David Allen's Blog, page 49

Dealing with surprises elegantly and objectively

Surprises happen when you least expect them. But it is much easier to deal with them – accept, integrate, and refocus – when your backlog is minimal. The GTD Weekly Review ensures that you never get too far behind. When new opportunities and challenges appear, they can be dealt with more objectively and elegantly, knowing much more clearly the field within which they must be evaluated. –David Allen

Could you use a Weekly Review tune-up? Listen to our Guided Weekly Review podcast, led by senior coach Meg Edwards. Or, if you really want to change your GTD game, consider Virtual Workflow Coaching.

 

There are no problems…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Should I separate personal and professional?

Question: I’ve recently implemented GTD in my life and it has helped immensely, but I can’t bring myself to mix work and personal lists. My question is…is it really necessary to mix personal and work lists? I don’t want to think of work while I’m outside of work! (And I don’t, for the record, as a rule.)

Coach Julie Ireland: This question comes up frequently during coaching sessions, so you’re not alone! We don’t necessarily recommend trying to keep a clear point of demarcation between our personal lives and work lives because for most people, that line isn’t feasible — e.g., when we’re at work, we’re thinking about our kids; and when we’re at home, we’re thinking about the meeting we’re going to the next day. As David Allen has stated many times, it’s more about “what’s next?” Having said that, due to certain companies’ security regulations, some people are simply not permitted to keep anything personal on their work computers, so they are forced to maintain dual systems.

The bottom line is that how you want to work/use your lists truly is a personal preference, and it has to resonate with you. For example, I learned a long time ago that my preference is to keep 2 @computer lists — @computer-work, and @computer-Julie. I found that during the day, when I’m at work, I don’t really want to sort through my personal stuff while I’m in “work” mode. My @computer-Julie list is really more for fun activities that I prefer to do in the evenings, after “work” hours, so it’s helpful for me to keep the lists separate.

There really isn’t a right or wrong here. I recommend giving yourself permission to implement GTD into your life in ways that work best for YOU.

In praise of the last minute

I’m going to share some good news with you: The last minute is not always the worst time to do something.

A client once shared that there are times when he actually likes to wait to the last minute—his work is better then. It’s more focused, more creative, and more inspired, because of the time constraint he has allowed himself to get into.

I had to acknowledge that I think he’s right, and there are times that works for me as well.

The best example I have of that is packing for a trip. I have scrupulously timed myself over the years, and after thousands of business trips out of town, I can safely declare that I need exactly 30 minutes to pack. No less…and no more! I figure out when I need to be comfortably at the gate of the airport, back up to when I need to walk out the door of my house to comfortably get there then, and I wait to start packing exactly 30 minutes before then.

Why would a “guru of personal productivity” like me put myself under that pressure, you ask? It’s simple. If I gave myself more time to pack, I would take it, packing. Actually, not packing—deciding what to pack. Should I take a casual sweater? Two pairs of dress shoes, or one? Will I get time to jog on this trip, and how cold might it get? How about a swimsuit? Though I almost never actually get into the large chlorine-filled thimbles known as hotel pools, I always hate it when I can’t, because I didn’t bring my swimsuit. Etc., etc. ad nauseam. And if I give myself twice as long to pack, I don’t wind up packing twice as well. Maybe 3% better. But the double stress I put myself through is not worth it.

There are situations in business and political arenas, too, when the most strategic thing to do is to wait as absolutely long as possible before launching a product or a campaign. Whatever might happen in the world up until the “last minute” might be mission-critical to absorb into the plans and tactics.

So, the last minute has its place. But to move it from the category of sloth, indolence, and at least minor stupidity to one of elegantly planned and coordinated high-performance behavior requires two things:

(1) Know how many minutes the last minute takes

(2) Make it absolutely fine with yourself as a conscious choice, so some part of you on either end of it is not sucking your energy with the “yeah, but you know you really shouldn’t…”

[For the record: Over the years I have mastered indulging in sloth, indolence, and minor stupidity. That’s how I know this stuff!]

–David Allen

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

Your favorite software tool tailored for GTD

If you’re looking for tips, tricks, and coaching from the experts on using GTD with your favorite software tool, check out our GTD Setup Guides.

We currently have GTD guides for these tools:

Microsoft Outlook for Windows

Microsoft Outlook for Mac

Microsoft OneNote for Windows

Evernote for Windows

Evernote for Mac

OmniFocus for Mac

Wunderlist for Mac or Windows

Google Apps for Desktop

Google Apps for Android

iPhone/iPad

See samples and download Guides here: https://gtdconnect.com/store/home.php?cat=263

Not seeing your favorite tool? Leave a comment with your vote for what tool you’d like to see a GTD Setup Guide for. Thanks!

 

 

David Allen named one of the world’s most popular motivational speakers and personalities

David Allen was featured by CNN as one of the world’s most popular motivational speakers and personalities, along with Oprah, Tony Robbins, Deepak Chopra, and more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When you truly know what you should be doing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Community Story: John Corrigan

The GTD methodology has been absolutely transformational and revolutionary in my life. I bought the audio book three weeks ago and have listened to it twice already. Just WOW—the difference I see and what others see in me and how I manage all aspects of my life from work, family, and play is phenomenal. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

–John Corrigan

 

 

 

 

 

Episode #24 – Making It All Work

Feeling overwhelmed?  This talk from David Allen is a wonderful overview of the keys to control & perspective. Includes participant Q&A at the end.

 

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Personal Productivity and the Inner Seven-Year-Old

There seems to be someone about seven years old inside of all of us, who never matures, and whose behavior either allows us lots of creative expansion and productivity, or causes us to crash and burn.

It seems that the smart (adult) part of me has known what to do for years. It knows that in order to be productive, just focus on positive outcomes, capture the moving parts into trusted buckets, and move on the most important thing. It’s that other part of me that has to be dealt with—the one that basically supplies my physical and emotional energy.

Let’s talk about managing a seven-year-old. Think it would be a good idea to take a seven-year-old kid into a room, sit them down, and demand that they handle the 563 things on their mind, clarify their life mission and purpose, decide their strategic objectives, roll them down to action plans, and get going…but if they screw up once, you’re going to berate them? Hardly an effective model, we would guess. But how many of us do that to the equivalent kid inside of us!? We need to work with it more appropriately to its age and capabilities.

Ever clean a refrigerator by accident? You were scrounging in there for lunch one Saturday and discovered “mystery meat” wrapped in foil. “Ugh!…wonder what else is back in there?” Two hours later you’ve got a bright shining fridge, and you feel great! That’s the seven-year-old. It loves to work, loves to complete, loves to accomplish…but one at a time. It has no sense of past or future. Want to know how to cause your energy to collapse? While cleaning the refrigerator, think of your taxes you ought to be doing! Crash and burn.

Capture and track all your projects and actions. Get them out of your head and into an objective, accessible system. So when you review it all, you can give a simple, single direction at every moment to the part of you that can really get it done.

–David Allen

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