Comment from a new GTDer: I feel like I’ll spend all my time maintaining these lists recommended in the book!

David Allen’s reply: If by “maintaining” the lists you mean, “write action reminders down in a retrievable place that you’ll look at when you need to,” then it’s not going to take you nearly as much time, effort, and stress as filing it in your head, constantly feeling pressured about what’s in there, and having the thought occur again (and again, and again) in your mind because it doesn’t trust your system.

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David Allen answers the question about when something belongs on the calendar vs. organizing it on a tasks list. This short podcast will help you use your calendar and task lists more effectively. Available for download now on the David Allen Company podcast page.

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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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You’re managing your commitments with GTD. But how about the people you work with, and your family? David Allen answers the question about how to get others—including coworkers and family members—to “do” GTD. This brief 4-minute podcast is packed with useful information. Available for download now on the David Allen Company podcast page.

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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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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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“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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You may have read that the latest innovation from Silicon Valley is that the employee perk is moving from the office to the home.  That article referred to work-life balance as a nonsense term, based on an archaic segmentation of work and life.

How is your GTD system set up to handle work life and home life? Is there a distinction, or have they blended?

To stimulate your thinking, you can open the larger (more readable) version of this infographic, courtesy of Compliance and Safety, that illustrates the @Work state of mind.

Featured By: C&S Blog

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There are five phases of your GTD workflow: Collect, Process, Organize, Review & Do. For each phase, there are keys that help you get the right things done with less effort.

If you’re new to GTD, try a live webinar on the Keys to Getting Things Done. And if your GTD implementation is already well established, you can refine your system even more.

The overview is here, or you can get details and register by clicking on the date below that works for you.

Thursday, November 15, 10am Pacific Time

Friday, December 7, 10am Pacific Time

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