If you were one of the folks we heard from who wished to attend the GTD Global Summit but simply couldn’t get away for both days this should be some welcome news.  In response to a surprising number of requests that we make passes available for each of the two days of the Summit, the David Allen Company is happy to respond in the affirmative.  You can now buy a pass for either day, and of course for both days too.

The GTD Summit is only three weeks away, can you really afford NOT to attend?  If you or your team are one of the many people that are suddenly being asked to do more with less, attending the GTD Global Summit might actually be one of the most important investments you could make.

The knowledge you can acquire from the world-class line up of experts on not only GTD, but also entrepreneurship, creativity, productivity in general, life hacking, military strategy, leadership, ethics and more will be far more enduring than any other use of funds we can imagine.

Nevertheless, we understand that for some people it simply isn’t possible to take two days off from your job, school, or family, while for others, the full price of the summit might simply be out of reach at this time.

Regardless of your reasons, the team at the David Allen Company is sensitive to your situation.  It should go without saying that David’s commitment to helping people achieve more, learn more and get more out of life goes far beyond any financial element and this attitude permeates the entire company.  It is for this reason that the team decided that unlike many conferences that are an all-or-nothing sort of affair, the GTD Global Summit will be different and will offer people the ability to attend just a single day of their choice if that is what someone wants to do.

Day passes are now available for each of the two days.  Pick one day or two.

Each day pass includes:
Autographed copy of David’s new book.
Exhibitor Expo
Coach’s Corner – your chance to sit down with a GTD coach one on one
Coach’s Theater – “how to” presentations from senior GTD facilitators
Breakout sessions with high impact presenters and moderators
All meals and beverages

The Best Part?

You will see and hear from some of the world’s leading minds on productivity, making change and adapting to our changing world. Intelligent conversations.  Compelling speakers. And more.

HOW TO REGISTER:
Pick the day pass that best suits your schedule.

Thursday, March 12th

Friday, March 13th

DAY ONE PASS – MARCH 12th

David Allen & Guy Kawasaki: Welcome & Keynote
James Fallows, Marshall Goldsmith and General Randy Fullhart
Breakout Session One
Self Management as Strategy: GTD and Leadership
Good Things Getting Done: GTD Serving Service
GTD at Home: From the Boardroom to the Living Room
Breakout Session Two
A GTD Workforce – Is There a New Industry Standard?
Innovation – Getting New Stuff Done.
GTD as Super Charger and Safety Net: Life Transitions and Transformations.
Breakout Session Three
Entrepreneurs and GTD – Making it up and Making it Happen
GTD and Education: Reading, Writing. Arithmetic and GTD
The Virtual Workplace – Does it Work?
Book Signing – David and other authors
Exhibitor Expo Wine and Cheese Reception.

Register here for your Thursday, March 12th Day Pass

DAY TWO PASS – MARCH 13th

David Allen presents “GTD Making It All Work”
Plenary Session – How the world works, and should we care?
Dave Logan
Ron Kaufman
Sanjiv Mirchandani
Michael Winston
David Allen
Breakout Session Four
Best Practices to Good Habits: Can I Make GTD Stick?
Your Brain on GTD: Why it Works
Productivity Tech: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Breakout Session Five
Critical Behaviors in the Crunch – GTD and Organizational Change
GTD and Sales. Customers and Relationships
Creativity and Clear Space – Inseparable, or Mutually Exclusive?
David Allen Final Remarks
Book Signing – David and other authors
Exhibitor Expo Wine and Cheese Reception.
Register here for your Friday, March 13th Day Pass

HOW TO REGISTER:

Pick the day that works best for you and register now. A limited number of day passes are available. See you there!

Day Pass for Thursday, March 12th

Day Pass for Friday, March 13th

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Editor’s Note:  Over the next two weeks we’ll be providing some advanced coverage of the GTD Global Summit so that you can get some idea of what to expect (and what those of you foolish enough to miss this event will be missing) as well as whom to expect it from.  Following a brief bio of Major General Randall Fullhart is a summary of a recent meeting the our own Director of Business Development, Phillip Martin, had with the General.  Not only is Major General Fullhart an incredibly accomplished military man, from Phillip’s report he also sounds like quite a guy.  I can’t wait to hear him speak at the Summit.

Maj. Gen. Randal D. “Randy” Fullhart is Director, Global Reach Programs, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Washington, D.C. As the capability director, General Fullhart is responsible to the Air Force acquisition executive for airlift, air refueling, training and special operations programs.  You can read more of Major General Fullhart’s biography here.

Meeting Details:  Wednesday, Feb 18 from 1:30pm – 2:30pm in his office in Roslyn.

Upon arriving and going through security, I was escorted upstairs to his waiting area. The General walked out into the waiting area to greet me (as opposed to having his assistant usher me into his office…like a lot of high ranking officers and others in business, government, and academia do….this was a big deal to me..very cool and classy on his part)

As I entered his office, he was working at his conference table and had 50+ copies of GTD stacked on it. I loved it! He did too. He was excited for me to see them all. I took his picture with them all (see below) He was getting ready to teach a Leadership course. We had a instantaneous “connection”.

He opened by asking me how I got involved with DAC. I told him the story. We were right across from the Marriott Key Bridge where I first met David and Kathryn on Sept 30.  I shared with him the new outside sales initiative. He asked me about my target audience. I told him of the “three-legged stool”:  Government, Private Sector, and Associations. He loved it and concurred, and added, “I’m surprised you didn’t mention Colleges & Universities.” To which I told him of our pilot under way at Champlain and some of the discussions with Graduate Schools in Business. I told him David has it for now on his “Someday/Maybe” list. General Fullhart is very interested in this sector, and likely will want to talk with David about it in San Francisco.

He is really enthused about speaking at the Summit. He shared with me his outline for his eight minute address. Said he thinks now David has him leading off. “NO pressure”, he remarked laughingly. He said he is most anxious to meet Kathryn.

We then discussed our shared interest in Civil War history and Leadership development. We went back and forth on similar stories of Joshua Chamberlain, Robert E. Lee, and many others. He asked me to send him my “Leadership Lessons from the Civil War” podcasts and a copy of my powerpoint slides on Gettysburg.
He told me about his very close association with Frances Hezzelblein and her work on Leadership. He also likes The Goal   (by Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt) and The Effective Executive (by Peter Drucker) both mentioned in his “In Conversation” CD.

He also recommended  Leading in a World That’s Round  (by Robert Greenleaf) He spent 20 minutes drawing out his concept on paper and discussing his views on the new organization charts and communication in leading-edge organizations.

He has a giant ornamental sword on his desk. It must be 4-5 feet long and it is inscribed and engraved with scenes and sayings from Don Quixote. He is very proud of it. It is from his time at the National Security Agency. He offered to speak at some prospect organizations. I have followed up with him and he has already written me.

I am also attaching a Video of a recent interview he did on our local Defense Industry television channel three weeks ago.

Sincerely,

Philip

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Fokke Kooistra, author of the popular “Productivity 101” blog as well as a former contributor to GTDtimes recently attended one of David’s new “Making it All Work” seminars recently.  Below is an excerpt of his thoughts on this experience. To read his full review, please visit Fokke’s site directly at right here.

was visiting the Making it all Work seminar featuring David Allen in Amsterdam yesterday. The seminar was organized by the David Allen Company and Life Architect. It was my third time that I visited one of David Allen’s seminars. I also listen regularly to the audio version of the seminar. It was as usual a very good seminar, relaxed, focused and entertaining. It looks like it doesn’t cost him any energy. Because I know what it is to have to present in a different time zone, it is amazing how he does it. With humor but with great persuasion he tells his story about productivity. You can read elsewhere on Internet about the content of the seminar.

There are two things I want to write about in this post regarding the seminar. First, David demoed his own system with Lotus Notes with the eProductivity add-on from Eric Mack. He also showed his extensive use of MindManager. By doing this he showed first hand how it works in his own personal and professional life. I must say this was quite powerful. It resembled much of how I have set up my own system in Evernote.

If you haven’t been to a seminar that is personally lead by David Allen you are missing an experience that at a minimum is an exceptional learning opportunity and for many people is literally transformational.  Of course for a truly transformational experience you should consider attending the GTD Global Summit which is taking place in San Francisco March 11th-13th of this year.

In addition to David Allen, Guy Kawasaki will be delivering a keynote and there will be presentations by other notable GTD’ers, entrepreneurs, and experts on everything from technology to entrepreneurship.  You’ll also have the chance to meet and mingle with a couple hundred other like minded people from companies both big and small.  Already, the summit has registrations for individuals from companies like Meade, Xerox, UPS, Federal Express (those last two probably know a few things about how to get things done, eh?) and many more.

Latest word is that for people registering in groups of 2 or more there’s a sliding scale of discounts that can be quite significant, especially for groups of 5 plus.  If you’ve got a couple of friends that you think could benefit from a few days of intensive GTD therapy, this is a great chance to get them on board and at a serious reduction from the standard price for the event.

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A Community Contribution by Arif & Ali Vakil

I love GTD Connect. And within Connect, my favorite bit is the David Allen Teleseminars. In my early GTD days I would gets heaps of coaching and guidance from every single minute of the teleseminar. However recently it’s more of the stray comment that David mentions which gives me immense value and makes my entire Connect Membership totally worthwhile. One of those stray little things that David mentioned at a recent teleseminar is creating a “My World Mindmap”.

David Allen has a mindmap called DA’s World. He uses this to link everything in his life into one single overall mindmap. Using his cue, I’ve created one called Arif’s World, and below is a screenshot of that mindmap. (You can click on it to view it in full scale):

Some of the  benefits I’ve received on creating and using this sort of mindmap have been:

1. One stop reference for everything in your world
As you can see I now have a one stop reference for everything to do in my world. If I want to peek into what’s my Area of Focus, I launch Arif’s World and then click on the 20,000 Ft Areas of Focus branch, which takes me to my Areas of Focus mindmap. If there’s something new that pops into my head that I’d like to do 2 years from now, I launch Arif’s World, enter into my 30,000 ft (2 to 3 year goal) mindmap and enter my new goal in there.

2. A place to park projects that have higher priority in the current week.
For me, the most useful branch  of the Arif World mindmap has been the Current Projects branch. Although it involves a little double entry it’s been worthwhile for me to do so. I’ve got a minimum of 100 to 150 projects. There are times when that number can go up to 300. I find it difficult to keep focus on my key projects during the week. So a neat trick that I picked up from David is entering my high-priority projects once again in the Arif World mindmap. I do it in two instances, either when I’m doing my weekly review or during a regular day when a really hot, exciting new project pops into my life, I enter it into my project list as well as into My World mindmap.

3. A place to park “Areas of Focus” that need more attention.
Areas of Focus can broadly be divided into Work, Health, Family, Finance, Social Responsibility, Recreation & Creative Expression. You may have an Area of Focus that is not necessarily in cruise control and needs more um..focus. So, there’s a separate branch for Current Focus on the My World mindmap. To ensure that you look at it regularly enough, you may enter that particular Area of Focus in to the Current Focus branch of your world mindmap so that you look at it frequently enough to bring it up to the desired acceptable standard. For eg. your personal finances may not be at a very comfortable level. Sure, you may have a project to bring it up to the standard where you would like your finances to be, but you can also enter it in the Current Focus branch of your World mindmap to keep in view that, there is a particular standard.

4. I can create a world for any key area of my life.
I recently became a dad to a beautiful princess. David Allen says that managing each child is like managing a small little company of your own. And he’s so right. For the last month or so, I was constantly preoccupied with questions like, “Arif, you have to ensure that your baby gets her immunization shots on time, what about her education, oh you’ve also got to make your home baby safe now, blah blah”. And then it hit me, all I needed to do was create a World mindmap for my daughter. In that I can list out whatever are her long term goals, what are her current projects, etc. And of course, her World would be linked through mine. So under Arif’s World, I go to My Area of Focus mindmap. In my Area of Focus mindmap, I go to the “Family” branch, which has a sub-branch named Maryam (my daughter’s name) which then links to a completely new mindmap called “Maryam’s World”.

Similarly I’ve created a World Mindmap for my Company titled VHDC World (which you can see linked to Arif’s World above). You could create one for your job, a particular hobby that you are very passionate about, infact for any Area of Focus that you believe needs more fleshing out.

A key point to note in conclusion that, having a My World mindmap becomes really worthwhile only when it’s handy and accessible. When I want to launch Arif’s world, it’s really simple. I launch Quicksilver (Cmd+Space), I hit AW, and Arif’s World pops up open for me, no matter which program I’m running. Those who are running windows can do the same using Active Words.

Would love to hear your feedback/comments if you found this useful and/or if you have any other ideas on what else can go into a Your World mindmap.

13 Comments »

A new study conducted jointly by Harris Interactive and Xerox indicate  that reducing information overload can yield better use of time – particularly for those working in government positions.  This in turn is associated with the possibility that additional cost savings can be realized as a result.

David Allen has long been aware of this association and it has been an underlying premise of all of his work even that which predates his first book; “Getting Things Done: the art of stress free productivity”.

As the economic crises becomes deeper and as it cuts across an even broader swath of the global community, corporate leaders are becoming more and more acutely aware of the fact that people simply have to do more with fewer resources, at the same time they understand that putting more pressure on already pressured people might make things worse, not better.

Some of the savviest managers realize that the only way around this inherent conflict of getting people to do more with less while at the same time not applying pressure is to do what less savvy individuals find unthinkable in a recession.  Invest in training.  They have learned – and studies such as the one below bear this out – that investments in training can make the difference between getting more out of a calm, controlled and productive employee and one that is going crazy and making those around him crazy as a result.

One event where you can get training of this sort for your employees and for yourself is the upcoming GTD Global Summit the 11th-13th of March at the Hotel Intercontinental in San Francisco.     You can find more details by clicking the link above.

Relief for Government Workers: Easing Information Overload Will Uncover
Cost Savings, Relieve Stress

NORWALK, Conn., Feb., 19, 2009 – More efficient management of the
increasing influx of information may be an untapped opportunity for
government and education cost savings, according to a new survey of the
U.S. public sector conducted jointly by Xerox Corporation (NYSE: XRX)
and Harris Interactive.

Findings indicated that 58 percent of surveyed U.S. government and
education workers said they spend nearly half of their average workday
filing, deleting or sorting paper or digital information.  According to
Basex, a knowledge economy research firm, this amounts to at least $31
billion spent managing information each year by local, state and federal
governments.

“Government agencies are being asked to maintain the same level of
service to constituents while staring at severely slashed budgets,” said
Jonathan Spira, chief analyst of Basex.  “Tackling the information
overload problem is a good place to start recapturing some of those
costs.”

Other responses from the survey suggest taking steps to ease information
overload will help speed up work processes, reduce employee stress and
ultimately save time and money for government and education agencies.
Of the workers surveyed:

*                 57 percent say not finding the right information for their jobs
is more frustrating than being stuck in a traffic jam
*                 38 percent said they have had to redo reports or other work
*                 24 percent said they have used the wrong information
*                 23 percent missed deadlines as a result of inefficient
management
*                 37 percent strongly to somewhat agree that their organizations
are drowning in paper
*                 50 percent strongly to somewhat agree that their organization’s
business processes are paper-based
*                 45 percent felt increased stress and anxiety about their work

“Information overload is creating huge challenges for knowledge workers
in both the public and private sectors,” said Greg Jones, senior vice
president of Public Service Operations, Xerox Corporation.  “With the
current economic pressures, it is critical for businesses to address the
gaps in their work processes and implement smarter strategies that
deliver results.”

Businesses in both the public and private sector have uncovered
significant cost savings by working with Xerox to streamline information
management.

*                 The Oklahoma Employment Security Commission boosted productivity
by up to 35 percent after implementing a paperless claims process using
Xerox DocuShare(r), a web-based content management software solution.
Instead of manually storing and retrieving employment, insurance and tax
data, workers now instantly access a database of more than two million
files.
*                 Penn State’s Multimedia and Print Center, inundated with
requests to print, duplicate and distribute volumes of paperwork, used
Xerox digital presses and production printers, and a Web portal
storefront, to streamline its operations – improving the bottom line by
50 percent.
*                 The Wilkes Barre School District in Pennsylvania simplified the
student registration process with Xerox DocuShare, reducing time spent
from two weeks per child to just 30 minutes.

Moving into the digital age
The survey, which polled government and education workers across the
U.S., revealed that workers see paper as a facilitator of information
overload and are looking to technology to help manage it.  When
considering a technology investment to bring them into the digital age,
almost half (42 percent) ranked improved efficiency as the number one
priority for doing so.  For those surveyed that have started the digital
migration, 63 percent somewhat to strongly disagree that their
organization is completely digital, leaving room for improvement down
the line.

After launching the “sharing” era with the first xerographic copier 70
years ago, Xerox now helps customers navigate the flood of information.
The company has kept pace with innovations that help clear the path
between paper and digital content, cut through the clutter and make
information relevant again.  For more on information overload, visit:
http://www.infooverload.com; for information about Xerox, visit:

http://www.xerox.com.

Survey Methodology
This Information Overload Survey was conducted online within the U.S. by
Harris Interactive on behalf of Xerox between October 13 and October 30,
2008 among 316 full time employees working in education or government
industries.  All respondents are employed full time with 25 percent
holding C-level titles and 85 percent sharing in the decisions for
document management technology at their organization.  Results are not
weighted.

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability
sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often
not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage
error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question
wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments.
Therefore, Harris Interactive avoids the words “margin of error” as they
are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible
sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted,
random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical
because no published polls come close to this ideal.

Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have
agreed to participate in Harris Interactive surveys. Because the sample
is based on those who agreed to be invited to participate in the Harris
Interactive online research panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling
error can be calculated.

About Harris Interactive
Harris Interactive is a global leader in custom market research. With a
long and rich history in multimodal research, powered by our science and
technology, we assist clients in achieving business results. Harris
Interactive serves clients globally through our North American, European
and Asian offices and a network of independent market research firms.
For more information, please visit http://www.harrisinteractive.com/.

-XXX-

Media Contacts:
Michael Moeller, Xerox Corporation, +1-203-849-2469,
Michael.Moeller@Xerox.com

Elissa Nesbitt, Xerox Corporation, +1-585-423-3591,
Elissa.Nesbitt@Xerox.com

Note: For more information on Xerox, visit
http://www.xerox.com/innovation  or http://www.infooverload.com.   For
open commentary and industry perspectives, visit
http://www.xerox.com/blogs or http://www.xerox.com/podcasts.

Xerox(r), DocuShare(r), the Xerox wordmark and the spherical connection
symbol are trademarks of Xerox Corporation in the United States and/or
other countries.

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Robert Scoble, the well known blogger and ultra popular twitterer (Is that a word?  This new lexicon is getting weirderer all the time just had a full day of Workflow Coaching from David Allen Company.

Robert was very impressed and had nothing but good things to say about the experience and the fact that in spite of his working for Microsoft for ages, his coach taught him a thing or two about Outlook that he didn’t know.

Anyway, head on over to Scobleizer.com and check it out!

1 Comment »

According to executives at the David Allen Company, MP3′s of some of David’s most popular recordings are one of the most oft-requested items but unavailable items in the GTD Stuff line-up.

No more!  iamplify a company with the world’s largest selection of downloadable audios and videos has partnered with the David Allen Company to put the GTD Weekly Review, GTD Live, David Allen’s Full 2 Day Seminar, and In Conversation with David Allen into the convenient (and instantly yours) format of MP3.  Now you can easily take your GTD recordings with you wherever you go and the price is lower than the same products on physical media so it’s a win all the way around.

More recordings are sure to come so if you’re a fan of MP3′s be sure to check back with iamplify to see what new titles they add next.  This product will also be available in the DavidCo GTD Store in a few weeks.

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If you’re a David Allen fan then this is news you probably want to hear.  David, the man behind GTD has finally leaped with both feet fully into the Web2.0 World by signing up for Twitter.

So if you are interested in what David has to say – or as Twitter says – “what David is doing” you should make it a point to go to Twitter and follow GTDGuy aka David Allen.

6 Comments »

According to the results of a recent survey that appeared in USA Today on Dec. 29, 2008, productivity has become one of the top challenges for executives.  The survey was conducted by Robert Half Management Resources.

If the survey is to be believed — and there’s no reason why it should not — then there’s never been a better time to institute GTD either was an individual or within your company…

Based upon the study, 30% of CFOs felt that increasing productivity was their top challenge, followed by boosting profitability (20% of respondents).  1400 CFOs working for firms with at least 20 emplooyees from across the country were queried in telephone interviews to generate the results.

They were asked:  “Which one of the following was the greatest challenge you faced in your first 100 days in your current position?” Their responses:

Increasing productivity
30%
Increasing profitability
20%
Personnel decisions, such as hiring or staff reductions
13%
Building rapport with new staff
13%
Building rapport with your CEO
8%
None
9%
Other/don’t know
7%

100%
From the original article:

“New financial managers need to make an immediate impact,” said Paul McDonald, executive director of Robert Half Management Resources. “In today’s economy, especially, executives may have less time to prove themselves and are expected to demonstrate tangible results.”
McDonald noted that while just 13 percent of CFOs cited building rapport with staff as their top priority, managers should not overlook this critical step. “A creative and motivated team is essential to enhanced productivity. Corporate leaders need to connect with their employees and understand what motivates them to perform at their highest levels.”
About the Survey
The national study was developed by Robert Half Management Resources. It was conducted by an independent research firm and is based on more than 1,400 telephone interviews with CFOs from a random sample of U.S. companies with 20 or more employees. For the study to be statistically representative and ensure that companies from all segments are represented, the sample was stratified by geographic region and number of employees. The results were then weighted to reflect the proper proportion of employees within each region.
About Robert Half Management Resources
Robert Half Management Resources has more than 150 locations worldwide and offers online job search services at www.roberthalfmr.com.

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