Hi Folks,

Is there anything in your world you need to declare “done” but haven’t yet?

I’ll take a deeper look at completing the past to prepare for the future in a public webinar I’m doing in January on Creating Wild Success in 2013. We’d love to have you join us online for that.

Until then, my essay this month should give you some good direction about going back to those things you need to unhook from and how to be complete with that.

All the best,

DAVID’S FOOD FOR THOUGHT

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO STOP DOING?

We’ve got to learn to declare things DONE. Especially when they’re not. Not completed, that is, to the level of perfection or result that we initially visualized or committed to.

The world changes, and our creative focus along with it. So do our standards. We will always maintain some inventory or backlog of projects to complete, of things to do. But if we’re not careful and take responsibility for unhooking from those that have outlived their seat on our active list, they can easily constipate our creative process. [Read more →]

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Question: Can I edit the Next Action list contexts you recommend in the Getting Things Done book?

David’s Answer:  There are no hard rules about these context categories. You might have action lists specific to more than one office or home location; or you might want to combine At Computer and At Office; or distinguish between Web-Access Computer vs. Offline Computer.

You have to navigate among: How many different ways do I want to keep all these different segments? How easily do I want to be able to review them? And how confusing is it if I put too many things together in one list? I recommend you just get started, try out the most common ones (Agendas, Anywhere, Calls, Computer, Home, Errands, Office), and give yourself permission to change or enhance your system to fit your world as you move forward.

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Here’s a simple calendar guideline from Senior Coach & Presenter Kelly Forrister: If something needs to be done ON a day, it belongs on your calendar. If it can be done ANY day, or BY a day, it goes on a Next Actions list.

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“Creating Wild Success in 2013” is a webinar with David Allen on January 11th. Start your year with some inspiration from @GTDguy himself. Save $10 with early registration, through December 14th.

In this interactive and informative webinar, David will share about completing and acknowledging your wins, creating more of what you want to be doing and experiencing, and the essential GTD tools and behaviors that can support you.

The webinar includes:

• An interactive presentation by David Allen and one of his senior coaches around completion, new beginnings, and wild success
• Participant exercises to see how you can create wild success, personally and professionally
• Educational material, provided as a PDF download just prior to the webinar, to support you in your implementation & mastery of GTD

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DAVID ALLEN
Bestselling author and inventor of
Getting Things Done

Click on the link below to find free articles and diagrams on getting email under control, reference filling, organizing your workspace, time management, and more. You can select from individual articles, or select a zip file to download all at once.

Free GTD articles and handouts.

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This is from a recent issue of the “Productive Living” newsletter.

Hi Folks,

The major complaint about our Getting Things Done methodology is not that it doesn’t work or that the principles aren’t sound—it’s that people don’t work the system. I’ve learned that many times the problem is not lack of motivation or discipline, but instead some rather mundane and practical behaviors that can be easily changed to make things work much better. I’ve identified three in this essay. If you do a quality check on your own system and where you notice you have cracks and stress fractures, it could likely include at least one of them.

All the best,

DAVID’S FOOD FOR THOUGHT

THREE COMMON REASONS WHY PEOPLE FLOUNDER

There are three common reasons why most people seem to flounder with their personal workflow. At least part of their systems lack one or more of three essential variables: consistent, current, and contextually available. This was reaffirmed for me in a coaching session I did with a senior executive. Here’s what showed up: [Read more →]

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“People often remark to me that “GTD does take a lot of discipline!” Actually, it doesn’t, any more than taking showers and brushing your teeth require discipline, once the initial unfamiliarity has been overcome. How long does it take to get there? As long as it takes. You’ll be another day older tomorrow, no matter what. So just keep returning, when you stray. Write things down. Decide outcomes and actions. Organize and review them. And you’ll feel more and more uncomfortable when you don’t.”
–David Allen

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GTD can help you sleep better. Write stuff down to get it off your mind. Then process it into your trusted GTD system so you don’t have to wake up thinking about it in the middle of the night.

Courtesy of the Getting Things Done – Official GTD Page on Facebook, sharing a post from Grammarly.

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Our friends in Australia and Eastern Asia have been asking for a webinar that fits their schedule. And here it is!

The Keys to Getting Things Done® webinar is being offered at a special time to support our customers in that part of the world. This live webinar will give a fast and fun overview of the keys to Getting Things Done. You’ll learn about the best practices for managing the five phases of your workflow: Collect, Process, Organize, Review, and Do. Walk through the decision-making model for moving your “stuff” to clear outcomes and actions. This is a great overview if you’ve been wanting a better understanding of the big picture of managing your workflow with GTD.

This webinar is being offered at a special time to support our customers in the Australia and Eastern Asia time zones—7am in Singapore, 8am in Tokyo, 10am in Sydney, and 12pm in Auckland, on December 14. Check your time zone.

For more information and to register, click here.

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