David Allen talks about the GTD Weekly Review, and how to do more executive thinking about your life. Technology changes over time, but this is timeless advice.
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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 ETForget 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.
From the Business Center at PC World, GTD is listed as a browser-compatible productivity system. That will be a relief to those who don’t want to be tied to any specific device, or to a paper planner.
Can a cloud-based productivity system work for you? Or are there times when you have to have your calendar, projects, and actions at hand because the cloud is out of range?
Getting Things Done
We rely far too much on our imperfect memories to help us organize tasks and get work done. Trying to keep track of multiple projects leads to human error as we forget important tasks and waste time worrying over which project we should be working on at any given moment.
The solution: As soon as you remember a task, write it down so that your fallible, distractable brain isn’t the only place where you’re storing a record of it. This is the core principle of Getting Things Done. If you use it while working online, identifying your next task is a simple matter of consulting your to-do list.
In a guest post on the Workshifting blog, read tips from Mike Williams, CEO for the David Allen Company (and vetted GTD coach!) on some simple ways to apply GTD. His post also includes an experiment for making your next meeting more effective.
Are there meeting tips that you have found helpful that others could benefit from? Share them here. Other GTD Times readers like to hear what works for you.
For whatever paper filing you still have that hasn’t gone digital yet, here are tips from David Allen for setting up your paper filing system.
David Allen's workspace
The Atlantic’s Media Diet series asks well-known people how they deal with what seems like an overwheleming amount of stuff to read. Here’s how David Allen responded when asked what he reads.
David Allen: What I Read
How do people deal with the torrent of information pouring down on us all? What sources can’t they live without? We regularly reach out to prominent figures in media, entertainment, politics, the arts and the literary world, to hear their answers. This is drawn from a conversation with David Allen, author of the New York Times bestseller Getting Things Done and founder of David Allen Co.
I have one of the more non-traditional schedules so the only thing I do regularly is wake up. And even that’s questionable. But the first thing I typically do is open my iPad to The New York Times, read an article or two on the front page and then check out the Dining & Wine or Business Day section.
For magazines, I just love The Atlantic, and I’m not just saying that. I get the print edition and the digital version on my iPad and I often read each issue cover to cover. I also love The Week in print because of its expansive and in-depth take on the week’s events. Every so often I’ll get through The Economist but that’s usually only when I’m in travel mode.
Click here to read the full article.
David Allen talks with Bloomberg about technology and email protocols. A great 5-minute overview about the frustrations people are dealing with around email and some ways to deal with it.
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?
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.
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.
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.
