David Allen's Blog, page 42

Why I do GTD

In response to last month’s David Allen article, Turning Inside Out, GTD fan and musician Don Richmond shared:

This underlying philosophy, or reason for the existence of GTD, is what turned me on to it in the first place. I don’t really need to do more things—I do too much already. But I do need to be able to do what I do without it grinding me to hamburger, so I can have space to be, to breathe, to live, to write songs, to experience the wonder of being alive. And GTD is helping me to work toward that—slowly, slowly! Lots of room for improvement, but I’m getting there. Thank you all for your work! –Don

 

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Are You Capturing Your Good Ideas?

How many thoughts and ideas do you have daily which represent useful things to do or potentially enhance or improve projects, situations, and life in general? How many have you had and forgotten, and forgotten that you’ve forgotten?

“I ought to call Susan and ask her about where she stayed in Hawaii…”

“I need to write up the meeting agenda and email it to the team.”

“Wonder what marinade I’d use to cook a lamb on the grill…”

“I ought to update Bill about my conversation with his customer

Etc.

Most people have (or could have) many more of these kinds of thoughts than they realize, during the course of any 24-hour period. Most people don’t get value from many of them, because they lack both the habit and the tools to collect those thoughts when they occur. If they aren’t captured, they are useless, and even worse can add to the gnawing sense of anxiety most people feel about things “out there” they know they’ve told themselves they should or would like to do, but don’t remember consciously what they are.

I’ve had thousands of ideas and fun or important to-do’s actually come to pass, and kept a refreshingly empty head about all of them, because I’ve managed to create the habit of grabbing those thoughts when they occur. Many people view improving personal organization skills and tools as a “fix” or at best a “maintenance” need. Yet from my experience gaining the habit of capturing and organizing all of my thinking can take on a much more creative and proactive spin.

Two things are needed to implement this standard and make it easy: (1) a collection tool with you at all times, and (2) the habit of processing all the thoughts within a short period of time (ideally, every 24–48 hours).

(1) Simple, small tools are required. They can be analog, digital, or both. I’ve used a note-taker wallet for years for this purpose because it has critical plastic cards and is with me ubiquitously. I also capture into my portable digital tools by grabbing thoughts I forward as new emails for me to process.

(2) You must process these thoughts into your organization system soon, and completely. If you leave emails unprocessed in your inbox, or paper notes piled up in a briefcase or notepad somewhere, the whole process is defeated, and your motivation to continue will disappear.

But if you do get the tools, use them when you think, and organize the results into your system, I guarantee you’ll have more thoughts. And good ones, too.

The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas. 

—Linus Pauling

Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again? 

—A.A. Milne

–David Allen

This essay appeared in David Allen’s Productive Living Newsletter. Subscribe for free here.

 

 

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GTD and Information Overload

People complain about “information overload.” But, in truth, the most information-rich environment is the most relaxing–nature. We are actually more relaxed and stimulated by a plethora of input and multiple horizons, and nature provides that in spades. If you really wanted to go nuts, just put yourself in a room with no input (sensory deprivation.) The pressure of “too much information” is actually created by inputs that require thinking and decision-making (email, texts, meeting notes, commitments not engaged with appropriately, etc.)

Nature is a bounty of cool things to notice, stimulating sights and sounds, but which require almost nothing of our minds.

–David Allen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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EPISODE #38 – The Power of Outcome Thinking

David Allen explores the power of outcome thinking in front of a live audience. This talk will reveal just how much the thoughts we hold in our head have the potential to affect the types and qualities of action we take. From athletic performance to prepping for that next big meeting, what we think about while we act can affect how we act.

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What is GTD®?

Someone recently asked David Allen to share the underlying principle to Getting Things Done® (GTD®). He said:

There are several, but the main ones are:

1. CLEAR YOUR HEAD – Your head is for having ideas, not for holding them. In other words, build and maintain an “external brain” to hold all your significant reminders of commitments and creative thinking. You need mental and emotional space to be present in the moment, to be optimally creative, strategic, innovative, and ready for change and surprise.

2. THINK AND DECIDE – Whatever has your attention needs specific thinking and decision-making in order to put it onto “cruise control” and to be appropriately engaged with it.

3. KEEP A TRUSTED SYSTEM – You need a trusted system to maintain a current inventory of your commitments and intentions, reflected upon regularly.

—

Which of these has made the biggest difference for you? Where are your opportunities for improvement?

 

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Turning Inside Out

I am beginning to get it. The ultimate ingredient for really getting things off my mind is to nurture the part of me that lives from the inside out.

Now, when I say, “I’m beginning to get it,” please keep in mind that I’ve been “beginning to get it” for at least 50 years, consciously, and perhaps for millennia before that. It seems the nature of this earthly challenge is to recognize the value of focus on the inner life amidst an outer one that is so easily all-encompassing, on so many levels. It indeed makes no sense to “go inside” if the physical, mental, and emotional senses are what I’m hooked into. But there is a “beyond that” or “beneath that” or “inside that” which I have experienced as very real—more so in impact and energy than any of what I think, feel, and touch.

Lest you think this is only an essay about the spiritual life, I can assure you I have found very practical reasons to operate on the working hypothesis that there’s more of me to me than I know. One way is in trying to resolve a paradox that I have grappled with for many years—how much do I “let things happen” as they might, trusting that the world and my life in it are flowing onward in a natural way; and how much should I set my own goals and objectives, and march toward them with conscious determination and effectiveness?

I have discovered there is no answer to that, as long as I have that question. And I only have that question when I have been ignoring my own inner quiet place for too long. When I let go of my attention on this world and let myself drop back into the subtler and larger places I have access to, in meditation, contemplation, and simple reflective moments, the questions fade away. I find myself in the paradoxical state of surrendering to a larger flow and consciously creating my next directions and outcomes. It’s like I’m being breathed, but I’m also what’s breathing.

There are times for me to let things just show up, and respond. There are times for me to make it up and make it happen. I just need to pay attention to the music. And when I do, it’s all the same dance.

–David Allen

This essay appeared in David Allen’s Productive Living Newsletter. Subscribe for free here.

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GTD & Procrastination

Procrastination. I hear it all the time. My clients confide in me, “I am procrastinating on sending in the contract/mailing the gift/fixing the appliance/etc…” you name it, I’ve heard it. And just between us, I used to think I was the ultimate procrastinator.

When I first heard David Allen say that the type of people who procrastinate the most are the creative, bright and sensitive ones, I perked up and thought to myself, “Hey, that’s me! Smart and imaginative, how did he know? And how very kind of him to describe us (people who procrastinate) that way…”

The one example that stands out to me of how the GTD methodology resolves procrastination, happened a few years ago… the engine light flashed on in my car. My first thought was, “This is going to cost me thousands of dollars and that’s not in my budget.” I didn’t want to think past the doom and gloom of how much it was going to cost. Also, the idea of getting my car fixed meant figuring out so many other logistics, like do I take it to the car dealership or my own mechanic? On top of that not having a car meant having to coordinate carpooling for myself and my family. The general inconvenience and the unknown overwhelmed me. Every time I would get into the car the engine light would go on and all those thoughts would be triggered in my head. For a couple of seconds I would feel the anxiety but soon I would be distracted by something else and forget about it.

Three months later after seeing the engine light go on yet again, I thought to myself, “OK, this is ridiculous. I need to practice what I preach.” I took out some paper and asked myself what I would like the SUCCESSFUL OUTCOME to be. Just like the engine light in my car, a light went off in my head. I wrote down: R&D engine light in car. Then I asked myself, “What’s the NEXT ACTION to get there?” So I wrote down: Call the car dealership and ask them about the engine light. I started to notice that even though I hadn’t made the call and didn’t know what the outcome of that call would be I felt so much better. I took a moment to reflect on why suddenly I didn’t feel so overwhelmed and stressed about my engine light.

I realized that the two things I did that caused me to procrastinate were:

1) I had a negative definition of the outcome (too much money that I didn’t have in my budget)

2) I focused on the complexity involved in getting it fixed which overwhelmed me so I did nothing.

What I did that got it moving was:

1) I changed the negative definition of the outcome to a positive definition that motivated me (R&D engine light in car)

2) I clarified and defined the next action which simplified what I needed to do so I could relax about the complexity around it. (Call car dealership about engine light in car.)

All this required was a few minutes of focused thinking. Within two weeks my engine light was handled and ended up costing a whole lot less than what I had imagined.

Now, this is just one small example from my life. But I think it has had an enormous impact on me because it’s magnified by the professional and personal decisions, possibilities and responsibilities that come my way each day. It makes sense that this methodology can handle any amount of volume or intensity.

–Meg Edwards

Meg is a coach with GTD Focus, the exclusive partner for the delivery of Getting Things Done® (GTD®) individual coaching in the United States and Canada.

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GTD and Todoist

Our new GTD & Todoist Setup Guide is now available in our online store!

This Guide will show you how to:

– Understand the fundamental GTD best practices

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

– Integrate your actionable email

– Create project and next actions lists in Todoist

– Create useful reference lists

– Use Labels and Filters effectively

… and more!

Available in Letter or A4 PDF Download.

If you’re a GTD Connect monthly or annual member (not free trial), it’s free for you in the members-only document library on GTDConnect.com.

 

 

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EPISODE #37 – Tips for a Year-End Review

The new year is always a great excuse to zoom out and recalibrate how your system is running, and a year-end review is an excellent way to do exactly that. In this conversation that first showed up on GTD Connect, David Allen & Coach Kelly Forrister give us some quick and practical tips for successfully performing a year-end review.

For more coaching tips on doing a yearly review, join David and Kelly on January 18, 2018 for a members-only webinar on GTD Connect on Aligning Your Agreements for 2018. Open to all monthly and yearly GTD Connect members (sorry, not available on free trial). The webinar will give you an opportunity to take a deeper look at what you’ve agreed to and how aligned it is with the experience you want in 2018. Login to GTDConnect.com to sign up for the webinar, using the link on the home page. Questions about becoming a member or registering for the webinar? Contact our team at connect@davidco.com.

 

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Tips for a Year-End Review

The new year is always a great excuse to zoom out and recalibrate how your system is running, and a year-end review is an excellent way to do exactly that. In this conversation that first showed up on GTD Connect, David Allen & Coach Kelly Forrister give us some quick and practical tips for successfully performing a year-end review.

For more coaching tips on doing a yearly review, join David and Kelly on January 18, 2018 for a members-only webinar on GTD Connect on Aligning Your Agreements for 2018. Open to all monthly and yearly GTD Connect members (sorry, not available on free trial). The webinar will give you an opportunity to take a deeper look at what you’ve agreed to and how aligned it is with the experience you want in 2018. Login to GTDConnect.com to sign up for the webinar, using the link on the home page. Questions about becoming a member or registering for the webinar? Contact our team at connect@davidco.com.

 

Listen Now


 

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