Monthly Archives: December 2022

Question: It seems to me that focus and productivity are different concepts that often get conflated. When people think of productivity, they seem to think of doing more, faster. When people think of focus, they seem to think of doing less, more deliberately. Doing more faster, in my view, simply means being more efficiently frenzied, and it appears a lot of people are chasing this ideal. Doing less with focus, however, seems to be truly valuable. It appears GTD as a theory and practice favors increased productivity—efficient frenzy. How do you see it? Where does focus fit in the GTD equation, and can GTD help with doing less, not more?

William Elliott, GTD® trainer and coach in South Africa, talks about ways to use GTD to deal with anxiety or fear. He starts by offering a definition of courage, and moves to specific questions you can ask yourself that give practical help during times of stress.

Steven Coutinho talks about how the stories we make up can get in the way of productively innovating, and shares his vision of what school could be like.

Komal Thakkar takes you for a deeper dive into the Capture step of GTD workflow. She discusses potential areas for improvement, and advises how you can evaluate your capturing to align with the best practices for this step.