GTD in a Sales Role – June 17 from 10am-11am Pacific Time

Hear how two seasoned sales professionals apply GTD to managing opportunities, building relationships, and tracking tactical actions with clients.

Getting Started with GTD – June 27 from 11am-12pm Pacific Time

Get tips, tricks, and coaching strategies for getting started with GTD. Hear from two senior David Allen Company coaches about where to start (especially if you feel overwhelmed), helpful resources to access inside GTD Connect, suggested tools for your workspace, choosing a list manager, and more.

To learn more or register, visit GTDConnect.com.  Not a member but would like to attend a webinar? Try a free two-week guest pass.

Coach Julie Ireland weighs in:

One of the solutions I’ve found that often works for people is to divide reading material into 3 buckets. Here they are, along with a brief description of what they entail:

 1. Critical Reading – This is reading that I am responsible for as part of my work; e.g., an article that was hand-delivered to me by my boss, a brief from a client, etc. These go onto my next actions list, and I am committing to reading them.

2. Of-Interest Reading – The “I’m REALLY interested in this, and it would be good for me to read it but I’m not committing to” stuff – a bit like Someday/Maybe for reading. This goes into my “Reading – of interest” bin and periodically, when I’m taking a short break or heading off to the airport, I’ll grab something from this stack. I have a rule that if it goes onto an airplane with me and I don’t read it, it goes into the trash rather than back into the bin. Every so often, I have to bite the bullet and purge. (Am I really going to read the October 2007 issue of The Economist? I don’t think so…)

3. Purely Recreational Reading – This usually lives by my bed, unless it’s a real page turner and I manage to read during the day while my eyes are still open.

 If you’ve been overwhelmed by your reading stack in the past, I hope this will bring some much-needed relief your way. Good luck, and happy reading!

• Completing & remember 2010
• Creating the new year

They will lead participants through a series of insightful questions that David Allen created to inspire, challenge and acknowledge.

This will be the last webinar for 2010, finishing up a banner year of webinars for our GTD Connect members.  We did over 20 webinars this year, including 6 in our “Black Belt” series for more advanced GTDers, tactical webinars on tools such as Outlook and Lotus Notes, and hands-on “labs” with David helping people through the fundamentals of making decisions on their stuff.  As a member, you can access all of these in the media library and even take them on the go to watch offline (downloads not available for guest pass members, sorry!).We have many new exciting webinars coming in 2011, including one on OmniFocus.

We wish you all the best.

Listen to a 5-minute sample track:

Stay tuned to Productive Living or GTD Times to learn when it’s available.  Soon! We promise!

11/19/2010 update: It’s now available! Visit the David Allen Company store.

Do you need to review every list every day? Of course not. But use those weird windows of time that show up in your day to pop over to a list for a little visit. You might start to find it’s like meeting up with a good friend who is happy to see you.

More about Kelly…

When: Thursday, September 16 @ 10am Pacific Time

How to register: It’s free for all GTD Connect members. If you are a current member,register for the Webinar on the home page of GTD Connect. If you’re not a member, but would like to attend this event, sign-up for a free, two-week guest pass (if it’s your first time trying a guest pass), and then click on the Webinar link on the home page of GTD Connect.

Coming in October to GTD Connect: A continuation of the The Road to Black Belt Series – a Webinar series for GTDers who are ready for the more “advanced” moves of GTD at a faster pace.

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.

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?”
No one really knows what the best choice is until everything that is really “on his or her plate” can be seen accurately. Our suggestion is that you work from a complete life-list, where the inventories of everything you need to do, have agreed to do, be responsible for, would love in your life, are waiting for, etc. is listed and reviewed regularly. When that happens, you can rest assured that any decision you make regarding what you do is the best possible decision you can make.

That is because you really have got all the elements at play and the good feeling you will have about a particular choice, that excludes other actions that could also be acted upon, will come from knowing exactly what your choices are.

“You have more to do than you can possibly do. You just need to feel good about your choices.” David Allen

In the Getting Things Done seminar, we go over a model for choosing actions in the moment, based on 4 criteria: Context, Time Available, Energy Available, and Priority. Context refers to the location and setting you’re in. Are you in the location where the action can happen; do you have the tools you need: office, home, phone, computer, etc. The time available will determine what kind of work you’re willing and able to do. If you have 5 minutes or 2 hours, time will affect your choices. The third criterion is your energy level. How much energy do you have? There are times when you’re fresh and ready for clients, and other times when you’re toast and it’s best to purge the files, water the plants and/or fill your stapler… And finally, after you’ve considered your context, time and energy, now you can ask, “What’s the best thing for me to be doing?” (This info can be found in more detail in David’s book,  Getting Things Done, Chapter 9, “Doing: Making the Best Action Choices.”)

“Every decision to act is an intuitive one. The challenge is to migrate from hoping it’s the right choice to trusting it’s the right choice.” David Allen

David Allen has said it more than once, “You can only feel good about what you are not doing, when you know what you are not doing.” It is important then to keep collecting, processing and organizing information, so that the system you review periodically earns your trust.  Paradoxically, your outer environment will still do what it does, regardless of your efforts to make it do something “better.” Creating a system that captures the “whims” of the outer environment does and will help you do the best you can with what you’ve got. Thus it is called “controlling” your inner environment.

Ana Maria Gonzalez is responsible for comprehensive planning and management of the international expansion strategy for the David Allen Company.  Ana Maria has more than 10 years of experience as executive coach and trilingual management development trainer with The David Allen Company.

I replied: I would say that I am similar. It’s natural actually to want to get In to zero before feeling free and confident in the Doing.  You won’t intuitively trust that the choice you are making is the best one if there are things lurking in the inbox that might be a better choice. However, as you get better and better at GTD and collecting/processing/organizing, a trust factor comes in to know you WILL get back to it when you can. David Allen often says that the more you trust you have a process, you will be more comfortable letting it get out of control.

A GTDer wrote to David to ask if there’s a “lite” version of a Tickler File system:

Q: I have set up a tickler file of the 43 described folders, but I find that I am not accessing the folders except every 7-10 days.  Most of my folders sit empty because things do not cross my desk in the way a typical person might expect.  I am a dentist, but take care of the majority of the administrative/ business type paperwork myself.  Do you have any suggestions for an abbreviated version of this system or any thoughts on how to devise a “Lite” version?  I would appreciate any suggestions you might have.  I have already implemented so many of your other principles but find I am struggling with a way to make this one work for me.

David: A “lite” version would be 5 folders labeled “1″ thru “5″, representing the weeks of the month,  plus the 12 monthly folders. Then open one folder on Monday morning (or the Friday before) for all the things that need to be dealt with that week. Even that, though, must be emptied regularly (put it on your Monday calendar as a repeating event/reminder) or you want trust it. If you can’t make the habit stick, give it up and/or give the job to an assistant, and hand things to them, with a post-it “give this back of me on May 2″ etc.

Grab the free article in our store about setting one up. There’s also a great little animation showing a Tickler File in action, contributed by Sarah George.

Part 1 covers Organize (May 7)
Part 2 covers Collect and Process (May 14)
Part 3 covers Review and Do (May 21)

We post the replays for all Webinars to the GTD Connect media library.  This series is free for all GTD Connect members.  If you’re not a member (and frankly not much of a joiner-kind-of-person!), then try the monthly plan ($48), which would qualify you to take all 3 Webinars.  Just cancel before the next month renews. Learn more…

(Click on the link or the image to open a new window and watch the video on the Business Voice site.)

You’ll hear insights, tips and tricks from David Allen and two of the senior coaches on this key phase of GTD. It’s about 30 minutes and chock full of helpful coaching advice.

If you missed the first 4 in this series (Collect, Process, Organize & Review), you can find them all in the free GTD podcast feed.  If you like these free podcasts, we have loads more like this on GTD Connect, our online learning center.

• Project Planning, with Coaches Wayne Pepper & Kelly Forrister – April 8, 11am PDT.  The Coaches will go over common questions, like:  How do you plan out a project? Where do project plans go? How far out should you plan a project when you first get it? What project steps go on the action lists? and more.

• Q&A with the GTD Coaches – April 22, 11am PDT.  Two of our senior coaches will take your GTD questions. No question too big or small. Ask away!
• Coming in May – a 3-week Webinar series that will be like a “gentle GTD boot camp”

Watch now in the Archives:

Webinars are included for free in the GTD Connect membership and offered about every 2 weeks. Not a member? Try the 14-day trial or join for a month to check it out (it’s easy to cancel by contacting us one business day before your next billing.)

As a GTD Coach, and also intimately involved in the education and offerings from David Allen, I would suggest one of the following products:

The GTD System – This is, in my opinion, one of the best educational products we offer.  You get a ton of resources to learn GTD at your own pace.  You get the GTD book, coaching CDs with David Allen, GTD Connect and more. Good stuff.

GTD Live – If you like to learn by listening, then this is for you.  It’s David presenting the full two-day GTD seminar.  Follow along as if you are in the audience. I’d personally love to see a video version of this as well, being more visual than auditory in my own learning style. But it’s a fantastic resource to learn directly from DA.

The Getting Started Series – GTD Connect has a 16-part Getting Started series. It walks you through all of the key topics of GTD and includes audio and video of David and the coaches chatting about the best practices.  A great way to get up and running in bite -sized chunks.

…and if any of those don’t do it for you, go back to the original manual for GTD: the book.  Can’t go wrong. After all these years, I still find new pearls of wisdom in it, but then again, I love this stuff.  Of course, seminars and coaching are the crown jewels, but as far as products you can do at your own pace, the list above is where I would start.

Cheers,

Kelly

more about me…

OK, so what you should really be keeping?  This is a standard records retention list that we got a few years ago from our accounting firm in California. There may be better ones out there, or more specific to your location. It should in no way constitute final judgment for your own accounting and record-keeping. We’ve heard that it is quite a grey area, and can differ from state to state.  It might help with some general guidelines, however.

Type and Retention Period (years)
Accident reports and claims (settled cases)— 7
Accounts payable ledgers and schedules— 7
Accounts receivable ledgers and schedules— 7
Audit reports of accountants— permanently
Bank reconciliation— 1
Capital stock and bond records; ledgers, transfer registers, stubs showing issues, record of interest coupons, options, etc..— permanently
Cash books— permanently
Chart of Accounts— permanently
Checks (canceled but see exception below)— 7
Checks; canceled for important payments, i.e. taxes, purchases of property, special contracts, etc..— permanently
Contracts and leases (expired)— 7
Contracts and leases still in effect— permanently
Correspondence (routine) with customers and vendors— 1
Correspondence (general)— 3
Correspondence (legal and important matters only)— permanently
Deeds, mortgages, and bills of sale— permanently
Depreciation schedule— permanently
Duplicate deposit slips— 1
Employee personnel records (after termination)— 3
Employment applications— 3
Expense analyses and expense distribution schedules— 7
Financial statements (end of yr. other months optional)— permanently
General and private ledgers (and end of yr. trial balances)— permanently
Insurance policies (expired)— 3
Insurance records, current accident reports, claims, policies— permanently
Internal audit reports— 3
Internal reports (misc.)— 3
Inventories of products, materials, and supplies— 7
Invoices to customers— 7
Invoices from vendors— 7
Journals— permanently
Minute books of directors and stockholders— permanently
Notes receivable ledgers and schedules— 7
Option records (expired)— 7
Payroll records and summaries, including payments to pensioners— 7
Petty cash vouchers— 3
Physical inventory tags— 3
Plant cost ledgers— 7
Property appraisals by outside appraisers— permanently
Property records including costs, depreciation reserves, end of year trial balances, depreciation schedules, blueprints and plans— permanently
Purchase orders (except purchasing dept copy)— 1
Purchasing orders (purchasing dept copy)— 7
Receiving sheets— 1
Requisitions— 1
Sales Records— 7
Savings bond registration records of employees— 3
Scrap and salvage records (inventories, sales etc)— 7
Stenographers notebooks— 1
Stock and bond certificates (canceled)— 7
Subsidiary ledgers— 7
Tax returns and worksheets, revenue agents reports and other documents relating to determination of income tax liability— permanently
Time books— 7
Trade mark registrations— permanently
Voucher register and schedules— 7
Vouchers for payments to vendors, employees, etc.. (includes allowances and reimbursement of employees, officers, etc.. for travel and entertainment expenses)— permanently

Looking for motivation and coaching on the GTD Weekly Review?  Get the CD set. Includes Coach Meg Edwards walking you through a Guided Weekly Review.

DA: You’re trying to use your Inbox as your organizer, and that won’t work. You have to make the decision about the action step for each one of those, and organize the reminder of the action (if it’s longer than 2 minutes and can’t be delegated) in your system. That doesn’t take long.  Sounds like you’re avoiding the decision about what to do, or you don’t feel like you have any system better than your Inbox to sustain it.

One of the upcoming Webinars with David Allen on GTD Connect will be all about processing these kinds of things that seem to get stuck in the Inbox.  Thursday, March 11th @ 11am.  Free for GTD Connect members.

The master key to clarity is maintaining a complete and current inventory of all your commitments and agreements with yourself. You need to capture, clarify, and organize them, so you can constantly review and reflect on the totality of your engagements with the world, so you can trust your choices about what you’re doing, moment to moment. -David Allen

Grab the free article on the 5 phases of Mastering Workflow.

50,000 – Life Purpose
40,000 – 3-5 year Visions and Strategy
30,000 – 1-2 year Goals and Direction
20,000 – Areas of Focus and Responsibilities
10,000 – Current Projects
Runway – Current Actions

The best way I know of to work with these 6 levels is to go with where my attention is. I don’t find it often works to assign myself to go map those out perfectly, especially 30-50,000 levels. They will get subtler the higher you go up in your focus, but they will all help in choosing what to do.

Will knowing your 50,000 tell you exactly which email to read or meeting to go to? Probably not. But it will probably bring to the surface if you’re in the job you want. Play around with them. See where your attention goes. David’s latest book Making It All Work goes into lots more detail on Horizons of Focus and seems to have cleared up some of the mystery around that for people who read and implemented GTD.

Kelly Forrister is a senior coach and presenter with the David Allen Company.

Still procrastinating about a bunch of things on your action lists? There are usually one of two reasons for this: (1) they have slowly slipped in importance and interest to you or (2) they aren’t really next actions (so you don’t really know what to do, where, about it).   If (1) give yourself permission to move them to Someday/Maybe.   If (2) then gird your loins and get back to the granularity of real next actions on your lists – not small sub-projects about your stuff.

- David Allen

If by “getting organized” you mean getting relaxed and in control, it actually involves five steps, only one of which is actually the specific “organizing” component.  1) Collect the work. Corral everything that has potential meaning for you. 2) Process the collected work and associated notes. What specifically do they mean in terms of your commitments about them? What can you toss? What are the actions required on what you keep? 3) Organize the results of what you’ve collected and processed into retrievable lists and groupings. For instance, when you’re at a phone you should be able to see all the calls you need to make. 4) Keep things current—which involves a weekly review. What are your outstanding commitments and agreements? What new ones have emerged? 5) Decide what you want to do. Make a choice about how to allocate your resources, and feel comfortable about that decision.

Grab the free article or buy the laminated card set that summarizes these phases as well.

Coach Julie Ireland weighs in:

I tend to rebel against too much structure/planning. At the same time I do need a certain amount of structure, otherwise my creative energy gets drained from the uncertainty of not being clear about what my commitments are. The beauty of GTD lies in putting enough time and energy into what we call “defining our work and responsibilities”, so that when we have discretionary time we can choose very consciously and purposely to work off of our pre-defined lists, or in my case go and play in my art studio. There is real power in making that choice as the most appropriate thing for me to do, vs. attempting to work in my studio because I’m either avoiding my responsibilities or simply haven’t defined them clearly enough.

I am part of the senior management in a company and am responsible for a particular department. With many changes happening in the company such as growth and expansion, in a very short span of time, things happen ad hoc and lot of time gets spent in miscellaneous activities. This ad hoc confusion de-motivates me and does not give me a purpose to work in the interest of the company, as a lot of this work is thankless in nature. Hence, how should I address this?  Should I ask my CEO for direction and let him know about things not being interesting or do I have to motivate myself to drive and take charge of the situation and take the growth process ahead?  What is your suggestion?

David replied:

You have asked a very good question, but one that I can only feed back options. Much depends on the bigger questions about what’s important to you and where you’re going. If your long-term goal is clear enough, it should give you criteria for determining whether putting up with the discomfort in the short term is worth it in the long term. On the other hand, if it’s really important to you to be inspired and enthused by your work, then it’s not worth tolerating anything less for very long. In any case, it’s not a bad idea to have an open and honest relationship with key people in your life, e.g. your boss, about such matters.

Often in times of organizational change it will be necessary to re-examine your own direction, and particularly the desired outcomes for the responsibilities you now have in your job, and often that’s going to require frequent updates from your boss and others in the environment. Maybe the best thing to do is to make sure you get as much data as you can about the current situation… sometimes it’s just a matter of getting a better grip on “current reality” so you can know where you stand in relation to some of the other questions.

I know these may just raise more questions than they answer, but those are the things I would be talking to myself about, if I were in your shoes.

Hope that helps,

David

Many of you also asked, “Are the CDs new?”  Yes, 5 out of the 6 CDs are completely new content.  One of the CDs is a popular one of Coach Meg Edwards walking through a guided Weekly Review. We thought it was so good that we included it in this new set.  But all of the other CDs are new content with David and the staff.

I have read Getting Things Done many times and am attending the Boston seminar.  I have a question:  Why is it so hard for human beings to get organized?  Why do the techniques you recommend require so much effort and encounter such resistance from human nature?  I’m not interested in this academically, but if there is some biological/psychological/historical aspect of human nature that makes it so difficult to organize, it might help us learn how to overcome them and get where we should be…

David’s response:

Everyone is already organized to the degree they need to be, to have the world match up to their internal standards. And usually “having to get organized” refers only to things they don’t care that much about. In other words, oil painters have their brushes organized, fishermen their tackle boxes, golfers their clubs.

When your life as a whole and what you’re doing with it takes on the same kind of gut-level identification with an experience you have to have, you’ll probably overcome the resistance to creating and maintaining structure to keep it that way.

Wayne Pepper, one of the senior staff at David Allen Company, uses a BlackBerry device in his implementation of GTD.  We thought you might like to hear some of his tips & tricks about using it effectively with his GTD system, including avoiding having it become a constant source of latest & loudest!

Listen to Wayne’s 15 minute podcast.