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Kelly Forrister http://www.davidco.com/podcasts/play/15.html http://www.davidco.com/audio/KellyOrganizingPlaygroundFeb19.2008.mp3 Fri, 07 Mar 2008 09:27:07 PST 55:08 Business Week has just published a feature article about David Allen and GTD, entitled Getting Serious About Getting Things Done. Earlier this summer, David Allen was contributing to the Business Week blog on time management. Check out David's cautionary tale about cool tech, how overload (email volume, for example) is a mislabeled problem, and how even a pretend vacation can spur you to greater productivity. We hope you're enjoying summer! - The David Allen Company Team To be successful, you have to have your heart in your business, and your business in your heart. - Thomas Watson
Getting Serious About Getting Things Done.

Earlier this summer, David Allen was contributing to the Business Week blog on time management. Check out David's cautionary tale about cool tech, how overload (email volume, for example) is a mislabeled problem, and how even a pretend vacation can spur you to greater productivity.

We hope you're enjoying summer!

- The David Allen Company Team


To be successful, you have to have your heart in your business, and your business in your heart.

- Thomas Watson

]]> info@davidco.com (David Allen) http://www.davidco.com/whatsup.php Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:15:47 PDT GTD Productivity Getting Things Done David Allen DavidAllen Time Management http://www.davidco.com/whatsup.php?=d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e I recently presented a seminar where a participant brought up the project of getting her daughter into college. Since that was a current project for me as well, I wrote to her about how I applied the Natural Planning Model to this project. For those of you unfamiliar with the Natural Planning Model, it is David Allen's approach to getting projects creatively under control. The specific details of this five-phase approach can be found starting on page 54 of David Allen's book, Getting Things Done. Here is the email I sent to this participant regarding her project: Dear Sara, I wanted to share with you what I did to help my son with his efforts to get into college. Like your daughter, my son is a senior looking at schools. The deadlines for college applications had been approaching, and he had not completed any applications. In response, I took him through the Natural Planning Model. Specifically, here's what I did with him: 1) Purpose I asked him to tell me why he wanted to go to college. At first he started with reasons that seemed to belong to others, but I encouraged him to get real with it — why did he really want to go to college? Was it to learn a trade? Develop strong friendships? Have an adventure? Meet new people? Enhance his education by broadening it or giving it more depth? 2) Guiding Principles I asked my son what was important to him as we went through this process. He said that he wanted the process to be easy and fluid, and it was also important to him that we do it in a spirit of cooperation. 3) Vision Once we got his Purpose and Guiding Principles clear (and I had him write all this down by the way), I asked him what his ideal scene was for college as best as he could describe it in that moment. I used the following cues to stimulate his thinking: - Large or small school? - Metropolitan or rural setting? - East coast? West coast? In between? Or abroad? - Large classes or small intimate learning settings? - Male/Female ratio? - Living on/off campus? - What is his major? - What will he know at the end of four years? - What types of courses will he take? - Athletics? - Drama? - Other extra-curriculars? — he came up with wanting to be close to ski areas (!) - Political/ideological/religious leaning of the school? 4) Brainstorm We skipped this phase because he already had plenty of schools he was interested in. For kids who haven't yet identified schools of interest, I'd encourage them to take a very broad look at every school that holds any appeal to them, using tools like Barron's, etc. 5) Organize I then had my son rank each of the schools on his preliminary list on a scale from 1 to 10, based upon the criteria he himself had established in the Vision section. When we looked at the schools ranked 6 and above, we realized we had too many. When we only looked at schools ranked 7 and above, we came up with 10, which seemed more manageable. I'd also recommend that students apply the idea that most college counselors encourage — to include a few "fall-back" schools, as well as at least one that would be a stretch for them in terms of the average GPA and SAT scores. 6) Next Actions There were a few schools for which my son lacked sufficient information to be able to rank them, so that became a next action for him — to take "virtual tours" and see what number he would assign based on that information. There were only a few, however, so the next actions we identified were to determine the application requirements for each school in his top ten and set them into a grid so that we could see which applications were due when, and what needed to be completed. This process worked very well. Not only did it get my son moving toward getting his applications done, but it also shifted the energy that we all had around it from drudgery to joy and anticipation of the adventure ahead. I would love to hear from any of you who might try this with your high-school student. I can be reached at wayne@davidco.com.

Here is the email I sent to this participant regarding her project:

Dear Sara,

I wanted to share with you what I did to help my son with his efforts to get into college. Like your daughter, my son is a senior looking at schools. The deadlines for college applications had been approaching, and he had not completed any applications. In response, I took him through the Natural Planning Model. Specifically, here's what I did with him:

1) Purpose

I asked him to tell me why he wanted to go to college. At first he started with reasons that seemed to belong to others, but I encouraged him to get real with it — why did he really want to go to college? Was it to learn a trade? Develop strong friendships? Have an adventure? Meet new people? Enhance his education by broadening it or giving it more depth?

2) Guiding Principles

I asked my son what was important to him as we went through this process. He said that he wanted the process to be easy and fluid, and it was also important to him that we do it in a spirit of cooperation.

3) Vision

Once we got his Purpose and Guiding Principles clear (and I had him write all this down by the way), I asked him what his ideal scene was for college as best as he could describe it in that moment. I used the following cues to stimulate his thinking:

- Large or small school?
- Metropolitan or rural setting?
- East coast? West coast? In between? Or abroad?
- Large classes or small intimate learning settings?
- Male/Female ratio?
- Living on/off campus?
- What is his major?
- What will he know at the end of four years?
- What types of courses will he take?
- Athletics?
- Drama?
- Other extra-curriculars? — he came up with wanting to be close to ski areas (!)
- Political/ideological/religious leaning of the school?

4) Brainstorm

We skipped this phase because he already had plenty of schools he was interested in. For kids who haven't yet identified schools of interest, I'd encourage them to take a very broad look at every school that holds any appeal to them, using tools like Barron's, etc.

5) Organize

I then had my son rank each of the schools on his preliminary list on a scale from 1 to 10, based upon the criteria he himself had established in the Vision section. When we looked at the schools ranked 6 and above, we realized we had too many. When we only looked at schools ranked 7 and above, we came up with 10, which seemed more manageable. I'd also recommend that students apply the idea that most college counselors encourage — to include a few "fall-back" schools, as well as at least one that would be a stretch for them in terms of the average GPA and SAT scores.

6) Next Actions

There were a few schools for which my son lacked sufficient information to be able to rank them, so that became a next action for him — to take "virtual tours" and see what number he would assign based on that information. There were only a few, however, so the next actions we identified were to determine the application requirements for each school in his top ten and set them into a grid so that we could see which applications were due when, and what needed to be completed.

This process worked very well. Not only did it get my son moving toward getting his applications done, but it also shifted the energy that we all had around it from drudgery to joy and anticipation of the adventure ahead.

I would love to hear from any of you who might try this with your high-school student. I can be reached at wayne@davidco.com.

]]> wayne@davidco.com (Wayne Pepper) http://www.davidco.com/coaches_corner/Wayne_Pepper/article82.html Wed, 19 Mar 2008 09:51:22 PDT GTD Productivity Getting Things Done David Allen DavidAllen Time Management LifeHacks Life Hacks Self-Help Self-Improvement Priorities Tips Time Savers http://www.davidco.com/coaches_corner/Wayne_Pepper/article82.html Coach's Corner We all do it: kick something around on our lists (if we were even brave to put it ON a list), curse it, skip over it and try really hard to ignore it. Yet, we can't let it go. The longer it lingers, the guilt and stress builds or the opportunity is simply missed. Sound familiar? Good, join the club, you are like everyone else on the planet who procrastinates! Is it necessary to eliminate procrastination to be effective in your personal and professional life? Not necessarily. Sometimes a little breathing room on something is exactly what I needed to get more clarity that I didn't know I needed on it. But it is helpful to know some strategies for unsticking your stuff, especially if it's something you really need or want to do now. There are two primary reasons why we tend to procrastinate: 1. The outcome is not meaningful enough to you 2. You don't have a clear next action Now, think of one thing you are procrastinating on. If you had to go take action on that right now, do you have all of the information you need to take that action? If not, you haven't nailed the next action. Back yourself up to a clear next action. Go more microscopic in your next action if it feels too big or complex. Now, the outcome. What images do you hold when you picture yourself finishing that thing? Failure? Boredom? Jail? Out of control? Painful? Good chance that outcome is not only not meaningful enough to you, you're not picturing a successful outcome. Procrastination will pounce on that like weak prey. Reshift your outcome to a finish line you see yourself winning. Yes, it's that easy.
really hard to ignore it. Yet, we can't let it go. The longer it lingers, the guilt and stress builds or the opportunity is simply missed. Sound familiar? Good, join the club, you are like everyone else on the planet who procrastinates!

Is it necessary to eliminate procrastination to be effective in your personal and professional life? Not necessarily. Sometimes a little breathing room on something is exactly what I needed to get more clarity that I didn't know I needed on it. But it is helpful to know some strategies for unsticking your stuff, especially if it's something you really need or want to do now. There are two primary reasons why we tend to procrastinate:

1. The outcome is not meaningful enough to you
2. You don't have a clear next action

Now, think of one thing you are procrastinating on. If you had to go take action on that right now, do you have all of the information you need to take that action? If not, you haven't nailed the next action. Back yourself up to a clear next action. Go more microscopic in your next action if it feels too big or complex. Now, the outcome. What images do you hold when you picture yourself finishing that thing? Failure? Boredom? Jail? Out of control? Painful? Good chance that outcome is not only not meaningful enough to you, you're not picturing a successful outcome. Procrastination will pounce on that like weak prey. Reshift your outcome to a finish line you see yourself winning. Yes, it's that easy.





]]> kelly@davidco.com (Kelly) http://www.davidco.com/blogs/kelly/archives/2008/08/two_reasons_why.html Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:56:34 PDT GTD Best Practices http://www.davidco.com/blogs/kelly/archives/2008/08/two_reasons_why.html Kelly's Blog If you are somewhat new to GTD and you are interested in implementing the principles in Getting Things Done, make sure that you actually get and use a magical little device called the inbox. If you've read the book or been to a seminar, you know that the first phase of successfully managing your workflow is to collect whatever you've got your attention on. The basic principle of collecting is that you'll have a heck of an easier time managing an action or project to completion if you get it out of your head and into an objective trusted system outside of yourself. Otherwise, the thought or promise or commitment will just keep spinning inside your psyche, yelling for attention and draining your energy. If you've ever watched a GTD aficionado in action you've probably noticed them jotting occasional notes to themselves in the middle of meetings or in the middle of nowhere. Then, when they have the chance they spend some time to process what those notes really mean and determine what actions, if any, they are now committed to regarding what they've collected. Think about GTD as an approach for successfully managing all of the agreements you have with yourself and others. In this approach, collecting and processing are the steps in which the agreements get manufactured. When you process something you've collected and actually define a new commitment, you literally create something out of nothing. You now have a future outcome where before there was nothing. Think about your actual physical inbox as one of the key loading docks for the raw materials that may become your commitments. If you don't actually use an inbox in this way, essentially your whole office, home, and/or psyche will become your inbox - and that can get awfully messy. In the trenches of today's knowledge workers I've seen many variations on the concept of the in-box. For some, the in-box is a place where other people drop things off - like memos, reports, and mail. For others an inbox is where they keep all of their work-in-progress until they have time to do it. Still others have no idea why they'd even want to have a box called In anywhere near their desk. Yes, the email and voice-mail inbox IS automatically filling up for us every day - so those are difficult collection places to miss. But remember that your physical inbox (or in-folder while you're traveling) can actually be one of the most important parts of your GTD system. Yes, it's a place for others to drop stuff for you. But more importantly, it's a place for you to drop all your own meeting notes, notes to self, and random stuff you haven't quite figured out until you've got a bit of processing time to make sense of it all and make some new agreements. I'm curious: what's your favorite collection tool and how exactly do you use it?
Getting Things Done, make sure that you actually get and use a magical little device called the inbox.



If you've read the book or been to a seminar, you know that the first phase of successfully managing your workflow is to collect whatever you've got your attention on. The basic principle of collecting is that you'll have a heck of an easier time managing an action or project to completion if you get it out of your head and into an objective trusted system outside of yourself. Otherwise, the thought or promise or commitment will just keep spinning inside your psyche, yelling for attention and draining your energy. If you've ever watched a GTD aficionado in action you've probably noticed them jotting occasional notes to themselves in the middle of meetings or in the middle of nowhere. Then, when they have the chance they spend some time to process what those notes really mean and determine what actions, if any, they are now committed to regarding what they've collected.

Think about GTD as an approach for successfully managing all of the agreements you have with yourself and others. In this approach, collecting and processing are the steps in which the agreements get manufactured. When you process something you've collected and actually define a new commitment, you literally create something out of nothing. You now have a future outcome where before there was nothing. Think about your actual physical inbox as one of the key loading docks for the raw materials that may become your commitments. If you don't actually use an inbox in this way, essentially your whole office, home, and/or psyche will become your inbox - and that can get awfully messy.

In the trenches of today's knowledge workers I've seen many variations on the concept of the in-box. For some, the in-box is a place where other people drop things off - like memos, reports, and mail. For others an inbox is where they keep all of their work-in-progress until they have time to do it. Still others have no idea why they'd even want to have a box called In anywhere near their desk.

Yes, the email and voice-mail inbox IS automatically filling up for us every day - so those are difficult collection places to miss. But remember that your physical inbox (or in-folder while you're traveling) can actually be one of the most important parts of your GTD system. Yes, it's a place for others to drop stuff for you. But more importantly, it's a place for you to drop all your own meeting notes, notes to self, and random stuff you haven't quite figured out until you've got a bit of processing time to make sense of it all and make some new agreements.

I'm curious: what's your favorite collection tool and how exactly do you use it?

]]> michael.dolan@davidco.com (mdolan) http://www.davidco.com/blogs/michael/2008/08/the_inbox_your_loading_dock_of.html Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:28:15 PDT Tools http://www.davidco.com/blogs/michael/2008/08/the_inbox_your_loading_dock_of.html mdolan's Blog