For those of you looking for the best ways to implement GTD with Lotus Notes®, join the next Webinar class on GTD Connect, our subscription-based online learning center.  It will be held February 4th at 12pm Pacific Time.  If you can’t make the live event, the replay will be posted to the GTD Connect Media Library (screenshot shows all of the replays currently available.)

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

2 Comments »

David Allen was recently interviewed by Scientific American on goal setting.  Do goals really work? Have most people already broken what they set just 3 weeks ago? LISTEN NOW (4 min)

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…)

3 Comments »

A Community Contribution by Aeon J. Skoble, PhD. He’s a Professor of Philosophy at Bridgewater State College.

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. [Read more →]

13 Comments »

If you are still struggling trying to get the GTD Weekly Review to become a habit, you’re not alone!  It’s why GTD Connect, David Allen’s online learning center, sends out a Weekly Review reminder email to our members.  It’s a dose of inspiration, sent once a week, looking at a common speed bumps for people with their GTD practice. Here’s a recent one:

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

1 Comment »

Here is a list of all of the FREE GTD resources offered by the David Allen Company:

• GTD Times – This is the the official blog for the David Allen Company.  Loads of helpful advice, tips, special offers, tricks & strategies for implementing GTD.
• Podcasts - Includes the GTD best practices series with David & his team.
• 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. [Read more →]

2 Comments »

We GTDers sure do like showing off our workspaces. And, naturally, we show them off when they are looking their best: inboxes in a near-pristine state and folders lined up tidily with their labels gleaming in the sunlight. Honestly, I love it. Like many other GTD geeks, I get a perverse pleasure from looking at other people’s workstations. I get  inspired and sometimes even pick up an idea for a new way of doing something (like my new Tickler file – LOVE IT!).

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 [Read more →]

15 Comments »

I will be hosting another free GTD Twitter class this Thursday, October 15th at 9am Pacific Time.  Just 30 minutes of clearing your mind. Here’s the scoop:

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

4 Comments »

We received this unsolicited letter from an active GTD Connect member (“Barb” on the Forums) who was so enthusiastic about the value she gets from her membership, she wanted to share it on GTD Times.

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! [Read more →]

3 Comments »

Yes, we know it makes for a great debate, but GTD really is for men or women, PC or Mac, paper or digital.  It’s an approach that gets overlayed onto the tools that work for you.  Since so many GTD’ers are on a Mac, and we’re always looking to feature a wide-range of GTD’er styles, Meghan Wilker was chosen as one of David Allen’s upcoming “In Conversation” interviews for GTD Connect members.   It will be posted on GTD Connect this summer.  We’re also excited that Meghan will soon be a regular contributor to GTD Times.

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… [Read more →]

2 Comments »

In case this is useful for others out there, wondering where to start with GTD, here is a letter we received from a new GTD’er in Australia today.

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!

6 Comments »