Ep. 174: GTD® Success Factors - pt 1

David Allen talks about the value he gets, and that you can get, by taking a few minutes for reflection at the end of the day.

Part 1 of 3 - David Allen talks with GTD® trainer Justin Hale about his journey with GTD®. Justin notes that the journey includes cultivating self-awareness about our habits. He emphasizes the importance of deliberate practice to change behaviors. More than a set of hacks, he considers GTD® to be a complete system. Justin is a trainer with Crucial Learning, as well as the host of the One Productive Minute video series. Just Announced: A refreshed GTD® Course is now available! You can watch this entire conversation with David and Justin on GTD Connect®. (Originally published in October of 2022 on GTD Connect®)

Part 16 of many – GTD® Live is the audio version of David Allen’s complete two-day seminar that brings you the powerful principles of Getting Things Done®, including the Mastering Workflow, Managing Projects & Priorities models. Recorded live, this will give you a great hands-on experience with the GTD® approach, at your own pace. Take part in the exercises presented, just as if you were in the room with David by your side. It’s a great way to get started with GTD®, or refresh what you’ve already built and learned. If you’d like to purchase the complete seminar and binge it all at once, please visit the GTD® Store

Where you work affects how you work. Listen as David Allen talks with Sharad Mathur, the founder of Lewis Office, about how environmental design affects our productivity. To enhance productivity and provide good ergonomics, Sharad believes that an office needs to be flexible. It should also be easy to set up, so he designs furniture that can be assembled quickly, without tools. GTD quote: "It helps in having a better life!" You can find Sharad on LinkedIn. And you can learn more about his innovative approach to office design at Lewis Office.

In this series, David Allen, Meg Edwards, and Marian Bateman take you through how to keep the system going by examining the Review and Do phases of GTD®. Learn how to review your system, including what to review when and the different horizons of focus, so you can trust the choices you are making about what to do. Also includes an in-depth walk through of the Weekly Review, with Coach Meg Edwards sharing her recommendations on how to productively spend an hour getting clear and current. If you’d like to purchase the complete set of mp3s and binge it all at once, please visit the GTD® Store

In this series, David Allen, Meg Edwards, and Marian Bateman take you through how to keep the system going by examining the Review and Do phases of GTD®. Learn how to review your system, including what to review when and the different horizons of focus, so you can trust the choices you are making about what to do. Also includes an in-depth walk through of the Weekly Review, with Coach Meg Edwards sharing her recommendations on how to productively spend an hour getting clear and current. If you’d like to purchase the complete set of mp3s and binge it all at once, please visit the GTD® Store

David talks about keeping track of balances due, and the importance of having a complete inventory of your projects and next actions in order to say yes or no to new requests.

Jennifer Ladd-Lively demonstrates why "the better you get, the better you'd better get." As her responsibilities have increased, she has modified her system from what she calls the brute force method, to a combination of digital and paper that handles everything smoothly. Jennifer says the two-minute rule made a big difference in her productivity, as did the Weekly Review, which is now part of her routine. Others ask her how she accomplishes so much with ease, so it's no surprise that her example inspires those around her.

David Allen talks about the three Cs of effective systems -- Consistent, Current, and Context-driven.

Part 3 of 3 – 3 Days to Clarity In this 3 MP3 audio series, David Allen explains how to get control of all the open loops in your life that are tugging on your psyche, draining your energy and standing in the way of you accomplishing more important things you want. This series dives deeply into discussing the Collect, Process, and Organize phases of GTD® to lay the foundation for successful implementation. If you’d like to purchase the complete set of mp3s and binge it all at once, please visit the GTD® Store

Part 2 of 3 – 3 Days to Clarity In this 3 MP3 audio series, David Allen explains how to get control of all the open loops in your life that are tugging on your psyche, draining your energy and standing in the way of you accomplishing more important things you want. This series dives deeply into discussing the Collect, Process, and Organize phases of GTD® to lay the foundation for successful implementation. If you’d like to purchase the complete set of mp3s and binge it all at once, please visit the GTD® Store

Part 1 of 3 - 3 Days to Clarity In this 3 MP3 audio series, David Allen explains how to get control of all the open loops in your life that are tugging on your psyche, draining your energy and standing in the way of you accomplishing more important things you want. This series dives deeply into discussing the Collect, Process, and Organize phases of GTD to lay the foundation for successful implementation. If you’d like to purchase the complete set of mp3s and binge it all at once, please visit the GTD® Store

Tim Howes manages to have a sense of humor, and be an involved, caring parent, even while he juggles concurrent careers in higher education, real estate renovation, and business acquisition. As you listen, you'll find out why the Natural Planning Model is one of his favorite GTD tools. In this interview, he describes how his system has evolved from paper to digital, and the software he has tried. He also tells us how he shares GTD with grad students and his own family. (Originally published in November of 2018 on GTD Connect®)

Part 15 of many – GTD® Live is the audio version of David Allen’s complete two-day seminar that brings you the powerful principles of Getting Things Done®, including the Mastering Workflow, Managing Projects & Priorities models. Recorded live, this will give you a great hands-on experience with the GTD® approach, at your own pace. Take part in the exercises presented, just as if you were in the room with David by your side. It’s a great way to get started with GTD®, or refresh what you’ve already built and learned. If you’d like to purchase the complete seminar and binge it all at once, please visit the GTD® Store

Part 14 of many – GTD® Live is the audio version of David Allen’s complete two-day seminar that brings you the powerful principles of Getting Things Done®, including the Mastering Workflow, Managing Projects & Priorities models. Recorded live, this will give you a great hands-on experience with the GTD® approach, at your own pace. Take part in the exercises presented, just as if you were in the room with David by your side. It’s a great way to get started with GTD®, or refresh what you’ve already built and learned. If you’d like to purchase the complete seminar and binge it all at once, please visit the GTD® Store

Part 13 of many – GTD® Live is the audio version of David Allen’s complete two-day seminar that brings you the powerful principles of Getting Things Done®, including the Mastering Workflow, Managing Projects & Priorities models. Recorded live, this will give you a great hands-on experience with the GTD® approach, at your own pace. Take part in the exercises presented, just as if you were in the room with David by your side. It’s a great way to get started with GTD®, or refresh what you’ve already built and learned. If you’d like to purchase the complete seminar and binge it all at once, please visit the GTD® Store

Jason Atwood has built GTD into his company from the start. Listen as he shares with David Allen about starting Arkus, a Salesforce consulting firm, well after his own GTD practice was on a solid foundation. Beyond encouraging his employees to adopt GTD, he provides them with ongoing tools and support. During the onboarding period, he even meets with new employees to answer questions and refine their GTD implementation. Jason is also inspiring the next generation, starting with his daughter, who has read Getting Things Done for Teens and begun putting it into practice. His Twitter handle is @jasonmatwood (twitter.com/jasonmatwood), where he tweets about Salesforce, of course, and also about which music and coffee drink is along for his weekly review.

Part 3 of 5 - Over 2½ hours of expert coaching advice to support you in this key GTD® practice. Features David Allen and his senior coaching team. Topics covered include: - Coaching on what to do to get clear, current & creative - Advice on the common issues and challenges they see in their coaching - Tips on making the Review phase a habit - Customizing the Review to work for you - A Guided Weekly Review to give you a hands on experience in doing one yourself If you’d like to purchase the complete set of mp3s and binge it all at once, please visit the GTD® Store

Join David Allen for a wide-ranging talk with Paul Akers. You'll learn that when Paul refers to himself as a carpenter, it's quite an understatement. He's a master woodworker (watch the video version to fully appreciate this), who also founded FastCap, a product development company specializing in woodworking tools and hardware for the professional builder. His interest in lean manufacturing led him to apply those principles to other areas, including health. His next book will be called Lean Life. You can contact him through his website, paulakers.net. (Originally published in August of 2018 on GTD Connect®)

Part 2 of 5 – Over 2½ hours of expert coaching advice to support you in this key GTD® practice. Features David Allen and his senior coaching team. Topics covered include: – Coaching on what to do to get clear, current & creative – Advice on the common issues and challenges they see in their coaching – Tips on making the Review phase a habit – Customizing the Review to work for you – A Guided Weekly Review to give you a hands on experience in doing one yourself If you’d like to purchase the complete set of mp3s and binge it all at once, please visit the GTD® Store

Part 1 of 5 - Over 2½ hours of expert coaching advice to support you in this key GTD® practice. Features David Allen and his senior coaching team. Topics covered include: - Coaching on what to do to get clear, current & creative - Advice on the common issues and challenges they see in their coaching - Tips on making the Review phase a habit - Customizing the Review to work for you - A Guided Weekly Review to give you a hands on experience in doing one yourself If you’d like to purchase the complete set of mp3s and binge it all at once, please visit the GTD® Store

David Allen learned of Natalie Nagele through Adam Grant, and promptly scheduled this fascinating interview with her. Natalie and her husband Chris co-founded a software company called Wildbit. Their tagline is, "We're more than a company. We're a family." They have fun company retreats, a four-day work week, and smooth, collaborative teamwork among their globally distributed group. How do they do it? Start with every new employee receiving a copy of Getting Things Done. Listen to find out Natalie's advice on productivity, sharing GTD with coworkers and family, and more. Wildbit's company site: https://wildbit.com/ And her Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/natalienagele

Part 12 of many – GTD® Live is the audio version of David Allen’s complete two-day seminar that brings you the powerful principles of Getting Things Done®, including the Mastering Workflow, Managing Projects & Priorities models. Recorded live, this will give you a great hands-on experience with the GTD® approach, at your own pace. Take part in the exercises presented, just as if you were in the room with David by your side. It’s a great way to get started with GTD®, or refresh what you’ve already built and learned. If you’d like to purchase the complete seminar and binge it all at once, please visit the GTD® Store

Part 11 of many – GTD® Live is the audio version of David Allen’s complete two-day seminar that brings you the powerful principles of Getting Things Done®, including the Mastering Workflow, Managing Projects & Priorities models. Recorded live, this will give you a great hands-on experience with the GTD® approach, at your own pace. Take part in the exercises presented, just as if you were in the room with David by your side. It’s a great way to get started with GTD®, or refresh what you’ve already built and learned. If you’d like to purchase the complete seminar and binge it all at once, please visit the GTD® Store

Part 10 of many - GTD® Live is the audio version of David Allen's complete two-day seminar that brings you the powerful principles of Getting Things Done®, including the Mastering Workflow, Managing Projects & Priorities models. Recorded live, this will give you a great hands-on experience with the GTD® approach, at your own pace. Take part in the exercises presented, just as if you were in the room with David by your side. It's a great way to get started with GTD®, or refresh what you've already built and learned. If you'd like to purchase the complete seminar and binge it all at once, please visit the GTD® Store

Part 4 of many - David Allen and his senior staff share the GTD® best practices and models for seamlessly managing your projects. There are bonus materials that include a rich set of PDF handouts and the GTD Live recording of David leading you through the Natural Planning Model®. To get the PDFs and the complete 5 hours of audio, please visit the GTD® Store.

Part 3 of many - David Allen and his senior staff share the GTD® best practices and models for seamlessly managing your projects. There are bonus materials that include a rich set of PDF handouts and the GTD Live recording of David leading you through the Natural Planning Model®. To get the PDFs and the complete 5 hours of audio, please visit the GTD® Store.

How does he do it all? Barry Hillam has a family, teaches and practices dentistry, and is a professional musician with a busy rehearsal and performance schedule. He also runs marathons and plays golf. Listen as Barry describes the event that catalyzed his search for a way to be more productive, the development of his GTD® system, and the ongoing refinements he makes. Don't miss the six-minute coda at the end. We thought we had finished, but started chatting and found that he had more to say about moving from control into higher perspectives, and about optimizing desk time. (Originally published in May of 2018 on GTD Connect®)

Part 9 of many - GTD® Live is the audio version of David Allen's complete two-day seminar that brings you the powerful principles of Getting Things Done®, including the Mastering Workflow, Managing Projects & Priorities models. Recorded live, this will give you a great hands-on experience with the GTD® approach, at your own pace. Take part in the exercises presented, just as if you were in the room with David by your side. It's a great way to get started with GTD®, or refresh what you've already built and learned. If you'd like to purchase the complete seminar and binge it all at once, please visit the GTD® Store

Part 8 of many – GTD® Live is the audio version of David Allen’s complete two-day seminar that brings you the powerful principles of Getting Things Done®, including the Mastering Workflow, Managing Projects & Priorities models. Recorded live, this will give you a great hands-on experience with the GTD® approach, at your own pace. Take part in the exercises presented, just as if you were in the room with David by your side. It’s a great way to get started with GTD®, or refresh what you’ve already built and learned. If you’d like to purchase the complete seminar and binge it all at once, please visit the GTD® Store

Part 7 of many – GTD® Live is the audio version of David Allen’s complete two-day seminar that brings you the powerful principles of Getting Things Done®, including the Mastering Workflow, Managing Projects & Priorities models. Recorded live, this will give you a great hands-on experience with the GTD® approach, at your own pace. Take part in the exercises presented, just as if you were in the room with David by your side. It’s a great way to get started with GTD®, or refresh what you’ve already built and learned. If you’d like to purchase the complete seminar and binge it all at once, please visit the GTD® Store

Part 2 of many – David Allen and his senior staff share the GTD® best practices and models for seamlessly managing your projects. There are bonus materials that include a rich set of PDF handouts and the GTD Live recording of David leading you through the Natural Planning Model®. To get the PDFs and the complete 5 hours of audio, please visit the GTD® Store.

Part 1 of many - David Allen and his senior staff share the GTD® best practices and models for seamlessly managing your projects. There are bonus materials that include a rich set of PDF handouts and the GTD Live recording of David leading you through the Natural Planning Model®. To get the PDFs and the complete 5 hours of audio, please visit the GTD® Store.

Prepare to be inspired by Simon Penhaligon's one-weekend implementation of GTD. After agreeing to take on twice his usual workload, Simon knew he needed a new way of working. Over one intense weekend, he listened to the Getting Things Done audiobook, and set up his system. Since getting into the GTD groove, Simon has been able to handle the expanded workload, while driving his inbox to zero daily, and still spending evenings and weekends with his wife and daughter. He uses Microsoft Outlook? for email and calendar, and Evernote? for everything else.

Part 6 of many – GTD® Live is the audio version of David Allen’s complete two-day seminar that brings you the powerful principles of Getting Things Done®, including the Mastering Workflow, Managing Projects & Priorities models. Recorded live, this will give you a great hands-on experience with the GTD® approach, at your own pace. Take part in the exercises presented, just as if you were in the room with David by your side. It’s a great way to get started with GTD®, or refresh what you’ve already built and learned. If you’d like to purchase the complete seminar and binge it all at once, please visit the GTD® Store

Part 5 of many - GTD® Live is the audio version of David Allen's complete two-day seminar that brings you the powerful principles of Getting Things Done®, including the Mastering Workflow, Managing Projects & Priorities models. Recorded live, this will give you a great hands-on experience with the GTD® approach, at your own pace. Take part in the exercises presented, just as if you were in the room with David by your side. It's a great way to get started with GTD®, or refresh what you've already built and learned. If you'd like to purchase the complete seminar and binge it all at once, please visit the GTD® Store

Part 4 of many - GTD® Live is the audio version of David Allen's complete two-day seminar that brings you the powerful principles of Getting Things Done®, including the Mastering Workflow, Managing Projects & Priorities models. Recorded live, this will give you a great hands-on experience with the GTD® approach, at your own pace. Take part in the exercises presented, just as if you were in the room with David by your side. It's a great way to get started with GTD®, or refresh what you've already built and learned. If you'd like to purchase the complete seminar and binge it all at once, please visit the GTD® Store

David Allen recently spoke with Luca Gambetti, whose company E-quality Italia is the certified partner for GTD® in Italy. Their discussion centered around traditional and modern approaches to project management. Before becoming a GTD® Master Trainer, Luca worked extensively as a project manager. He has a background in Agile, Scrum, Lean, Kanban and others. His key piece of advice about projects? Keep track of your achievements, and take time to savor them. Luca confidently says that with GTD®, it is possible to live a more relaxed, focused life.

Part 3 of many - GTD® Live is the audio version of David Allen's complete two-day seminar that brings you the powerful principles of Getting Things Done®, including the Mastering Workflow, Managing Projects & Priorities models. Recorded live, this will give you a great hands-on experience with the GTD® approach, at your own pace. Take part in the exercises presented, just as if you were in the room with David by your side. It's a great way to get started with GTD®, or refresh what you've already built and learned. If you'd like to purchase the complete seminar and binge it all at once, please visit the GTD® Store

Part 2 of many - GTD® Live is the audio version of David Allen's complete two-day seminar that brings you the powerful principles of Getting Things Done®, including the Mastering Workflow, Managing Projects & Priorities models. Recorded live, this will give you a great hands-on experience with the GTD® approach, at your own pace. Take part in the exercises presented, just as if you were in the room with David by your side. It's a great way to get started with GTD®, or refresh what you've already built and learned. If you'd like to purchase the complete seminar and binge it all at once, please visit the GTD® Store

Part 1 of many - GTD® Live is the audio version of David Allen's complete two-day seminar that brings you the powerful principles of Getting Things Done®, including the Mastering Workflow, Managing Projects & Priorities models. Recorded live, this will give you a great hands-on experience with the GTD® approach, at your own pace. Take part in the exercises presented, just as if you were in the room with David by your side. It's a great way to get started with GTD®, or refresh what you've already built and learned. If you'd like to purchase the complete seminar and binge it all at once, please visit: https://store.gettingthingsdone.com/audio-s/102.htm

Back in 2015, David Allen and Brian Robertson had a discussion about GTD and Holacracy. In this new talk, they catch up about the current state of the intersection between individual and organizational productivity. You'll hear some interesting similarities between the two models, as well as some parallels in their history and purpose. (Originally recorded in March of 2018)

Lars Rothschild Henriksen describes his journey from working as a software engineer to becoming the only certified GTD trainer in Denmark. His inspirational story is based on his Horizon 5 interest in helping people, and finding GTD to be a very effective way to accomplish that purpose. He has used a wide variety of digital tools to track commitments, starting with Remember the Milk, then OneNote, Wunderlist, Outlook, and currently, Todoist. He also uses Evernote and OneNote for different types of reference. You can find Lars on Twitter, Instagram, and on the GTDnordic.dk site. (Originally recorded in March of 2018)

Stephen Reese is a professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. He has long been a student of productivity, with years of history using tools from low-tech to high-tech. You'll enjoy hearing him discuss his GTD practice, especially his "habits of the mind for the intellectual craftsman." The article that Stephen mentions during the interview is "The Intellectual Craftsman in a Digital World". On that page, scroll down to see the full article. Stephen's faculty page has more information about his background, and links to additional resources. Note: We had some audio static for a couple of minutes from 6:00 to 8:46, but it's clear after that.

Let's end the year with a compilation of all of David's Two Minute Tips as these turbulent times continue, plus these are gems you can reference at any point of your GTD® life. Happy New Year!

This is an installation and implementation session on the higher Horizons of Focus?. We will spend time exploring if anything has your attention at each of the horizons, and will end with integrating the horizons at the project and next action levels. During the session, there are sections where you can create or refine what you have on each of the horizons. The prompt questions for each of the horizons are listed below. These sections were about five minutes each in the live webinar. We have edited out those sections of silence for this recording. Please feel free to stop the recording as you reach those sections, and use the prompt questions below to work on each of your horizons. The webinar concluded with these two thoughts: Without clear purpose and direction you could easily be busy doing off-course things and wonder why a meaningful life is so elusive Getting the right small things done directly contributes to an authentic and meaningful life HORIZON 5: Purpose and Principles My purpose and principles contribute to my authentic life. Trigger Questions: What gets me up out of bed in the morning? What is most meaningful to me? What, if I am doing or expressing it, makes me feel like I am being who I really am, at my best? When do I feel like I really ?show up?? What really matters to me, in terms of how I live and work? What do I hold as standards for myself, no matter what, in terms of how I am living and working? HORIZON 4: Vision My purpose and principles influence my vision. My vision contributes to my purpose and principles. Trigger Questions: If I were wildly successful fulfilling my purpose, living my principles, what might be true for me, several years from now? What might I be doing? What might I have? What experiences might I be having? Contexts: Career Lifestyle Energy/health Finances Relationships Time horizons: 5 years? 10 years? 20 years? More? HORIZON 3: Goals and Objectives My vision influences my goals and objectives. My goals and objectives contribute to my vision. Trigger Question: Given what?s currently in play, and what I?ve thought about today, what are the things I need to have happen, or would like to have true for me, within the next 12 to 24 months? HORIZON 2: Areas of Focus and Accountability My goals and objectives influence my areas of focus and accountability. My areas of focus and accountability contribute to my goals. Trigger Questions: What are the areas of accountability in my work? What are the areas of focus in my life? HORIZON 1: Projects My areas of focus and accountability influence my projects. My projects contribute to my areas of focus and accountability. GROUND: Calendar/Actions My projects influence my next actions. My next actions contribute to my projects. My next actions get the things that are meaningful to me done.

David explores the psychology of productivity with William Elliott, a counseling psychologist and GTD master trainer in South Africa. William describes his own journey with attention-deficit disorder, and finding GTD as a support for becoming more organized. He has wise words about how humility and accepting our limitations can improve our productivity and the overall quality of our lives. You'll likely resonate with his description of the background stress around "What do I say no to?" and how GTD helps with decision making and prioritizing. Regarding what's on our lists, he notes that there is an advance beyond safely ignoring to reach comfortably ignoring. Responding to a question from David, William says that his "brain has accepted that GTD is the life raft." (January 2018)

From the archives (July 2013) - Senior Coaches Meg Edwards and Kelly Forrister share the 3 types of ways to review your GTD system. You'll learn about what's best to review on a daily, weekly, quarterly, and yearly basis to keep on track and aligned with what's important to you. Includes helpful tips around reviewing projects, action lists, goals, areas of focus, and more.

David Allen talks about the question, "Is there really too much to do?"

From the archives (May 2010): Audio Only version of the third episode in the Road to Black Belt "boot camp" series, where Coaches Meg Edwards & Kelly Forrister take a deep dive into the Review & Do phases of GTD.

From the archives: Listen in as David chats with best-selling author Dan Pink, getting an inside look into his own path, his research and observations about people and the nature of work, and his own use of GTD for managing himself with all of that. Dan is a journalist and the author of Free Agent Nation, A Whole New Mind, Drive, and To Sell Is Human (April 2012)

David Allen explores how groups that want to foster friendliness can fall into the trap of not making it clear who is accountable for which outcomes. The result is not so nice.

From the archives: David Allen sits down with John Jantsch from Duct Tape Marketing and talk about Getting Things Done®

David Allen offers this reminder that you can be smarter than your mind by capturing, clarifying, and organizing your thoughts.

David Allen talks about capturing into your physical in-tray.    ………………………………………………….  https://gettingthingsdone.com https://gtdconnect.com https://www.instagram.com/gtdtimes/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/david-allen-company/ https://www.facebook.com/gettingthingsdone https://www.youtube.com/user/gtd ………………………………………………….  #GTD #gettingthingsdone #DavidAllen #GTDpartner #GTDofficial #mindlikewater #FreedomFocusGTD #WeeklyReview

From the archives: David Allen interviews Garrison, the son of a staff member who was coached in GTD® at the age of 10 years old. What happens when someone grows up on GTD®?

From the archives: A discussion about all of the components that can possibly make up your ideal GTD® system, since there is no one perfect system.

From the archives: David talks with Greg Voisen from Inside Personal Growth as they discuss GTD. The topics and conversation have as much value today as they did back then.

David Allen talks about the three Cs of effective systems -- Consistent, Current, and Context-driven. ………………………………………………….  https://gettingthingsdone.com https://gtdconnect.com https://www.instagram.com/gtdtimes/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/david-allen-company/ https://www.facebook.com/gettingthingsdone https://www.youtube.com/user/gtd ………………………………………………….  #GTD #gettingthingsdone #DavidAllen #GTDpartner #GTDofficial #mindlikewater #FreedomFocusGTD #WeeklyReview

From the archives: Different perspectives on what's good to know and what's good to use when it comes to the abundance of list managers that are now available as GTD becomes more popular.

David Allen talks about the apparent, and the more subtle, power of naming things.

David hops on the Work Awesome podcast to talk about Getting Things Done.

From the archives: David was interviewed by Doug Goldstein about GTD in general but also about how it translates into the financial planning side of life.

From the archives: Kelly Forrester and David Allen talk about pointers and tips, and where can you start, when it comes to learning GTD.

From the Archives: David Allen interviews Evan Taubenfeld, a young up-and-coming rock musician, writer, and producer. David calls him a prime candidate for the poster child of GTD. Listen in as Evan shares how he uses GTD in his creative process.

Lots to discuss about challenging times and the economy, and people trying to do more with less and how that relates to their individual and organizational systems.

From the archives: Kelly Forrester, David Allen and Robert Peake talk about some of the best practices to complete the Organize portion of the 5 step process, as they also describe what Organize really means.

From the archives: What would your organizational structure be like if everyone is fully accountable for the roles they hold, both implicitly and explicitly? Can you imagine meetings where the things that you have your attention on are consistently and efficiently processed to concrete Projects & Next Actions? Join David Allen and Kelly Forrister as they speak with the experts from HolacracyOne. They'll talk about the "Holacracy" operating system, how it's been integrated into the David Allen Company, and how it complements GTD.

From the GTD Slice of Life archive: Musician Evan Taubenfeld and entertainment lawyer Danny Passman join David Allen and Coach Kelly Forrister in an inspiring conversation about GTD for creative people. Lots of wonderful nuggets in this one about finding the creative spark within the structure of a GTD system.

From the archives: David Allen joins Scott Shafer on KQED Public Radio's show called Forum. He describes his system of reducing stress, becoming more creative, while increasing productivity.

From the archives: David shares his experience with GTD on the road and optimizing travel productivity.

Part 2 of 2 (The complete conversation is available at GTDconnect) David Allen met with three trainers from our global network, to discuss how GTD can help to reduce burnout. While it has been an issue for years, burnout has been rising steeply since early 2020. The World Health Organization now calls burnout an official medical diagnosis. It is a result of chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed, and is characterized by three dimensions: feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion increased mental distance from one?s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one?s job reduced professional efficacy For this discussion, David is joined by Emily Gregory, Morten Rovik, and William Elliott. Morten shared an infographic on the stress curve. You can click here to download the PDF. Emily Gregory VitalSmarts One Productive Minute Morten Rovik produktiveNorge GTD Nordic podcast (in English) William Elliott ActionCo

Part 1 of 2 David Allen met with three trainers from our global network, to discuss how GTD can help to reduce burnout. While it has been an issue for years, burnout has been rising steeply since early 2020. The World Health Organization now calls burnout an official medical diagnosis. It is a result of chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed, and is characterized by three dimensions: feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion increased mental distance from one?s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one?s job reduced professional efficacy For this discussion, David is joined by Emily Gregory, Morten Rovik, and William Elliott. Morten shared an infographic on the stress curve. You can click here to download the PDF. Emily Gregory VitalSmarts One Productive Minute Morten Rovik produktiveNorge GTD Nordic podcast (in English) William Elliott ActionCo

From the archives: David talks about the challenge of procrastination and the reasons why we do it. He also explains the difference between procrastination and intuitive holding.

From the Archives: David talks about organizing project actions and explains that when we're thinking about a theme, topic, project, problem, situation, we tend to want to see everything about that all together...

From the archives: David steps out of his comfort zone to talk about his story and what excites him.

From the Archives: David talks with Richard Rierson on the Dose of Leadership podcast about GTD®

From the Archives: David explains that there is no perfect tool, it doesn't matter. It does matter that you have a tool or some tools, and not rely on our psyches. You need a tool that matches the function.

From the archives: Coach Meg Edwards talks about how to get to a complete project list if you're like most people who hover at 30%-80% complete project lists, and how to get them to 100% complete.

GTD Coach, Meg Edwards, expands on what she sees as problems with people's incomplete Project Lists with a personal example.

From the archives: Les McKeown talks to David Allen about GTD for his Predictable Success podcast.

From the archives: History, So It Doesn't Repeat, interviews David Allen. They explore personal productivity and how to clear our mental RAM. You'll discover how to Get Things Done® and learn how to make informed choices with ease, by learning a few keystone habits, you'll be primed to be productive and create a stress free environment. Learning is the answer, what is the question?

From the archives: David talks about all the keys to filing and how it relates to GTD® and how it creates "clean edges".

From the archives: David talks about having a window into the professional world for kids before they enter into the working life.

From the Archives: David Allen on setting Goals for 2010 with Christy Nicholson of Scientific American. Advice you can use for any new year.

Please enjoy a segment from a webinar David Allen did for our GTD Connect members. It’s a guided mind sweep. It’s a really great opportunity to experience what you’ll find at GTDconnect.com and also be able to walk yourself through this really important practice with your GTD implementation. Subscribe on iTunes or wherever else you find your podcasts. Or simply head over to: https://gettingthingsdone.com/podcasts #GTD #gettingthingsdone #DavidAllen #GTDpartner #GTDofficial #mindlikewater #FreedomFocusGTD #WeeklyReview #somedaymaybe

David talks about the value of the GTD Weekly Review®

GTD Coach, Meg Edwards, talks about how you can customize your lists and tells you how she sets up her action lists. Find what works for you.

Habits and GTD

In this episode, Meg Edwards shares how she performs an outdoor Mind Sweep.  She models for us how a Mind Sweep can be done anywhere, and how this process can be used to bring additional items to mind when you're in a given context. If you'd like to hear more about the Mind Sweep and how it can serve you in capturing more items to gain control, listen to episode 3 where David Allen guides you through a full Mind Sweep.

In this episode we present an excerpt from a talk that David gave in front of a live audience. It covers procrastination, what type of people are the most susceptible to getting stuck, and how to stop procrastinating on your taxes….and everything else.

A bit of a repeat if you've listened to my other tips, but one I just wanted to reinforce. Outcome and Action Thinking. Outcome and action are the two core elements of productivity. What do I want to produce or experience? And how do I need to allocate or reallocate my resources to make it happen? So that kind of thinking, as simple as that sounds, is something that we need to train ourselves to do. It's really a cognitive muscle you need to work with. So anything that's got your attention, anything that's either worrying or bothering you. That's the time to practice this sort of cognitive muscle. To use it. What would you like to have true? Instead of whatever is currently true. And how do you need to reallocate, or allocate your attention, your activities, your resources, to make that happen? For those of you asking "What's that huge pile of books back there David?" Frankly, the outcome was, I had a bunch of archives of all of the translated versions of my book in the different languages that we were going to throw away when we moved to Amsterdam. We said, nah we should probably keep at least one copy of each, but we live in an apartment. So, a small space. Outcome... How do you do that? That's a great bookshelf you can get from a company called Design Within Reach in the U.S. that actually works, where you can stack all those things up and they don't fall over. Anyway, so that's what that is. So, outcome and action thinking. I just challenge you, invite you, to apply that somewhere that you might be not thinking you ought to apply that, or that you haven't done that yet. So, what's the outcome you're after? What's the action step you need to take to move toward it? In many many cases now, that's become something that's just habit in my life given what I teach and what I've explored over all these years about how to keep your head clear. So hopefully this will be just a reminder for those of you already familiar with that idea. To apply it wherever you need to apply it now.

You know this is another one of those kind of out of the box things but this could be a really good time to do some reflection on new stuff. New relationships. New ways to manage your relationships. New ways of managing yourself. Being able to work more independently, even if you're still part of an organization, and need to be connected to it. We grow with challenges, so the challenges that we may all be in right now or experiencing in some way, shape, or form they're going to teach a strength, patience, and tolerance I've discovered after my 75 years. That tends to show up and expand, and kind of add to the quality of my life. Add to the relaxation of my life. Add to the focus of my life. One very useful key many times, is journaling. If you're not doing that already you might want to consider just sitting down and just writing. Just writing out. I've done journaling on both my computer as well as with a great fountain pen and a wonderful journal, over the years in my life. There have been times that was really really helpful. Just to help kind of uncork, unload and open up some creative thinking that could go on when you're in times that sort of force some reflection where reflection could be highly useful to you. So, be crazy about what could be cool in your life, in lots of different ways. Be open to all the options for that.

Upgrade, you know if you have any downtime at all, with that kind of backed off time that we have, in the pandemic. It's the situation we're dealing with right now. This is a time to think, it's part of one of those backlog things, one of those things you may have had in the back of your mind. I need to upgrade my computer. I need to upgrade my operating system. I need to upgrade this piece of software. I need to upgrade any of my technology, and any of my tools. If you're painting, do you have the right brushes? Do you need to upgrade those? If you're playing the flute, or the piano, do you need to upgrade any of the music that you have to be able to practice with? So I know this is kind of an off-the-wall question. But, a good idea to sort of access, is there anything that you might want to bring up to current speed? That you enjoy, that you love, or you need to be involved with. I love Kevin Kelly's book from a few years ago, talking about the inevitable, talking about the inevitable trends that are happening to all of us, no matter what. He basically made the point that, you're never going to get really any good at anything because there are going to be constant upgrades, especially in software. So, I used to think that I could just resist upgrades to my Quicken because I thought I could manage it, but now I can't afford to do that because, who knows, to be able to manage Quicken and my accounting stuff personally I need to have the current version. So it's kind of like, trust that you're never going to get truly on board with everything, currently and totally, but some of those things might need to be upgraded, and that could be just a process. You kind of get the zen of that. OK, let me just keep upgrading, getting better at, getting more stuff that might work. So, just in case that triggers any kind of a thought. Any kind of a thing you might want to add to your list. Hopefully that's helpful.

How much money do you actually have in your bank account? How do you and the people in your family really feel right now? Really.  What's really going on in your professional environment? In your personal environment? Not generalizing or exaggerating. Most people have a tendency, me too, to generalize. Everybody's leaving. It's so awful. Everybody's leaving the company, what do you mean? Everybody's leaving. It's so awful. Everybody's leaving the company? What do you mean? Well, Sally said she thought she might want to get a new career. And over 35 years of my consulting and coaching practices, I've often seen, And over 35 years of my consulting and coaching practices, I've often seen, all I have to do is to start to address, what is the real current reality?   And there are lots of ways to do that, but I would highly recommend you examine whether you're running any exaggerations or generalizations. That may be creating more pressure than you need. What's really true? What do you know what's really true? What do you know is actually really true? Not "What do you think is true?", or "What do people say is true?"  But, what do you *know* it actually really true? It gives you a grounded base to actually make decisions from. I could spin on that for a long time, but let me just say if that rings any of your bells at all, notice whether you're generalizing and exaggerating. And if so, stop it! Just say what's really true right now? Because you need to know what's the current reality so that you can then move from a ground base of reality. Not from some expectation of that, or generalization of that, or exaggeration of that.

I'll steal a play from Marie Kondo's work that she's been doing, by getting people to clean up closets and clean up their environment. And only keep the things you love and that turn you on. Mine's a little more universal. Look, there's a lot of things that don't turn you on that you still need to keep. There's a lot of things that you need to kind of look at and say, yeah I'm not sure whether I want to throw that away or not. That's fine. But it's not a bad idea, especially in times like these, if you have any kind of extra time at all, to, as I say, bring up the rear guard. I've mentioned this in several of my other two-minute tips, but this is sort of the universal clean up. Clean up your computer. Clean up your closets. Clean up the boot or the trunk of your car. Your garage, your attic, any spaces that you have. Any rented spaces that you have, to hold old stuff. The world is just so addicted to hanging onto a lot of stuff, as opposed to being clean and clear. So I highly recommend you look around. What books need to be given away? What clothes need to be given away? What shoes have you not worn for two years? Where can you give those things away that people might be able to use that? So look around your environment and say, how functional is it? How useful is it? How current is it in terms of the reality of these things and their meaning to you? And that's fine. There's no right or wrong in terms of whatever that volume is. It may be whatever it is that you want, how ever much you feel comfortable. But most people feel slightly uncomfortable about what's still in their closet, what's still in the drawers of their desk, what's still anywhere. So now's a good time, when I say "When in doubt, clean a drawer", it'll help a ton.

Well, you may already have a groove, but I imagine your groove has been disturbed to a large degree by whatever has been going on in the world lately. And especially in turbulent times, it's going to disturb your groove. Get into a new one. So ask yourself. What about my groove do I need to put into a groove? That I can comfortably now, given the world, and given what's been going on. Whether that's when to take a walk, how often you need to exercise, how often you need to talk to people you need to talk to people about. Any of that. It's a good idea to get into a groove, because some part of us really loves to have a habit, it loves to have something traditional that we do regularly. So that we don't have to be thinking so much about that. But we use that as an opportunity to sort of lift our thinking, relax. Kind of look at the world from a higher perspective of things. So what's your groove now? Does your groove work? If it doesn't, think about what would you need to do to improve your groove? I highly recommend that you think about that. And think, what are the simple things you could do? They don't have to be complex, or expensive, or anything. What do I need to do to get myself into a more regular, consistent basis? To handle the world that's now changed for me and that I need to be engaging with appropriately. So, are you in your groove? If not, what do you need to do to improve your groove? And boy that could look like a lot of different things. But give yourself permission to be creative about that. Reflect a little bit on that, and perhaps take any necessary actions you need to take, to make that groove sort of more automatic and easy to do.

I'll quote my wonderful wife Kathryn. Laughter and Soap. At some point you just need to laugh, and you need to clean up. She sort of nailed it brilliantly. If you haven't done it lately, at least look for a good joke. At least find some way to find something to laugh about. Something funny, something that makes no sense. Those are always wonderful things to do. And soap, obviously clean up. I've been trained by my wife, when I walk in the door, Wash your hands David! Which I do. And I have to laugh about my hair, which I usually keep fairly short. Pretty soon I'm going to look like I looked in Berkeley in 1970. But that's ok, so I'm kind of laughing about, well David you're gonna have longer hair until your favorite barber comes back in a little while. So anyway, a small little tip for turbulent times, but sometimes it might be quite healthy just to make sure you sort of plug into your world, laughter and soap, and make sure those are sort of regular things. that you engage in and people around you. I hope that's helpful, I know it's silly but it works for me.

In these kinds of times, that's actually in retrospect when we find out we've learned how to grow. We've expanded. We've stretched ourselves. We've challenged ourselves, we've had to look at things from whole new perspectives. So my tip is to shorten that time of reflection and introspection about what these times could mean for us. What we could learn. What you might be doing differently after this in terms of relationships, in terms of your systems, in terms of how you're approaching your career. Your world. Given what we've been dealing with. I'm not saying they're easy answers to that. But again, you won't find answers until you ask the questions. So my tip is, as I have to challenge myself regularly, What am I learning now, given what I'm dealing with? What can I do differently? What will this bring to the plate? In terms of how I could approach my world differently and what I might be able to do more successfully, or more elegantly, more easily, given what I've learned. Learning happens in challenging times, not when times are easy. So I highly recommend you take advantage as best you can. Understand this is not the easiest thing to do, when things are stressful and things are on you and you're so distracted by a lot of what you may be dealing with. But it's also a good time to sit back, reflect, meditate, relax. Reflect and think. What could I be learning now? Reflect and think. What could I be learning now? What could I be doing differently now? And start to build that into your life and your work.

Out of the box here... I Am Unreasonably Joyful. That's an affirmation I've actually used for many many years. And when I heard it, or when I thought of it, I thought, what a cool thing to do. To just take me out of the box. I'm unreasonably joyful. Given the world we're in, and especially the times we're in being joyful about anything seems to be one of the hardest things to do. But if you want a real tip, to just kind of break yourself out of some of the code that we're in. You'll think better, when you're happier, when you're more up, when you have more positive energy. And so creating the affirmation to me, was a useful bandaid to use when things were like insane. When it made no sense to be joyful or happy. And so it's just a big tip. Give yourself permission, for at least a minute, to just pretend that there are all kinds of things to be joyful about. So, be unreasonably joyful. It's a great thing to do. Also, learn to do that when you're in these kinds of stressful up against the wall kind of times. It's a great great thing to do. It's a great tip. It's a great tip I've used for myself, and still have to use on a regular basis. I'm unreasonably joyful, look at my peonies behind me, they so represent that. Ba Da!!

Actually, it's a tip I'd give anybody any time. And those of you familiar with the Getting Things Done methodology will know this already. The Two Minute Tool. The Two Minute Tool basically says, look, any action you've figured out that you could actually complete within two minutes, of where you are in the context you are, in the location you are, you're better off to that right then than to hang up on it, not do it, put it in the backlog or whatever. Frankly, that's the efficiency factor. It would take you less than two minutes to do it, but it would take you longer than two minutes to look at it again and review it and reflect on it later on. So this is a pure efficiency factor of the Two Minute Rule. Anything you can do in less than two minutes, if you need to do it at all then do it right then. And people say, well if I spent my whole day two minute stuff I'd never get anything else done. Well first of all, you'd be amazed as to how many strategic things have just a two minute action that are required on it. And not only that, why should these things still be around? You either delete them, or if they've shown up, then they should be finished in the moment they're there. I never have any backlog of two minute stuff because they're all done. First of all, the key thing is to decide what's the very next action on something I need to do about any of this change that's happening, any of this stuff I'm involved in right now. What would I need to do next? Once you've decided very clearly and specifically what that is if you can do it in less then two minutes, do it right then. Teflon, boom! In and out. You'll be amazed. I've had many executives tell me that was worth the price of admission. Just for that habit, if they didn't have that already. So hopefully you've built that in, or you will build that in. If it takes less then two minutes, do it.

Two-minute Tips for Turbulent Times with David Allen Clean Up Your Computer Now if you haven't done this already, and you have some down time, or at home time, or whatever. Then, come on guys, it's like when you get your car washed, or your motorcycle washed, or whatever, it drives better. Well very much the same thing with your computer. Come on, this is like a master tool if you're doing any kind of knowledge work at all. This is reference, this is creativity, this is communications. This is your work. And so it's really nice to make sure that this doesn't become like a black hole. It starts to get clogged up with a lot of old stuff. The more old stuff I found that accumulate in my computer the less anxious, or the less interested I am in looking back for something or going back into that area. But there's a lot of creativity that will show up if you actually do that. Like email, what's your backlog? The bigger your backlog of email, the more any kind of change or surprise is going to be bothersome, even the good stuff. So clean up email. There's a lot of tips you'll see on my YouTube channel about just dealing with email and that backlog. I met somebody with thousands of Evernote notes in there, that they never looked at. As they said it's kinda write-only, as opposed to read-only. You stick stuff in, but you never then get back to it. So it's very important that your reference material, and all that stuff, as best you can, is just brought current. So maybe there's stuff you need to move into the cloud, stuff you need to put into Dropbox. Things you need to reorganize, or reframe, or refresh, or whatever. But a real good idea to just look around, and if you've got some down time, one of the best kind of dummy things to do, is clean up. Clean up your digital world. It will help a ton.

Two-minute Tips for Turbulent Times with David Allen Areas of Focus, Responsibility and Interests Revisit or Create an Overview of Your Areas of Focus, Responsibility and Interests It's a different horizon of your commitments. You've got actions you need to take, and you've got projects you need to finish. But the reason you have actions, and projects is because they respond to or they relate to areas of focus and interests. For instance, you may have a project about your kids, well that's because obviously kids and family will be an area of focus. You may have a project about your health, in which case heath and your physical energy is an area of interest or focus. So it's a next level of abstraction, a useful place to visit, especially when things are changing a lot. Where you might need to revisit these different areas and say, how's everything doing? This is like being your own CEO, your own executive, essentially, for your life. Looking across all of your roles, and responsibilities, and accountabilities. If you haven't done this lately, not a bad idea just to brainstorm it. You could just do a mind map. Spiritual Life - Relationships - Fun - My Health - Family It's a way to overview, essentially, sort of the whole context, so that there's a part of you that feels like you're more grounded in space and time, from the larger gestalt. Very helpful thing to do, we've done that over the years, for many thousands of people, who've gone through that exercise. And it's extremely valuable. And it might surprise you, what you'll come up with. If you really identify those things accurately and appropriately and say How am I doing about that? Some of those may be on cruise control, hey that's all fine. Oh, that reminds me, I need to, I better take a look at that, better look at it from that perspective. So getting grounded essentially from that little longer or larger horizon. Very valuable thing to do, especially when things are changing fast. So that some part of you doesn't feel that you're losing your footing, in terms of the whole game.

Two-minute Tips for Turbulent Times with David Allen Get Your Cockpit Under Control What I mean by that is, your workspace. Where when you sit down, you are ready to fly, you're ready to go. You don't have to rearrange anything in order to be able to do your best work. There's mine, it's been quite functional for several years, something like this. And I don't mean particularly anal or compulsive about this. You just want to not have to rearrange things, look for things, when you're ready to just go to work. And so sit down and be able to do that. Another important aspect of that is I would highly recommend you do not share that space with anybody else. You don't want them rearranging it for themselves and then you have to come back and rearrange it in order to get work done. You want to lower the barrier of entry to engage. You've got a bright idea, you're in the kitchen, you've suddenly thought about something that you need to send an email about or want to surf the web about, or whatever. You need to be able to run right in, sit down, and hit the controls, right there. So you know, simple stuff, just in basket, computer, tools, scissors, pens and so forth. Certainly a writing instrument, a capture tool, to be able to capture stuff right away. As well as right at hand files and folders, etc. Assess, if you haven't done it lately, you might want to look around. Is your workspace set up so that right at any time, you can go to work? And work, meaning anything you might want to do. Based upon being in your cockpit, central control center. And be able to then, navigate, communicate, coordinate, things from there. Get Your Cockpit Under Control If it's not already, or look at how you might want to enhance it.

Two-minute Tips for Turbulent Times with David Allen One Bad Apple Can Spoil the Barrel So this is a cautionary tale. There are times when one situation, project, or circumstance that's particularly important to you, you're not appropriately engaged with yet can color the whole rest of your life, and make it all feel grey, and solemn, and burdensome. Where as it's really just one situation that you need to get ahold of. You know, our Getting Things Done methodology is a lot about creating appropriate engagement with the things that you're committed to do. Are you appropriately engaged with this project? Or with this relationship? Or with your health, etc. And appropriate engagement just means you've identified what it is, what outcome you're after, the action step you need to take to move it forward. and have a trusted system to hold all that. But any one thing, if you're not doing that yet, if you have not yet gotten to that place of appropriate engagement. Can, as I said, discolor the whole rest of your life, emotionally and everything else. It can then make the whole game feel overwhelming Whereas it's only coming from only one source, or one thing that you need to sort of tackle, and to grapple with. And that is, identify what that thing is, that seems to be coloring everything and get appropriately engaged with it. I'm not saying this is easy, folks come on. If life were easy, you'd never grow or challenge, or expand, or express yourself. It's really about how do I get in the driver's seat about that? So it doesn't color my life and sort of affect all the other things I could be doing. So in a way you need to isolate it, identify it, and get appropriately engaged with it.

Two-minute Tips for Turbulent Times with David Allen Renegotiate Your Commitments See a lot of what the Getting Things Done methodology is about has been about inventorying what your commitments are. What have you agreed with yourself you need, would, could, should, ought to be doing, handling or whatever. And so managing those commitments is a whole lot of what the methodology is about to keep yourself clear, so that you don't feel like you're constantly having to do all of those. There's an inherent renegotiation process that needs to happen. Once you've externalized these commitments out of your head You write it down, I need dog food, I need to hire a vice president, I need to figure out where to send my kid to school next year, etc. And those commitments, as you may know, that's very important to make sure get that inventory nice and clear, about what those are. But now in turbulent times, that becomes extra important, to make sure you're looking forward at all those commitments you've got. All those things on your lists. All those appointments that you thought you had. All those relationships that you thought you needed to do something about. How many of those need to be renegotiated right now? And if they're not renegotiated, they will keep spinning on some subliminal level. That's going to undermine your energy, it's going to take wind out of your sails. So it's a real good idea to make sure that you sit down, maybe in a week to review. As we coach in Getting Things Done, at least once a week, step back, take a look across the whole broad spectrum, of your life and work, look at all the commitments you've got, the meetings you've got, the projects you've committed to, and say wait a minute, that goes on someday maybe, or that has to wait until after this situation has been cleared up and changed, or whatever. So, a real good idea to make sure you bring yourself current, bring up the rear guard, with those commitments, and sometimes they're pretty subtle.

Two-minute Tips for Turbulent Times with David Allen Catch Up Your Communications with People Another nice thing to do especially in terms of catching up, it's often times subtle. And depending on your personality style about how much you engage with other people. Who do you owe a thank you to? Who do you owe a communication with to update them? All the best things in my life have actually come from relationships that I've had. Surprising serendipitous stuff. But as a bit of an introvert, I actually am. I often times have to work at making sure that I maintain my communications externally, and that I nurture them and take advantage of that. I highly recommend you think about, what are just some emails to shoot off, simple little things, or come on, get some note cards and write a hand written note. Those things are invaluable, as you probably know. That's another little thing to do, you might want to consider as a project maybe, is you catch up on all of those communications, with family, with friends with network, professional associates, etc. Especially these days when everybody is locked in and not available there. Those kinds of things could have tremendous value. Just in terms of keeping the network warm, and not feeling so mechanical and that we're all so locked down, and out of touch with each other.

Two-minute Tips for Turbulent Times with David Allen What's Really Got Your Attention? Many of my tips are about sort of catching up, and simple things to do kind of keep your energy up, clean things up, catch up. This one is a big one. What circumstance, situation that you're in right now, if that were put onto cruise control, or if you were appropriately engaged with that would make the biggest difference? Would give you the most physic space essentially. Would relieve the most pressure on you. Sometimes that's the thing you need to grapple with. Interestingly, what you think may have your most attention...Once you recognize what has your attention, you may then discover what really has your attention. It can go to some pretty subtle and sublime and deep levels, if you allow it to. Nothing wrong with that, nothing bad about that, as a matter of fact, it's a very powerful thing to do, and to think about. So I highly recommend that you take a little bit of time and say "What most has your attention?" And then "What do you need to do to appropriately engage with that?" So it gets off your mind, gets onto cruise control, gets onto wherever it needs to be. And as you know, if you're a Getting Things Done practitioner, it's all about what's the outcome you're after, and what's the action step you need to take, to move forward on that. Powerful stuff, I have to hold myself to this regularly as well. Even after all these years of working with the materials, I'm a fellow student. What most has your attention? Define what that is, define what you need to do about that, to put that onto cruise control. That could give you the most freedom, the most space of anything else you might be able to do.

Two-minute Tips for Turbulent Times with David Allen Worst Case Scenario Building I know this may sound a little strange, but one of the best and healthiest things you can do is to actually do a scenario of the worst case, and then imagine you getting through that. And could you handle it? Because the worst case scenario is likely to be banging around subliminally anyway. What you need to do is to relieve that pressure, and the way out is through. The best thing to do is to sit down and figure out, what could the worst case be? Can I and could we, tolerate that? That will relieve a bunch of pressure and give you much more freedom to focus on wild success. Obviously you don't want to be dwelling on the negative picture. You don't want to sit there and be fatalistic or dwell in some sort of negative picture building. But you do want to go through that and take a look. That allows you a lot more freedom to then focus effectively and productively as you kind of shoot down the middle. Prepare for the worst, or at least be ready for it, if in case it happens. Imagine the best, and shoot down the middle. My tip for turbulent times. When the pandemic first hit, that very much effected our business, and our income, so I had to sit down and I just pulled up an Excel spreadsheet and ran the numbers for the next year or so. Could we tolerate it? Could we manage it? Yes we could. Now ideally we don't have to or won't have to do that. It allowed me the freedom to then not have that lurking in the background as some sort of a concern. Can I handle the worst case if I can't get to my barber for another month? Worst case might be I'll look like I did in Berkeley in 1970. Or maybe the worst case is I'll be attacked by my wife and her dog shearing tools while I'm asleep and wake up with something a little shorter then it is. Anyway, do the worst case scenario, get through it, relax, and focus on the best.

Two-minute Tips for Turbulent Times with David Allen Labelers I know that may sound a little dumb and dorky, when you're in a turbulent time to think about a labeler. What's a labeler? Any of you old GTD practitioners probably know how adamant I've been about the value of labeling things. Being able to have a typeset labeler. If you're not doing anything else, order yourself a labeler, if you don't have one already. You'd be amazed at how much of a difference it makes, to make sure your files look like that, and have nice labels on them. It does make a difference. A lot of people say they had no idea how much of a difference just a labeler would make. In terms of how I manage myself, my information, access to it. Labels can be used for anything, they can be used for file folders obviously, but they could also be used for plastic bags, where you're keeping track of pills, or you're keeping track of electronic equipment, or just wrapping a label around a piece of electronic gear, so you know what it's about. All those are great things. By the way, I use a DYMO plug and play. You can use it in the Windows or the Mac environment, no software required. And you just hook it up, wire it up, whatever. So if I'm making a file right now for TTTT I just type it in, click, here it is, TTTT. I can then put in on a file folder, and I'm done. I know it may seem strange in turbulent times, to think about a labeler, but you never know.

Two-minute Tips for Turbulent Times with David Allen Catch Up On Legal Stuff This is a tip, that would be nice to have implemented before turbulent times. And certainly needed no matter when. But it's one of those old projects that often for many people lies in the background, because it's the kind of stuff you don't want to think about. Wills, what to do if we can't make decisions ourselves, healthcare. All those legal documents that manage what happens if you can't manage it. And what goes on from there. Believe me, this could be everything from Life insurance, that people don't want to think about. Luckily there are people in your life that will be glad you thought about that. If you haven't done that already. So a two-minute tip here, come on folks. Any of those old kind of legal situations and documents, what happens when you die? Do you want to be cremated? And all those other life critical documentations that you need So that you feel comfortable about what happens, no matter what. So in these kind of times, if you have any down time, and you need to catch up on your legal documentations, and life insurance, and wills, and all that other stuff. Great stuff to do, so take advantage of that.

Two-minute Tips for Turbulent Times with David Allen Crusty Projects It'd be a good idea to do an inventory of any old crusty projects that have been sort of hanging around in your life and work. This would probably be a good time to tackle those, or renegotiate them. Just drop them off the list, or move them to someday / maybe. But you may have something like, clean up the basement, or rearrange a room. Or set up a whole new filing system that you wanted to do. It's a good idea to make sure that those are on your list, if they want to be on your list, and tackle them. This is a good time to do stuff like that. Again, when things turn around and they're not so turbulent again they'll probably never get done, because you'll be busy and back in your normal life, if there is a normal life coming toward us again. Hopefully so. Anyway, that's my tip for the turbulent times. It's a real good idea, again it's one of those things that can catch up and you can feel like you're completing some stuff, you can feel like you're back on your game. It's not a bad idea to do that, especially if you have other people around in your life that are affected and care about those kinds of projects getting finished, and getting cleaned up, and getting handled.

Two-minute Tips for Turbulent Times with David Allen Get Your Paper Based Filing System in Order Actually, it's a tip for any time... If you don't have a really good, quick filing system that you can put stuff into and access easily. Then the stuff tends to mount up and then constipate your system. Get it clean, get it streamlined, get it current. Here's mine. My paper based system now lives three places. In a 2 drawer file cabinet, a rack of files, right on my desk, and then upstairs in an attic area, I have long term storage. My primary filing system is just a simple file drawer, alpha sorted, of things that I need, paper based. And sometimes paper based is better then PDFs, easier to see in a batch if I need to refer to something. Anyway, there's my basic filing system, I used to have four drawers now, it's primarily in one. I have a lower drawer here that has some older documents, that I might need, you know, legal documents etc., that I might need to refer to three or four times a year maybe, but they're down there, as well as extra file folders. And then on my desk are the things that I actually throw stuff into almost on a daily basis. So, that's the filing system. It needs to be current, it needs to be clean and that makes a huge difference. You'd be surprised at how good a filing system like that can make sure that you keep your cockpit, and keep your desk and work area, nice and clean and organized.

Two-minute Tips for Turbulent Times with David Allen The Capture Step of GTD® If you're familiar with the Getting Things Done model and methodology is the primary step to start with, that is, to get your head empty of anything that has your attention. And in turbulent times, it's very probable that you've got a whole lot of stuff that has emerged, that has your attention. Interestingly there's an inverse relationship between, on your mind, and getting done. So the things that have your attention mean they're probably not on cruise control. There's some decision about them you need to make and some sort of organization of the results of that, in a reminder system. But the first step is just to get it out of your head. So if you haven't done one lately, and especially if things are changing and you've got surprises and things that you're dealing with, newly so. Then it's a real good idea to get those out of your head. So, pen and paper, you can't beat it And I suggest, that you first of all have an in basket or in tray or something that serves that function, and actually get a stack of paper, it doesn't matter what size, but each one of those things that's on your mind, write it on a separate piece of paper, and throw it in your in basket. That could be everything from, we need pet food, we need to rethink how we're managing the kids in their school we need to, oh just anything. It could be health stuff, it could be old business that's surfaced now that you need to deal with. It could be things that need to be changed and rearranged on your schedule. It could be any number of things. So I highly recommend you give yourself a few minutes maybe half an hour or so, and just unload. That's a first step. It doesn't handle all of those things but it does allow you to get a lot more objective about them and it makes it a lot easier to get on top of them. Once you take a look at them, step back, kind of from a higher perspective and see what all those things are, and of course, then tackling them with, what's the next action, on any of those that you're going to move on.

Two-minute Tips for Turbulent Times with David Allen Rearrange Space Often times I think we just go numb to the spaces that we've gotten used to. Where we work at home, how we cook at home, how we live in our living rooms, or dens, or wherever. Sometimes space makes a huge difference, and there are times when it's time to then re-think. Should I rearrange this room? Should I rearrange how we're doing? Ask yourself, how are you living? Where are you spending your time? A lot of people have gone unconscious and whole environments have gone unconscious. Living room, people often don't live in their living room. They live in, usually, in the kitchen or the den, or wherever. It's an interesting exercise to go through. What's the purpose of this room? And is it really arranged appropriately? Like I would really want it, or what would be maximal for me. Especially if you've just transitioned to having to work a lot of time from home. A real good idea, if you haven't done this already, is to look around your work space. Is it arranged appropriately? I was just reading that the small desk purchases around the world have gone up tremendously Of course, people are now trying to set up a home office, or reconfigure their home office. So that's a real good thing to do, make sure that your office, and your space, when you sit down to work, and think, and to do creative things, is arranged appropriately. So maybe you need to rearrange, look around your room, is it the way it should be? If you had to start from scratch again, would you arrange it the way it is? Hopefully that gives you some ideas, maybe some creative things to do a down time.

Two-minute Tips for Turbulent Times with David Allen The Night Before People have often interviewed or asked me, How do I spend my day? What kind of rituals do I have to sort of stay on top of my game on a consistent basis? The one thing that I really do consistently, and I share with people is what I call "My day starts the night before”. Before I go to bed, or sometime in the evening what I do is pull up my calendar and look at the next 1, 2, 3 days, maybe the week. Just to get a sense of, what does the landscape look like? In terms of the hard landscape, the things I'm committed to have to do, I need to be in that meeting, that virtual meeting at 3 o'clock, I need to be able to tomorrow, to make sure to that I pick up X Y Z, whatever. So, I do that the night before. First of all, because I love to sleep, It allows me to sleep as long as I can before I actually have to do something. Also, I'm not surprised when I get into my day. There are enough surprises we have to deal with. I want to be able to tee myself up, or get myself prepared, before I go to sleep. I think, my hypothesis is that overnight, in the sleep state, that gives us an opportunity to integrate the stuff and make us feel more comfortable in the landscape, in terms of how we're engaging with ourselves. I highly recommend it, if you're not doing it already, maybe you are but that every evening you sit down, take a look at the next day, 2, 3, maybe the week. Take a look at the forest you're managing, instead of just hugging the trees. and allow yourself to then relax and sleep, as best and as long as can, or as much as you need to. And then make sure your day is not a surprise.

Two-minute Tips for Turbulent Times with David Allen Current Reality: How Do You Feel? We need to make sure that we're really clear about what's true in space and time right now. Even if we have a positive direction we need to know where we are so we know whether to go left or right from where we are, but we need to start with where we are and not necessarily resist whatever the current reality is. You've got to start from a real base. And this one might be a little challenging, but this is one I call Current Reality: How Do You Feel? What are the feelings going on? What's the emotional state that you're in? Not that you should necessarily reinforce that, or spin in that. Or think that that's a good thing, to be worried, to be afraid, to be confused. Those are common kinds of emotions that we have often times in turbulent times. But you need to acknowledge that you've got it. You don't want to repress it, you don't want to stuff it down. The environment around you, certainly people that are close to you, will know whether or not that you're really true to yourself, in terms of, hey here's what I'm feeling right now. But the way out is through. You don't try to get past that by ignoring it, or stuffing it down and not acknowledging it. Not that you should stay in it, but you need to acknowledge where you are. Once you do that it becomes a lot easier to sort of grab yourself by your own boot straps emotionally How would I now like to feel? What could I do that might move me toward a more positive, emotional state and energy state? People often think Getting Things Done and the GTD methodology doesn't deal with emotions. It actually does. You have to deal with what's the current reality that you're in. The current reality may be, I feel like this, and I'd like to feel like that. That's a great place to start, sometimes a little challenging.

Two-minute Tips for Turbulent Times with David Allen What Does the Still Small Voice Tell You To Do? This one may sound a little strange as a tip, but it's one that has served me for my 74 plus years. Trying to make a priority decision... What do I do right now? How do I do that? There's no algorithm, there's no formula that you can really trust. The one I found to trust, is basically your intuition, or your spirit, or whatever kind of word you're not allergic to. That says, wait a minute, there's part of me that probably knows more about all of this then maybe even my conscious mind is capable of grasping all at one time. So being able to trust your intuitive judgement, that's a cool thing to do. Truly, a whole lot of people are so in chaos, that they can't tell the difference between intuition and indigestion. But I think we all, if you just quiet yourself, just for a couple of minutes, and listen What should I do next? What's the most important thing I need to do? What would make the biggest difference to me and the ecosystem I'm in and the people I'm engaged with right now? What would be that? And just being able to build in that habit where you stop and listen, just for that still small voice. To make the choice about all the options of things to do. Come on, we all have more to do than we can do for sure. But the whole idea is to feel confident and comfortable about your choices. And I think the best way to do that, certainly has been for me. Is to stop, listen, and trust that inner voice, that kind of knows what's up. And it loves me, and it pays attention to me.

Two-minute Tips for Turbulent Times with David Allen Capture Tools Everywhere When things pop into your head that you're going to need to think about, deal with, do something about have to make a decision about or whatever that's potentially relevant to you. Then you need to make sure you get those out of your head and capture them because your head is a terrible office, it'll fool you because you think of it you're sure you won't forget whatever that is but two minutes later you're thinking of the next thing you don't want to forget but you forgot the first thing. So you need capture tools. So, mine are low tech for the most part. No batteries, no Wi-Fi required. This is with me all the time. A pen and a little pad. When I'm sitting down anywhere that's a flat surface longer then a few a minutes, I've got a pad and a pen, can't beat it. Who knows when lightning is going to strike, something's are going to occur to me I need to deal with. Particularly while I'm working on other things and dealing with other things something comes from the side and hits me. Right then I want to be able to write it down. If you're having to look for a capture tool, you won't do it, you'll miss it. I would highly recommend that wherever your work space is and certainly even in your home space that you have a place where you, and also other people, if you live with other people that they can have a place to also write things down and capture stuff out of your head. Your head's a terrible office, you can't keep track of more than four things in your head without diminishing your cognitive process, and so it's the very first step. If you're familiar with the GTD or Getting Things Done methodology, you know that's a critical first step, which is capture, but you're not going to capture if you don't have the tools with you. So make sure you've got good capture tools around. They can be digital, they can be paper based. I like low tech. I think it's fast, it's much easier. That's not my permanent system, It's a place though as a placeholder, and an important placeholder to be able to get the stuff out of my head, so that I stop spinning on that and then know I'll come back to it and not lose the idea.

David Allen offers a Two-minute Tip: Catch Up Hi. David Allen. Two minute tip for turbulent times. This one's called, Catch up. Now, obviously in turbulent times we're often kind of up to here with stuff to do, but you're likely to have some downtime. Some time where the most productive thing to do might be to clean up the backlog. That is to bring up the rear guard, as we say. For instance, how current is your bank balance, your investments? How sharp are your kitchen knives? How well have you fertilized your garden for the spring or the summer? What's up, what's out there that you say I need to catch that up? I'm not totally current with whatever that's about. And that may be some of the best things you could do is to go find something that you need to catch up because by the way, the smaller the backlog of outdated things or things that are not current, the cleaner and clearer it is to deal with surprise and new things coming towards you. So the best thing to do right now, if you have some windows to do that, is to look around and say what needs catching up to get current? So that's my two minute tip for turbulent times. Catch up.

David Allen offers a Two-minute Tip: Fix or Finish Something Simple: David Allen with a two minute tip for turbulent times. This one is called fix or finish something simple. You know, many times when we are in a situation where, golly, it's easy to be worrying, it's easy to be hung up, it's easy to be procrastinating, it's easy to be maybe confused about what your priorities are or what you need to do. Sometimes the best thing to do is to aim low and close and get a cheap win real quick. Like right now. I'll bet if you looked around your environment, you'd find a number of things that would not take you but a few minutes to fix or finish, or to deal with and it's been kind of not necessarily bothering you in a big way, but bugging you and you know it's something you need to do at some point, you need to move this over there. You need to take that off the wall. You need to replace a light bulb that's been out. You need to take some WD40 and lubricate a door or something that's been squeaking. There's a number of things like that, I'll bet in your environment. And those are just really great to get some cheap, quick wins for that. I know that sounds really mundane, but I've discovered there's magic in the mundane. Many, many times I just need to stop and go finish something just because it allows my brain to clear itself, allows me to get positive, get focused, and actually many times what happens is, is I'm doing that, or certainly if I finished doing that, I get this little win, I get this little burst of energy, like, yeah, then I'm thinking on perhaps a more strategic level is perhaps more important things that I want to be thinking about in a more positive way. So keep it simple. Go find something simple to finish or fix or do in a few minutes. Give yourself a win. Pat yourself on the back. A tip for turbulent times.

Bruce Fetzer took a productivity training with David Allen in the 1980s. Since then he has been applying what he learned. His work with the John E. Fetzer Memorial Trust has been his major focus in the last few years. The mission of the trust is to advance integrated, relational views of reality through exploring scientific frontiers and universal spiritual practices. David Allen engages Bruce in a discussion of the role of business in doing good work through meta-science, or the study of the scientific method. They also explore how to integrate inner life with outer action.

In this episode, David shares some useful insights regarding how we already plan projects when we're at our best: The Natural Planning Model.  He contrasts this behavior with the much more common unnatural or reactive planning models.  You'll also learn about the importance of vision and principles when planning, and a practical way to get stagnant projects moving again.

Today we have three separate, rare segments pulled from the archives on different concepts that are all related to memory and performance improvement.  First, you’ll hear a segment regarding the idea of mental RAM, and what happens when we leave unclosed loops open in our lives.  Next, you’ll learn about multitasking vs. rapid refocusing and how that state helps us scale our performance.  And third, you’ll learn a few handy uses for checklists in order to continuously improve over time.

What behaviors actually make a difference in your GTD system?  Listen as David Allen shares tips on removing system drag in front of a live audience.

Today David Allen shares best practices for Someday/Maybe & Incubation lists in front of a live audience. He provides plenty of example scenarios where Someday/Maybe lists can serve, as well as the specific circumstances it would be helpful to incubate information until a later date. You might even get a few new ideas for how to further improve your system as you listen.

This engaging and inspiring interview with David Allen, by Tragedy and Hope broadcasts, explores the key principles of GTD and how to make informed choices with ease. The interviewer, Richard Grove, is a GTD enthusiast himself, and his intelligent questions make this interview particularly interesting.

At the June 2019 GTD Summit, David Allen briefly shared a vision of the “ultimate GTD app,” which consists of 19 pages of hand-drawn drafts of the screens he would want to use. To expand on that topic, we recorded David talking with Eric Mack and John Forrister about the past, present, and future of GTD software. It's a wide-ranging discussion with stories that will inform, entertain, and maybe even surprise you. This episode is part two of two.

At the June 2019 GTD Summit, David Allen briefly shared a vision of the “ultimate GTD app,” which consists of 19 pages of hand-drawn drafts of the screens he would want to use. To expand on that topic, we recorded David talking with Eric Mack and John Forrister about the past, present, and future of GTD software. It's a wide-ranging discussion with stories that will inform, entertain, and maybe even surprise you. This episode is part one of two.

This is a fascinating, wide-ranging conversation between David Allen and Brian Robertson. They discuss how we as humans relate to our own attention, and how the increasing complexity of our work environment has necessitated that we get stuff off our minds. They point out multiple common threads between Getting Things Done for individuals and Holacracy for organizations. They also consider what happens after your personal system and your organization's system are on cruise control.

Join David Allen for an intriguing discussion about leadership and the architecture of story, with Nancy Duarte and Patti Sanchez. They came to fame when they created the presentations that Al Gore used in speeches for several years before An Inconvenient Truth won the Academy Award for best documentary. Their book is Illuminate, "a road-map to help leaders move people to embrace bold visions and carry them forward." They describe five phases of an organization's story, and how leaders need to communicate to inspire progress. The team at Duarte have also been a trusted resource for David Allen Company in the storytelling involved with our GTD curriculum.

Jason Atwood has built Getting Things Done into his company from the start. Listen as he shares with David Allen about starting Arkus, a Salesforce consulting firm, well after his own GTD practice was on a solid foundation. Beyond encouraging his employees to adopt GTD, he provides them with ongoing tools and support. During the onboarding period, he even meets with new employees to answer questions and refine their GTD implementation.

This episode of our podcast is from David Allen's opening talk at the GTD Summit in 2009. We've just announced the 2019 GTD Summit, and we'd love to see you there. Get all the details at gtdsummit.com.

David Allen and Coach Kelly Forrister present an instructional webinar where you'll have the opportunity to take a deeper dive into understanding the power of completion and creating a vision for wild success.

Do you ever struggle with managing competing priorities and don't know how you'll get it all done?  Join David Allen for a conversation that's packed with practical GTD coaching advice on how to deal with competing priorities--from getting a higher perspective on your life and work, down to trusting your moment-to-moment action choices.

Musician Evan Taubenfeld and entertainment lawyer Danny Passman join David Allen and Coach Kelly Forrister in an inspiring conversation about GTD for creative people. Lots of wonderful nuggets in this episode about finding the creative spark within the structure of a GTD system.

David Allen shares his thoughts on what a good Weekly Review is and isn't, as well as some random tips and tricks from his years in the trenches.

David Allen, Mike Williams, and Mark Wallace discuss the brand new book Getting Things Done for Teens, including what's different, what's the same, and some of the wisdom they've garnered in writing the book together. Learn more at www.gtdforteens.com.

David Allen talks with General Randal Fullhart. Graduating from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1979, Randy has commanded at the squadron, group, and wing levels. He shares insights and tips about his journey with GTD, teamwork, and leadership.

In this podcast, Coach Kelly Forrister focuses on the best practices of email communications with others, including appropriate use, writing effective subject lines, creating agreed upon response times, reply to all and more.

In this podcast we hear a wide-ranging conversation between David Allen and the founder of HolacracyOne, Brian Robertson. Just as GTD is a systematic approach to maintaining perspective and control in your life, Holacracy is a systematic approach (or operating system) to running an organization. You'll hear a lot of interesting similarities between the two models, as well as their shared history and purpose.

David Allen explores the power of outcome thinking in front of a live audience. This talk will reveal just how much the thoughts we hold in our head have the potential to affect the types and qualities of action we take. From athletic performance to prepping for that next big meeting, what we think about *while* we act can affect *how* we act.

The new year is always a great excuse to zoom out and recalibrate how your system is running, and a year-end review is an excellent way to do exactly that. In this conversation that first showed up on GTDConnect.com, David Allen & Coach Kelly Forrister give us some quick and practical tips for successfully performing a year-end review.

Listen to a fascinating segment with David Allen where he outlines the sources of procrastination, shares a few fun examples of the dynamics at work, and talks about the steps you can take to overcome it.

Listen to an engaging presentation David Allen gave on the case for capturing. In it, David explores the concepts of psychic RAM, society’s move into knowledge work, and the freedom we feel as we begin to implement the GTD methodology.

David Allen presents a webinar on how to craft integrated external systems that allow you to focus more productively.  He explores the cognitive science behind the external brain, what the purpose of it is, and how you can use it most effectively with your GTD system.

David Allen and Coach Meg Edwards give expert coaching on wrangling your priorities. The discussion includes three common challenges: competing priorities, mapping day-to-day priority choices to your higher level goals, and prioritizing as a group.

David Allen says, "The better you get, the better you'd better get." This podcast is about how to improve your skills, when you're already proficient at GTD®. Coaches Meg Edwards and Kelly Forrister will guide you through some of the coaching they would give to a client who already has a solid foundation and plenty of experience with GTD.

David talks with Dr. Theo Compernolle, a doctor with a 35-year background in medicine, psychiatry, teaching, and research. His most recent book is Brain Chains. You'll find this interview to be educational, and perhaps challenging, as you learn that we may be using technology in counter-productive ways.

In this conclusion of a two-part episode, David Allen shares an in-depth, sweeping overview of GTD® to an audience in Milan, Italy. Learn best practices, as well as what you can expect to have happen in your life once you start applying them.

In this first installment of a two-part episode, David Allen shares an in-depth, sweeping overview of GTD® to an audience in Milan, Italy.  Learn best practices, as well as what you can expect to have happen in your life once you start applying them.

David Allen and Coach Kelly Forrister talk about using the creative technique of mind mapping for project brainstorming, meeting notes, checklists, gathering project data, and more.

In this speech excerpt, David Allen shares the GTD® keys to clarifying your work.

What are your biggest GTD® improvement opportunities?  Do you ever fall off the wagon?  Join David Allen & Meg Edwards as they discuss what "Black Belt" GTD is, some of its biggest hurdles, and how you can overcome them.

David Allen discusses the power and practical usage of focus and vision. Learn the keys to creating and maintaining successful habit change by utilizing visioning, goal setting, and clarifying positive outcomes.

Feeling overwhelmed?  This talk from David Allen is a wonderful overview of the keys to control & perspective. Includes participant Q&A at the end.

Join David Allen for a fascinating, wide-ranging conversation with Daniel Levitin, author of The Organized Mind. Daniel is a professor of psychology, a cognitive scientist, a musician, an entrepreneur, and more. He brings recent cognitive research to bear on GTD, validating obectively what GTD users know subjectively -- that getting things off your mind frees your mind for more creative and productive thinking. David and Daniel discuss why the brain pays attention to some things and ignores others, the limits of short-term memory versus long-term memory, and why the Mind Sweep is not just a good idea, but a critical part of dealing with our modern lives.

How do you balance a daunting project list representing multiple roles and outcomes?  David Allen chats with Meghan Wilker, a tech expert, mother of two, and GTD enthusiast. Listen as Meghan shares how she uses GTD in her work and family life.

How do you leverage procedures and tools for better outcomes?  David Allen presents a webinar on how to optimize your GTD system, so that you have the information you need to be productive, when you need it.  Includes Q&A's from webinar participants.

A key to trusting your priorities is knowing your roles, areas to maintain, oversee, and manage–personally and professionally. In this webinar, Senior GTD Coaches Meg Edwards and Kelly Forrister walk you through developing the Areas of Focus level in the GTD Horizons of Focus® model, giving you examples, best practices, and tips for developing and refining your own.

Listen as David Allen talks with Gillian Martin Mehers, who has dedicated her career to helping people doing good work in organizations focusing on global sustainability. As a highly enthusiastic GTDer and experienced professional in training and development, she shares many of her own successful techniques for spreading those best practices to others.

Coaches Meg Edwards and Mike Williams share strategies, techniques, and insights for engaging kids and teens in GTD. They'll weave in personal stories from their own experience as parents, and give practical exercises for bringing the power of GTD to young people in your life.

We hope you enjoy this very special Q&A conversation between David Allen and Senior Coach Marian Bateman, interviewed by Rick Kantor. They answer ten of the most frequently asked questions regarding GTD, including "How do you set priorities?", "What do you do when you're interrupted constantly?", and "How do I get back on track when I miss Weekly Reviews?"

This episode features two wonderful doctors and GTD enthusiasts in our GTD community: Dr. Julie Flagg and Dr. Julian Goldman. They join David Allen and Senior Coach Kelly Forrister in a lively and heartfelt discussion about how GTD has helped their stability, clarity, and focus.

David gives a unique and inspiring presentation about the power of Getting Things Done to the participants of The Do Lectures in Wales, September 2010.  If you're new to GTD, you'll love the fast-paced overview David gives of the entire systematic approach.  If you're a seasoned practitioner, you'll appreciate the transparency and authenticity in which David shares a bit more of his behind-the-scenes story.

When you listen to this interview with Jeff Heilman, you'll be amazed how much he does. He's got a thriving sales career, plus he's a pro golfer. And a husband, and a father, and much more. Jeff says he always dreamed of becoming the guy who has his act together, and GTD is the pathway. In this interview, he talks with Mike Williams about how he heard about GTD, and his subsequent installation and implementation journey. Somewhere along the way, he says he was able to take on more work than his boss could give him. Now that's saying a lot. But beyond work, Jeff says that "GTD leads to the freedom to pursue what I choose."

What happens when you cross GTD with one of the world's most successful TV comedy shows? You'll find out in this high-energy and humorous dialog between David and three of the writers of The Simpsons. Listen to Rob LaZebnik, Dan Greaney, and Danny Chun share how, in a unique professional environment, they produce creative comedy by committee.

Join David Allen in an intriguing conversation with Robyn Scott, a brilliant 30-something Brit with a fascinating background and palette of projects. As an author, social entrepreneur, and already a recognized leader in global change, she discusses how GTD has had an impact on her work, and explores with David a new and effective technique for motivating ourselves to actually take the next actions that we define.

Dr. Deb Smith-Hemphill, a long time practitioner and now Certified Trainer, GTD Connect member, and advocate of the GTD methodology, owns and manages her own successful management consulting business in California. In this witty and upbeat conversation, she chats with David about her professional path, her intersections with David and GTD, and gives lots of detail about her own streamlined system to get things done from an executive level.

In this podcast interview, you'll hear Bob Hendriksen talking with Mike Williams. Bob is a plant manager for Steelcase, and a complete GTD enthusiast. He has a keen interest in improving systems, with an emphasis on 'lean' production. He discusses how lean improves flow to reduce waste, and points out that GTD is all about improving the mental flow. You'll also hear how Bob applies GTD in his work and life.

What role does technology play in productivity? Since GTD is software-neutral, can technology help us be more productive? Join us for a conversation with Ken Case, CEO of the OmniGroup, about his personal system. Ken and Andrew talk about how to stay steadily productive in a world where the number of software options for your GTD system is rapidly increasing, as well as how to avoid the temptations and complications that come along with new technology.

Mike Williams interviews Andy Armstrong, with a focus on what it's like to introduce GTD to a friend. Years ago, Mike gave Andy a copy of "Getting Things Done." They talk about how Andy's GTD practice has developed, the value of the Mind Sweep and how he approaches the Weekly Review. Andy is a great example of stress-free productivity.

Ever wonder what it would be like to have someone guide you through an entire GTD Weekly Review process?  Now, in this interactive session, Senior GTD Coach Meg Edwards takes you through the entire process step by step.  As you get clear, get current, and get creative, you’ll quickly see why the Weekly Review is considered *the* critical success factor in maintaining an integrated life management system.

Can creative people practice GTD?  Isn't all that structure restricting?  Find out as we talk with Todd Henry, the author of "The Accidental Creative".  Thousands of creatives have found that implementing GTD's methodology actually provides *more* freedom to create, not less.

How do you create major impact using GTD?  Join David Allen and Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit, as they discuss the cumulative cost of our seemingly insignificant daily decisions.  As David says in Ready For Anything, “In the end, it is attention to detail that makes all the difference.”

What do you do when brute force is *no longer* an option? That's a question that Byron Palmer, an innovator and Grazing Specialist for the Sonoma Mountain Institute, found himself wrestling with as he progressed in his career and life. Join Mike Williams, as he and Byron walk through his journey of discovering GTD, the value it brings to him and how he continues to integrate subtle elements to create greater levels of coherence.

What if you had an objective list of everything that currently holds your attention? Get out your note-taking devices as David Allen guides us through a sample coaching "Mind Sweep" session (one of the first steps to practicing GTD®). We bet that you'll have at least one valuable "Oh, yeah! That reminds me..." thought during this episode!

How do we combat information overload? In this GTD Connect preview, David Allen & best-selling author Daniel Pink (Drive, To Sell Is Human) discuss technology's impact on our decision making. They cover GTD's timeless solution to the current problem, as well as Dan's personal GTD setup. Be sure to check out the GTD Connect discount at the end of the interview!

What's different now? Over the 15 years since David Allen first published Getting Things Done, the ability to achieve  "stress-free productivity" with GTD® grows more important than ever.  David joins us in an all-new interview where we discuss the changing times, why people get trapped in unproductive thinking, and how to instantly gain more clear space.