David Allen's Blog, page 36

Jared’s GTD Story

Tell us a little about yourself

My name is Jared Caron and I live in Nashua, New Hampshire. 

What do you do for work?

I am a Registered Nurse. My current role is as a Nurse Educator for the 2nd largest primary care network in the state. We have over 70 medical practices spanning numerous specialties. I work with a team of 5 and we are primarily responsible for training and education of Nurses and Medical assistants, as well as working with nursing students. Though of course I wear many hats, as most do. The role includes quality assurance functions such as following up on errors and complaints, and is also a leadership role. I work closely with my boss, our Director of Nursing, to craft policies, procedures, and strategic vision for enhancing nursing services, promoting professionalism, and patient safety. Oh, and I also do some patient care too!

How long have you been practicing GTD, how did you hear about it, which tools do you use, etc.?

I had heard about GTD a long time ago, not sure exactly when, but never really paid much attention to it. I was a Covey fan, and honestly the title of the book turned me off. I was thinking, “it’s not about getting more things done, it’s about getting the right things done!!!” However about 2 years ago my brother, who is an electrician, was starting a business and I was getting ready to take on my current role. I saw the book at his house and we started talking about it. He told me about David’s description of thoughts as “open loops” in your head and how that really made sense to him. So I picked up the book from the library and started reading. Meanwhile I was waiting for a final decision on this job, which was actually a promotion. The role was a little intimidating to me because I had seen how buried my boss was in email, meetings, and such. It was moving out of direct patient care into a knowledge work role and I had no real clue how to manage that kind of workload. I devoured the book (on vacation no less!) and immediately began reading it a second time, meanwhile starting my new role. It was perfect timing. I went through the 2 day setup process in my first month, purged all my electronic files and set up new filing systems while my “residue” was still pretty low. That set the tone, and I’ve fine-tuned ever since. At first I just did it at work, but it has since crept into the rest of my life with pleasant results.

Currently I use outlook at work for email and action/project lists. I recently set up my professional higher horizons in OneNote which I’m still deciding if I like. At home I also use Microsoft Outlook to do for action and project lists, and I use Evernote for reference, project support, and higher horizon material. The Microsoft To-Do app is surprisingly great for GTD and keeps my personal lists available in my pocket or on my tablet and seems to work great. I’m not afraid of paper either. It’s hands down the best capture tool! I primarily carry around a notetaker wallet and I keep a padfolio which serves as a capture tool/inbox and some plastic folders in my briefcase which keep action support, etc. since I do a lot of moving around site-to-site at work its kind of a mobile office. Despite my millennial predisposition toward digital I even have a physical tickler file in my office which I absolutely love.

How has GTD made a difference in your work and life?

A significant part of this role is responsiveness to requests, but another component is strategic planning, vision, and program development. So a big goal of mine was to avoid being totally overwhelmed with email, phone calls, and meetings. GTD has been the life raft that has kept me afloat despite the unstable world of healthcare (especially right now!). Embracing GTD for personal stuff was a next-level game changer to be honest. I hesitated to implement this very business-like methodology in my home life, but I’ve found it to be extremely effective for handling anxiety, emotional discomfort, and just keeping the wheels turning with all the mundane stuff of life while also keeping focused on worthy outcomes. My alter ego is a minister and I spend significant amount of time in a community ministry as well as with the youth in my congregation. Applying outcome and next action thinking is so useful in these “softer” areas of life to turn them into concrete, actionable steps.

What areas of GTD are you doing really well (or at least better than you used to)?

I have seen my capture habit really develop as well as truly digging into the next action thinking and phrasing in the lists; and more recently I’m learning the true power of the two-minute rule.

Learning to capture on the fly is difficult but so helpful. Having something portable like a note-taker wallet is useful too. I think using paper is really the only place to start as it leaves a physical reminder in your life which you then need to clarify. Helps you separate those two phases instead of capturing directly into your lists which is a black hole I’ve been down a couple times.  

With next action thinking and phrasing, I found this to be one of the hardest things to learn. I actually found a key to this was simply leaning really hard into my lists. I basically tried to do nothing but what was on my lists. It’s a really good way to figure out what you’re avoiding, which can help figure out why you’re resisting that. Often its unfinished thinking: It’s not really the very next step or you were too vague on your list. Which also helped me develop the 2 minute rule.

I have a terrible sense of time. Recently I’m discovering that what I think is a 2-minute action is typically a 10 to 30 second action. I have been using a 2-minute timer on my desk when I process my email and if I’m on the fence of whether something is 2 minutes or not, I start the timer, dive in and see how far I can get. I’ve been amazed at how long 2 minutes actually is. You can get a lot of stuff churned out through 2 minute actions. This has helped me unpack a whole category of resistance on my lists where I have skipped the 2 minute rule and placed a whole bunch of those on lists, promptly to be avoided until my next Weekly Review.

What areas of GTD would you like to get even better at doing?

I’m currently working on being more disciplined during my Weekly Review. I’m pretty religious about doing it, but I have a hard time not doing work while I am in the process. So I have a goal of getting it under an hour consistently. A real help with this is getting a timer and timing the steps. Also, I just benefitted from a coaching consult and learned some great insights into how to simplify my lists and connect projects and areas of focus more effectively.

What is one piece of advice you would give to someone just starting out with GTD?

Listen to David. Really. Do the steps as outlined in the book. For example, I scoffed at the idea of a physical tickler file and a year later I ended up making one and loving it. Try it out “as-advertised” and tweak from there. Also don’t stop after reading the book once. Keep fine tuning. And if you’ve been trying to implement GTD for 6 months to a year and still don’t feel like it’s on cruise control, join GTD Connect and dive deep into the webinars. It’s the cheapest way to access the expertise of the coaches. My GTD practice grew exponentially after joining GTD Connect and not only do I understand the methods better, I have learned how to fine tune the principles in the book to fit my unique circumstances, which makes this whole thing more sustainable.

The post Jared’s GTD Story appeared first on Getting Things Done®.

Dealing with Free-Floating Anxiety

One of the Greatest Challenges

One of the greatest challenges to keeping an empty head is maintaining the drill of processing our interactions to closure. In the course of our day, we often generate much more value-added thinking and agreements with ourselves and others than we realize, especially in the context of conversations and communications.

Whom have you talked with in the last 24 hours—personally and professionally? What did you tell yourself (or any of them) that you or they would/could/should/ought to do, in any of that? Any ideas, information or perspectives show up that could be important downstream?

 

Sources of Free-Floating Anxiety

I still have to work with myself to ensure I’ve captured, decided, and tracked all the commitments and creativity that happen with phone calls, meetings, social interactions, and even random communications in passing. I do know that this is one of the sources of much of the free-floating anxiety many professionals experience relative to the gnawing sense of overwhelm that is so pervasive. It seems that there is an unconscious part of us that hangs onto all of those incomplete creations. It is a part that will not let go until it can trust those agreements have been kept or re-negotiated with ourselves.

At this moment I notice in my in-tray two pages of random notes I took on a conference call yesterday, regarding our upcoming GTD Summit in June. There’s a little part of me that resists engaging with them, because I know it’s going to require thinking (which is hard!). But because I’ve got the habit of getting “in” to empty, those notes will trigger the things I need to do, to get that sucker empty! I hate it, and I love it.

 

Take Time to Process

And, the number of interactions we handle in a day is more than ever. This is why it is critical that we all take time every day to process this stuff. What did I tell Luca I was going to do? What did Kathryn say I should bring back from the store? Who’s got the next action on the project we decided needed doing at the last marketing meeting? Review the day, capture what needs tracking, and then get some sleep.

 

He who hesitates is not only lost, but miles from the next exit.

—Unknown

This essay appeared in David Allen’s Productive Living Newsletter.  Subscribe for free here . For more information on the GTD Summit, check out www.gtdsummit.com .

 

The post Dealing with Free-Floating Anxiety appeared first on Getting Things Done®.

Episode #47: David Allen Kicks Off the GTD Summit

This episode of our podcast is from David Allen’s opening talk at the GTD Summit in 2009. We’ve just announced the 2019 GTD Summit, and we’d love to see you there. Get all the details at gtdsummit.com.

 



 

Subscribe or Download to GTD Podcasts

iTunes

Stitcher

Libsyn

Google Play Music

Spotify

SoundCloud

 

The post Episode #47: David Allen Kicks Off the GTD Summit appeared first on Getting Things Done®.

GTD Summit in Amsterdam

GTD is learned behavior

We are not born knowing how to deal with things that we need to think about. What we need to think about, and how we need to think about it, in the most effective way, are learned behaviors.

Our brains evolved to respond, highly effectively, in the present, to a perceived situation. There’s a bear coming toward me, a thunderstorm emerging, a baby crying, and I’m hungry. Your brain is still doing that for you. Actually, it can’t stop. Using long-term memory and pattern recognition—that’s a bear, that’s a thunderstorm, that’s a baby crying, that feeling says I should eat…etc. Computers can’t even come close yet to that capability of recognition.

As opposed to simply ingesting vibrations of light and sound and physical feeling, we have evolved to make meaning of those things. That kept us alive on the savannah, in the jungle, in the desert.

 

Why GTD is needed now more than ever

But that doesn’t happen now with an email. Or an innuendo from your partner about how you should be handling something important for both of you. Or what to do about your mom’s birthday. Or whether you should change your diet. You actually have to rev up a cognitive muscle to make decisions about such things—what you want to have true about them, and what you’re going to do about them, if anything,

Sensing that you still need to decide something, think about something, be reminded of something beyond the present creates “cognitive dissonance” that doesn’t go away until you have appropriately engaged with the commitment.

Lack of involving yourself appropriately with your stuff clogs up your conscious space. That is how and why GTD emerged as a necessary best-practice behavior set to free up cognitive room—to be more creative, strategic, innovative, and simply more present with whatever you’re doing (the core to being productive).

 

 

GTD Summit in Amsterdam

Now that GTD has become a global phenomenon, we’ve decided it’s time to bring the awareness of the methodology to a new level on the planet. Hence, we’ve created the GTD Summit—bringing together the key players in this game already and providing an opportunity to explore new and broader horizons in its implementation. June 21 & 22, in Amsterdam, we’re thrilled to have GTD enthusiasts from all over the world show up for what will undoubtedly be a once-in-a-lifetime event. Check it out at www.gtdsummit.com

Hope you can make it.

–David

 

The post GTD Summit in Amsterdam appeared first on Getting Things Done®.

TED Talk on Getting Things Done for Teens

Equipping teens with GTD

Mark Wallace, co-author of Getting Things Done for Teens, recently did a TED Talk on equipping the next generation to conquer overload and distraction. Digital connectivity has exponentially increased the volume and velocity of “stuff” coming at us every day. A new mindset and new skill sets are needed to help young people navigate this new arc of complexity so they can think clearly, implement ideas effectively, and live healthy, balanced, productive lives.

 

 

More about Mark Wallace

Mark Wallace has worked for Edina Public Schools since 1999 and currently teaches in the Continuous Progress program at Highlands Elementary in a 3rd-5th grade multi-age classroom. In 2015, Mark established Basecamp 16 LLC, a consulting agency whose focus is equipping K-12 students and professional educators for effectiveness in both their educational and personal journey.

 

About Getting Things Done for Teens

Getting Things Done for Teens brings a fresh take on David Allen’s classic by adapting it for a younger audience. Framing life as a game to be played, it offers simple methods that teens can use to win. Learn more about the book at www.gtdforteens.com.

 

The post TED Talk on Getting Things Done for Teens appeared first on Getting Things Done®.

GTD & OmniFocus 3

New GTD & OmniFocus 3 Setup Guide

We are excited to announce the release of a new GTD Setup Guide for OmniFocus 3. Given the significant changes in this new release, we’ve overhauled our Setup Guide specifically for version 3.

This Guide will show you how to:

– Understand the fundamental GTD best practices

– Optimally configure OmniFocus in the way we have found works best for GTD

– Configure and populate your projects and link them to the related Next Actions

– Configure and populate your Next Actions

– Use the Inbox to capture your Mind Sweep items

– Integrate email into your OmniFocus workflow

– Create useful reference lists

… and much more.

Get the Guide

Download a sample or purchase the Guide from our online shop.

If you’re an OmniFocus 2 user, check out our GTD Guide for your version here. We also have GTD Guides for many other popular software tools here.

 

The post GTD & OmniFocus 3 appeared first on Getting Things Done®.

How to Balance Meetings and Work

Too many meetings?

Along with email volume, the overabundance of meetings is the major complaint of knowledge workers today.

That said, meetings can be extremely effective and are even critical to getting meaningful work done. It would be an interesting experiment to cancel all meetings and watch what happens. What would we miss? What negative impacts would there be? What opportunities would go unrecognized?

 

What’s the purpose?

Such an experiment would give us insight into what constitutes a constructive and valuable meeting. Just imagining the experiment reveals the key component of effective meetings: purpose. An essential question to answer at the start of any meeting is, “What do we want to accomplish here, and by what time?” If purpose isn’t clear, no one has sufficient criteria by which to frame and monitor the ensuing conversation, nor the information to know whether he or she should participate in it. So, step one, make sure the purpose of each meeting is clear.

Assuming the purpose of a meeting is clear, the second factor to consider is this: What’s your purpose in being there? What is your job? What are your roles and responsibilities within it? How does the meeting relate to that context? If the meeting truly relates to or involves your responsibilities, step up and play. If it doesn’t, step up and decline.

Given that many companies strive for collaborative cultures, I know it might seem a brazen act of rebellion and defiance to decline a meeting request. But before you agree to attend, take two minutes to identify the purpose of the meeting and why you’re expected to be there. You can frame such a query as elegantly and politely as, “I like to contribute as best I can in meetings, so it would help me to gain a sense of the desired outcome of the meeting, and whether and how I can serve that outcome.”

If the meeting’s purpose is clear, it should be clear whether your involvement is necessary. If not, you can gain clarity by further probing. Approach these conversations with the intent of contributing value to meaningful meetings rather than ducking meetings altogether. By seeking clarity and striving to be effective with how you spend your time, you may influence your colleagues to do the same and help your organization expend resources more efficiently.

 

Best practices for meetings

There are many best practices for good meetings, which include having an agenda, having a monitor ensure the agenda is adhered to, keeping track of decisions and next actions (and by whom), granting everyone opportunity to speak, and having sufficient breaks (if the meeting is longer than ninety minutes). But the critical foundation is clear purpose—for the meeting and your role therein.

 

Meetings are indispensable when you don’t want to do anything.

—J. K. Galbraith

 

Meetings and Email

Ineffective meetings contribute to other ineffective habits, like time-wasting emails. “I wasn’t sure what we decided at the project meeting in terms of our go-forward strategy. Could someone clarify that for me?” Ineffective emails contribute to ineffective meetings. “We need to meet again to clarify what our last meeting was about and who will do what by when.” And the more you permit either behavior, the deeper the quicksand pulls you down.

If your meetings are not ending with a collective sigh of, “Wow. Good meeting!” some course correction is due. Start by clarifying purpose with the intent to effectively contribute value and see what happens.

–David Allen

 

This essay appeared in David Allen’s Productive Living Newsletter. Subscribe for free here. For more GTD tips on meetings, check out www.gtdconnect.com.

 

The post How to Balance Meetings and Work appeared first on Getting Things Done®.

Episode #46: Seamless Completions and Fresh Perspectives

David Allen and Coach Kelly Forrister present an instructional GTD webinar where you’ll have the opportunity to take a deeper dive into understanding the power of completion and creating a vision for wild success.

 



 

Subscribe or Download to GTD Podcasts

iTunes

Stitcher

Libsyn

Google Play Music

Spotify

SoundCloud

 

The post Episode #46: Seamless Completions and Fresh Perspectives appeared first on Getting Things Done®.

The GTD Horizons of Focus® for determining your priorities

How work is defined

David Allen defines “work” from at least six different horizons, corresponding to different altitudes of perspective.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The GTD Horizons of Focus

HORIZON 5: Purpose and Principles

HORIZON 4: Vision

HORIZON 3: Goals and Objectives

HORIZON 2: Areas of Focus and Accountability

HORIZON 1: Projects

GROUND: Calendar/Actions

Your 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 accountability. All of those will generate projects which will require actions to get them done.

 

The post The GTD Horizons of Focus® for determining your priorities appeared first on Getting Things Done®.

How do I get other people to do GTD?

Question: How do I get other people to do GTD?

David Allen’s answer: Getting other people to do GTD is really about: How do we effectively communicate? How do we not have to have ambiguous non-decisions made about stuff? So, if nothing else, make sure you have your own GTD system in practice and let everybody else know how to engage with it.

For example, a simple one to implement is letting everybody know where your in-tray is on your desk for new input. And if they have something you need to see, and you’re not around, that’s exactly where it goes—nowhere else. In other words, don’t let them use anything else, like putting sticky notes on your computer screen, or notes on your chair, or whatever else people do. You can also train them to stop interrupting you when they have something they need to give you. If they trust you’ll see it in that designated in-tray (because you’re emptying it regularly and tracking your commitments from what you process), they start to use it instead of yanking on you to make sure you “see” what they want to make sure you see.

For more resources on implementing GTD for teams, visit GTD Connect.

 

The post How do I get other people to do GTD? appeared first on Getting Things Done®.