One of the most common questions we get is how to get started with GTD. New people, especially, will ask this after coming to us dazed and confused by what GTD is really about. And, lots of people seem to be hoping a piece of software will teach them GTD. Sorry, but that’s kind of …
Tag Archives: GTD Best Practices
Tips for managing email with GTD
A GTD’er wrote to us to ask what resources we have for helping her manage email. She wrote that email is “vying for top ten on my list of overwhelming.” Here’s what one of our coaches shared: There are a few excellent resources from the David Allen Company for applying the GTD methods to your …
Creating a network of GTD’ers in your organization
People ask us all the time how to get GTD to stick in their organization. Here’s a great testimonial for how to build a network of GTD’ers: David, Just a quick note to let you know my company is still employing GTD and getting better at it! We conversed a few years ago about a …
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Keeping the Runway Clear
David Allen refers to your day-to-day Calendar and Action choices as the “Runway.” In the Horizons of Focus model, covered in Getting Things Done and more extensively in Making It All Work, it’s the ground floor: 50,000 – Purpose 40,000 – Vision 30,000 – Goals 20,000 – Responsibilities 10,000 – Projects Runway – Calendar & …
Getting to the bottom of your inbox
Dear David Allen: Where do you find the time to go through the hardest parts of your Inbox (I seem to have a lower layer that never gets finished — notes from meetings that need follow up that are important but not urgent etc.)? DA: You’re trying to use your Inbox as your organizer, and …
What is GTD?
Getting Things Done® (also known as GTD®) is not just about inbox zero, picking great tools, or doing a Weekly Review. It’s a whole workflow ecosystem invented by that David Allen that can bring calm to your world, give you perspective on life, and give you better control of your day-to-day. As David says, “there is more …
Done a Weekly Review lately?
You can never get enough of what you don’t really need. And you can never work hard enough, long enough, or fast enough, to eliminate the stress or discomfort that drives those behaviors. Your Weekly Review brings a much-needed break in the pace. -David Allen Grab the free article on the GTD Weekly Review
The GTD Best Practices Series
Do YOU know the best practices of GTD? Although they’ve been recorded for our GTD Connect online learning center, we have been posting the GTD Best Practices series to our free public podcast as well, for all to benefit from. These informal podcasts are a great way to learn the essentials of GTD. Here is …
Managing Projects – Tips from David Allen
Here’s a great Q&A between David and a new GTD’er. To appreciate David’s response, it helps to understand the GTD definitions for projects and next actions: Projects = Your outcomes that require more than one action step. Next Actions = Your next physical, visible action steps. Some are project-related, some are not. Question: If a …
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Working on a team when you’re the only one who does GTD
A GTD’er asked: I am part of a team with five teammates who are not using GTD. How do I handle the frustration within the lines of communication and organization/productivity? David replied: The more anyone around you is out of control, the more you need the GTD going to have to manage yourself, no matter …
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Still procrastinating about a bunch of things on your action lists?
Still procrastinating about a bunch of things on your action lists? There’s your lists – not small sub-projects about your stuff. -David Allen
Tips for BlackBerry Users on Outlook
08/17/2010 – We now have a GTD & BlackBerry Setup Guide! Visit the David Allen Company store to get your copy. It’s loaded with tips, tricks and expert coaching advice of applying GTD to your BlackBerry. A pretty common question we get from BlackBerry users is how to integrate Outlook Tasks with their BlackBerry. For …
Getting your arms around your priorities
Let’s talk about the Horizons of Focus. In my experience, this is one of the parts of the GTD approach that can take a little time for people to get their arms around. This is where priorities and perspective live. Whereas traditional time management approaches attempted to give people an ABC type coding system for …
Take a GTD & Lotus Notes class
For those of you looking for the best ways to implement GTD with Lotus Notes®, join the next Webinar class on GTD Connect, our subscription-based online learning center. It will be held February 4th at 12pm Pacific Time. If you can’t make the live event, the replay will be posted to the GTD Connect Media …
How to choose tools for GTD
Looking for a tool for GTD? The mistake we see many new GTD’ers make is expecting to find a tool to “do” GTD. A tool doesn’t do the thinking for you, it stores the thinking for you. So, then does it even matter what tools you use when it comes to implementing GTD? Sure. You …
David Allen on goal setting
David Allen was recently interviewed by Scientific American on goal setting. Do goals really work? Have most people already broken what they set just 3 weeks ago? LISTEN NOW (4 min) Like this podcast? Subscribe to our free podcast series. We also do frequent podcasts with David and the Coaches on GTD Connect®, our online …
Year End Completions
The latest Productive Living newsletter included a great set of questions from David Allen on year end completions. It’s a great exercise to go through for completing 2009 and setting your intentions and directions for creating 2010. Here’s a sample of some of those questions: Completing and remembering 2009 What was your biggest triumph in …
How much can the brain really hold?
Your brain is a great place to have ideas, but a terrible place to manage them. -David Allen A key principle within GTD is creating a system external to your mind–if you want the system to be seamless. In fact, there’s a good chance if you’re trying to hold more than about 7 things in …
What is or isn't a project?
A computer programmer implementing GTD asked David Allen about projects: I’m confused about (and I’m sure you are extremely bored with this question, but from the books I couldn’t work out the answer) – how do you size projects? I’m continually having problems working out what is or isn’t a project – and getting lost …
Radiate efficiency
Elle magazine chatted with David Allen. Read some of the timely tips for refreshing your systems. One item that came up in my sweep was that for weeks I’ve been putting off answering a publicist’s e-mail asking if I’d write about one of his clients—my failure to reply is gnawing at me. My hunch is …
