What’s your advice to people who aspire to get organized and stick to it?
If you’ve ever wanted to have more time to do the things you really care about, whatever that is, then you owe it to yourself to get organised. The idea that creativity and being organised are somehow mutually exclusive is completely false in my opinion. If you stick with it, GTD becomes a set of habits that helps you to spend more time on the things you’re passionate about. If you get too hung up on the method and peripheral issues such as having the right pen, notebook or file labeler, etc., you’ve fundamentally missed the point.

Read the full interview…

If you like learning more from others implementing GTD, our In Conversation and Slice of GTD Life Series on GTD Connect give you a peak inside how other people are making GTD work for them.

When: Tuesday, June 15th

Times: 7:30am – 9am

Topic: Creating Order Out of Chaos – Staying Afloat in a World of Too Much To Do

Learn more

This is a paid, in-person only event–not a Webinar. Please follow the link to learn more from the organization hosting this.

~~~~~~~~~

For a Webinar with David Allen, the next one will be on June 23rd from 11am-12pm through our online learning center–GTD Connect.  David will be taking attendee examples to coach people through the GTD Fundamental Process (What’s the Outcome? and What’s the Next Action?)  Free to all GTD Connect members.  Register now on the home page of Connect.  Not a member? Try the 14-day trial.

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…

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, Kelly Forrister & Michael Dolan, 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.)

I want  you know that since I have returned to GTD (over 2 months now), I have joined GTD Connect and listened to 38 podcasts out of the 145 from Connect that I have downloaded to my iPhone.  I cannot begin to tell you how much they have helped and inspired me. Hearing you, David, Meg and others patiently go over and over the concepts, pitfalls, suggestions, etc. have helped more than anything.  I not only feel like I have an intellectual grasp of the concepts, but I feel part of a support group that will be there with me over the long haul.  I actually feel a personal connection with you, David and Meg especially.  Plus, I am hearing it….really hearing it….if you know what I mean…..

The first time I got into GTD was a couple of years ago.  I did not sign up for Connect.  I didn’t do weekly reviews.  I did not use all the support available.  I ended up with lots of un-reviewed lists and everything back in my head along with all the chaos.  When I surrendered a couple of months ago, it was a deep surrender.  I am definitely “ALL IN.”

GTD Connect holds the world’s largest library of GTD podcasts, documents and articles.  Note: Podcasts are only an option for monthly or annual members (not free trial participants.  But the free trial will allow you to watch or listen to them on the site.)

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…

There are a few excellent resources from the David Allen Company for applying the GTD methods to your email:

1. The GTD Setup Guides, specific to your tool, will cover the best practices of email.
2. There is a terrific free article called “Getting Email Under Control” that covers this issue as well.
3. Our GTD Connect online learning center also runs regular Webinar classes on topics such as email. There is a Webinar in the Archive Library called “Managing Email” that you should find useful. GTD Connect is $48 per month (cancel anytime) or $480 per year (one-year commitment.)
4. Our public GTD Mastering Workflow classes cover email best practices.  These one-day classes are a great way to learn all of the GTD essentials, including email.
5. There are loads of posts on GTD Times on the topic of email. Search on the keyword “email” or follow the tag.

]]> http://www.gtdtimes.com/2010/03/04/tips-for-managing-email-with-gtd/feed/ 1 http://www.gtdtimes.com/2010/02/19/the-gtd-best-practices-series/ http://www.gtdtimes.com/2010/02/19/the-gtd-best-practices-series/#comments Sat, 20 Feb 2010 01:28:05 +0000 GTD Times Team https://reports.davidco.com/admin1/gtdtimes/?p=3340 Do YOU know the best practices of GTD?

Although they’ve been recorded for our GTD Connect online learning center, we have been posting the GTD Best Practices series to our free public podcast as well, for all to benefit from.  These informal podcasts are a great way to learn the essentials of GTD.  Here is the series:

Best Practices of Collect

Best Practices of Processing

Best Practices of Organize

Best Practices of Review

Best Practices of Doing

If you like these podcasts, GTD Connect has over 110 recordings like these, with more added every week, that you can play on the Connect site or  sync to iTunes.  It’s a great way to learn coaching tips from David and the staff, listen to interesting interviews with GTD’ers (Evan Taubenfeld being one of the recent ones), watch the “Slice of GTD Life” videos and more.  Good stuff.  Check out the free trial of GTD Connect.

Projects = Your outcomes that require more than one action step.

Next Actions = Your next physical, visible action steps. Some are project-related, some are not.

Question:

If a project requires, by your definition, at least two steps, I am not clear about how many of the needed steps to put into my action list.  For example, say I have a project with 20 steps.  I may be able to do the step 1, but if I had also put down 2  or 3 steps of that project, I might have done more on the project.   Presently I have about 57 projects, but some are monster projects I’ll be working on for months.  Others I can list two steps and it’s done very quickly.  A few projects are so trivial–but important enough to be listed–that some days I don’t do the one item I listed as the next step for that project.  I could put it into the “Someday” list, but I know I’ll do it sooner than that, so it stays around not being done.  I’d rather do step 2 and then 3 and then 4 of a more important project (I might be on a roll!) than complete one whole project that is easier to do but less important.  So I’m a bit unclear about how much of one project to put in my action list.  I find myself doing the “Weekly Review” every day, so I can add more steps from more important projects.  Could you share any thoughts about how to solve this concern?   

David Allen’s reply:

The key to your action lists is that you do not have to re-think what you can and cannot do at the moment, as you look at them. If you put sequential steps there, it dulls the attraction of engaging with the list to begin with.

If there’s a good chance that a project can be finished in one sitting, in one fell swoop, then probably best to label it simply a next action and put it on your action list.

The weekly review, thoroughly done, once a week, should be sufficient to prevent having to think at that level much more often.

Nothing wrong with getting on a roll with a project, doing action steps as they show up; just make sure you’re taking some sort of note that you can throw in your in-basket if you don’t finish, which will serve as a bookmark to determine the next action before too long.

You might listen to this podcast that I did with Kelly Forrister on my staff, talking about some of those same questions.  You’ll also find a ton of resources on GTD Connect on managing projects.

Dear Coaches at GTD Connect,

I am struggling with how to incorporate the GTD methodology into a specific, but important, part of my job.

Surely I am not the first GTD Connect member with this challenge.  I am a Portfolio Manager and Investment Analyst for a wealth and investment management firm.  Daily, I receive about 100 emails containing research reports from various Wall Street and independent research firms.  In addition, there are a few investment-related research websites that I should check on a daily basis to read what reports and analyses have recently been published by those firms. Technically, no one would ever know if I did not get all of this reading done every single day—however, I would not be as informed about the financial markets or as productive in terms of generating new investment ideas.  It would also mean being behind my colleagues in terms of digesting research reading materials (although I recognize that they do not get around to reading everything they want to either).  I might also miss an important piece of news that would otherwise affect how I manage and analyze client portfolios.  Or, I may not be up to speed when a client calls with questions about a particular stock holding. Additionally, truth be told on a fundamental basis, I really like reading all this stuff!  I love the analytical part of my job, reading lots of research reports and using all those disparate pieces of information to draw conclusions and make judgments regarding how to manage client portfolios.

My challenge is simply the fire hose of research reading that gets thrown at me every day and the research websites that contain other pieces that I think I should be familiar with.  I guess the conclusion I’m slowly coming to is that there is no way that I can read everything that hits my email inbox.  Fair enough.  But then I struggle with how to organize this material into a next action or something that I am not repelled by.  For example, I empty my email inbox regularly during the day by filing everything into @Actions (to then be further distributed to my Actions/Task list or delegated) and @Research.  That research file currently has 909 unread research pieces in it.  If I glanced at the summary of a particular report, I could probably tell quickly how directly related it is to my current investments.  On the other hand, research that might not look important on the surface may actually contain very worthwhile nuggets of information—but I won’t know that until I read, or at a minimum, scan the whole report.

In conclusion, I feel like I have hit a road block in my quest to improve my GTD system.  Please, what advice or suggestions do you have?

Senior Coach Michael Dolan offered these tips:

Since information is often the key to competitive advantage, filtering and targeting the RIGHT information tends to be the key.  I guess the silver lining here is that you actually DO like all of this reading.  This is more about getting a higher level of control and perspective about that reading.  Here are some strategies to consider:

Target the inflow

Are you sure that all of the email reports, newsletters, and other reading sources that are currently landing in your inbox really should still be coming to you?  Be rigorous with eliminating any of this inflow that really doesn’t belong and you’ll be better able to sort through what does.

Use the two-minute rule

You may already be doing this, but it’s worth mentioning.  I’ve seen many clients with a heavy load of reading that have developed a bad habit of reflexively dumping new things into the “pile” of reading materials without at least spending a minimal amount of time to assess if it really needs to go there, and just how important or interesting it really is.

If you consistently give yourself about two minutes to scan and assess every new piece of reading material you get, you might be surprised with a) how much you can actually “get” in two minutes, and b) how easy it is to toss a great deal of reading once you’re clearer that you don’t really need it.  This time will also enable you to do a bit of triage of the reading you choose to defer till later.

Organize your reading by level of urgency / potential usefulness

Many of our clients find that they really need up to three different ways to organize the various reading materials they want to read:

Critical Reading

These reading materials would go right to your task list, potentially with a due date indicated. The thought would be that these reading tasks would be just as important as the other critical next actions in your system.  If the reading is in paper form, the task would still go on your main task list, and right in the subject line of the task you could give yourself a note to indicate where the pages are being kept until you can read them.  Some use a general “Action Support” folder for this purpose.

Read/Review

This category would be for reading that is not necessarily critical, but that you’d like to get to relatively soon.  Some GTD’ers will just use a folder (either email or physical) called something like “Read & Review” for this.  The idea is that you’d probably focus on the critical reading first, before opening this folder.

Read FYI

I wonder how much of those 909 research pieces you mention would actually have even made it into this category of reading.  Your agreement read FYI would literally be, if I get to it, great.  If not, that’s fine too.  Think about it like a someday/maybe list for your reading.  Many GTD’ers will use a paper tray labeled “Read FYI” or something like that for the paper reading.  And an email folder will do on the digital side.

As with all things GTD, it will always help if you keep these reading lists / folders up-to-date and current.  The weekly review should be a regular time for you to cull certain folders / areas to keep the lists or piles to an appropriate level so that you keep trusting those places.  Remember that renegotiating your agreements is an important element of practicing GTD.  In your case, what that means when it comes to your reading materials, is that you might want to regularly let yourself off the hook for reading things that you once thought were important, but now are out-of-date or less interesting.

I hope these ideas help add some control and perspective to your reading agreements.

Michael Dolan is a senior coach with the David Allen Company.

Try GTD Connect for free.  Already a member? Login now.

GTD Connect is a great way to get practical & tactical coaching advice on implementing GTD.   Webinars are held about twice a month on a wide range of topics for GTD’ers.  If you’re not a GTD Connect member, check out the free trial (which will also allow you to take a Webinar class during your trial membership.)  If you decide to join beyond your trial, it’s only $48 a month and you can cancel anytime.  The free trial is a great way to see if GTD Connect is for you.  Trial members can access to the full site except for podcasts and downloads.

I’m a retired teacher who now has a tiny gem or a business called ‘Life in the Flow Lane.’  I read Getting Things Done a couple of years ago and implemented some things.  I am a GTD Connect newbie.  The Webinars are simply invaluable.  You have given me a much greater understanding of the whole GTD process.  For example, I really get that I need to have a list that attracts rather than repels me!  It seems obvious, but you show how to make that happen.  All the resources on Connect work well together.  I think the mix you have put together is simply outstanding. – Sharry Teague

Like this podcast? Subscribe to our free podcast series.  We also do frequent podcasts with David and the Coaches on GTD Connect®, our online learning center (over 108 podcasts available to Connect members more added all the time…)

I know that David Allen is interested in seeing how people in different sorts of professions use GTD, so I offered to share my experiences applying the methodology in a world that’s generally regarded as a different one: academia.  I have found that GTD is highly applicable to the academic profession.

I was actually managing adequately before I discovered GTD, but my productivity, while pretty good by institutional standards, was sub-optimal with respect to my own expectations.  I wasn’t well-organized, I often had “near misses” with deadlines, and I had a good deal of stress-producing clutter.  I literally had 6000+ messages in my Outlook inbox.  As the cover of the book hinted, I wanted not only to increase productivity, but to reduce stress.  GTD has indeed helped in both aspects: productivity is up, stress is down. Some of the most useful parts have been among the simpler ones, chiefly “capture everything rather than try to keep it in your head” and “don’t confuse your calendar with your to-do list.”  I used to drive myself crazy repeatedly by playing this game: I’d realize I hadn’t worked much lately on a particular essay I needed to write, so I’d put “work on that essay” on my calendar for Tuesday morning, then I’d spend Tuesday morning prepping for a class or putting out a fire, and then I’d feel anxious because I didn’t write the essay.  If nothing else, I have learned to distinguish calendar from to-do list, and projects from next-actions.  That’s as vital for academics as it is for any business executive.A college professor’s job has at least three distinct components, each of which in its own way can benefit from a GTD approach.  First of all, there is teaching classes. This involves the actual instruction time, as well as time beforehand to prepare and time afterwards for grading.  The class time, along with office hours, are “hard landscape” calendar items which need to be done at a particular time, but the prep time and grading have a little more flexibility.  There are still deadlines, though: mid-term assignments must be graded in a timely fashion, and final grades must be submitted by a deadline also.  And the prep for any particular class must obviously be done before that class.  So these can be seen as non-calendar “next actions,” although for some people it works better to schedule time blocks devoted to these tasks.  The class itself can be seen as a project with a successful outcome: the students complete the course and have learned a lot; I’ve turned in final grades.

Second, there is research and other scholarship activities. At a bare minimum, we are expected to stay current in our fields, which requires reading time.  Is it at the library?  At home?  At the office?  In print, or on-line?  These can be context-sensitive next-actions.  But beyond that, there is the expectation of productivity.  “Productivity” in the academic sense can be a paper for publication, a conference presentation, participation in a symposium, editing a collection, refereeing for a peer-reviewed journal, data collection, experimentation, and so on.  Each of these can easily be seen as a “project” in the GTD sense – and that means that one can avoid being overwhelmed by them by breaking them down into next actions.  Before I encountered GTD, I used to have to-do lists with entries like “write book.”  Turns out that’s not very helpful!  David Allen’s observation that one can’t actually “do” a project is certainly applicable here: the only way to write a book is to break it down into bits, and then write and organize the bits.  It’s much more effective to think about what discrete steps are required to organize the book and formulate each section.   Next-action thinking therefore translates very well to scholarly writing.  Also, there are many other tasks involved in getting research done (and published) – paperwork as well as logistical – each of which needs to be identified and clarified.

Third, there is generally a service expectation: advising students, serving on departmental or college-wide committees, participating in various events. There are meetings, which need to be calendared, and the other work can easily been seen as projects (e.g., produce report) with next actions (e.g., call the dean’s office to request that file).   If one becomes department chair, as I am, then there are many more administrative responsibilities one acquires: working with a budget, producing the schedule for the year, hiring support staff and adjunct faculty, meetings with administrators and other chairs.  It’s easy to see why younger faculty can be overwhelmed and why senior faculty can suffer burn-out.  Many people outside academia don’t realize the amount of juggling that goes on, assuming that a “12-hour load” means a 12-hour work week.  It’s more like 50, believe me.  I don’t say that as a complaint; I love the job – but if it were really only 12 hours worth of work, I wouldn’t need GTD!

One thing that really resonated with me as I read the book was just how applicable it was to a non-business context.   Every example, even the business-specific, was one I could transfer to my world: identify goal, clarify successful outcome, figure out the next action.  I keep my inbox at or close to empty – both paper and email.  I mentioned that I used to be one of those people with 6000+ messages in my Outlook inbox.  Now it’s rarely got more than a dozen.  All emails fit into one of the workflow categories – some are trash, some are reference info to be filed, some are waiting-for trackers, and some are actionable.  So I have reduced stress and improved efficiency simply by learning to keep my email under control.   On a more mundane level, it’s also helped to get a label maker for file folders!  I am no longer the absent-minded professor of stereotype who can’t find anything in the messy office.  The fictional professors who live that way manage to produce ground-breaking scholarship, but in reality, living like that is an impediment to scholarly productivity or efficiency in teaching.  If you wouldn’t expect an executive to be productive under those conditions, there’s no reason to expect a scholar to be either.  Sadly, these caricatures are present even among academics.  I have been trying to “get the word out” to a number of my colleagues here and elsewhere.  As David noted in the book, if others become more efficient and productive, it helps everyone.  I have used GTD to make committee work go more smoothly, even if the other members of the committee don’t always realize that’s what is happening, but I also talk to colleagues about it, recommend the book (in some cases, I buy copies for people), explain the virtues of the methodology.  After attending one of David’s “Roadmap” seminars, I gave a presentation to my fellow chairs at a workshop, and I received a lot of positive feedback.  Just as David has expressed hopes that GTD would become “standard stuff” in the corporate world, I would love to see GTD more widely adopted in academia.  Our students would benefit, and we’d get a lot more research accomplished with less burn-out.

If anyone reading this is an academic and wants to hear more specifically about how I have brought GTD to bear on my teaching, scholarship, service, and chairmanship, please feel free to get in touch. And of course I’d be happy to discuss these matters with non-academics as well.  You can message me via GTD Connect, or the GTD LinkedIn network, or drop me an email.

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

• GTD Times – This is the the official blog for David Allen, GTD & the Coaches.  Loads of helpful advice, tips, tricks & strategies for implementing GTD.
• Podcasts - Includes the GTD best practices series with David & his team.
• Coach’s Corner - Dozens of free articles from the Coaches, from GTD philosophy to tactical tips and tricks.
• GTD Connect – The two-week free trial is a fully-functional experience of our online learning center (except for downloads.) There’s no obligation, no payment required, and nothing to cancel.
• Articles, Handouts & Learning Tools - Essays from David on GTD best practices, the original workflow map and more available as free PDFs from our store.
• GTD-IQ - Measure how you’re doing with GTD. Take it as often as you like (especially you crazy makers). There are also some free articles and videos on this site too.
• GTD Facebook Fan Page – A great place to connect with other GTD’ers chatting about a wide-range of GTD topics.
• GTD LinkedIn Network – A great network of GTD enthusiasts with more of a business focus.
• Twitter - Follow the David, the Coaches & Products dept.  @GTDSpecialEvent also runs free GTD Twitter-based classes.
• GTD You Tube Channel – A collection of fun and useful videos of David and GTD practitioners.
• Productive Living newsletter – David’s free newsletter with “David’s Food for Thought,” product specials & community news. Sent every 3 weeks.
• Video of David @ Google – A great overview from David on the keys to control + perspective.
• DavidCo Discussion Forums – These rich forums are a great way to ask questions, search for answers and connect with other GTD’ers around the world.

But, I also think it’s important to acknowledge that GTD isn’t about always being tidy. In fact, the moments when GTD is most valuable are the messiest and ugliest moments. Take this recent snapshot of my desk, for example.

This is what it looks like after a week that included four speaking gigs, two road trips (to get to some of the aforementioned speaking gigs), an all-day conference, and two birthdays (my husband’s 40th and my son’s first). Oh, and that’s in addition to my full-time job at clockwork.net, blogging at geekgirlsguide.com and trying to maintain some semblance of a personal life. Gaaaah!

But, you know what? That’s LIFE. It’s freakin’ messy. The minute something feels “done” or “perfect” — something comes along to mess it up. The real power of GTD is in realizing that it’s not about how awesome your desk looks, it’s about realizing that — for most of us — there is no such thing as “done.” We have to get comfortable with  that fact.

Ultimately, my desk tends to reflect my state of mind: when my desk is a mess it means that, before I just go about mindlessly cleaning it, I need to get my head back in order. What are my priorities? What do I need to do? What do I want to do? What can I realistically accomplish in the time I have?

In my own life, it played out like this: on Tuesday morning last week (around the time this photo was taken), I sat down at my desk and felt immediately overwhelmed. Every inbox in my life was literally bursting at the seams. Instead of freaking out, I grabbed a very large cup of coffee and began a Weekly Review. I immediately started to feel  calmer. I checked the calendar to ensure that I could spend the day getting things back into focus. My inboxes slowly started to dwindle.  (By the way, the most frustrating thing is processing one’s inbox while more input keeps coming in — getting to zero took me all day.)  I channeled my energy either where it was most needed (urgent  emails!), or where I most felt like letting it go (Did I remember to book that hotel for our anniversary weekend?). I ended the day feeling like things weren’t perfect, but they were good enough for now, and I’d finish the rest tomorrow.

I’ll be the first to admit that this discipline of defining the edges of my own work doesn’t come easily. I’m the type of person that will stay up until 1am to finish something because I feel compelled to, not necessarily because it needs to be done. But, I’m working on it. I’m working on learning that my time is finite and I could literally spend
the next 7 days in front of a computer working non-stop with no breaks for sleep or meals and I still wouldn’t be “done.” I’m not a widget maker, I’m a knowledge worker and my work is never done.

Yeesh, it feels uncomfortable to even say that!  “Hello, my name is Meghan and my work is never done.” But, it’s true. And the more I practice saying it, the more I believe it, and the less I feel compelled to keep my inboxes at zero all the time (which, I can tell you from experience, is a losing game). The more I believe that I’m never done, the more I can choose to close my computer at 5pm and give my kids my full attention or keep my iPhone turned off on a date with my husband. These things are just as — if not more — important that my inbox or my desktop.

So, the question is not: is your desk spotless right now? The question is: do you feel in control right now, and how long would it take you to get there? If the answer gets a bit messy, don’t worry about it.  That’s part of the game.  After having said all that, I totally want to see your awesome desk. (Send those along to us at editor@gtdtimes.com)

Meghan Wilker is a regular contributor to GTD Times. She’s also been featured in David Allen’s In Conversation series on GTD Connect, spotlighting some of the most fascinating people in our network of GTD’ers around the world.

What: It will be a working Twitter session. I’ll guide people through the GTD Mindsweep process through a series of Tweets.  Mindsweep is part of the Collect phase of GTD (read chapter 5 of the Getting Things Done book to get a quick overview of this process.)  It will be up to you to then process & organize it (chapters 6 & 7 of the book.)  When I’ve done these Guided Mindsweeps for GTD Connect members, many commented how great it was to have someone else jogging their brain on things they hadn’t thought of on their own. They did a much more thorough collection of the loose bits in their brain.

When: Thursday, October 15th – 9am PDT (Los Angeles time) Find your local time.

How: Follow @GTDSpecialEvent or just launch this web page during the event to follow the Tweets. Have a blank electronic document or pad & pen handy to do the exercise.

Who:  Anyone who wants a clear head. Truly.

If you’re like most people, you’ll move too fast and be engaged in too many things during the course of a week to get all your ideas and commitments outside your head. But it should become an ideal standard that keeps you motivated to consistently “clean house” of all the things about your work and life that have attention. – David Allen

I’ve been a GTD Connect member for just a little under two years.  I’m a Dallas-based Consultant and I DO NOT make a living from writing enthusiastic reviews on GTD or have any affiliation whatsoever to David Allen Co.  But big changes have happened at the GTD Connect site and I’m writing today because of one simple fact:  The more the merrier!

GTD Connect member Brian D., one of the members who regularly contributes thoughtful posts to the forum, posed this question in the GTD Connect Forum today: “What one feature do you find most valuable on Connect?”  A lively discussion ensued, per usual.  Augusto P., another sage member, referred to Connect as his “mental gym”-a place to bounce practices and ideas off of other professionals to improve his own GTD practice.  It got me thinking about all of the changes in the last few months and what a huge difference I’ve seen in my own ability to get things done.

I admit there have been times over the last two years that I have thought of canceling my membership.  Although I enjoyed all the content available on the site, I was beginning to perceive that the value I received was less than the price charged to be a member ($48 per month or $480 per year.)  In the last 2-3 months the content has been significantly enhanced and new content is added every week.  Just a few of the things that have changed are:

• Regular webinars on related topics:  From Procrastination to the Guided Weekly Review, these webinars give us a taste of having a Coach right there with us!  The material presented is all new and comes from many years of coaching in the field.  Joining Kelly on some of the webinars is Meg Edwards.  I had the pleasure of working with Meg through the telecoaching program at David Allen Co.  These two Coaches have probably worked with thousands of GTDers and they teach from experience.

• Enhanced Forum postings:  The Coaches participate more than ever!   From posting pictures of their own work areas to weighing in on various discussions, we have the experts right here with us answering questions and guiding us toward improvement every day.

• Interviews with David:  Coach Kelly regularly interviews David and other coaches in a fun and informal format designed to feel like she is just popping in to see what’s new with a co-worker.  The easy, relaxed and often fun way they interact with makes for very compelling listening.

• Content based on member feedback and suggestions:  They are listening to our suggestions and responding quickly to our needs.  No 6-month window of development for these people!

The entire GTD Connect experience is starting to feel like a family.  From the Coaches, the staff, and member to member, there’s an experience here unlike what it was in the past.  If you tried it in the past and canceled, I’d encourage you to take another look.  And be sure to jump right into the Forum!

[Editors note:  From the whole GTD Connect team--David Allen, Kelly Forrister, the DavidCo coaching staff and member support team--thanks for the shout out Barb!]

She recently did a great write up on her experience of GTD on a Mac:

My System

When I started implementing GTD about four years ago, I was working on a company PC. I configured Outlook (as outlined in the GTD and Outlook whitepaper) and everything hummed right along. Three years ago, I left that job and transitioned to a Mac. Suddenly, I was adrift without a system and I ended up falling into a trap that I think a lot of GTD practitioners (and geeks) fall into: I started over-analyzing my needs and evaluating software to the point that my system stopped working very well. I tried Backpack, Remember the Milk, OmniFocus and a score of others.  Finally, I decided the best approach would be to figure out a way to bend the applications I already use all day, every day to my will.   Read more>>>

By the way, David’s In Conversation series on Connect has featured some of the biggest GTD fans out there, including…

• The writers of the Simpsons
• Musician Evan Taubenfeld
• Arianna Huffington
• The CLO for General Mills

…and dozens more.   If you are not a GTD Connect member, you can check out the two-week free trial to listen to these interviews.

Sean writes, “I have just been recommended to use Omni [Focus] project management software to assist me in managing my ever complex working and private life.  I have looked at the software and I have found that they follow your principles.  My question is How do I start?  Do I buy the book, or buy the software or begin on some your other programs.  Please advise me.”

This is probably one of the most common questions we get at the David Allen Company.  A good way to think of GTD is that it is a systematic approach, not a system.  If you understand the approach first, then applying that to the system tools (like OmniFocus, the Outlook Add-in by Netcentrics, or any of the nearly 150+ GTD-centric software programs out there), will make more a whole lot more sense.

Here are 10 ways to learn the GTD approach:

1.  Read or listen to the Getting Things Done book. It is THE ultimate manual for GTD. Part One gives a great overview. Part Two walks you through coaching yourself through the process.

2.  Go through the Getting Started Series on GTD Connect.  If you’re not a member, try the free 2-week trial.  You can access everything as a trial-member except download content.  There is also a great video in the  Connect GTD Cafe called, “I read the book, now what?”

3.  Go to a public GTD seminar.

4.  Get coached in person or by phone.

5.  Find a friend or coworker who already does GTD and have them show you their setup and how they work it.

6.  Read the What is GTD? overview from David Allen.

7.  Listen to David do a full two-day GTD seminar on CD.

8.  Grab this free article to learn the 5 phases of Mastering Workflow. Then apply that consistently to one area of your workflow, such as your email inbox.  When that’s mastered, move on to the next area.

9.  Read the DavidCo staff blogs on getting started, like this series from Kelly.

10.  Listen to some of the free podcasts with the DavidCo coaches on the GTD best practices.

Obviously, these approaches range widely in time commitment, content and budget, but hopefully there’s something in there to kick start things for you!

An annual subscription to this amazing service runs $40 per month but right now you can try it for fourteen days absolutely free. I don’t know how long this free offer will last so if you haven’t already become a subscriber you probably want to head over to the trial registration page and sign up before it’s too late!

Here’s an example of the sort of material that GTD Connect members can access any time day or night, 365 days a year. You simply won’t find material or information like this anywhere else.

From GTD Connect’s exclusive library:

The Simpsons Interview:
What happens when you cross GTD with the world’s most successful TV comedy show? You’ll find out in this high-energy and humorous dialog between David and three of the writers of The Simpsons. Listen as Dan Greaney, Rob LeZebnik, and Danny Chun share how they’ve implemented GTD principles, each in his own way, and how they get things done in a unique professional environment. The way they produce creative comedy by committee may have some lessons for all of us!

Here’s a link to a sample of the interview. If you want to hear the entire thing use the link below but be warned that you do have to register to access that material (registration is free).

Link to full interview on GTD Connect:*

Ismael Ghalimi Interview:

Ismael Ghalimi is the epitome of the new global and virtual professional. He runs a successful high-tech software company in Silicon Valley. He’s also the creator and driving force behind the annual Office 2.0 conference. And, as a dedicated GTDer, he manages himself with totally web-based software. Listen as Ismael shares with David his perspectives on getting things done in his highly mobile world.

A link to a sample of the interview is here. Use the link below to listen to the entire program.

Link to full interview on GTD Connect *

Once again you can register for the free trial of GTD Connect here.

*Please note that free registration is required in order to listen to the interviews hosted at GTD Connect’s private site.

Make It Up and Make It Happen
By David Allen

There are only two problems in life. Isn’t that nice to know? You only have two things you ever need to be concerned about. Not only are there only two problems – they are really quite simple. Ready?

Problem #1: You know what you want, and you don’t know how to get it.

Problem #2: You don’t know what you want.

Anything you can define as a problem can be reduced to one or both of those statements.

Now, since there are only two problems, it follows that there are only two solutions that you will ever need….

Link to full article on GTD (remember this requires registration for the free trial of GTD Connect)

GTD Connect is David’s members-only website. Ordinarily there’s a monthly fee of $40 (based on an annual subscription) but right now – if you act quickly – you can get a free fourteen day trial of GTD Connect with just a few clicks of your mouse.

Even if you read GTDtimes religiously, you’ve never seen a GTD resource with as much information as you’ll find on GTD Connect.  Here’s a sample:

• The world’s largest collection of GTD multimedia content (audio, video and text), with more added on a regular basis.
• Sixteen Getting Started Modules (video and audio) delivered right to your email inbox.
• Exclusive videos of David’s coaching and insights.
• An extensive collection of essays on topics from managing email to prioritizing and goal setting.
• Interviews with leading productivity experts, technology gurus and leaders in business, education and non-profit organizations.
• Member forums where you can learn from and share with others – about technology, work life mix, implementing GTD – whatever is on your mind.
• Weekly reminders and reinforcement pushed directly to your email, when and where you ask for it.
• Social networking features that can help you to find other GTD Connect members in your city or state.

Eight times a year you’ll also receive an audio CD delivered to your door (and available as a download) entitled, “In Conversation”; David’s interviews with leading thinkers and achievers who are part of the GTD network. You’ll benefit from rich conversations with successful people Getting Things Done.

Connect members also get 25% off the price of any David Allen seminar and 10% of lots of merchandise from The David Allen Company Online Store.

If you want to try GTD Connect for free don’t waste a minute.  Visit this special page and sign up for you free trial subscription!

It’s Friday.  Take a break. Put your feet up, and indulge yourself for ten minutes while David talks about Getting Things Done…

By the way, great content like this – from more audio and video to articles, commentary, and even forums where you can get answers to your personal productivity questions – can be had with a GTD Connect membership.  In addition to the email newsletter subscription written personally be David Allen, there is an entire member’s only section of the DavidCo website that is reserved exclusively for GTD Connect subscribers.

As an extra bonus, here’s another podcast with David Allen – this one from the DonationCoder blog:  Part 1,  Part 2.

Default Taking Someday/Maybe a step beyond
Someday/Maybe is one of the most powerful lists in my GTD system. I love it because it gives me total freedom to capture stuff even if I have no idea if I’ll have the time, money, resources, courage or talent to do it. <!–more–>They’ve always been my longest set of lists. I have so many items that I break my items into several categories in my Palm Memo Pad:Someday – Work (currently 25 items)
Someday – Personal (68 items)
Like to Buy (56 items)
Places to Go (73 items)

Many people get the idea of Someday/Maybe for obvious things like projects and next actions, but how about those seemingly undefinable open loops like unfinished business or the would/could/shoulds? I was reading a magazine article the other day that was suggesting people look at what their incompletions are through a series of questions. I wondered if people would be more willing to look at these kinds of things if they knew they could have total freedom to capture the answers on Someday/Maybe lists, without the pressure to do anything about it now:

* Things I want to start but haven’t started
* Things I want to change but haven’t changed
* Things I want to stop but haven’t stopped
* Things I started but haven’t finished
* Things I want to do but haven’t done yet
* Things I want to say but haven’t said
* Things I want to learn but haven’t learned
* Things I have felt but haven’t expressed

__________________
Kelly Forrister

http://www.davidco.com/blogs/kelly/

Senior Member

Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 153
Default
Thank you for these questions. These will be great for the empty-your-head/be-creative part of my weekly review.
Reply With Quote Multi-Quote This Message

Join Date: Mar 2008
Posts: 5
Default Weekly Review audio program
The Someday/Maybe list is one thing that really changed for me after I listened to the GTD>Weekly Review audio program.

In the discussion on Someday/Maybe lists it is pointed out that “You may want to group different someday / maybe items by group, some to review weekly, quarterly, next time in… or many different ways”.

I have since re-grouped my Someday/Maybe lists into:

Someday/Maybe Action: @Action items that might need to be acted on. i.e: an action that can’t be acted on until something else is done first, or maybe not at all.

Someday/Maybe Projects: Typical project type someday/maybe, usually things I’ll have to do when I have the bandwidth.

Someday/Maybe Dreams: This is the really fun one, but I don’t need to review it as often. i.e: scuba dive the great barrier reef, visit all seven continents etc.

For those who have not listened to the weekly review audio program. Performing the weekly review (as it should really be performed), has changed my life as much, as the first time I found and used GTD.

There are literally thousands of questions and answers available in the GTD Connect Forums that can help you improve your knowledge of GTD. Of course you can also post your own questions should one you have not be answered already. Additionally, this is one more venue where those of you with advanced knowledge of GTD can help others benefit from your experience as community members are strongly encouraged to contribute to the discussion both with questions and with answers.

Many successful entrepreneurs I have worked with over the years could be characterized (and have been, by their employees and friends) as “highly creative control freaks.” It’s understandable because usually it takes that kind of strong, directed energy to create a business, to make something out of nothing. Much like a parent will go to superhuman lengths to protect its vulnerable offspring, someone who gives birth to an enterprise almost of-necessity must have skin as thick as an elephant’s and the aggressive/defensive capacity of a samurai warrior. It takes tremendous focus, determination, and, yes, a certain lack of sensitivity, to create something new and get it to stick around in this world.

That protectionism can, of course, become their undoing. In order to continue in their visionary capacity to grow and expand, they must mature not only their team and their systems but themselves as well, to prevent the strangulation of micro-management. They have to trust. But trust is not something you can just do because you should. I suppose you can develop a greater sense of overall optimism about life, but you don’t merely learn to trust – you learn to build trust. And you do that by creating a system and working it, so you can let go at that lower functional level, without letting go of the bigger picture of what you’re trying to accomplish.

A beginner at the wheel of a car will have jerky, small movements. They are maintaining control, just at small increments of focus. Only as they learn to trust the car’s responsiveness can they let go on that level, extend their horizon, and cruise at higher speeds more easily.

Similarly, if you don’t fully trust your personal systems, you are likely to be dedicating inappropriate and unnecessary mental attention to details and content, often with a resultant negative emotional component. You’ll feel pulled, overwhelmed, and often like you’re close to losing control.

But you can’t trust your system until it’s trust-worthy. When is that? When you know you have captured all your commitments, clarified what you’re intending to do about them, decided the actions you need to take about them, and have parked reminders of those actions in places that you know you’ll look, where and when you need to.

Entrepreneurs have to break out of their comfort zone of operational control and let go, getting good people in the right places, accountable for the right things and monitored appropriately.

Similarly, to keep a clear head focused creatively at the right things, you must have all the right things in your personal system and the behaviors to look at them at the right time.

If you try to keep more than ten things in your mind at once, you’ll lose objectivity about their relationships with each other. Less important things will bother you more than they should, and you won’t give the tactical and strategic stuff the objective attention it deserves. And if some part of you knows that you don’t have everything captured and organized in the right place, your brain simply won’t let go of some attention to unseen details. You’ll find yourself still to some degree at the mercy of the latest and loudest. It’s the price paid for staying in the comfort zone of keeping control of it all in your head.

When people begin to implement the Getting Things Done methods, they initially experience a rush of energy and creativity, while feeling more relaxed at the same time. But those positive experiences can slip away quickly without the confidence that the content of their systems are complete and current (the inventory of which could have been changed and expanded hugely with the last phone call). People have often said, “Gee, I have everything captured in the system, but my mind is still worrying and reminding me about this and that.” My question is, “How long have you been working your system?” Usually they have only recently set it up. That won’t be sufficient to build trust yet, and your mind will still try to keep control. That’s why the challenge is to going – to keep coming back to everything downloaded, processed, and organized. And the trick is to come back often enough for the mind to be able to let go, trusting that remembering and reminding is really being handled by something better than it is. Then you’re truly free to be thinking about things, not of them.

“Be steady and well-ordered in your life so that you can be fierce and original in your work.” – Gustave Flaubert

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