Perspective

Have you taken the GTD-Q Assessment?

With the start of the New Year, this would be a great time to take the GTD-Q assessment. This free online assessment measures what Getting Things Done gives you: better control and greater perspective.  It’s not one of those one-time tests that will never change (which will be good news for those of you who land as a Crazy Maker!). You are encouraged to take it often to see how it changes for you as you work with your strengths and challenges.  If you want your results tracked over time, there is another version on GTD Connect.

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Read the article: Which quadrant should you be in?

Take the assessment now (takes about 5 minutes)

GTD in problem solving

A Community Contribution from Nuno Donato on how he used the GTD Horizons of Focus model to gain clarity about a life change

About one and a half year ago I moved from a busy big city “A”: to a smaller one in the country side “B” to develop a project with an organization I volunteer with. My life changed in many ways due to this, and I enjoyed it a lot. Recently, lots of things on the personal and professional level changed and I felt that it might be good to go back to A.  Lots of things were involved in this, as some people and projects depend on where I am. I spent the last 3 months with the question of where should I be, on my mind. I tried getting all possible arguments, opinions, made a list of pros and cons, but nothing could really assure me that I was making a good decision. It was like my gut feeling was telling me not to trust anything. Sometimes my mind would give me some arguments in favor of A, my heart would ask me to stay in B…. and after a week they would switch places .  So it was getting very confusing and difficult to me.

Finally I thought, why not to use GTD to solve this problem? [Read more →]

The Strategic Value of Personal Productivity

David Allen is doing a webinar event next Wednesday, July 8th, hosted by Unbound Ideas.

In this 90-minute interactive webinar, David Allen will describe the strategies, tools and specific behaviors that dramatically upgrade individual and organizational productivity. In particular, he will focus on:

  1. The 5 stages of control and the 6 horizons of focus necessary for personal self-management
  2. How to get immediate control of “current reality”
  3. How to keep track of the total inventory of your commitments
  4. Why organizational issues are often personal process issues
  5. Why it’s so challenging to change the simplest habits
  6. How to continually self-consult to get back on your game

Register here.  David also does free events like this for GTD Connect members.  If you’re not a member, you can check out the two-week free trial, or join for by the month ($48) or year ($480).  If it’s not for you, canceling is easy. Really.

Taking a deeper look at control & perspective

Making It All Work, David Allen’s latest book, ties together what many people were hungry for after reading Getting Things Done:  control + perspective.  In MIAW, control (5 phases of mastering your workflow) gets married to perspective (your horizons of focus)  to give an overview of the whole game.

Chris Taylor, editor for Goose Educational Media, wrote up a detailed book review of Making It All Work that we thought you may find helpful. He wrote:

We broke the review into two parts, as I felt Making it all Work really lent itself to that format.

Part 1, focusing on control
Part 2, focusing on perspective

You can also read their review of GTD. Enjoy!