{"id":7221,"date":"2016-02-11T11:24:55","date_gmt":"2016-02-11T11:24:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/?p=6494"},"modified":"2016-12-08T10:28:33","modified_gmt":"2016-12-08T10:28:33","slug":"what-does-gtd-have-to-offer-people-in-afghanistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/2016\/02\/11\/what-does-gtd-have-to-offer-people-in-afghanistan\/","title":{"rendered":"What does GTD have to offer people in Afghanistan?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"rsz_istock_000015701208_medium\"<\/a><\/p>\n

That\u2019s what was on my mind on a beautiful summer’s evening in southern California in 2010.\u00a0 I was just getting started as a GTD trainer, and had travelled to the headquarters of the David Allen Company to work with some of the people there.\u00a0 David Allen had invited me to his home to have dinner with him and his wife, Kathryn.<\/p>\n

David and I were sitting under the trees watching the sun go down over the California hills.\u00a0 Over a glass of wine, I told him about a trip I had planned to Afghanistan to do a series of seminars in several cities for a children\u2019s charity.\u00a0 I had gotten to the point where I knew the seminar content pretty well, but I was troubled.\u00a0 Almost all of my work until then had been in western cultures, for mostly corporate and government clients.<\/p>\n

\u201cDavid, I\u2019m wondering what GTD truly has to offer to people in a place that is so different,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

David didn\u2019t hesitate.\u00a0 \u201cWhat do they want to have different in their lives?\u201d\u00a0 he said.<\/p>\n

In a flash, David had made it clear.\u00a0 The work we do in GTD makes one underlying assumption.\u00a0 It assumes that you have things in your life that you would like to change.\u00a0 Strategic things, like that new job you\u2019re going for.\u00a0 Tactical things, like the fact that you need to buy light bulbs.\u00a0 And anything in between that isn\u2019t the way you want it to be.<\/p>\n

And this is one thing that we all have in common, no matter where on the planet we are, or what culture we\u2019re from.\u00a0 Human beings are constantly engaged in changing their worlds, in big ways and small.\u00a0 We close \u201copen loops\u201d all the time.\u00a0 We are wired for productivity.<\/p>\n

As we\u2019re being productive, GTD helps by enhancing our sense of control, and our perspective.\u00a0 It ensures that we are consistently focused on the right things, and that our work on those things can progress with as little friction as possible.<\/p>\n

As I made my way around Afghanistan and did the seminars, David\u2019s words of course proved true.\u00a0 The people I met all had things they wanted to make different.\u00a0 They wanted to plan a day out with their family.\u00a0 Or they wanted to buy a new bicycle.\u00a0 Or open a new school.\u00a0 I still get the occasional email from some of them, telling me how valuable they found the ideas in the seminar, and giving me news of the things they are making happen in their lives.<\/p>\n

Can you benefit from GTD?\u00a0 Is there something in your life you want to make different?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That\u2019s what was on my mind on a beautiful summer’s evening in southern California in 2010.\u00a0 I was just getting started as a GTD trainer, and had travelled to the headquarters of the David Allen Company to work with some of the people there.\u00a0 David Allen had invited me to his home to have dinner […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7248,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_eb_attr":"","gtp_columnspro_styling":"{}","gtp_paragraph_styling":"{}","gtp_heading_styling":"{}","gtp_spacer_styling":"{}","gtp_video_styling":"{}","gtp_group_styling":"{}","gtp_cover_styling":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[319,29],"tags":[250,51,53,79],"yst_prominent_words":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7221"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7221"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=7221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}