I recently presented a seminar where a participant brought up the project of getting her daughter into college.  Since that had been a project for me as well, I wrote to her about how I applied the “Natural Planning Model” to this project. For those of you unfamiliar with the Natural Planning Model, it is David Allen’s approach to getting projects creatively under control. The specific details of this five-phase approach can be found starting on page 54 of David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done.

Here is the email I sent to this participant regarding her project:

Dear Sara,

I wanted to share with you what I did to help my son with his efforts to get into college. [Read more →]

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Meghan Wilker–mom, social media maven, and GTD’er-extraordinaire, brings her tips for surviving the holidays GTD-style. Enjoy!

This weekend kicked off the holiday season which, for most people, is synonymous with utter chaos. Often, work projects need to be wrapped up by end-of-year, we are inundated with party invitations from friends, clients, and vendors and — on top of all that — family commitments multiply. Oh, and then there’s that whole “buying presents” thing, which is made all the more fun by the current economy (aka “these uncertain times”).

Here’s how GTD can help you maintain your sanity this holiday season:

Calendar Kung Fu
If you haven’t already gotten a calendar management black belt, use the next two months to earn it. My favorite moves include:

• [Read more →]

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GTD enthusiast Kerry Gallivan has been working with a wonderful project in Maine that is bringing MacBooks,  OmniFocus & GTD to nearly 60,000 students and educators.  It’s an amazing story and congratulations to all involved in making this happen.  Truly a remarkable achievement which will greatly benefit the students, teachers, their families and communities.

As a GTD evangelist myself, last March I was fortunate to attend the GTD Summit in San Francisco. This was a first-ever event hosted by David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, and his company, David Allen Company. It was a networking event which brought together all of the best and brightest GTD practicers from literally around the world. It was at the GTD Summit that I met Ken Case – the President of the Omni Group.  Being a Technology Director at a school district in Maine and a GTD evangelist, I encouraged him to consider donating OmniFocus to the MLTI program as a first step in exposing the educational community within Maine to the benefits of the GTD system.  Read more–>

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A couple of weeks ago (during an In Conversation that will be posted later this summer on GTDConnect), David Allen asked me if I practice GTD with my kids. In response, I laughed and said, “No.” After all, my daughter is three years old and my son is just nine months. They can hardly do GTD, can they?!

But, in the weeks since we talked, I paid more attention to how GTD factors into our family life and realized that — though they are quite young — there are elements of GTD that I am already teaching my kids.

Of the five levels of control in GTD (capturing, clarifying, organizing, reflecting, and engaging), most of what my kids are learning right now has to do with capturing, clarifying and organizing. [Read more →]

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Mike Williams, speaker at the recent GTD Summit, and longtime friend of David Allen Company, sent us this story with us about his experience sharing GTD with his kids. We thought this was fitting to share on Father’s Day.

I am always running experiments with my kids (queue the evil scientist laugh!).  I would love to share these experiments or test new things (experiments, gear) to help start the GTD thinking at an earlier age.

Here is a recent post I wrote on one of my experiments.  It resonated with several GTD moms and dads at the GTD Summit.

I am also experimenting with home design, backpack gear, homework routines, school routines and home routines to build systems that enable the GTD systemic approach.

Read more about Mike’s experiment>>

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“Work and play are words used for the same thing under differing conditions” —Mark Twain
All good things come in three’s—just like the steps of the weekly review:

1. Get Clear
2. Get Current
3. Get Creative

Getting work done

First get clear. Collect everything in one place—the loose bits of paper, assignments, toys, (school) books and randomly ordered thoughts. Put it all in one place, like the IN basket. Then work it down until you get it is empty.

Doing this for myself regularly keeps me in control. Similarly with my children, the effects are most obvious when I am not asked where the clean socks or trousers are—the wash-IN basket is empty.

Or where that missing library book is to be found. And when my daughter has the conversation with me about doing less English at school so that she can concentrate more on her Russian. (We speak German together at home).

The balance between work and play

Then get current. Connecting with everything and identifying what to do with or about it, is a balancing act.

This is most obvious to me in the moment of now. In reviewing everything, I know how and when to keep in balance. That careful balancing act between work and play.

“The richest and fullest lives attempt to achieve inner balance between 3 realms: work, love and play. That to pursue one realm to the disregard of the other is to open oneself to ultimate sadness in older age. Whereas to pursue all 3 with equal dedication, is to make possible a life not only with achievement but with serenity.” —Doris Kearns Goodwin.
Doris Kearns Goodwin on learning from past presidents | Video on TED.com

How often do you get to play?

Get creative. Creative ideas seem easy for kids. Wild outrageous and seriously fun things are so easy for kids because it’s most like play.

Sometimes it is also important to do just nothing. Sit out in the garden and enjoy the view of how the seasons change. Or enjoy a coffee in your favorite café—doing nothing. Not even with your notebook. Just doing nothing can be the most productive time of the day. Kids do it (almost) all the time.

“Hey what are you doing?” — “Oh? Nothing!”

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Doing the wash is just a few minutes has started some discussion with friends. Most of all the question: how do you do it?I am simply inspired by others.In the video here (explained in the classic GTD 2 minutes) you will see how a t-shirt can be folded in 2 seconds.

Now this is something you can try at home with the kids! We had fun learning this 2 second trick

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David Allen starts the RoadMap seminar: “GTD is all about the lazy way of getting things done”.

That got me thinking. Getting things done – that means everything done. Yes even the wash. Done. Getting the wash-IN basket to empty can be done in 2 minutes. Each stage in the process need not take longer – be that collecting or processing, organizing, doing or reviewing.

Doing the wash, even big piles of it which comes with living with 3 kids, takes me (us) a couple of minutes at each stage.  The piles grow (quickly) everyday, especially with children. Mostly things just get dumped on the floor. I find things in the oddest places too, like a left sock under the car seat or a sweater next to the sofa and a hat on the kitchen table.

A visiting friend once pointed out “this house is lived in!”.

Collection is a continuous and daily task. Everything gets to the wash-in basket – and it never takes more than 2 minutes to get to done.

Process - organize and color code “What is this?” Processing the wash-in basket gets done quickly. Involving the children can make this a really fun task. It also takes the mystery out of what happens to my dirty trousers, and gives understanding to the question: “where is my favorite shirt?” Or a clean set of underwear.

• COLLECT – all the socks and dirty stuff
• PROCESS – sort and colour code, one at a time
• ORGANIZE – machine or hand wash? Dryer or hang it up?
• REVIEW – fold or iron, keep it or pass stuff on
• DO – putting it back, one thing at a time!

Delegate it.  I delegate tasks for the children. In fact they organize their own lists of who does what each week (more on lists in another posting). Collecting and putting away the wash for example are great habits to foster.

Learning by doing: In a situation where learning by doing sometimes means  not doing anything, I recently shared the experience of not having any clean underwear with my son. This came came about when the collection step was missed. Puzzled as I had done all the wash, dried it and folded most things – I helped see where the problem was. Sure enough several discrete piles were discovered. None had been placed in the wash-IN basket. After reviewing this “awakening” together and agreeing who does what in the process of doing the wash my son had a better understanding of how “not doing” resulted in a result also – though not the desired result to be sure.

Having fun.  Of course with kids, making things fun – even something boring like the wash is key to engaging their minds and making the lessons stick.  By incorporating the principles of GTD into doing the wash with my kids  we see that this chore can be done 2 minutes at a time and we can even have fun in the process.

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The GTD weekly review is a great habit. Almost everywhere I read about the importance and effects of regular reviews. In my everyday activities I notice the effects too -  amidst the chaos  of everyday life, the payoff of  committing myself to conducting regular reviews results in having the appropriate  response to whatever comes up.

I also read about the struggles we (can) have. A recent lecture at my children’s school helped me understand why I struggle and how I learn new habits.

Learning new habits

A habit is something we all have plenty of. Learning a new one takes time. Whatever it is. Yes even “bad” habits take time to learn.

Children are quick to learn. And like me need time to make what they have learned really their own.

It takes something like 4 weeks to acquire a habit.

Every day or week, diligent repetition of a task helps make that task a habit. And the learning continues. It takes something like a year to make a habit a part of me. A skill. Good reason to continue until that habit reaches a level of perfection.

Music lessons and the music of GTD

My children each play their own instrument. Charlotte the violin, Judit cello and Thomas piano. The daily rhythm of playing is important to establish. Weekly lessons support the practicing habit.

Orchestra and ensemble rehearsals, regular concerts and just playing bring joy to music. That moment of concentration. Those nervous moments waiting. Deep breath… One. Two. Three. Four. Pure music to the ear. And the applause! Wow what a feeling.

And that is just me as father listening! The hardest thing I love to do, is watch the children growing up.

We now have summer concerts at the end of the school year. Later in the year Christmas street concerts are not only great fun, but raise extra pocket money too.

Goals and projects making music

“Papa! I want to play every weekend at the Market!”

I ask: What do you need to do to get there? When can you play? Who do you want to play with? Which instrument? How many songs do you know? Which songs are fitting for Christmas or just fun to listen to? Which piece are youM going to learn next?

Focusing on goals like these means we often forget that we are learning about habits. And suddenly habits become something else. Its just about having fun!

GTD is like making music.

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