David Allen's Blog, page 17

Episode #193: Slice of GTD Life with Jim Small

We have a delightful Slice of GTD Life interview for you, with Jim Small. He's a professor of pathology at Rocky Vista University, and self-confessed "science nerd." In addition to his background in medicine, he has studied computer programming, which he credits with thinking sequentially in a way that works well with GTD.

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Episode #192: David Allen talks with Bruce Fetzer

Bruce Fetzer took a productivity training with David Allen in the 1980s. Since then he has been applying what he learned. His work with the John E. Fetzer Memorial Trust has been his major focus in the last few years. The mission of the trust is to advance integrated, relational views of reality through exploring scientific frontiers and universal spiritual practices. David Allen engages Bruce in a discussion of the role of business in doing good work through meta-science, or the study of the scientific method. They also explore how to integrate inner life with outer action.

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Choosing what to do

The five steps of GTD workflow are Capture, Clarify, Organize, Reflect, and Engage. When it’s time to Engage, people often ask how to choose from what may be long lists of tasks to do. That’s when it’s helpful to use the criteria for choosing: Context – What place, tool, or person will the action require? …

Continue reading "Choosing what to do"

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Episode #191: GTD for Educators

Join us for a discussion of how two educators apply the GTD methodology. Erik Johnson teaches high school in Chicago, and David Drake is a professor of microbiology at the University of Iowa. They both have a passion for teaching, and have adapted GTD make their busy profession easier to manage. You'll hear them talk about their areas of focus, projects, and daily routines around email, meetings, and teaching. They also consider how educators can adapt context-based lists to their environment. As a bonus, they both describe what tools they use and why.

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Episode #190: David Allen and Eric Mack on the Ultimate GTD App

At the GTD Summit, David Allen briefly shared a vision of the ultimate GTD app which consists of 19 pages of hand-drawn drafts of the screens he would want to use. To expand on that topic, we recorded David talking with Eric Mack about the past, present, and future of GTD software. It's a wide-ranging discussion with stories that will inform, entertain, and maybe even surprise you.

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Episode #189: David Allen talks with Kevin Kelly

Kevin Kelly calls himself a "packager of ideas" and a "predictor of the present." Both of those are in evidence as Kevin talks with David about range of ideas.

Kevin is a co-founder of Wired magazine, where his title is Senior Maverick. His most recent book is called The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future, which David calls a must-read.

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Episode #188: David Allen talks with Dan Pardi

With a PhD in sleep science, Dan Pardi has plenty to say about the relationship between sleep and productivity. In this wide-ranging interview, David Allen talks with Dan about how sleep, rest, and mental acuity affect productivity.

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Episode #187: Slice of GTD Life with Keri Hobert

Dr. Keri Hobert has worked for several community health organizations, and is currently with the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless in Denver. Her GTD journey began around 2012 with a search for a list manager. She has tried Things, Nirvana, Outlook, and now uses OmniFocus for her lists. In addition to hearing her describe her own system, you?ll find that she is dedicated to sharing about GTD with her colleagues. Beyond describing the benefits of GTD, she provides her staff with structured support to learn and apply the principles.

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Can GTD® help you do less?

Question: It seems to me that focus and productivity are different concepts that often get conflated. When people think of productivity, they seem to think of doing more, faster. When people think of focus, they seem to think of doing less, more deliberately. Doing more faster, in my view, simply means being more efficiently frenzied, and it appears a lot of people are chasing this ideal. Doing less with focus, however, seems to be truly valuable. It appears GTD as a theory and practice favors increased productivity—efficient frenzy. How do you see it? Where does focus fit in the GTD equation, and can GTD help with doing less, not more?

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William Elliot on Building Courage

William Elliott, GTD® trainer and coach in South Africa, talks about ways to use GTD to deal with anxiety or fear. He starts by offering a definition of courage, and moves to specific questions you can ask yourself that give practical help during times of stress.

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