David Allen has a regular column on Wired UK these days. One of his recent articles, Focus on the Unimportant, is a great read for those of you who are still looking for more guidance on the priorities piece of GTD.
“A vast majority of professionals are in “emergency scanning” mode. Their self-management consists of checking for and acting on the loudest immediacies – in email, in the hallways and on the phone. Everything else is shoved to the side of the desk, and to the back of their mind. Because they’re focused only on “priorities”, and are paying attention only to the most in their- face stuff, everyone else has to raise the noise level to “emergency” mode to get any audience at all.” – David Allen, Wired UK article July 2009.
Other free articles from David on Wired UK you might like too: Be creative amid chaos, How to reap what you sow, How to make space to think, How to know what to do with your life and How to cope without your autopilot
Any reason they aren’t running these columns in the US version of the magazine? Seems like they would have international appeal…
This really does resonate with me. Working in a recently merged company with little understanding of new process and procedures it seems most people around me are working in this manner. I guess the key is that less can really be more in this instance and taking a breath, waiting an hour for the dust to settle and then acting results in clarity, focus and no wasted energy.
Jason–good question. Our understanding is that there are different editorial teams running the UK vs. US version.