David Allen's Blog, page 50
October 10, 2016
GTD Community Story with Rosalie Gale
We discovered Rosalie Gale’s love for GTD on Facebook. We interviewed her so our community could hear her story. Enjoy!
1. How did you hear about GTD?
I used to be the queen of making to do lists. I would write them out over and over again and become very overwhelmed by everything I needed to accomplish. It seemed like I never actually made any progress on anything I wanted to do. For Christmas one year, my husband thought it would be funny to get me an audio book called Getting Things Done. (Get it? Because you never get anything done? Get it? He’s hilarious.) The joke was on him though because I listened to it. Then, I listened to it again. Over the years — I’ve listened to that audio book many, many times and it has honestly changed my life completely.
I went from someone who was just wishing and hoping to accomplish things — to someone who maybe learned how to be TOO productive (is that possible?). When I started GTD, I was working for someone else — and now I run three businesses of my own. My husband and I invented Shower Art – waterproof art you can hang in your shower. I also created and maintain a website called Unanimous Craft where people can find places to sell their handmade and small batch work. In our spare time, we opened a retail shop in Seattle’s historic Pike Place Market called Ugly Baby and La Ru.
2. How has your GTD system evolved since you started and what tools do you use now?
When I first started, I used index cards and pens. I love office supplies, so being able to splurge on cool stuff to track my projects made me love GTD even more. I maintained it that way for about a year before I decided I was just repeating too much work and went for an electronic system. I’ve tried just about every electronic to do list and project management system out there — and have been very happy using Asana for the last two years. I use Asana to track all of my projects, due dates and recurring tasks. Then, every morning I make a pen & paper list of what I need to accomplish that particular day. Best of both worlds!
The main way that my GTD approach has evolved over the years is that – when I first started – I assigned everything a due date. It was a mistake because it didn’t give me any flexibility and I was often frustrated when I had to move a task over to the next day. Now, I just assign due dates to things that actually have a specific due date. Everything else I hope to accomplish is just assigned to be done anytime within the month.
3. What’s your favorite thing about GTD?
The part of GTD that really blew my mind was breaking projects into actionable tasks. When I was making my to do lists — I would put huge projects on the list and then never get to feel like I was accomplishing anything by checking something off. For example, I would put “Build website” on my list of things to do. Well, that’s going to take a long time and has many, many tasks required to make that website happen. When you break up those projects into smaller tasks it makes everything seem manageable and possible. Life is much less overwhelming that way.
4. What’s still challenging for you, if anything, around your GTD practice?
I’m still a big procrastinator. I’ll do anything as long as it’s not the thing I’m supposed to be doing. It still makes me super productive but there’s a level of stress that comes with procrastination that I would like to banish from my life for good.
September 28, 2016
Episode #22 – GTD and Balancing Family Life
How do you balance a daunting project list representing multiple roles and outcomes? David Allen chats with Meghan Wilker, a tech whiz, mother of two and GTD enthusiast. Listen as Meghan shares how she uses GTD in her work and family life.
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September 27, 2016
GTD Setup Guides
One of the best ways to implement Getting Things Done is to follow our expert advice in configuring one of the many tools we 
have found to work well for GTD. See a sample or buy a Guide now.
Here are the current GTD Setup Guides available to support you:
GTD & Outlook for Windows
GTD & Outlook for Mac
GTD & OneNote for Windows (just released!)
GTD & Evernote for Windows
GTD & Evernote for Mac
GTD & OmniFocus
GTD & Google Apps for Desktop
GTD & Google Apps for Android
GTD & iPhone
GTD & iPad
GTD & Paper Organizers
GTD & Lotus Notes
GTD & Wunderlist (coming soon!)
While the Guides are not a replacement for learning the GTD methodology through reading the book or taking a course, they will give you good, tactical advice for getting up and running in one of these popular tools.
GTD and Getting Things Done are registered trademarks of David Allen & Co. All other trademarks are held by their respective owners.
September 26, 2016
The treadmill of stress
Thanks to Suzanna Makkos for sharing her GTD story:
In 2009 I had a baby. Three months after she was born I got a pretty big promotion at work. No problem, right? I can do both. Wrong. My life completely exploded out of control. I was seeing a therapist weekly to try to manage my anxiety and feeling of loss of control. I would say, “I am running on a treadmill full speed and people are throwing balls at me and I’m only catching 10 percent.” He would nod and try to give me solutions but nothing was working.
When my daughter was four, I went to a spa for the weekend in the worst emotional state of my life. I randomly picked up a magazine and read an article about managing email by someone named David Allen. It made a lot of sense and I started to feel better. I bought the book and spent a vacation day going through the backlog and doing an install. The treadmill immediately slowed. First I was jogging, then walking, and then it stopped. I still make mistakes and drop balls but at a MUCH lower rate. I am so thankful to David and everyone at the David Allen Company!
September 20, 2016
September 15, 2016
Are you indulging in easy?
GTD® wisdom from David Allen on giving yourself the gift of easy and unplanned
Things being simple and easy is not easy, for most of us.
The structure of planning what to do and working within structure can be stressful, if not stifling, unless it’s balanced with the unplanned and unstructured.
I relish those spontaneous times when I decide to stroll with my wife and dog through the park near our home in Amsterdam. Or when I take time to read a novel for fun. Or when I stop for a lovely glass of wine along an outdoor cafe along the canal because it seems like the thing to do. How about just taking time to take time?
Ah, the infinite moments to enjoy, presented to us on the conveyor belt of our existence….
There are times when making no sense makes sense. Just being, hanging out, following the whim, the momentary inclination. How long can you indulge yourself, though, purely, without hesitation, doubt, or a troubled thought about what it should be troubled about…?
Stop! Do something else. Do nothing. Try it. Anything. It’s not about our doing. We merely do to be about what we’re really about. But what we’re really about is about much more than any of that. And much more fun. We have to give up our boundaries to reach into the real priorities.
–David Allen
This article appeared in David’s monthly Productive Living newsletter. Subscribe for free.
September 6, 2016
Episode #21 – Optimizing Your GTD System
How do you leverage procedures and tools for better outcomes? David Allen presents a webinar on how to optimize your GTD system, so that you have the information you need to be productive, when you need it. Includes Q&A’s from webinar participants.
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August 31, 2016
Are you micromanaging your mind?
GTD® wisdom from David Allen on trusting your system and getting to the place where you are truly thinking about things, not of them.
One of the greatest traps in growing a business is also a pitfall for self management: if you don’t trust your system, you can’t let go of operational details and you’ll limit your ability to create at a bigger level.
Many successful entrepreneurs I have worked with over the years could be characterized (and have been, by their employees and friends) as “highly creative control freaks.” It’s understandable because usually it takes that kind of strong, directed energy to create a business, to make something out of nothing. Much like a parent will go to superhuman lengths to protect its vulnerable offspring, someone who gives birth to an enterprise almost of necessity must have skin as thick as an elephant’s and the aggressive/ defensive capacity of a samurai warrior. It takes tremendous focus, determination, and, yes, a certain lack of sensitivity, to create something new and get it to stick around in this world.
That protectionism can, of course, become their undoing. In order to continue in their visionary capacity to grow and expand, they must mature not only their team and their systems but themselves as well, to prevent the strangulation of micro-management. They have to trust. But trust is not something you can just do because you should. I suppose you can develop a greater sense of overall optimism about life, but you don’t merely learn to trust—you learn to build trust. And you do that by creating a system and working it, so you can let go at that lower functional level, without letting go of the bigger picture of what you’re trying to accomplish.
A beginner at the wheel of a car will have jerky, small movements. They are maintaining control, just at small increments of focus. Only as they learn to trust the car’s responsiveness can they let go on that level, extend their horizon, and cruise at higher speeds more easily.
Similarly, if you don’t fully trust your personal systems, you are likely to be dedicating inappropriate and unnecessary mental attention to details and content, often with a resultant negative emotional component. You’ll feel pulled, overwhelmed, and often like you’re close to losing control.
But you can’t trust your system until it’s trust-worthy. When is that? When you know you have captured all your commitments, clarified what you’re intending to do about them, decided the actions you need to take about them, and have parked reminders of those actions in places that you know you’ll look, where and when you need to.
Entrepreneurs have to break out of their comfort zone of operational control and let go, getting good people in the right places, accountable for the right things and monitored appropriately. Similarly, to keep a clear head focused creatively at the right things, you must have all the right things in your personal system and the behaviors to look at them at the right time. If you try to keep more than ten things in your mind at once, you’ll lose objectivity about their relationships with each other. Less important things will bother you more than they should, and you won’t give the tactical and strategic stuff the objective attention it deserves. And if some part of you knows that you don’t have everything captured and organized in the right place, your brain simply won’t let go of some attention to unseen details. You’ll find yourself still to some degree at the mercy of the latest and loudest. It’s the price paid for staying in the comfort zone of keeping control of it all in your head.
When people begin to implement the Getting Things Done® methods, they initially experience a rush of energy and creativity, while feeling more relaxed at the same time. But those positive experiences can slip away quickly without the confidence that the content of their systems are complete and current (the inventory of which could have been changed and expanded hugely with the last phone call).
People have often said, “I have everything captured in the system, but my mind is still worrying and reminding me about this and that.” My question is, “How long have you been working your system?” Usually they have only recently set it up. That won’t be sufficient to build trust yet, and your mind will still try to keep control. That’s why the challenge is to keep going—to keep coming back to everything downloaded, processed, and organized. And the trick is to come back often enough for the mind to be able to let go, trusting that remembering and reminding is really being handled by something better than it is. Then you’re truly free to be thinking about things, not of them.
–David Allen
August 18, 2016
Episode #20 – Defining Your Areas of Focus
A key to trusting your priorities is knowing your roles, areas to maintain, oversee, and manage—personally and professionally. In this webinar, Senior GTD® Coaches Meg Edwards and Kelly Forrister walk you through developing the Areas of Focus level in the GTD Horizons of Focus® model, giving you examples, best practices, and tips for developing and refining your own.
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August 16, 2016
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