“If you don’t have a clear sense of the totality of your obligations, you will always overcommit. And commitments occur on multiple levels, from ‘why I’m on the planet’ to ‘need butter.’ But the elevation most amorphous for most is the plane just above your physical activities—your projects. I have a radical definition of a project: Anything you’re committed to finish within a year that requires more than one action to complete it. Given that broad designation, most people have between 30 and 100. Where’s your list? How complete and current is it?”

—David Allen

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If you’re looking for practical time management training, watch a busy mom for a day. You’ll learn that moms are experts when it comes to organizing their to do lists by contexts. They can move forward on projects, even when others might not see the possibility for progress. Some might call it multitasking, but in fact it’s more the ability to rapidly refocus, using whatever technology is at hand, including Facebook.

Moms Rely on Facebook More Than Other Women

by Leslie Meredith, Senior Writer, TechNewsDaily
12 April 2012 07:30 PM ET

Forget the weekly playgroup to compare notes with other moms — many now head straight to Facebook. Moms use the social media site more frequently than women without kids, and with far more finesse.

Marketing firm Performics yesterday (April 12) released its study of 3,000 active U.S. social networkers, and found moms were more proficient than other women at getting information from Facebook. Fifty-six percent of moms considered themselves to be “experts” at using social networks compared with 36 percent of other women.

You can click here to read the complete article.

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Hi Folks,

The real power in GTD is not really in the hand writing or typing we do onto lists—it’s in the executive and creative thinking triggered as we engage with them. This month I explore the one list that can easily be the most powerful in terms of maintaining ongoing control and focus in work and life—the Projects list. Here’s a cautionary tale for anyone who thinks they can get along without it.

All the best,

DAVID’S FOOD FOR THOUGHT

IS A PROJECTS LIST NECESSARY?

People started keeping calendars a century ago. Why? Because life’s time-based commitments got more complex than they could trust their mind to manage. If you think that a Projects list is unnecessary, then throw away your calendar and trust life will just let you know what you should be doing, in the moment. [Read more →]

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When you define the successful outcome of a goal or project clearly, your brain starts finding ways to achieve that outcome. Or, as David Allen crisply phrases it in chapter 13 of Getting Things Done:

• Make it up.
• Make it happen.

A recent article entitled Your Brain on Fiction summarizes new research to support this idea. “The brain, it seems, does not make much of a distinction between reading about an experience and encountering it in real life; in each case, the same neurological regions are stimulated.” Reading fiction is like having your brain run a computer simulation program.

You might have heard David say in his seminars that the human nervous system doesn’t distinguish between a well-imagined thought and reality. Once you have identified an outcome, your brain’s reticular activating system will start organizing incoming information in ways that help you get the outcome you’ve defined. So go ahead and let your imagination savor the experience while you read your lists of successful outcomes—your projects and goals—as your brain helps you convert what you read into your reality.

Reticular formation of the brain, from Gray's Anatomy

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Are there times when it’s more effective for you to relax than pressure yourself?  After you read this quote from David Allen, please post your comments on how you handle this self-management challenge.

“What compounds the challenges of the self-management game is that often the most effective thing to do feels like the last thing you’re capable of doing. When you most need to plan is when you least think you have the time. When you most need to relax is when you feel most pressured to push hard. And when you most need to deal with cleaning up the minutiae of your life is when you feel most compelled to try to stay focused on something ‘more strategic.’”

—David Allen, Making It All Work

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Where is the majority of your Reference stored these days? In GTD terms, your Reference is your “non-actionable” materials. Do you keep them stored in digital or hard copy?

If you’re mostly digital these days, what works well for you about that over paper?

Or, if you’re mostly paper, what works well about that over digital?

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What’s your level of GTD expertise? No matter what it is, these interactive and concise 90-minute webinars will deepen your mastery of the GTD best practices. David Allen Company offers these on an “a la carte” basis, giving you the flexibility and affordability to choose just the ones that work for you.

Keys to Getting Things Done®
This live Webinar will give a fast & fun overview on the keys for Getting Things Done, led by a Senior Coach. Learn about the best practices and tools for managing the five phases of your workflow: Collect, Process, Organize, Review & Do. Experience a “mind sweep” and walk through the decision making model for moving your input from “stuff” to clear outcomes and actions. Get tips for setting up a seamless system. A great overview if you’ve been wanting a better understanding of the “big picture” of managing your workflow with GTD.

February 16
March 15
April 19

GTD® & Outlook®
This live Webinar will give a detailed overview of the best practices for implementing GTD in Outlook. You’ll learn tips for setting up and managing Outlook Email, Calendar, Tasks, and Notes to support a seamless GTD system. See a demonstration of processing email (No, “inbox zero” isn’t an urban legend!) See examples of Task “contexts” and suggestions about how to structure your project and action lists.

Includes complimentary copy of our GTD & Outlook Setup Guide to assist you in your implementation of the recommended steps.

February 23
March 22
April 26

All webinars are held from 11am-12:30pm Pacific Time (California). Each webinar is $49. If you are planning on taking both, Keys to Getting Things Done is recommended before GTD & Outlook to build the foundation of best practices before the practical application.

Questions? Contact us at webinars@davidco.com.

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Have you wondered whether goal setting works? The February issue of Productive Living has David Allen’s answer to that question.

“Yes, but not the way most people seem to understand goal setting. In my experience, the real value of defining desired futures is not so much in the world they describe, but the change in perception the process of setting goals fosters.”

DAVID’S FOOD FOR THOUGHT

THE VALUE OF GOALS

What we focus on changes what we notice. Our brain filters information, seeing one thing in a situation instead of something else, based on what we identify with, what we have our attention on, what we’re looking for—more or less consciously.

The reason for long-term goals is the permission they give us to identify with the greatest value we can so it changes our filtered perceptions. The future never shows up (have you noticed?—it’s always today!). But playing with it as a working blueprint can be a remarkably useful tool to see things (and how to do and have them) that you never saw before.

Subscribe to Productive Living. It’s free and sent about every 4 weeks. You’ll find essays from David Allen, thought-provoking quotes, and productivity tips you can use every day.

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David Allen: Getting Things Done Interview – Getting your Startup Under Control: Business

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GTD Times reader Jenna contributed her ideas on how to adapt GTD to writing.

A Writer’s GTD Journey

About a year ago I was beginning to feel overwhelmed with my list of unfinished projects. I’m a writer and had about a dozen scripts, stories, and article ideas backlogged on my computer. Not only I was not completing any of the projects, I was adding new ideas every day. Each new idea, rather than filling me with excitement at the prospect of undertaking a new creative project, instead filled me with dread and anxiety because I felt like I was looking at corpses—great concepts that would never be brought to fruition. It was obvious I was falling apart. I needed structure, an actionable plan for organizing my projects. I stumbled across Getting Things Done and this is what I embarked upon:

Collect. Address the items that are concerning you. I made a list of all my unfinished projects. It was like an endless scroll.

Process. Make decisions about the value of these items and what you will add or subtract to them. I looked at each project and decided [Read more →]

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