-calibrate and re-negotiate if necessary based on “our” available resources. If it seems as though I’ve been over-loading my assistant, and only a few of the intended tasks have been accomplished, then it’s time to take a step back and see why this might be so, and how we might fix it. Obviously this approach can work extremely well between a person and their flesh-and-blood assistant. But it’s an approach that has made a light year of difference in the effectiveness of my own self-review. The Weekly Review becomes less emotionally charged; less about beating up on myself for what I didn’t do, and more about setting myself up for success.

There is nothing like the feeling when I’ve thought through everything on my plate, have decided what needs active attention and what can be put on the back burner, and have subsequently identified precisely what needs to happen to move it all forward. It allows me to be present in each moment, and to move into the daily role of “self-assistant” – fulfilling my “manager’s” requests and not really worrying about much beyond getting things done. How many of us who have been managers haven’t longed for the day when we didn’t have to “worry about stuff all the time”?! The Weekly Review, done consistently and with perhaps a little internal role-playing, has given me the best of both worlds.

Carolyn Sullivan is Director of Marketing for Rosewalker Design Project, which specializes in antique restoration and the creation of mixed media decorative arts. She also works a full 40-hour-plus work week as an Executive Assistant for an international logistics company. She loves to write and play music, read, watch films, and just be.

Question:

Coach Danny Bader: I am evaluating my options for “doing” anytime I have doing time. The first place I look is my calendar to see what specific things I have committed to doing on the day.  The next place I review is my action lists depending on context  — calls, home, computer, etc.  I will also evaluate the volume of new inputs that are in my collection buckets — email, legal pads, etc – to determine if Processing & Organizing is where I need to focus.

During my Weekly Review I do a thorough evaluation of my entire GTD system to ensure that it is clean, current and complete.

This daily engagement with my calendar and action lists — as well as the “deeper” evaluation of my system during the Weekly Review allows me trust that what I am doing is what I should be doing.

Buy the new GTD Implementation Guide in PDF, and David’s first book. Read them carefully and use paper for a few weeks. You will become a far-better informed shopper for any digital solution for managing lists. -  rdgeorge

The GTD Implemenation Guide

David’s first book, Getting Things Done

Coach Kelly Forrister’s article on How to Choose a GTD System

This is an excerpt from a Webinar David did for GTD Connect, our online learning center.

Listen now (20 min)

We have hundreds of audio and video selections like this on GTD Connect, with more added every week.  Hook into the most active Getting Things Done community in the world.  Check out a free guest pass (no credit card required and we won’t nag you when you’re done!)

David: When I say I only think once a week, I’m making an exaggerated point that doing a thorough GTD Weekly Review sufficiently sets up my sense of priorities so that I don’t have to do a lot of re-thinking or over-structuring, as I go day to day.  Usually we don’t have the time in the busy pace we work to stop and do “forest management instead of tree-hugging”.  Because most people don’t build in that reflection time–regarding actions, projects, and commitments–they’re constantly thinking that they should be thinking about their priorities, but they never really do.

A Community Contribution from April Perry

Just about every mother I know has a refrigerator that is completely covered with party invitations, handouts for school assignments, reminders for community events, coupons, and about 50 other things calling out, “Me! Me! Me!”  We’re so afraid of the “out of mind, out of sight” rule, that we want to keep everything that needs our attention smack dab in the middle of the kitchen.

Although this tactic might help us feel slightly organized, the drawbacks greatly outnumber the benefits.  For example, how are moms supposed to calmly make it through the dinner hour when every time they turn around, they’re reminded of all the things they’re not doing?  How are they going to remember which items have associated computer work or which ones require a run to the grocery store?  What happens if an important notice gets buried under alphabet magnets–or stolen by a toddler looking for something to color?  It just doesn’t work.

That’s where the Tickler File comes in.  It saved my life.  I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before, but it’s brilliant.  You just put items that need your attention into date-specific folders, and you “mail” them to yourself.  My stress level has literally been cut in half since I implemented the GTD Tickler system, and as I’ve introduced the idea to my friends (who also have colorfully-decorated refrigerators), their eyes have lit up with excitement at the possibility of finally having a system to keep track of all their madness.

Here are a few Tickler ideas that have worked for me and lots of other moms out there:

(1) Simply take 12 folders and label them January through December.  The “official” way to build a Tickler involves 43 files–31 for days, 12 for months, but some moms feel overwhelmed by such a large number of folders, and they’re so busy dancing from breakfast to clean-up to carpool, that they won’t get around to checking their tickler until everything in it is out of date.  Maybe we’ll try this gain once the children have grown up….

(2) Make sure that everything in your Tickler is referenced on your calendar.  Because moms may not be checking their Tickler every day, they want to be sure to note all “tickled” items on their calendars (which they will be checking every day).  A small capital T with a circle around it is a simple symbol to use.  That way, if the middle school is hosting a holiday dance in December, and if they’ve sent home an order form for photographs at the event, you know exactly what to do with it.  You record the dance time and date on your calendar, put a “Tickler Symbol” next to the event, and place the order form in your December Tickler.  Voila!  No more rushing out the door with keys and corsage–screaming, “How much money do I need to send for photos?”  Sounds nice, doesn’t it?

(3) Use your Tickler to create the family of your dreams.  It’s true…the Tickler has this power.  You know all those ideas you get at the absolute wrong time of year?  The holiday decorations you discover in July?  The summer activities you read about in October?  The New Years’ traditions you dream up on February 27th?  You don’t have to waste those “light bulb moments” anymore.  Write them down, put them in the appropriate month’s Tickler, and write a little trigger on your calendar to “Check Tickler for GREAT ideas.”

The Tickler File works.  It will be one of your best friends.  (And as an added benefit, “Tickler” is fun to say!)  Thank you, David Allen.

April Perry is the mother of four children and co-director of www.powerofmoms.com. She is a regular contributor to GTD Times.

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If you’re ready to stop stressing and start accomplishing your goals, David Allen’s Getting Things Done can help you create a simple, effective personal productivity system.

About David Allen

David Allen is the author of the Personal MBA-recommended book Getting Things Done, as well as Ready For Anything, and Making It All Work. For more information about his work, check out David Allen’s website.

Here are 10 big ideas from David Allen’s Getting Things Done…

1. If your day-to-day life is out of control, it’s almost impossible to think strategically or plan effectively.

When you’re feeling overwhelmed about how much you have to do (and who isn’t, really?), it’s difficult to focus on ensuring your life and work is moving in the direction you want to go. That’s why it’s important to get control of your daily tasks before working on your big-picture life planning.

GTD is a “bottom-up” approach to productivity. The goal is to establish a sense of comfort and control over the work that’s on your plate right now, so you can free up some mental energy and space to think about the big stuff.

2. Define what being “done” looks like.

Most of the tasks people keep on their to-do lists are “amorphous blobs of undoability” – commitments without any clear vision of what being “done” looks like. That’s a huge problem – your brain is naturally designed to help you figure out how to do things, but only if you know what the end point looks like.

Everything you’re working on should have a very clear stopping point – a point where you know you’re done. If you don’t know what that point looks like, you’ll find it very difficult to make any progress at all. When you’re having trouble making progress, first clarify what being done looks like.

3. Mental work has five distinct phases: Collect, Process, Organize, Do, and Review

Not all work is the same. There are five separate phases of effective work:

• Collecting is the act of gathering inputs: resources, knowledge, and tasks. You’ll have a much easier time making use of your available inputs if they’re all in one place before you begin.
• Processing is the act of examining your inputs: what you can do with the resources at your disposal. This is where you start separating things according to what you’re planning to do next: tasks, projects, future plans, and reference information.
• Organizing means taking the results of your processing and putting it in a system you trust, so you don’t have to remember it all. Tasks go on your to-do list, projects go on a projects list, future plans go into a tracking system, and reference information goes into a file or database you can access easily.
• Doing means working through the tasks you can accomplish right now.
• Reviewing means examining the results of your work, revising your strategy, and improving your systems for better results.

Keep the phases deliberately separate, and you’ll get a lot more done.

4. Get everything out of your head.

Many people try to keep track of everything they need to do in their mind, which is a big mistake. Our brains are optimized for fast decision-making, not storage. Trying to juggle too many things in your head at the same time is a major reason we get stressed out when there’s a lot going on: we’re using the wrong tool for the job.

The best way to stop mentally thrashing and start being productive is to spend a few minutes putting everything on your mind onto paper. You can write or draw – whatever works for you, as long as you can see it when you’re done. Once the information is out of your head, it’s far easier to figure out what to do with it. Even 10 minutes of Externalization can help you feel less freaked out about your workload.

Of course, it’s better not to be freaked out in the first place, so make it easy to capture what you’re thinking on paper. I carry a wallet that has a space for 3×5 index cards and a pen – whenever I have an idea, it’s easy to capture it, even if I don’t have my notebook or computer with me at the time. If you reduce the Friction you experience when capturing ideas, you’ll naturally capture more of them.

5. Projects and tasks are two different things: track them separately.

A major mistake that most people make when keeping track of things to do is conflating tasks and projects. That’s a good way to feel overwhelmed fast – many things can’t be accomplished in one sitting.

For example, I just finished the book I’ve been writing for a little over a year. If I had “write the book” on my to-do list, I’d quickly be overwhelmed – the project was just too big. Instead of “failing” to accomplish that to-do for a year, it’s far better to treat it as a project – something that takes more than one task to accomplish. I can’t “write the book,” but I can complete a small section of the book in one sitting.

Since projects and tasks are two different things, it’s best to keep track of them separately. Personally, I carry a small notebook with me to record active tasks with 3×5 index card inside that lists my active projects. The index card is just the right size to list 4-8 active projects – if I have more than that, I know I’m spreading myself too thin.

6. Focus on the Next Action required to move forward.

Big projects have many steps, and can be overwhelming in their complexity. The key to handling these projects is not to focus on everything that has to be done – that’s a great way to freak yourself out.

Instead, just focus on the very next physical action you need to do to move the project forward. It may be looking up a piece of information, making a phone call, or accomplishing a small task. Whatever it is, it’ll move you closer to completing the project, so don’t worry about everything else – focus only on what you can do right now.

7. Use the “2 Minute Rule” for small tasks.

Don’t worry about tracking small tasks – if you can accomplish the task in less than two minutes, just do it! Writing down every little thing you have to do takes more time than it’s worth – if you need to send a 30-second reminder e-mail to someone, there’s no sense in taking 20 seconds to write it down when you could just get er done.

Personally, I expand this to 5 minutes – the principle is the same. Your goal is to get things done, not to flawlessly capture each and every little thing in your perfectly designed system.

8. Use Reference and Someday/Maybe files for things that have no immediate next actions.

There’s no sense in keeping FYI or long-term dreams in your active daily task tracking system. Reference files are great for storing information you don’t have to act on right now. These files can either be physical or electronic – for example, I keep important paperwork and legal documents in a fire-proof safe, and electronic files and websites in a file on my computer or in Evernote.

Someday/Maybe lists are great for deferring ideas that you’d like to work on someday, but you’re not committing to right now. I have ideas about fun new things do to every day – way more than I have time or energy for. Instead of losing these ideas, it’s far better to capture them in a reference file you can look through later, when you have more capacity. When you’re ready to commit to a new project, the someday/maybe gets promoted to an active project.

9. Build a trusted system that helps you keep track of your commitments.

Your mind keeps things in working memory if it thinks you’ll lose them if it doesn’t. That’s why building a productivity system is important – it helps your mind let go of tracking unnecessary details so you can focus on the task at hand. That’s why Externalization works – when you put something on paper in a place you know you’ll be able to find later, you’re freeing mental resources that can be put to better use elsewhere.

An effective productivity system consists of the following:

• A list of active tasks – next actions you’ve committed to accomplishing in the next few days.
• A list of active projects – 4-20 project you’ve committed to accomplishing in the next few weeks.
• A calendar – commitments to meet with other people in the near future.
• A someday/maybe list – ideas you’d like to explore, but not right now.
• Reference files – information or documents you’ll need to refer to in the future.
• A capture device – some way of capturing ideas or next actions as you think of them.

That’s it, really – you can use any number of tools for the above, as long as they cover those basic needs. Personally, I use a notebook for active tasks, a 3×5 index card in that notebook for projects, the calendar on my computer, someday/maybe and reference files in Backpack and Evernote or physical files, and my 3×5-sized wallet for my capture device.

10. Schedule non-negotiable time for a Weekly Review.

Life moves fast – we often have so much to do that’s it’s difficult to take a step back and examine whether or not we’re getting the results we want. That’s why it’s extremely important to schedule some time each week to do a “Weekly Review.”

Here are a few things you should include in your weekly review:

• Process and organize – anything you’ve collected but haven’t handled yet.
• Review your active tasks – are there any to add, delegate, defer, or delete?
• Review your active projects – are there any to add, delegate, defer, or delete?
• Review your calendar – are there any meetings to add, delegate, defer, or delete?
• Someday/Maybe – anything to add or promote to an active project?
• Reference Files – anything you need soon? Anything to add or update?
• Goals – are you moving in the right direction? Are you making progress? Are any changes necessary?

Don’t skip this review – it’s extremely important if you want to decrease your stress levels. Personally, I find it best to schedule my review for the end of the week: Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. It’s a great way to wrap up the week, feel good about what you’ve accomplished, plan for the next week, and set yourself up for a relaxing weekend.

BONUS TIP: developing an effective personal productivity system takes time and experimentation.

Many people get frustrated when adopting GTD because it takes so long to get everything under control. Cut yourself some slack: GTD is a collection of habits, and habits take time to develop. Instead of trying to install everything at once, work on improving in one of these areas until it’s effortless, then focus on installing the next habit. In time, you’ll master them all.

Also remember that the goal of GTD is to make it easier to do work that matters – not procrastinating by endlessly improving your system instead of doing productive work. Try to avoid succumbing to “productivity porn” – experiment constantly, but remember that the most effective systems have the same thing in common: they’re usually the simplest thing that could possibly work. When in doubt, err on the side of doing less.

Josh Kaufman is an independent business teacher, education activist, and author of the Personal MBA: A World-Class Business Education in a Single Volume, which will be published by Portfolio on December 30, 2010.

Please provide a less complex version of the basic GTD chart/system for me and the hundreds of thousands of organizationally challenged managers just like me who have tried and failed to maintain the GTD system. Simpler is better.

David responded:

I empathize with desire for the “GTD for Dummies” approach.  I suggest just not letting the visual chart get in your way… it’s as simple as:

Write it down
Decide what’s next about it
Park that somewhere you’ll trust you’ll look at as a reminder
Keep your head empty and your list(s) current

Hope that helps.

Enjoy your weekend GTDers!

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So…the next question that’s been pouring into our customer service department today:  What about a GTD Guide for iPhone users? The iPhone is a different animal because it was built without a Tasks application.   So users need something that enables them to view Tasks on the iPhone and a service to share that information with the desktop.  We do not have a solution we confidently recommend for that yet (except OmniFocus for Mac users), based on our testing, but I am tracking this all closely (as an iPhone user and BlackBerry user) and will create a Guide as soon as I feel confident we have something solid to recommend for Tasks.