This is the final post from my e-mail that answers the question: “How to ramp up quickly with GTD and Lotus Notes?“  We’ve touched on the productivity equation and we’ve looked at how methodology is the first component of the equation. We also explored the technology or tools that can be used to implement GTD in Lotus Notes.  Last week, I discussed Mobility: how to get things done on the run, and two days ago, I blogged about the value I’ve found in getting coached and coaching others.

As I wrap up this series, I want to share some of the resources I’ve used to get connected  to the information and people who help me sharpen my skills.

Here’s what I shared in my e-mail about some of my current favorite ways to stay connected to all things GTD:

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One of our most prolific contributors, Eric Mack, has been hard at work developing a tool that has been called the ultimate GTD application for Lotus Notes.  Now, after months of beta testing with select companies, Eric is about ready to release the application to the public.  However, before he did this he wanted to do one last set of tests and get some additional real-world feedback.

As a result, you’ve got a chance to get a 24 hour preview of eProductivity for Lotus Notes and for those folks that put in the time and energy to give Eric the sort of detailed feeback he seeks, it seems you’ll get a preview license and also be entered into a drawing for a full version.

For more information you should head on over to Eric’s blog and check out the announcement for yourself.  Also, if you do check out eProductivity and find that it is as useful as people have been saying, could you please comment here so that others will have the benefit of your experience?  Thanks.

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Today, I’ll share the next part of my e-mail that answers the question: “How to ramp up quickly with GTD and Lotus Notes?“  We’ve touched on the productivity equation and we’ve looked at how methodology is the first component of the equation. We also explored the technology or tools that can be used to implement GTD in Lotus Notes.  Last week, I discussed Mobility: how to get things done on the run. Now, as I begin to wrap up this series, I want to discuss the value I’ve found in getting coaching in how to make all of this work together.

There’s a lot to be learned from reading books and attending seminars. I routinely do both. But when I really want to improve my skills or performance in a given area I turn to a coach, a mentor, or an expert that can help me accomplish my objectives. I think it’s important to understand that hiring a productivity coach is not a magic bullet for getting things done. YOU have to do the work, but a good coach can help you see what may not be readily apparent to you and encourage you to build sustainable habits. (I’ll talk more about sustainable habits at the end of this post.)

Here’s what I wrote to the person who asked me about getting things done on the run…

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Today, I’ll share the next part of my e-mail that answers the question:How to ramp up quickly with GTD and Lotus Notes? We’ve touched on the productivity equation and we’ve looked at how methodology is the first component of the equation. We also explored the technology or tools that can be used to implement GTD in Lotus Notes. Now, let’s look at mobility…

As you learn more about GTD, you’ll come to appreciate the value of getting everything out of your head and into a system you can trust. In order to do this, it is critical for you to be able to do this no matter where you are or what you are doing. To do this, it’s important that you equip yourself with tools that support you whether you are; at home, the office, or on-the-go. I recommend at least one analog tool and often at least one digital tool, depending on your mobile information management needs. If you are someone that always has a computer available to you 24×7, then this section may not be useful. Lotus Notes does a great job of keeping information synchronized across distributed computers. On the other hand, if you are like me, you spend at least some part of your work day “out and about” and you need a way to keep your GTD lists and related information with you so that you can work from your lists, and manage your work.

Let’s discuss the mobility aspect of getting things done while on the run…

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Today, I’ll share the next part of my e-mail that answers the question: “How to ramp up quickly with GTD and Lotus Notes?“
We’ve touched on the productivity equation and we’ve looked at how methodology is the first component of the equation. Now, we’ll look at the technology or tools that you use. Since you’ve already selected GTD as your methodology (a decision I wholeheartedly agree with) you now need to find a GTD implementation tool that will support you in the way that you work. From my email:<blockquote>II. Choose your GTD implementation tool and master it

From 3×5 card to paper planner to MAC/PC to BlackBerry — there are a range of solutions. The brilliance of GTD, I think, is that it’s platform agnostic so you can manage using the GTD methodology just as well on a napkin or using custom software. What you need to find is a very good list manager, something that is easy to use, is easy to integrate with your existing workflow, and is fast. Most important, it must be something you can trust.

We discussed your use of Lotus Notes at your company. I think Lotus Notes is a powerful tool for personal knowledge and action management. It also happens to be the tool of choice for me and for the The David Allen Company. (Disclosure, The David Allen Company is an ICA client and David is a good geek friend - I designed and deployed their Notes collaboration infrastructure and have supported David and his team for the past 15 years, so I’m a little biased as to the power of Lotus Notes.) Many people are successfully using GTD with Lotus Notes in a variety of ways.

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Today, I’d like to talk about methodology as a key component in my productivity equation and specifically how it relates to ramping up quickly with GTD and Lotus Notes.

Whether you are conscious of it or not, you have a methodology, a system, a habit for how you get your work done. Some methodologies, systems, and habits will be more productive than others; some can even be counter productive. I began this series by writing an email to help someone get started using Lotus Notes as his implementation tool for David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology.

Over the years, I’ve learned several approaches to knowledge work but to date I have found none that made more sense and was more sustainable for me than GTD. It wasn’t always this way. I used to find Stephen Covey’s 7-Habits approach to be ideal and while I think it is an excellent approach for planning, I was unable to sustain it on a day to day basis and I often felt bad that my day to day actions were not getting me closer to my goals and vision. That’s not to say that Covey’s approach doesn’t work – it does, but it was a great deal for me to maintain.

Covey takes a top-down approach to productivity, starting with the desired outcome (“Begin with the end in mind”) and then working down to daily actions that line up to support those goals. On paper that makes sense to me as the best way to go. In real life, however, it was hard to do, because, well, life happens.

David Allen’s approach starts at the bottom – clearing the decks — so that you can think freely about the bigger picture stuff. I’ve been working with GTD since long before the GTD moniker and I can tell you that it is sustainable. What do I use today? A little of both. The foundation of my work style is built on the GTD methodology, while Covey has certainly influenced the values and planning aspects of my work and life.

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(This is the first installment in my series talking about how to ramp up quickly with GTD and Lotus Notes. This first post is actually not specific to Lotus Notes at all; it described my reference point for how I approach knowledgework.)

I began my recent eProductivity Seminar by introducing my eProductivity equation for knowledge worker productivity:

KWP = M x T x K

Put another way:

Knowledge Worker Productivity [or results] =
Methodology x Technology x Knowledge

That is, the outcome of any project will be influenced (one way or the other) by how well you use and apply (your methodology) your knowledge and tools to the problem at hand.

I believe GTD provides an outstanding framework for managing work productively – the methodology; I think that Lotus Notes can be a powerful tool for information, action, and knowledge management — the technology. As far as what your knowledge… only you know that.

Think about how this equation applies to your knowledge work. What are your methodologies (defined or undefined)? What tools do you use?

How does what you know influence the work that you do?

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Recently, an executive at a large global consulting firm with over 100K Lotus Notes users called me to ask for help getting up to speed with GTD and Notes. He told me that he was feeling overwhelmed at work with a growing number of projects and responsibilities and in his pursuit of a solution he had found and read David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done. He was also aware that while Lotus Notes is an excellent tool for messaging, collaboration, and information management, it wasn’t supporting him in the way that he needed. He was calling to get eProductivity for Lotus Notes and some coaching to help him set up Notes to be more productive. After a fruitful conversation, and my promise to help him, he asked me, “How can I ramp up quickly with GTD & Lotus Notes?” (I get asked this question a lot, so I decided to write a short e-mail that would be very helpful and something that I could reuse again the next time the question arose.) I promised to send him an email that night with some lessons I had learned and some tips for getting things done with Lotus Notes.

Well, my e-mail turned into an 6-part essay of my lessons learned and recommendations from the past 15 years of using Notes and the GTD methodology.

Over the next several days, I will take a look at the methodology (GTD) and the Technology parts of the equation… and share my experience and response to this person’s question of how to ramp up quickly with GTD & Lotus Notes.

I invite you to follow-along and join me in conversation about this topic.

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I usually do OK tracking individual actions and small and medium sized projects. These are items for which I can easily envision the completed state – I know what “done” will look like and I know I will mark these complete in a few days or weeks. Sometimes, however, I have projects where the completion date is not days or weeks ahead but months or years ahead. I find those harder to keep in front of me. Even with regular review, I sometimes find it difficult to keep a sense of time about a project that is off in the distant future.

As I prepare to launch eProductivity, a GTD implementation tool for Lotus Notes , I need to keep one or two key milestones in sight at all times. Specifically, we have a few big milestones – things like “launch web site” or “Prepare for meeting with David” or “Deliver presentation to IBM” that we have been working on for many months or in the case of the product launch, several years.

Several months ago, I watched a NASA Shuttle mission video and I was inspired by their countdown clock and their mission elapsed clock. I decided that I needed my own countdown clock, so I decided to create one for myself.

Starting with a countdown clock mechanism that I purchased on-line, I created a custom clock face and built five eProductivity countdown clocks. I set each one to the date of a key milestone. I kept one clock for myself and I sent the other four to key people on my team. Now, I have a tangible reminder of each event and the time remaining in which to complete it. I’ve had the clock on my desk for a few months now and it’s been a fun reminder of an event that I am looking forward to. The key question “What’s your next action?” keeps me focused on the little things that I need to accomplish to achieve my goal.

It’s been a fun way to get things done.

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Many of you probably already know the name Eric Mack. He’s a long standing and highly respected member of the GTD community and he’s been authoring multiple blogs related to productivity and Getting Things Done for some time: : EricMackOnline and NotesOnProductivity .  For the past 15 years, Eric has served David Allen in a number of roles, as his personal technologist, chief technology advisor, and director of technology

Eric has been a technologist since his early teens. He built his first computer system at age 15, and quickly branched into software development when, at 16, he designed and developed flight-planning software for a Lear Jet charter company. At 18, Eric launched his first consulting firm to help organizations deploy microcomputer technology in a pre-IBM PC era.

Over the next two decades, Eric lent his technological expertise to numerous businesses and organizations, including the U.S. Air Force, which asked him to help establish its first microcomputer system. Through his software company, Peloria Technology Corporation (founded in 1992), Eric developed wireless messaging and server-based agent technology for messaging applications. His MailScout software sold more than 500,000 licenses.

Today, through his new company, ICA.COM, Inc., Eric promotes his ICA consulting model for eProductivity. His eProductivity suite of software for Lotus Notes (launched in 2007) implements the Getting Things Done methodology espoused by Eric’s friend David Allen.

Eric and his wife, Kathy, live in a tiny resort community in the mountains of Southern California, where they home educate their four daughters. Eric holds a degree in Organizational Management and is currently pursuing a graduate degree in Information and Knowledge Management.

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