Citizen Kane and productivity

Citizen Kane and productivity

Orson Welles was an astonishing talent. Famously brilliant, he produced, co-wrote, directed and acted the lead role in Citizen Kane, a film that won an academy award and has consistently topped the ‘all time best film’ lists in my lifetime. We can quibble about...
GTD: the proof is in the results

GTD: the proof is in the results

For the past seven years we’ve been out doing this GTD thing for clients large and small, and we’ve been getting consistently great feedback on how it is positively impacting the lives of those who use it. As people who have made it our job to spread these...
The discipline of bad breath

The discipline of bad breath

Mr Melnyk, my grade 2 teacher, was a lovely guy. As one of only two males and the only Ukrainian on the teaching staff at my primary school, he was a poster child for diversity well before his time, and a great athlete to boot. In theory, someone for little boys to...
Who do you think you are?

Who do you think you are?

It’s the 4th of February today. Set any new resolutions at the beginning of this month? I didn’t think so. Strange how we do that in January, but in February not so much. Still, I have to ask: how did you do? In January, I mean. Research shows that although millions...
End of Year Inventory – Bad Things that Didn’t Happen

Nothing to !&%£ but !&%£ itself

It’s a four-letter word. A bad ‘un. So awful is this word that its use has been de facto banished from organizational discourse. And yet the feeling this word describes is probably the biggest barrier there is to getting game-changing things done. It lurks in every...
End of Year Inventory – Bad Things that Didn’t Happen

A Simple Tip for a Magic Memory

One of Shakespeare’s most famous lines is, ‘All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players’. Fabulous metaphor. Love it. The problem is that – as I’ve gotten a bit older, and the stage has gotten more crowded with each passing year – I can’t always...

Lists? What lists? Oh, those lists….

  Years ago, when I was only a GTD baby, I remember one of the GTD grown-ups saying something like: “Anyone can do the inbox thing. It is what happens once the inbox is empty that is what really counts.” As someone who – at that point – was not yet consistently...

Spider Webs and Squirrel Droppings

August is done, but–as I try to catch the wave of work here in September–I’m feeling a tinge of nostalgia for the month just past. August means many things for me, and one of them is that it’s Tool Shed Month. Pretty much every August for the...

Sinking or Swimming in ‘Stuff’

(Note: In honour of the upcoming Olympics here in London, today’s post involves a swimming metaphor. You don’t have to be an Olympic swimmer to read it, but familiarity with the basics of locomotion in an aquatic environment will be useful.) In our coaching and...