Thinking of my jobs, plus my personal roles, plus my volunteer roles as part of the same big ball of “work” helps me achieve more than I’d ever thought possible. It’s all the same work. It’s all the same life.
Tag Archives: GTD Best Practices
The antidote to "the curse of the eternally urgent"
David Allen shares his perspective on the antidote to the curse of the eternally urgent in his latest educational newsletter. Keep reading David’s article Subscribe to Productive Living. It’s free and sent about every 3 weeks. Chock full of lots of great GTD tips, tricks and strategies.
Some Key GTD definitions
What is a Project? A project is any outcome that will take more than one action step to complete. As a list, the Projects list will represent an index of the current outcomes on your plate. What is Someday Maybe? Someday/Maybe means you are not currently committed to complete it, but you are committed to …
What goes on a Someday Maybe list?
David, a college student, asked: I know David Allen says that it’s acceptable to place “pending” projects onto a Someday Maybe list. I have several outcomes that are “one-shot deals.” However, I can’t move on then right now. Can I place them on my Someday Maybe list? Coach Kelly Forrister: My Someday Maybe is mixed …
Webinar on Maintaining Control & Perspective in the Daily Grind
The next Webinar on GTD Connect, the online learning center for the David Allen Company, will be “Maintaining Control & Perspective in the Daily Grind.” It will be held on Friday, October 15th from 10am-11am Pacific Time. If you feel like your productivity gets hindered by latest and loudest or you don’t feel in control …
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GTD Nuggets – Your Lists
Everything on my action lists is for getting done as soon as I can—otherwise they wouldn’t be on the list. – David Allen
David Allen shares what Getting Things Done is really about
David Allen was at BizConf 2010 this year. Here’s what he had to say to Hashrocket in a drive by interview: [HTML1]
The 5 Keys to GTD
What are the keys to the Getting Things Done approach? Capture everything that has your attention Decide exactly what each item means Organize the results in appropriate places Review & reflect at each horizon Make trusted choices about what to Do New to GTD? Read What is GTD®?
David Allen on why sorting your lists by contexts even matters
There is never a moment at which you could do everything you’ve decided to to, simply because most of those actions require a specific tool or location. Context is also the first criterion that limits your options and keeps you from being reminded of things you simply can’t do. If you’re like me, and find …
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David's coaching advice on tracking actions with due dates
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 …
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How David Allen organizes his tasks
Q: How did you organize your tasks? Am I supposed to have a main Projects category and corresponding action tasks categorized @home, @work, etc? David Allen: Yes, my Next Action lists are To-Do categories in Lotus Notes. “Projects” is a category, just like the Action lists of “Calls” “At Computer” etc. They are simply flat …
GTD Success Strategies Webinar
David Allen will be leading a “GTD Success Strategies” Webinar for our GTD Connect members next Friday, August 27th @ 10am PDT. He’ll share the keys for what makes GTD stick, including: The habits and rituals to create What to do when you fall “off” GTD Creating a trusted home base for yourself Creating a …
David Allen on linking projects and related pieces together
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 …
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How do you control paper?
Q: I write down everything but I always seem to end up having problems controlling all the pieces of paper and lists; what are your suggestions? GTD Coach: Writing everything down is a great first step. All those “notes” where you’ve captured and collected what’s in your head, need to be put into an “IN” …
How I learned to be my own assistant and love the GTD Weekly Review
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 …
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Which list manager should I use for GTD?
One of the most common questions we hear from those new to GTD is which list manager they should use. You’ve heard from us on this in loads of webinars, podcasts, articles and blog posts. We thought we would pass along a fellow GTD implementer’s comment to someone on our Forums, which we thought was …
Free Guided Mind Sweep with David Allen
Clear your head with the man himself… This is an GTD Connect, with more added every week. Hook into the most active Getting Things Done community in the world. Check out a free guest pass (no credit card required and we won’t nag you when you’re done!)
Should there be a GTD for Dummies?
In response to our recent Productive Living newsletter, a GTD implementer 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. …
Saying No – Keys from David Allen
Excerpt from David Allen’s essay in this month’s Productive Living newsletter: Deciding that you’re not going to do something is a subtle and critical component of Getting Things Done and is one of the most challenging aspects of self-management. Most of us hate to say “no”—to ourselves and to others. But there are practical things …
GTD & Email
Dear David Allen: I am looking for a guide/product about using email so that one’s worklife does not become overwhelmed with email. We are an office of 30 people, and we have gotten in the habit of emailing each other rather than walking down the hall to talk. We don’t have time to talk since …
