One of the things that helps me stay current with my GTD system and not have the Weekly Review feel like a major renovation, is that I review my Next Actions lists whenever I feel like it and as often as I can.  Whenever I coach people who have slipped out of regular reviews (call it daily quick scans and weekly thorough reviews) I see them start to triage all of the “important stuff” onto their Calendar, which they know they will look at.  Then the calendar becomes an fuzzy merge of the stuff that really belongs on the calendar (time-specific and day-specific) with the “stuff-I-put-on-the-calendar-so-it-doesn’t-get-lost-on-a-list.” Inevitably, they find themselves carrying things over from day to day just to keep it alive.

Do you need to review every list every day? Of course not. But use those weird windows of time that show up in your day to pop over to a list for a little visit. You might start to find it’s like meeting up with a good friend who is happy to see you.

More about Kelly…

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A Community Contribution from Erik Hanberg

For me, one of the easiest and yet most difficult concepts of David Allen’s Getting Things Done was thinking of everything as work.

After all, who wants to work all the time? But I quickly learned there was strength in the idea.

As I was implementing GTD for the first time, I understood the concept as a way to make sure that I didn’t lose track of the fun things in life. [Read more →]

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Dear David Allen: What do you recommend to organize the Projects list in order to quickly find a particular project?

David: If you’re using a software application for managing lists, and if it can sort the list alphabetically, then get in the habit of writing the key word about the project first, so you can scan down the alpha listing. E.g. “Finalize vacation” becomes “Vacation – finalize.” That’s what I discovered works best for me. The other question might be: Why do you need to “find the project”? What are you looking for? If you’re doing a thorough weekly review every week, you probably don’t need to refer to the project on a list that often. If you need to refer to your notes and plans about a project, they should simply be accessible in your reference or project support areas by file or folder; and you just refer to those as you need. Another option is to create some sub-categories of projects that you feel you need to review frequently. Nothing wrong with that.

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Question: Where do I put deferred tasks that are due, for example, in three days?   If I’m processing my Inbox on Monday,  and I know the next step to completion is a two hour task, “at Computer” that is due on Thursday, do I make a decision to do it at a specific time, and put it on my calendar? Or do I put it on the @Computer list? Or Something else?

David Allen: In your environment [Editor: David has coached at this fast-paced Fortune 100 company], if you have something that requires two hours of time, and HAS to be done within the next couple of days, I would schedule that two-hour block for yourself and hold yourself to keep your appointment with yourself. That way it gets off your mind the rest of the time. Not a bad idea to do that for ANY action that requires more than an hour of uninterrupted time, in your interrupt-driven kind of world, if it really has to get done within the next week or so. [Read more →]

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Countless questions have been e-mailed to me asking for the best ways and tools to organize project thinking, or how to relate project pieces to each other and to all the other projects and their pieces.   Ninety-nine percent of the time, my answer is: “Do the Weekly Review. If you do, it all works. If you don’t, nothing will work. – David Allen

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A Community Contribution from Carolyn J. Sullivan about her experience with the GTD Weekly Review. We would love to hear your experience with the Weekly Review in the comments.

I’ve been using GTD principles since I was first introduced to them in 1994-95. I was part of a consulting group at Polaroid responsible for supporting cross-functional new product development teams in the areas of effectiveness, organizational learning, and functional expertise. After some research, a colleague found the Time/Design system, and before long we had arranged for David Allen to come in and deliver what was then called the “MAP Seminar.” I don’t exaggerate when I say it changed my life, and I have applied the questions “What’s the desired outcome?” and “What’s the next action?” to every conceivable personal and professional issue since.

The thing that astounds me most about GTD is the fact that, 25 years later, I discover nuances and have epiphanies on a regular basis – this is truly an organic approach that grows with the user. My latest epiphany came a few weeks ago and concerns the dreaded Weekly Review. I thought: “If I feel stress in any given week, it’s because I’m trying to think about several ‘big pictures’ while simultaneously reigning in the chaos that threatens to run away with my sanity!” [Read more →]

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Dear David Allen: You mention you only “think once a week”.  Does that mean you have a script rule about planning out your weeks as opposed to day-to-day? Could you explain that a little more?

David: When I say I only think once a week, I’m making an exaggerated point that doing a thorough GTD Weekly Review sufficiently sets up my sense of priorities so that I don’t have to do a lot of re-thinking or over-structuring, as I go day to day.  Usually we don’t have the time in the busy pace we work to stop and do “forest management instead of tree-hugging”.  Because most people don’t build in that reflection time–regarding actions, projects, and commitments–they’re constantly thinking that they should be thinking about their priorities, but they never really do.

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In response to our recent Productive Living newsletter, a GTDer wrote to David Allen and said:

Please provide a less complex version of the basic GTD chart/system for me and the hundreds of thousands of organizationally challenged managers just like me who have tried and failed to maintain the GTD system. Simpler is better.

David responded:

I empathize with desire for the “GTD for Dummies” approach.  I suggest just not letting the visual chart get in your way… it’s as simple as:

Write it down
Decide what’s next about it
Park that somewhere you’ll trust you’ll look at as a reminder
Keep your head empty and your list(s) current

Hope that helps.

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Question: You say you shouldn’t write anything on a day when it doesn’t absolutely have to be finished by then. Furthermore, you tell that priorities are depended on time, energy and a lot more, but I miss one thing there: deadlines. What if I make a list of things to do, and find on Monday that there was something I should have done on Saturday or Sunday, but didn’t do it because I didn’t go through my entire list?

David Allen: Deadlines (especially “hard” ones that you have external commitments about) should be tracked on the Projects list, and any pre-warnings inserted on appropriate dates in your calendar (that’s “day-specific information”, e.g. “Budget due in 10 days” would be on your calendar 10 days ahead. )  That, plus regular Weekly Reviews, prevents what you describe — missing deadlines.

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Q: Since college I have used the GTD System and continue to apply it as best as possible.  I get slammed sometimes with multiple tasks and was wondering if you could comment on how best to prioritize tasks within the context of the System.  Thank you for your help.

David Allen: The Secret Sauce for what you’re inquiring is the GTD Weekly Review. I guarantee you, if you do a thorough review of all your projects, actions, calendar (prior and upcoming), and (here’s the catch) all the content is relatively complete and current in your system), you would not have this question.

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