{"id":3907,"date":"2010-06-30T12:00:52","date_gmt":"2010-06-30T20:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gtdtimes.com\/?p=3907"},"modified":"2021-05-23T16:40:26","modified_gmt":"2021-05-23T23:40:26","slug":"a-gtd-fan-in-belgium-shares-his-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/06\/a-gtd-fan-in-belgium-shares-his-success\/","title":{"rendered":"A GTD fan in Belgium shares his success"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Community Contribution from Jan Cherlet <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Hi fellow GTD enthusiasts,<\/p>\n

April 9, 2009 was the morning that changed my life. For the 4th time that week, I woke up at 4 am and couldn\u2019t close another eye because of all the things I had to do (recognise this?). But this time I got up and surfed the web for a solution. Pretty fast I ended up with GTD and David Allen. One year later I\u2019m the biggest GTD-fan in Europe (well, in Belgium anyway). The approach David and his team developed, helped me control and overview all the different responsibilities I\u2019m handling. Being a musician in a lot of totally different kinds of music projects, music teacher, project coordinator, husband and father of two wonderful girls (you know, this takes time). A house, a beautiful garden, 3 chickens and a rabbit to maintain. I want to keep in shape–don\u2019t we all–but I love drinking our famous Belgian beers, so this demands some balancing\u2026<\/p>\n

Thanks to GTD, I finally got rid of the old kitchen we replaced 4 years ago, but was still in our garage catching dust and spiders, I got to launch very nice projects at school, recorded a CD–I am organised and nothing blows up in my face anymore. In short, this changed my life completely.<\/p>\n

Now it seems as though the whole world around me is one big chaotic mess. And if you start paying attention to what people are saying, everybody is struggling with the same organisation problems. That\u2019s why spreading GTD has become a new hobby (…didn\u2019t I have already enough things on my mind? – No, this is fun!) So, as soon as someone complains about all the things he has to do, I tell him: \u2018You know, there is a system to manage that.\u2019 \u2013 \u2018There is?\u2019 (big eyes) Then I show my PDA \u2018Well, this contains everything I have to do for the moment.\u2019 And then a giant question mark show up on their faces. So I tell about the wonderful books David wrote. And they get all excited and ready to start.<\/p>\n

When we meet again a few months later, I ask about their GTD system. Most of them answer, “Well, that was an interesting book \u2013 Did you apply it already?”\u2013 \u2018Oh, well I have to many things to handle right now, you know,\u2026\u2019 Except one of my colleagues, who had terrible stress-related headaches. He\u2019s getting it, and is flying the corridors of the school. If he gets stuff in: whoosh! Process, Organise, Do, \u2026 give me a new one!<\/p>\n

I think a lot of people need someone to hold their hand to get started. So this is what I am doing now: when I see my wife with 124 items in her email: honey, let\u2019s clean that up. My kids (6y and 8y) know by now, if they need something to be taken care of, they drop it in my inbox (I get a lot of broken toys in my in basket). Students struggling with workload, I try to give some tips and hints to get their things organised and planned.<\/p>\n

Next thing on my plate is getting my wife into real GTD. She already started reading the book but somehow became stuck: \u2019I\u2019m too busy to read a book\u2019 \u2013 \u2018Yeah, but this book is great for dealing with busy people.\u2019 – \u2018Oh, I don\u2019t have the time.\u2019 So now, I slipped the CD\u2019s of GTD Live into her car, hoping she might listen to them sort of by accident<\/em>. I\u2019ll let you know how that goes!<\/p>\n

Jan lives in Belgium.\u00a0 He says that “GTD got me organised, now I can be chaotic without losing perspective and control.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Community Contribution from Jan Cherlet Hi fellow GTD enthusiasts, April 9, 2009 was the morning that changed my life. For the 4th time that week, I woke up at 4 am and couldn\u2019t close another eye because of all the things I had to do (recognise this?). But this time I got up and … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “A GTD fan in Belgium shares his success”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[61,69,46,83,190],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA GTDer in Belgium shares his success<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A GTDer in Belgium shares his success.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/06\/a-gtd-fan-in-belgium-shares-his-success\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A GTD fan in Belgium shares his success\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A GTDer in Belgium shares his success.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/06\/a-gtd-fan-in-belgium-shares-his-success\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Getting Things Done\u00ae\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gettingthingsdone\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-06-30T20:00:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-05-23T23:40:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"GTD Times Staff\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@gtdtimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@gtdtimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"GTD Times Staff\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/06\/a-gtd-fan-in-belgium-shares-his-success\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/06\/a-gtd-fan-in-belgium-shares-his-success\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"GTD Times Staff\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/person\/52d8dfa5db8d4e8792586794625c12a4\"},\"headline\":\"A GTD fan in Belgium shares his success\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-06-30T20:00:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-23T23:40:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/06\/a-gtd-fan-in-belgium-shares-his-success\/\"},\"wordCount\":630,\"commentCount\":7,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"trusted system\",\"Implementing GTD\",\"Implementation\",\"Community Contributions\",\"GTD for Families\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Productivity Tips\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/06\/a-gtd-fan-in-belgium-shares-his-success\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/06\/a-gtd-fan-in-belgium-shares-his-success\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/06\/a-gtd-fan-in-belgium-shares-his-success\/\",\"name\":\"A GTDer in Belgium shares his success\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-06-30T20:00:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-23T23:40:26+00:00\",\"description\":\"A GTDer in Belgium shares his success.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/06\/a-gtd-fan-in-belgium-shares-his-success\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/06\/a-gtd-fan-in-belgium-shares-his-success\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/06\/a-gtd-fan-in-belgium-shares-his-success\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A GTD fan in Belgium shares his success\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/\",\"name\":\"Getting Things Done\u00ae\",\"description\":\"David Allen's GTD\u00ae Methodology\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Getting Things Done\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/gtd-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/gtd-logo.png\",\"width\":370,\"height\":338,\"caption\":\"Getting Things Done\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gettingthingsdone\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/gtdtimes\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/gtdtimes\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/groups\/2328651\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/person\/52d8dfa5db8d4e8792586794625c12a4\",\"name\":\"GTD Times Staff\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7e6cca53b54e1192e3459333751eb5c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7e6cca53b54e1192e3459333751eb5c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"GTD Times Staff\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/author\/webadmin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A GTDer in Belgium shares his success","description":"A GTDer in Belgium shares his success.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/06\/a-gtd-fan-in-belgium-shares-his-success\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A GTD fan in Belgium shares his success","og_description":"A GTDer in Belgium shares his success.","og_url":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/06\/a-gtd-fan-in-belgium-shares-his-success\/","og_site_name":"Getting Things Done\u00ae","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gettingthingsdone\/","article_published_time":"2010-06-30T20:00:52+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-05-23T23:40:26+00:00","author":"GTD Times Staff","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@gtdtimes","twitter_site":"@gtdtimes","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"GTD Times Staff","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/06\/a-gtd-fan-in-belgium-shares-his-success\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/06\/a-gtd-fan-in-belgium-shares-his-success\/"},"author":{"name":"GTD Times Staff","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/person\/52d8dfa5db8d4e8792586794625c12a4"},"headline":"A GTD fan in Belgium shares his success","datePublished":"2010-06-30T20:00:52+00:00","dateModified":"2021-05-23T23:40:26+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/06\/a-gtd-fan-in-belgium-shares-his-success\/"},"wordCount":630,"commentCount":7,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#organization"},"keywords":["trusted system","Implementing GTD","Implementation","Community Contributions","GTD for Families"],"articleSection":["Productivity Tips"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/06\/a-gtd-fan-in-belgium-shares-his-success\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/06\/a-gtd-fan-in-belgium-shares-his-success\/","url":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/06\/a-gtd-fan-in-belgium-shares-his-success\/","name":"A GTDer in Belgium shares his success","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-06-30T20:00:52+00:00","dateModified":"2021-05-23T23:40:26+00:00","description":"A GTDer in Belgium shares his success.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/06\/a-gtd-fan-in-belgium-shares-his-success\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/06\/a-gtd-fan-in-belgium-shares-his-success\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/06\/a-gtd-fan-in-belgium-shares-his-success\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A GTD fan in Belgium shares his success"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/","name":"Getting Things Done\u00ae","description":"David Allen's GTD\u00ae Methodology","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#organization","name":"Getting Things Done","url":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/gtd-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/gtd-logo.png","width":370,"height":338,"caption":"Getting Things Done"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gettingthingsdone\/","https:\/\/x.com\/gtdtimes","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/gtdtimes\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/groups\/2328651\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/person\/52d8dfa5db8d4e8792586794625c12a4","name":"GTD Times Staff","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7e6cca53b54e1192e3459333751eb5c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7e6cca53b54e1192e3459333751eb5c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"GTD Times Staff"},"url":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/author\/webadmin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3907"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3907"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21006,"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3907\/revisions\/21006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}