If you’re just starting out learning “Getting Things Done®”, perhaps having read the book, and now reading this to deepen your understanding, or having been on one of our courses and wanting more of the benefits you’ve already discovered, then it might be worth...
Isn’t it odd that we talk of ‘being in front of our computers’, rather than our computers ‘being in front of us’? Does this turn of phrase indicate that we feel our computers are in the seat of power? I recently asked a prospective coaching client “what do you do for...
When we all started with GTD® we had to build our GTD system from scratch. This meant that you, like everyone, had to spend a lot of time with Capturing all your stuff, then Clarifying and Organising this into your tool of choice. These first three steps can therefore...
This blog is shaped by the fact we are in Mental Health Awareness Month. I was struck when I attended the 2019 MadWorld Summit, by their memorable event tag line: “We all have Mental Health”. I’m reminded of this when I’m explaining to people about Horizon 2: Areas of...
The world has changed a lot since David Allen developed his methodology and wrote the 2001 first edition of “Getting Things Done ®”: Filofaxes have been mostly replaced by laptops, Palm Pilots by smartphones, faxes by emails, and too many meetings by far too many...
Don’t you find it odd, that although nearly everyone has grasped the fact that using a calendar is a useful way to organise their time-based commitments and they use one regularly, including sending invites, syncing them between their computers and phones, checking...
At the start of this Covid time, there were many GTD® articles about reviewing your Higher Horizons. Suddenly the Projects you thought would be your focus for the coming months were on hold and Next Actions needed to be moved to new lists with names like ‘post...
Hands up if you ever feel that you spend more time ‘playing’ with your GTD® set-up than being meaningfully productive? You know the saying: “If you want something done, ask a… person who is regularly, repeatedly and reliably engaged in their productive experience; in...
I’m writing this blog post because it is due in two days. I could have written it two weeks ago, but I didn’t. I usually write my blog posts on the publishing deadline day. This one is different because there are other things also due this week: cards to write,...
Enigma: a person or thing that is mysterious or difficult to understand (see Weekly Review®) Variation: a different or distinct form or version of something First, I should mention that many people who tell me they can’t stick with a Weekly Review habit are also those...
“We don’t like checklists. They can be painstaking. They’re not much fun. But I don’t think the issue here is mere laziness. There’s something deeper, more visceral going on when people walk away not only from saving lives but from making money. It somehow feels...
Trusting your choices about how you spend your time and focus your limited resources is a key desired outcome of ‘Getting Things Done®’. If you can spend most of your days, weeks, months and years trusting your judgment that what you are doing is what you...
Let’s start with you answering for yourself: What more do you want to get from GTD®; if you were to be coached – one-to-one by a GTD expert – what improvements would you hope to achieve? This blog post isn’t about any ‘new’ GTD ideas, rather about taking...
First and most importantly, I hope you and your loved ones and colleagues are safe. I hope you are reading this because you are indeed well and wanting to continue being productive in these strangest of times that we all find ourselves in. We are entering what, for...
If ever there was a time to get our visions perfectly clear, it must surely be in 2020! Often at New Year, people scout around for opportunities and ideas to add to their ‘Resolutions’ for the coming year. Trying to remember or think of great things they could achieve...
“If I’m in meetings all day from 8am until 8pm, when am I ever going to get time to do this Clarifying and Organising thing?” “Well, quite” I reply, “and what about actually working on all the items you have already put on your lists?” Following this common coaching...
When we help someone build their GTD® ‘external brain’; their ‘trusted list keeper’ for remembering all of their commitments, sometimes they feel that they don’t want to put all their personal items into their company computer. This can be for various reasons: they...
You won’t get the great benefit of seeing your world from a higher perspective in your Weekly Review® without first having a complete Projects list. And… You won’t fully understand why you should keep a complete Projects list until you’re getting the benefit of seeing...
Languages are living things and not meant to be fixed or constrained. At times, this is hard for a pedant like me to accept. Of course, I can see that it really doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, if someone writes ‘who’ when it should have been ‘whom’ or if...
I was recently in the audience at a Q&A session with David Allen. My question to him was something I have answered many times myself while running seminars and coaching people and, although I think my answer is quite practised and complete, I wanted to see how...
How easy it is to feel smug, you’re up and running with GTD®. You’re completing a Weekly Review®, your ‘ins’ are at zero, your lists are in order, higher horizons aligned and you’re looking through your ‘waiting for’ list to see who you can chase to prove your system...
Those of us who work with our email inboxes regularly ‘at zero’ are aware of the many benefits this brings. It is therefore a surprise, when trying to encourage others to do the same, that their first response is often along the lines of “I don’t care that I have...
