Cindy recently participated in a GTD class at her company.  She sent along an email to her facilitator, Danny Bader, about her experience. With her permission, we’re sharing her letter with our GTD Times readers.

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.  [Read more →]

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We just released an A4* size of our new GTD & BlackBerry Guide. For those of you who will print the Guide and prefer this size instead of the standard U.S. letter size, you will now find it in our David Allen Company online store.

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.

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Q: I write down everything but I always seem to end up having problems controlling all the pieces of paper and lists; what are your suggestions?

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.

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Clear your head with the man himself…

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!)

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The good news is that we have so many GTD fans on LinkedIn that our GTD enthusiasts group quickly reached 5,000 members.  The bad news is that LinkedIn arbitrarily set a 5,000 member limit to groups.  So for those of you trying to join the group, you aren’t able to at this time.  Please be assured, we are working on this.   We have a support ticket out to LinkedIn and are Waiting For a response.  (Hey-any GTD fans work at LinkedIn and can nudge this request along??)

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The next Webinar on GTD Connect will be “Digging Out From Backlog”.  Two of our senior coaches will give you tips, tricks, and strategies for dealing with your piles of “stuff”.  If you feel like your backlog is holding you back from getting the most out of GTD, this Webinar is for you.  Free to all GTD Connect members (free trial members too).   Thursday, July 15 @ 11am PDT.  Register on the home page of GTD Connect.

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David Allen will only be doing 3 public seminars this year, so here’s your chance to learn the system with the master himself. The GTD Making It All Work course offers a higher level, more theoretical overview of the GTD concepts. It’s a fun, informative, and engaging day whether you are new to GTD or have experience with the system. You’ll get the big picture of the process, including prioritizing, applying the core GTD principles, and making change stick. Coming to San Francisco, London, and Washington, DC.  Register before July 15th with the code TIMES10 to receive 10% off any of David Allen Company public events.

Learn more…

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Excerpt from David Allen’s essay in this month’s Productive Living newsletter:

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. Most of us hate to say “no”—to ourselves and to others. But there are practical things we can do to make that process more positive and dynamic.

A key principle in operation here is that if you don’t know exactly what you’ve already said “yes” to, then it’s hard to have the confidence to say “no.” When you do have a complete and trusted inventory of your current commitments   [read more....]

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