In the next Productive Living Newsletter, David Allen talks about the “Strategic Value of Clear Space.”  Here’s a short excerpt:

“How easily you can make a mess is how truly productive you can be.

I don’t usually work in a neat fashion. Whether I’m writing an essay, arranging flowers, or making guacamole, I wind up strewing stuff all over the place. If you were to walk into my office while I was working or thinking about something, you’d likely see notes, books, and files strewn around somewhat randomly; a mind-map on my computer screen; doodles and words scrawled on my whiteboard. When I really get involved in something and my creative juices start flowing, it’s likely to look like something exploded in the middle of it. I have a singular focus, but it doesn’t seem orderly until it’s done. My best work happens that way. Yours will too.”—David Allen

To read the rest of David’s essay about the value of clear space for making a productive mess, subscribe to his free Productive Living Newsletter. Next issue comes out the end of May.

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The GTD Mastering Workflow seminar is coming to New Orleans on March 14th!  Learn the foundations of GTD in this wonderful destination city.  If you’re just getting started with GTD, this is a perfect opportunity to get your system off the ground. If you’re experienced with GTD, it’s a great time to identify any gaps in your systems for greater productivity.  This one-day presentation is packed with practical recommendations and suggestions about how to put the proven GTD principles to work for you—at work, at home and in everything you do.

Sign up now to get the early registration discount.

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Do you have any pointers for perfectionists?

Just focus on doing the next action perfectly, which is a lot easier than trying to be perfect about how you approach something bigger. Be as retentive as you want. The only problem is when it stops action. Be a perfectionist about the process, which will require, of course, making decisions on the front end that might not be perfect. Think about what might go wrong if you avoid decisions and action! (If you need a negative motivator.)
—David Allen

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Question: What’s a Project?
Answer from David Allen: Any outcome that’s going to require more than one action item, in some sequence of events in order to be able to get to that outcome, that’s a project. And boy, there are a lot of people that just miss that. Invariably I see that most people’s “project lists” are very, very incomplete. One of the more subtle ones that comes to mind is: What issues are on your mind right now, or situations or circumstances? Not necessarily negative things, but oftentimes there’s kind of a health thing, there’s kind of a family thing, there’s a relationship thing, there’s a—who knows? There’s all kinds of subtle stuff that show up out there that are either problems or opportunities and they don’t march up to the door with a pretty pink bow and say, “Hi, I am now a project!” Get those clarified in a way that you know what done looks like (the project outcome), and what doing looks like (the next action).

Taken from the GTD Mastery: Closing the Gaps webinar David did for GTD Connect members, Dec. 2012.

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The Power of Moms has a very useful post on how to methodically get your house organized. There’s even a handy PDF download.

A Seven-Step Plan to Organize the House

by April Perry on Jan 8, 2013

I want my home to be a simple, functional, happy environment that enables every family member to thrive.

But if I want it to get there–and stay there, I have to have a plan.

Over the past 12 years, with 9 moves, 4 children, and a bustling schedule (like yours, I’m sure) I’ve refined my home-simplification process down to seven steps that work every single time.

Many aspects of this process are based on David Allen’s best-setter, Getting Things Done (a wonderful book you must read).  Corporate executives worldwide live and breathe this kind of training, and now we’re going to have a great time applying it to our homes.

Read the full post here.

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“Priorities are determined from the top down—i.e., your purpose and values will drive your vision of the purpose being fulfilled, which will create goals and objectives, which will frame areas of focus and responsibility. All of those will generate projects, which will require actions to get them done.”

—David Allen, Making It All Work, Appendix vii, Horizons of Focus

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The Financial Underground recently interviewed David Allen about how to use the Natural Planning Model for personal finance.  You can read the blog post here, or listen to the podcast.

Interview with David Allen. The Natural Planning Model for Personal Finance.

By Matt James / September 24, 2012

“If I asked you to stop planning, you’d plan how to do it.”—David Allen

Have you mastered the art of stress-free productivity?

How about stress-free cash flow planning?

Many of us would answer “no” to both. Part of the problem is that we go about solving the “problem” of personal finance and cash flow management in a manner that is neither intuitive nor productive.

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Autumn is one of the four most likely seasons for procrastination to show up.  If you’re curious about why bright people like Gwendolyn procrastinate the most, have a look at chapter 12 of David Allen’s Getting Things Done.

Used with permission from Debbie Ridpath Ohi at Inkygirl.com.

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One of our GTD fans on Facebook recently posted about dramatically reducing her email backlog. Good job! How much email backlog do you still have? How would you tackle that as a project? Post a comment about how you would phrase the successful outcome (what does done look like with backlog?), and what your next action is.

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The GTD Natural Planning Model is a great way to plan any project.  A key step in the model, after deciding on the purpose and sucessful outcome, is to do some brainstorming. Here’s a key for successful brainstorming: Have lots of ideas! How? By encouraging everyone to present their ideas without censoring. Sometimes the apparently bad ideas need to get expressed to clear the way for the obviously good ideas. In the brainstorming phase, do your best to encourage complete expression, be open, non-judgmental, and resist critical analysis. Don’t worry—an idea that really doesn’t fit will get sorted out in the organizing and next action phases. And who knows? The idea that doesn’t fit for this project may be just what is needed for another project.

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