In a recent issue of Productive Living, David Allen says:

My essay this month talks about the wisdom of “the way out is through.” I hope it gives you some good direction on dealing with what may be dragging on your psyche and systems. Defining what you are not doing is as important as knowing what you are doing for stress-free productivity. Having things you’ve told yourself to do (implicit agreements with yourself), still undone, can be deadly to your confidence and energy if they are not appropriately managed by constant renegotiation with yourself.

DAVID’S FOOD FOR THOUGHT

THE WAY OUT IS THROUGH

Most of you reading this don’t even have time to finish to perfection your current set of projects, even if you stopped the world from giving you anything new, and you had several months or even years within which to do them.

It’s strange, but I work with people to define the work they are not doing.

There’s an old Gestalt theorem — the way out is through. Defining what we could do, and what we are doing right now instead — managing the triage strategically with ourselves and others, is a key component of managing ourselves and our workflow these days. You can only feel good about what you’re not doing when you know what you’re not doing.

There is no catching up. There is only catching on.

Subscribe to Productive Living. 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.

Tags: David Allen, Getting Started, Getting Things Done, GTD, Implementation, Implementing GTD, Inspiration, Productivity, project planning
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Someone new to GTD asked David Allen for advice on making GTD simpler to adopt.

David answered this way . . .

It’s hard to get it any simpler than this:

• Keep meaningful stuff out of your head
• Make action and outcome decisions about the stuff sooner than later
• Organize reminders of those items in easy to view places
• Review it all and keep it current

Any one of those elements without the others won’t really produce that much value.

Tags: David Allen, Getting Started, Getting Things Done, GTD, GTD Best Practices, Implementation, Implementing GTD, Inspiration, Next Actions, organization, Productivity, Tips and Tricks, trusted system
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An easy way for me to explain the “Doing” phase of GTD is to simply say “trust your gut/butt/intuition/hunch/heart.” There is gold in that, and ultimately that’s what it will come down to. But how do you even get to the point of trusting whatever part of you makes a trusted decision?  Here’s where the “ecosystem of GTD” starts to make more sense:

Capture everything that has your attention (Collect)

Make decisions about what it means and what you are going to do about it (Process)

Park those decisions in trusted places (Organize)

Step back to reflect on those choices from a clear, current, and creative place (Review)

So that you can make the best action choice  (Do)

So how will that help narrow down a To Do list the length of your driveway? You’ll want to pull in the  Criteria for Choosing model: …more

Tags: Getting Things Done, GTD, GTD Best Practices, gtd coaching, Implementation, Implementing GTD, Tips and Tricks
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Have you wanted to get your kids or teens to use GTD tools? Then this webinar is for you. Join David Allen Company CEO and GTD expert Mike Williams and Senior Coach Meg Edwards as they discuss some fun and engaging ways to share GTD with kids and teens.  The live webinar is on Wednesday, December 14, 2011 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM PST. 

This webinar is free for GTD Connect members.  You can sign up for a free trial membership, and when you log in, you’ll find the webinar information on the home page of GTD Connect.  You’ll also see an extensive list of previous webinars you can access in the archives. (Partial listing shown here.)

The free trial membership is easy to begin—just first name and email address—with no cost or commitment.

Tags: David Allen, Getting Started, Getting Things Done, GTD, GTD for Kids, organization, Productivity, project planning, projects
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Sometimes Christmas feels like an all-consuming project that sends us racing through malls, jumping from party to party, and being busy-busy-busy as we fill our time with lots of Christmas fluff.

I want something more than that, though.

I don’t want to have to “recover” from Christmas. I don’t want to start the new year eight pounds heavier. I don’t want my children focused only on the electronic gadgets they hope Santa brings. But everything I don’t want will probably become my reality–unless I take the initiative to implement what I do want.

David Allen’s Natural Planning Model seriously saves my sanity on everything from birthday party planning to creating new programs for my website, so this year, I decided to use the five steps of the Natural Planning Model to create a Christmas experience that is both magical and meaningful.

Step One: Defining Purpose and Principles

For this part, I sat down with my children and gave them the following prompts:

• What’s the purpose of this season?
• What do you want this Christmas to feel like for our family?
• Please finish this sentence: “I would be happy with any Christmas celebration, as long as . . .”

…more

Tags: David Allen, Getting Things Done, GTD, GTD Best Practices, GTD for Kids, Implementation, Implementing GTD, Inspiration, Next Actions, organization, Productivity, project planning, projects, Tasks, Tips and Tricks
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You can participate in special GTD® webinars featuring two of the most popular and requested topics:  Keys to Mastering Workflow and Implementing GTD with Microsoft Outlook.  These webinars are presented a la carte for $49 each.

GTD Webinar: Keys to Mastering Workflow

Offered live only on Tuesday, November 29^th or Tuesday, December 13^th from 11:00 am – 12:30 pm PT

This fast-paced and inspirational webinar is based on the best practices of GTD’s five phases of mastering workflow. From capturing everything that has your attention to making trusted choices – this webinar will elevate your productivity levels and prepare you to get the right things done.

GTD Webinar: Implementing GTD with Outlook®

Offered live only on Thursday, December, 1^st or Thursday, December 15^th from 11:00 am – 12:30 pm PT

Join this structured and practical webinar to learn to effectively track projects and next actions, set up your email folders, and create a system for reference storage on Outlook. Get your life in control by managing your bigger vision while tracking the small details. 

Note: These webinars will be held live only and will not be available for replay. Don’t miss your opportunity to learn from an expert coach through these live events.

Register now for these live 90-minute interactive webinars. To increase learning and interaction, implementation questions via chat will be encouraged and answered throughout the webinars.

Tags: Getting Started, Getting Things Done, GTD Best Practices, Implementation, Implementing GTD, Mastering Workflow, Next Actions, Outlook
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David Allen calls the Weekly Review the “critical success factor” to GTD. Why? It’s the glue that keeps it all together.  It’s also one of the steps people tend to resist the most.  Here are some keys for getting the most out of the Review phase to keep your GTD system humming along.

WHAT TO REVIEW:

There are 11 steps in the GTD Weekly Review.  David Allen recommends leading yourself through this every 7-10 days to get clear, current, and creative.

Get clear – ensure all your “stuff” is processed

Collect Loose Papers and Materials
Get “IN” to Zero
Empty Your Head
…more

Tags: Getting Things Done, GTD, GTD Best Practices, gtd coaching, Implementation, Implementing GTD, Kelly Forrister, Tips and Tricks, Weekly Review
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What does responsibility mean to you, in the work you do?

David Allen’s response:

“If you say someone is responsible, that usually means that if he makes an agreement, he keeps it, or re-negotiates it, and doesn’t let it fall through the cracks. A lot of GTD is about that — keeping agreements and not losing stuff. If I’m going to be responsible, I’m going to hold myself accountable. But I think a subtler and more interesting spin is to break the word down into two parts, “response” and “able,” meaning one’s ability to respond.”

Tags: David Allen, Getting Things Done, GTD, Inspiration, Next Actions, organization, Productivity
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David Allen has been named one of the top 50 most motivational people on the web. Under30ceo.com has compiled its list of these motivational leaders, and David is near the top.

“Motivation is like showering; you need it every day.” Through the trials and tribulations of entrepreneurship, great business owners find ways to keep themselves motivated.  Luckily for us, in the 21st century, some of the greatest leaders of the world have poured themselves into online content to help inspire us on a daily basis.  The following list is filled not only with great pieces of motivation, but video blogs, Twitter accounts, articles and Facebook pages to keep you moving forward every single day. Introducing the Top 50 Motivators on the Web…

In addition to David, the list includes Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, Tony Robbins, Tim Ferris, and more. You can read the complete list here.

 

Tags: David Allen, Getting Things Done, GTD, Inspiration, organization, Productivity
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Fast Company featured David Allen this week, in their Leadership Hall of Fame series.

Does your company plan things correctly? Or are meetings unproductive due to poor planning? We continue our Leadership Hall of Fame series . . .

How Bad Plans And “Good Ideas” Ruin Meetings

BY David AllenTue Nov 1, 2011

When the “Good Idea” Is a Bad Idea

Have you ever hear a well-intentioned manager start a meeting with the question, “OK, so who’s got a good idea about this?”

What is the assumption here? Before any evaluation of what’s a “good idea” can be trusted, the purpose must be clear, the vision must be well defined, and all the relevant data must have been collected (brainstormed) and analyzed (organized). “What’s a good idea?” is a good question, but only when you’re about 80 percent of the way through your thinking! Starting there would probably blow anyone’s creative mental fuses. 

You can read the complete article here.

 

Tags: David Allen, Getting Things Done, GTD, GTD Best Practices, Implementation, Implementing GTD, Next Actions, organization, Productivity, project planning, projects, Tasks
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