GTD - Implementation Guide for the GTD Methodology (David Allen 2010)

Implementation Guide for the Getting Things Done Methodology ®

Getting Things Done ®

David Allen Company

David Allen Company–Copyright Information License Agreement David Allen Company, Inc. owns the intellectual property rights, including but not limited to all copyright and trademark rights, in this “Implementation Guide for the Getting Things Done Methodology”, referred to as “Implementation Guide”. The Implementation Guide is and remains the property of David Allen Company. David Allen Company grants you, as an individual purchaser, a license to use this copy of the Implementation Guide. You nor any other party are granted any ownership rights, copyrights, trademark rights, or any other rights whatsoever in or to the Implementation Guide. As examples, neither you nor any other party may: (a) reproduce, in any form or by any means, the Implementation Guide; (b) prepare derivative works of the Implementation Guide; (c) distribute copies of the Implementation Guide for sale or to persons who have not purchased the Implementation Guide; (d) perform or display the Implementation Guide publicly; or (e) authorize others to do any of the forgoing. What is a copyright? Copyright is a form of protection provided to authors of original works by the laws of the United States and international treaties to which the United States is a party. The copyright laws of the United States give the owner to the copyrights to a work the exclusive rights to: 1. Reproduce the copyrighted work in copies however produced (e.g., photocopying, scanning, faxing, electronically); 2. Prepare derivative works (e.g., translations, revisions, abridgements, dramatizations, video adaptation, any form in which the work may be transformed or adapted); 3. Distribute copies for sale; 4. Perform or display the work publicly; and 5. Authorize others to do any of the above. What is the copyright policy of the David Allen Company? It is the policy of the David Allen Company to reserve all copyrights to itself and to vigorously pursue any unauthorized use of its work. What is a mark? A mark is any word, name, phrase, design, symbol, or device or any combination of the same, used to identify goods (trademarks) or services (service mark) from a single source. What is the policy of the David Allen Company with respect to its marks? It is the policy of the David Allen Company to restrict to itself, and those persons licensed by it, all use of its marks and to vigorously pursue any unauthorized use of its marks. Which are the marks of the David Allen Company? Getting Things Done®, GTD®, GTD Connect®, Natural Planning Model®, GTD Weekly Review®, and Horizons of Focus® are marks owned by the David Allen Company. As the purchaser of the Implementation Guide you are entitled to a single-user license. If you wish to have additional copies of the Implementation Guide, add to your license, or obtain further information about the David Allen Company’s other license opportunities, please contact DAC’s Legal Department at +1.805.646.8432 for details. If you have any questions regarding copyrights or marks of the David Allen Company or if you are interested in obtaining a license to use the marks or words of the David Allen Company, please contact DAC’s Legal Department at +1.805.646.8432 for details.

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Implementation Guide: Table of Contents

Introduction

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Getting Started: Setting Up the Time, Space, and Tools Collecting: Corralling Your “Stuff” Processing: Getting “In” to Empty

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Organizing: Setting Up the Right Buckets

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Reviewing: Keeping Your System Functional Doing: Making the Best Action Choices Articles by David Allen •• General Reference Filing

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Additional Resources and Contact Information

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Frequently Asked Questions

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•• Getting Email Under Control

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32 32 36 38 43

3

Introduction

This Implementation Guide is designed to assist you to implement the techniques and ideas that make up the Getting Things Done® methodology. The prerequisite to using this Implementation Guide is for you to understand the core GTD® methodology for mastering the art of relaxed and controlled workflow. You can learn the GTD methodology or refresh your skills by: •• Reading David Allen’s best selling book Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity •• Listening to the Getting Things Done Audio CDs that are available through our store at: www.davidco.com •• Attending an open to the public seminar, see the dates and cities at: www.davidco.com •• Contacting us to learn more about our coaching services at: www.davidco.com Once you understand the GTD thought process and the terms that David uses in his books then you will be ready to use this Implementation Guide. Some of you may also decide to join GTD Connect®, our online learning center, to support yourself as you continue to learn more about GTD methodology. GTD Connect is mentioned throughout this Implementation Guide when there are additional resources to increase your knowledge. •• First the Implementation Guide will walk you through a step-by-step process to gather the tools you need, set aside the some time, and get started with this program. •• Then, the Implementation Guide provides clear directions and best practices in each of the five phases of the Mastering Workflow process. With each phase, you’ll be given a time estimate so that you can plan accordingly, a list of any required supplies or tools, and a checklist of steps to keep track of your progress. •• Also in this Implementation Guide, you’ll get handy tips and guidelines for ensuring success as well as articles on Getting Email Under Control and Setting up a General Reference Filing System. Remember that you don’t need any new skills to be more productive, and you probably don’t need to get a lot of new tools. What you might want, however, is a guide to step you through the process and provide some encouragement along the way. That’s what this Implementation Guide is intended to be. We wish you the best on your journey toward getting more done with greater ease and enjoyment!

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1

Getting Started

Setting Up the Time, Space, and Tools To get started, block off some time, set up a work area, and get some basic tools. You should also set up your general reference filing system.

Time Needed 3-6 hours

Steps

1 2 3 4

Set aside a block of time to implement the initial Collecting process. Get the basic supplies you will need. Set up your work area with the furniture and equipment you will need. Set up your general reference filing system.

The beginning is half of every action. –Greek proverb

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2

Getting Started

Step 1: Set Aside a Block of Time Time Needed

15 minutes

Schedule some time to prepare a workstation with the right tools and implement the initial Collecting process (described in “Collecting”). {{ Schedule 2 to 3 hours to complete the Collecting process. {{ Set aside 2 whole days, back to back, if you want to complete the Collecting and Processing phases at the same time. Try to schedule one block of time, rather than several chunks. This will give you a huge sense of control and accomplishment. {{ At a minimum, start with a 2-hour block of time.

Tips: Setting Aside Time • Keep in mind that collecting everything can take up to three hours. Processing and deciding on actions for every one of these items can take another eight hours. • Remember that you’ll most likely only need to do this once to catch up on your backlog (depending on the volume.) Once your system is set up, you’ll be in maintenance mode. • You might not want to use “after hours” for this work. You could have reduced energy and enthusiasm at the end of the day.

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3

Getting Started

Step 2: Get the Supplies You Need Time Needed

1/2 hour (or 2 hours if you need to shop)

You’ll need some basic supplies to get the most out of Getting Things Done.

Basic Supplies Get these basic tools and supplies: {{ {{ {{ {{ {{ {{ {{

Paper-holding trays (at least three) A stack of plain letter-size paper A pen or pencil Post-it ® Notes (3x3s) Paper clips Binder clips A stapler and staples

{{ {{ {{ {{ {{ {{

Scotch tape Rubber bands An automatic labeler File folders A calendar A wastebasket and recycling bins

“In-tray” Collection Tools Get the tools you need to serve as versions of an in-tray: {{ Physical in-tray (plastic, wood, leather, or wire tray for collecting paper-based materials and anything else physical that needs processing) {{ Paper-based note-taking devices (notepads, spiral binders, index cards, sticky notes, etc.) {{ Electronic note-taking devices (computer, personal digital assistant [PDA], etc.) {{ Voice-recording devices (voicemail system, dictating equipment) {{ Email

Tip: Setting Up Your Organizer Visit gtdconnect.com for information on setting up different kinds of organizing systems.

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4

Getting Started

Step 3: Set Up Your Work Area Time Needed

0-2 hours

You need a physical location to serve as your basic work area. If you have work stations both at home and at work, you’ll want to establish identical systems in both places. Here are the basic components for your work area. Select those you need, given the type of work you do. {{ Get a dedicated workspace and make sure you have sufficient writing surface. {{ Get an in-tray. You may also need: {{ A phone {{ A computer {{ Stacking trays {{ File drawers {{ Bookshelves {{ If you travel extensively, set up a mobile “office in transit.” This can be a briefcase or bag with folders and portable supplies.

Tip: Setting Up Your Workspace Don’t share your work area with family members or work colleagues.

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5

Getting Started

Step 4: Set Up Your General Reference Filing System Time Needed

2 hours

{{ You will need a set of file drawers. Purchase new ones if you need to. Get high-quality mechanics. This is not the place to skimp on quality. {{ Create a single alphabetical filing system, not multiple systems based on various themes. {{ As you process your in-tray, create new folders as needed to file nonactionable reference material. {{ Take the time to clean out your existing reference files. Purge unwanted material, replace worn folders, divide bulging files into two or three smaller files, etc. {{ Create typeset labels for your folders using your labeler. {{ Keep your drawers no more than 3/4 full to allow for easy access. {{ Avoid cumbersome hanging files and plastic tabbed labels if possible–it must be quick and easy to make a new file. {{ Refer to the Articles section in the back of this workbook for guidance on setting up a general reference filing system.

Tips: Setting Up Your Filing System • Keep general reference files at arms’ reach. • Have lots of fresh folders at hand. • Avoid the unnecessary complication of color-coding your files. • Label your files with an automatic labeler. This is faster for one-off labels than printing from your PC. • Get comfortable filing even a single piece of paper that you might want to refer to later.

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6

Collecting

Corralling Your “Stuff” In the Collecting phase, you will gather all your “stuff” from your physical environment and your mind and put them into one in-tray.

Time Needed 2-3 hours

Steps

5 6 7

Search your physical environment for anything that doesn’t permanently belong where it is and put it into your in-tray. Write down your voicemail messages and print out tasks or to-do lists from your PDA, PC, and email and put these into your in-tray. Write down anything that is residing in your psychic RAM that has your attention (do a “Mind Sweep”) and put that into your in-tray.

Rule your mind or it will rule you. – Horace

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7

Collecting

Step 5: Search Your Physical Environment Time Needed

1-2 hours

In this first step, you will gather all your physical “incompletes” and put them into your in-tray. {{ Search your physical environment for anything that doesn’t permanently belong where it is. Check all locations: office, home office, briefcase, purse, etc. {{ In each location, sweep these areas: –– Desktop and drawers –– Shelves –– Inside cabinets –– Floors and walls {{ If an item is too big to go in the in-tray, write a dated note that describes it and put this in the in-tray. {{ If something is trash, toss it when you see it. If you’re not sure, put it in the in-tray. {{ These can remain where they are and should not go into your in-tray: –– Supplies –– Reference material –– Decorations –– Equipment {{ Some things that would normally fall into the categories above may still have some action associated with them and should be put into your in-tray (or a note taken to represent them): –– Reference material that is out of date (trash, unless you have an action to get the current version) –– Photos of your kids that you want to update with current ones. {{ If you have some sort of organization system in place, treat it as an item to be processed, and put it into the in-tray.

Tip: Physical Gathering Don’t get bitten by the purge-andorganize bug unless you have a big window of time; your priority is to collect everything first.

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8

Collecting

Step 6: Write Down Your Voicemails and Print Out Task Lists Time Needed

1/2 hour

You’ve now collected physical items in your in-tray. Now, gather any current to-do lists, voicemails, and emails and add these to your inventory of “in.” {{ Transfer voicemails onto paper notes and put these into the in-tray. {{ Print out any task lists or other reminders that are currently on your computer or PDA in any other electronic storage areas and put these into the in-tray.

Tip: Collecting Your Email Leave your emails in the in-box of your software. It’s more efficient to deal with them this way than to print and put them into your physical in-tray.

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9

Collecting

Step 7: Do a “Mind Sweep” Time Needed

1/2 hour

Now you need to do a “Mind Sweep” to collect anything else that has your attention but hasn’t been captured in your in-tray. {{ Spend some quiet time identifying everything that’s on your mind—big, little, personal, or professional. {{ Write out each thought, each idea, each thing that has your attention, on a separate piece of paper and put it into your in-tray.

Tips: Doing a “Mind Sweep” • Go for quantity rather than quality. • Review the Trigger Lists in this workbook to make sure you haven’t forgotten anything. • Keep in mind that it can take anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour to clear your head using the mind-sweep process.

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10

Processing

Getting “In” to Empty The goal with “Processing” is to get to the bottom of your in-tray. This doesn’t mean actually doing all the actions, it just means deciding what your next actions are.

Time Needed 2-8 hours, depending on the amount of stuff in your in-tray and your email in-box

Steps

8 9

Review the Process and Organize phases before starting. Review each item in your in-tray and decide how it needs to be handled, following the Workflow Map.

It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires a great deal of strength to decide what to do. –Elbert Hubbard

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11

Processing

Step 8: Review the Process and Organize Phases Time Needed

1 hour

Before you actually start processing what you’ve collected into your in-tray, read through the steps required in organizing your actions. It’s easier to make decisions about next actions when you’re more aware of how you will enter those reminders in your organization system. {{ Review chapters 6 and 7 in David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done. {{ Read the “Processing” and “Organizing” sections in this Implementation Guide.

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12

Processing

Step 9: Review Each Item in Your In-Tray and Decide What Happens Next With It Time Needed

1-7 hours

Now you’re ready to deal with each item in your in-tray and make a clear decision about what your next action is. Your goal is to get your in-tray to empty. {{ Always process the top item first. Remove it from your in-tray and ask, “What is it? Is it actionable? If yes, what’s the next action?” {{ Make a firm decision about what is the next physical, observable action. Don’t put it down until you’ve made a decision about it. {{ Label each item with a sticky note indicating what the next action is and put it in a “pending” stack. {{ Process one item at a time, going straight through to the end. Follow the Workflow Processing and Organizing diagram shown on the next page.

Nonactionable Items Trash {{ Throw away anything that you don’t need anymore.

Incubate {{ If you think you want to do it sometime, but not now, put a sticky note on the item indicating that it should go on a Someday Maybe list. {{

If you want to be reminded of an item on a specific later date, attach a note to put it in a tickler file or on your calendar. (Visit gtdconnect.com for the article describing setting up a tickler file.)

Sample Things to Incubate: • A brochure for an upcoming event • An agenda for a board meeting you should attend • An advertisement for a software upgrade you might want to purchase, but you want to think about it • A note to yourself about a class you’d like to take someday

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13

Processing

Workflow Processing and Organizing

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14

Processing

Reference {{ As you come across material that needs no action but you’d like to keep for reference purposes, file it in your general reference filing system or in your email reference folders. See the General Reference Filing article in the articles section of this guide.

Actionable Items {{ If the next action can be done in 2 minutes or less, do it now. {{ If you’re not the right person to do the next action, delegate it by attaching a sticky note indicating the person to whom you want to delegate the action, task them with email, or park the item on an Agenda list to go over with them. {{ If you are the right person but it requires more than 2 minutes, defer it by attaching a sticky note indicating what your next action is.

Tips: General Processing Guidelines •• Never put anything back into the in-tray. •• Address items in your in-tray from the top down. Always start with the item that is on top. Never pick and choose items by looking through the stack for a “good one.” •• Handle your most recent emails first so that “threads” are included.

Tips: Filing • Remember… a fast, easy, general reference filing system is critical to full and easy implementation of this methodology! • It should take you less than 60 seconds to make a label, put the material in a new file folder, and place it in your file drawer. • Keep your file drawers less than ¾ full because you’ll resist putting items in stuffed drawers. • Purge your files whenever needed, and at least annually.

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15

Organizing

Setting Up the Right Buckets Your goal in the Organizing phase is to put the items you processed from your in-tray into the categories in your organizing system.

Time Needed 21/2-7 hours

Steps

10 11 12 13 14 15

Sort your action items into groups that make sense to you. Decide where to keep paper-based materials that will serve as their own reminders of required actions. Set up your email system to organize reminders of next actions, things that you delegate, and information that you want to file. Decide how you will organize action support material. Decide how you will organize project support material. Set up a tickler file (if you want to use one). Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. –Albert Einstein

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16

Organizing

Step 10: Sort Your Action Items Into Groups Time Needed

1/2

hour

You now have a stack of “pending” items: reminders of things you must do, items you’re handing off to other people, and things that need to be placed in your calendar or a Someday Maybe folder. Now, sort all this into logical groups. Next, create a list or file for each group and review them when you’re ready to work.

Pick Your Organization System {{ Decide on the best way to physically organize your lists (file folders, loose-leaf binder, or digital lists). Consider these questions: –– Do you prefer single pieces of paper in folders to sort your stuff? Would you be comfortable carrying these around with you? –– Are you comfortable carrying around a binder of paper? If so, would you prefer the three-ring binder size or a smaller “planner” size? –– Do you prefer to have your system on your computer or PDA? {{ Refer to gtdconnect.com for the various white papers with instructions on setting your system up in paper or on your computer.

Create Your Lists {{ Create a Projects list or subdivided project lists; whatever works for you. {{ Create your Next Actions lists or folders. Common categories are: –– Calls –– Computer –– Errands –– Office –– Home –– Anywhere –– Agendas (for people and meetings)

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17

Organizing

{{ Create a list or folder called “Waiting For” to keep track of things that you’ve handed off to someone else. Record the date on everything that you hand off to others. {{ Create a list or folder for your “Someday Maybe” items. {{ Create any lists to keep track of things such as goals, key areas of responsibility, and other reminders. {{ NOW, go through your stacks of processed “pending” items and place them on the appropriate lists or in folders.

Keep Your Calendar Sacred! {{ Only put actions on your calendar that must get done on that day or at that time. {{ Y ou should look at your calendar only to remind you of the things you have to do. Then, in your open time, you can look at your Next Actions lists to decide what to do next.

Tips: Creating Your Lists • You’ll initially be creating groups, or lists, during the Processing phase. But your organizing system will evolve as you test it out. Be flexible and willing to modify your system until you find what works for you. • How discrete your categories will be depends on how many actions you have to track and how many different contexts you have in which to do them. • Remember that a “list” is just a group of like items. It could be a file folder with separate paper notes, a titled piece of paper in a planner, or a software program or a PDA.

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18

Organizing

Step 11: Decide Where to Keep Paper-Based Materials as Their Own Reminders Time Needed

15 minutes

Some kinds of input serve as their own reminders of required actions. Decide now where you will keep things such as those described below. {{ Decide where you will keep things that serve as their own reminders, such as receipts to process, bills to pay, and data that needs to be entered into a computer. {{ Decide where you will keep things you want to read or review. A tray or folder works best for this. {{ Identify other categories that are needed based on the specific nature of your work, and decide where you will keep these items.

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19

Organizing

Step 12: Set Up Your Email System to Organize Reminders Time Needed

1-4 hours

Emails that need action can serve as their own reminders; you don’t need to write the next actions on a list. But to be most efficient, you need to create folders in your email system to organize these next actions so that you can get them out of your in-box.

Create Folders and Clean Out Email {{ Create a folder on your email navigator bar called “@Action” for emails that you need to do something about. (Use a prefix like @ or a dash to move the folder to the top of the navigator bar. {{ Create a folder entitled “@Waiting For” for items you have delegated to someone else, and other things you are waiting for. (Use a prefix like @ or a dash to move the folder to the top of the navigator bar.) {{ Create reference folders to hold emails that contain support material. {{

Get your email in-box down to zero! This doesn’t mean doing everything, but it does mean deleting what’s trash, filing what you want to keep but don’t need to act on, doing the less-than-two-minute responses, and moving into your reminder folders the things you’re waiting for and that you need to act on.

Tips: Organizing Your Email • Use a symbol such as the “@” sign or the dash (“ –”) to sort your action folders at the top of the list, above your reference folders. • “Out of sight” is not out of mind. If you move your action emails into a folder and out of your in-tray, you must review the action folders regularly so that you trust your system.

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20

Organizing

Step 13: Decide How You Will Organize Action Support Material Time Needed

15 minutes

Decide where you will store single items that are needed in order to complete actions that are on your lists. When you go to complete the action, you will then retrieve that item from your action support holder. {{ Find a place such as a stacking tray, a basket, or a folder where you will keep single items that don’t deserve their own folder. {{ Make sure your action support material is easily accessible when you do whatever you need to do that requires this piece of support material. {{ If you travel frequently, consider creating a travel “action support” folder so that you can stay productive while on the road.

Examples of Single-item Action Support Material • A letter from the bank that you need to call about • A CD someone wants you to listen to • A brochure that you want to study when you have the time

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21

Organizing

Step 14: Decide How You Will Organize Project Support Material Time Needed

1 hour

For all your projects, you need to decide where you will keep project support materials, such as meeting notes, ideas, project plans, schedules, and so on. You may find that you’ll keep different kinds of information in several different forms. {{ For each of your projects, decide where you will store project support materials. Consider attached digital notes, email, databases, paper-based files, and pages in notebooks. {{ Store your files and folders in your general reference filing cabinet, in a standing file rack on your desk or in a dedicated storage space. Then, you can take them out whenever you need to review or take action with them.

Examples of Single-item Project Support Material •• Attached notes: You can attach a digital “note” to a list or a calendar entry in most organizing programs. Or you can attach a sticky note to your list of projects if your list is paper-based. •• Email and databases: Emails related to projects can be gathered in a project folder in your email system. You can also set up a digital database for organizing your thinking on a project. Check with your IT resource for help. •• Paper-based files: A simple approach to handling project information is to create a separate file folder for each project. This is also very portable when you are traveling or going to project-related meetings. •• Pages in notebooks: A loose-leaf notebook is a simple and efficient way to capture ideas and plans about projects.

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Tips: Organizing Project Support Material • Review your project support folders or notebooks for next action steps as needed. • Purge your project material of any outdated or inactive notes.

22

Organizing

Step 15: Set Up a Tickler File (Optional) Time Needed

1 hour

A tickler file allows you to hold physical reminders of things that you want to see or remember–not now, but in the future. It is a way of “mailing” things to yourself to be received on a designated future date. {{ Create 31 daily file folders labeled “1” through “31.” {{ Create 12 more folders labeled with the names of the months of the year. {{ Place the daily files in the front of your tickler file drawer, beginning with the file for tomorrow’s date. If today is October 5, the first file would be “6.” {{ Behind the “31” file, place the monthly file for the next month (“November”). {{ Behind the next month folder, place the daily files “1” through “5.” Behind this, place the rest of the monthly files (“December” through “October”). {{ Visit gtdconnect.com or davidco.com for the full article on setting up a tickler file.

How Do You Use a Tickler File? Every day, empty that day’s file into your in-tray, and then refile the folder at the back of the dailies (so that the October 6 file now represents November 6). •• When the next month’s folder reaches the front (on October 31 after you empty the daily file, the “November” one will be the next one), empty the contents into your in-tray and refile it at the back of the monthlies to represent November a year from now. •• You must look at and update your tickler file every day for it to work. •• If you leave town (or don’t access the file on the weekend), you must check the folders for the days you’ll be away before you go.

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Examples of Things You’d Put in a Tickler File: • An agenda for a meeting you need to attend next week • Confirmation numbers and travel tickets for an upcoming trip • A brochure for an event that you might want to attend in a few months • A catalog of something you might want to buy in the future

23

Reviewing

Keeping Your System Functional The goal of the Review phase is to set up a standard time and a standard way to see all the action items you need to see, when you need to see them.

Time Needed A few minutes a day to review your calendar and to-do lists; 1 to 2 hours per week to conduct a Weekly Review

Steps

16 17 18

Review your calendar, your tickler file, and your action lists every day. Conduct a Weekly Review, every week. Review the higher-level goals and issues of your life and work as needed.

To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders. –Lao Tzu

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Reviewing

Step 16: Review Your Calendar, Tickler File, and Action Lists Every Day Time Needed

15-30 minutes

You must review your daily calendar to see the “hard landscape” of the day and your daily tickler folder (if you have one). Your next most frequent area for review will be the lists of all the actions you could possibly do in your current context. {{ Every day, review your calendar and your tickler file to assess what absolutely has to get done today. {{ When you have windows of open time, review your Next Actions lists to make choices based on your options.

Tips: Daily Reviewing • If your calendar is trustworthy and your Next Actions lists are current, they may be the only things in the system you’ll need to refer to more than every couple of days. • Make sure that you can access any one of your lists at anytime. • Learn to process incoming information faster, and completely, in order to stay afloat and comfortable.

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Reviewing

Step 17: Conduct a Weekly Review, Every Week Time Needed

1-2 hours

GET CREATIVE

GET CURRENT

GET CLEAR

The purpose of the GTD Weekly Review® is to look over your entire system and get current on all your lists. It will keep you in balance, sharpen your intuitive focus on your important projects, and get your head empty again. Collect Loose Papers and Materials

Gather all accumulated business cards, receipts, and miscellaneous paper-based materials into your in-tray.

Get “IN” to zero

Process completely all outstanding paper materials, journal and meeting notes, voicemails, dictation, and emails.

Empty Your Head

Put in writing and process any uncaptured new projects, action items, waiting for’s, someday maybe’s, etc.

Review Next Action Lists

Mark off completed actions. Review for reminders of further action steps to record.

Review Previous Calendar Data

Review past calendar in detail for remaining action items, reference data, etc., and transfer into the active system.

Review Upcoming Calendar

Review upcoming calendar events–long and short term. Capture actions triggered.

Review Waiting For List

Record appropriate actions for any needed follow-up. Check off received ones.

Review Project (and Larger Outcome Lists)

Evaluate status of projects, goals, and outcomes, one by one, ensuring at least one current action item on each. Browse through project plans, support material, and any other work-in-progress material to trigger new actions, completions, waiting for’s, etc.

Review any Relevant Checklists

Use as a trigger for any new actions.

Review Someday Maybe List

Review for any projects which may now have become active, and transfer to “Projects.” Delete items no longer of interest.

Be Creative and Courageous

Any new, wonderful, hare-brained, creative, thought-provoking, risk-taking ideas to add into your system???

Log in to gtdconnect.com for the extensive, useful and inspiring library of support material specific to this critical behavior of the Weekly Review.

davidallengtd.com ©1998, 2008, 2010 David Allen & Co. All rights reserved.

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Reviewing

Step 18: Review the Higher Levels of Your Life and Work as Needed Time Needed

??

Clarifying and reviewing your larger outcomes, the long-term goals, and the visions that ultimately drive your decisions allow you to make your total life expression more fulfilling and maintain a clear head open to new possibilities. {{ Review your 20,000 level. Assess your key areas of responsibility, focus, and interest, both personally and professionally. Identify any projects and next actions as necessary. {{ Review your 30,000 to 50,000 levels. Identify any long-term goals and visions for your job, career, and life. Identify any additional significant considerations that could affect your priorities. Identify any projects and next actions to fulfill these goals, visions and/or ideal scenes.

You’ve got to think about the big things while you’re doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction. –Alvin Toffler

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Doing

Making the Best Action Choices Once you have your system in place, you can make decisions about what to do at any given point, trusting that what you’re doing is more important than anything else you could be doing.

Steps

19 20 21

Decide actions in light of the limiting criteria. Decide actions in light of the three-fold nature of work. Decide actions in light of the Horizons of Focus.

Talk does not cook rice. –Chinese proverb

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Doing

Step 19: Decide Actions in Light of the Limiting Criteria The Limiting Criteria model can help you structure your systems and behavior and make the best action choices based on these criteria. {{ Context: At any point in time, the first thing to consider is, what could you possibly do, where you are, with the tools you have? Review only those action lists that pertain to the context you are in. {{ Time available: The second thing to consider is, how much time do you have before you have to do something else? {{ Resources available: The third question to ask is, how much physical, mental, and creative energy do you have? To be most productive, align your actions with your current level of energy.

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Doing

Step 20: Decide Actions in Light of the Three-Fold Nature of Work By understanding the three categories of daily work, you can better clarify, manage, and renegotiate your total inventory of projects and actions. {{ D  oing work as it appears: When you turn your attention to something unexpected that turns up (your boss asks you to stop by his office, for example), you’re deciding by default that this is more important than anything else you have to do. {{ D  oing predefined work: When you’re doing predefined work, you’re working off your Next Actions lists, completing tasks that you have previously determined need to be done. {{ D  efining your work: Defining your work entails clearing up your in-tray, your email, your voicemail, your meeting notes, etc., and processing new projects into action steps. Once you’ve defined all your work, you can trust that your lists of things to do are complete.

Tip: Thinking About the Three-Fold Nature of Work Challenge yourself to spend more time doing predefined work and defining your work. Most people spend too much of their time doing work as it shows up.

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Doing

Step 21: Decide Actions by Using the Horizons of Focus In order to know what your priorities are, you have to know what your work is. By looking at your work at each of the six different levels, you can have a good sense of what your job requires and how that fits into the other contexts of your life. This will automatically produce greater focus, alignment, and sense of priorities. {{ Runway: Current Actions This is the accumulated list of all the actions you need to take. Make sure your action lists are totally complete. {{ 10,000 level: Current Projects These are the 30 to 100 projects on your plate that are creating many of the actions on your lists. You need to make sure your Projects list truly captures all your commitments. {{

20,000 level: Areas of Responsibility and Focus Your 7 to 15 categories of responsibilities are the key areas within which you want to achieve results and maintain standards. These areas are what drive the projects you create or accept. Make sure you maintain a list called “Areas of Focus” that you review every two to three months to ensure you have all your projects and next actions defined.

{{ 30,000 level: One- to Two-Year Goals Your one-and two-year goals for your life and work will often require a shift in emphasis of your job focus with new areas of responsibility emerging. You may also have things you’d like to accomplish on a personal level. {{ 40,000 level: Three- to Five-Year Vision When you project three to five years in the future, your decisions can easily change what your work looks like on many levels. {{ 50,000 + level: Life Knowing why your company exists and why you exist provides the core definition of what your “work” really is. All your goals, visions, projects, and actions derive from this and lead toward it.

Your work is to discover your work and then, with all your heart, to give yourself to it. –Buddha

davidallengtd.com ©1998, 2008, 2010 David Allen & Co. All rights reserved.

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Articles

Getting Email Under Control –by David Allen Managing the flood of email messages that most of us need to interact with on a daily basis is a growing challenge. No one’s volume is diminishing. That “beast is out of the barn,” and we’re not going to be able to shove it back in! So, getting a grip on it with a good systematic approach is critical for staying sane. If you are in the small minority of people currently able to maintain less than a screen full of email most of the time (because your volume is low and/or you process them rapidly and consistently), your system is probably fine as-is. If you regularly have many more than that (hundreds, thousands?) residing in your email in-box, you’re dangerously subject to stress and numbness relative to your digital communication world. Because of the volume of discrete messages and the speed with which they show up, email seems to be a unique demon, with a life of its own. In essence, however, email is no different than a desktop in-tray or an answering machine–it’s simply a collection box for incoming communication and information that needs to be assessed, processed, and organized as appropriate. And controlling email involves the same challenge as managing your physical in-tray–often too much stuff that we don’t have the time or inclination to process and organize as it comes in. So it easily becomes a swamp of “staged” or “pending” items–glanced at, perhaps even read, but not decided about or effectively organized (I have uncovered as many as 7,000 emails still festering in a client’s in-tray).

The Big Challenge As email is simply an in-box, it needs to be emptied regularly to be maximally functional. “Empty” does not mean finishing all the work embedded in your emails–it means making decisions about what each one means and organizing it accordingly. The same procedures apply to any in-box–whether it’s the tray on your desk or your answering machine. They should be processing stations, not storage bins. Because the volume in the computer is much greater than an audio or paper-based “in,” however, getting it to zero seems particularly daunting. But there is no light at the end of the tunnel if you are merely letting things pile up there. It takes less effort to start every day or two from zero in your in-box than it does to maintain “amorphous blobs” of accumulated and unorganized “stuff” that must continually be reread and reassessed for what they mean.

The Basics We have seen hundreds of unique ways people have come up with to manage their email, and many work just fine–as long as nothing is lost, the inventory does not continue to increase, and someone can easily see the emails they need to take action on. Here are some basic procedures that commonly work for everyone: Use the DELETE key! The ease with which we trash things from our physical mail doesn’t seem to translate to the computer for many people–perhaps because emails don’t take up much physical space and they are so easily parked somewhere that’s not immediately in our face. They’re taking up psychic space, however, and deleting everything that we don’t really need, as we encounter it, is crucial to managing the flood. When in doubt, throw it out. If you’ve let emails pile up, purging is the first thing to do. Sometimes it is easier to clean house by clicking the “From” button which will sort them by their source–you can often dump several at a time that way.

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Articles

File! Use a simple storage system for stuff you want to keep as archives and support information. If you’re a “when in doubt, keep it” person, that’s fine, but don’t have it clogging up your in-tray. Make reference folders in your navigator bar and file those kinds of emails over there. It’s a lot easier to lose track of them among the 500 or 1,000 in your in-box than in a folder you can name. And your Search function can easily find most anything with a key word. Avoid using nested folders that you have to click open to find the file. One simple alpha-sorted list–by topic, theme, or person–is usually sufficient and easier to deal with on the run. Purge them when you have little windows of time with nothing better to do. Complete the < 2-minute ones! The infamous 2-minute rule is crucial for email management. Anything you can deal with in less than 2 minutes, if you’re ever going to do it at all, should be done the first time you see it. It takes longer to read it, close it, open it, and read it again than it would to finish it the first time it appears. In a heavy email environment, it would not be unusual to have at least a third of them require less than 2 minutes to dispatch. Organize emails that require action and follow-up! If you’ve deleted, filed, and finished your < 2-minute emails, you’re left with only two kinds: (1) those that require more than 2 minutes to deal with and (2) those that represent something you’re waiting on from others. A simple and quick way to get control is to create two more folders in your navigator bar–“Action” and “Waiting For” and file them accordingly. These folders should be visually distinct from your reference folders and should sit at the top of your folder list, which can be accomplished by making them all caps with a prefix punctuation like the @ symbol or a hyphen (whichever will sort the folders to the top). If you’ve deleted, filed, finished, or sorted your emails into action-reminding folders, you’re left with an empty in-tray. Now, at least, it will be much easier to review and evaluate a more complete inventory of your work at hand; and you’ll find it’s a lot easier to focus–on email or on anything else.

The Ongoing Challenge You must consistently review actionable emails. Once you get your in-tray to zero, it will feel fantastic. But you can’t ignore the batch of ACTION emails you’ve organized. The problem with computers as reminder tools is the out-of-sightout-of-mind syndrome. If you’re not reviewing them regularly enough, they will start to gnaw on your psyche, creating even more avoidance and bad feelings. People leave emails in their in-tray to begin with for the same reason they pile things on their desk, thinking, “If it’s in front of me, I won’t lose or forget it.” Of course, that seemingly practical habit of visual cuing is undermined by the volume and ambiguity of what’s in the piles. They create numbness instead of clarity. It’s much easier to assess your workload with actionable emails organized in one place. But it requires the good habit of checking on them regularly to feel OK about what you’re not doing with them at the moment. All this takes time and mental energy. Pretending that you can get email under control without dedicating the necessary personal resources to do it leads to frustration and stress. These best practices help make the process as efficient as possible, but the freedom that comes from having them under control is still not free. Just as people have learned to accept commute time as dues they pay to live and work where they’d prefer, they must integrate the time and energy to deal with email into their life and work style.

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Articles

Customized Approaches As personal management software has continued to evolve, in both the standard desktop as well as the myriads of creative small applications and add-ins, the possibilities for variations in how to manage email abound. They can be coded, colored, and automatically filed. They can be sorted by prioritized senders. They can be deferred for retrieval at later times. They can be transferred and melded into task and to-do management functions in other parts of the software. If you set up and begin to get used to a simple folder system for actionable emails, you might find some specialized subcategories useful. “Read/Review” can be a folder for FYI-type emails (though printed versions of long ones are easier to manage than on screen). “To Print” can be useful if you are not at a printer regularly. Some people find that taking the time to edit the subject lines of their own stored emails to reflect the specific action they need to take is useful.

Best Practices But no matter how you tweak it or how cool the unique features and good tricks are that you might explore and even integrate as consistent functions into your personal system, the core principles of good workflow management must be followed to foster relaxed control of the beast: Keep actionable and nonactionable emails in separate places. It’s too complex and stressful for your brain to constantly have to re-sort it every time it looks at it. A system works much better than your psyche for that. Emails filed in reference folders that still represent things to do produce anxiety; and email in the in-tray that is only needed for retrievable information will fog up your focus. Because most people don’t have a good action-reminder system per se, they are trying to make their reference folders a system for remembering what to do, and that never really works. If reference and action reminders are separate things, it allows much more freedom and ease with keeping as much reference material as you want. It simply becomes a library. Keep it clean. Residue seems to self-generate but it doesn’t self-destruct! Delete what you can to begin with, and purge your reference files regularly, as things get out of date and lose their value to you. Keep them reviewed. As with any action-reminder system, if you don’t review and reassess the reminders of actions you might need to be taking, your mind will take back the job; and it doesn’t do that job very well. You’ll then avoid looking at your system and not really trust anything you’re doing because of the hidden agreements with yourself you’ve neglected to renegotiate. Be good at the keyboard. We would be remiss in not reminding you of one of the most important factors in email management–how fast you type and how facile you are with shortcut keys and codes. Not only is poor typing speed inefficient, it creates a resistance to engage with email that undermines all the best intentions to get on top of it. If you’re not up to at least 50 words per minute, getting there with a good typing tutor could make a world of difference.

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Articles

We recommend using the simplest approach you can get by with, adhering to these basic best practices, especially if you’re somewhat starting from scratch in getting this area under control. If you are relatively sophisticated in your email management already, and setting up more complex procedures for yourself has actually made it simpler, that’s terrific. The challenge though is to keep it current, complete, and consistent–and not requiring more time and thought than is worth the payoff you may get. Your process has to be so basic and almost automatic that you will maintain it even when you don’t feel like doing it. Email, like any powerful tool, can be a blessing or a curse. And if the tool goes with the job, you need to invest in whatever it takes to use it wisely and safely. It is a huge productivity enhancer, but when it gets away from you, it’s a severe occupational hazard.

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Articles

General Reference Filing – by David Allen Please note that the following article includes some suggestions that are applicable to a front loading file cabinet with a slider block to support the files to stand up. If your environment dictates another kind of filing cabinet, we encourage you to follow the universal guidelines that apply to all reference materials. One of the biggest bottlenecks I’ve come across working one-on-one with executives in the last few years is their lack of a good instantly-at-hand filing system for reference and support information they want to access when they need it. More than once my clients and I have stopped the workflow coaching process mid-stream, driven to the local office supply store, and bought a quality filing cabinet, a big stock of file folders, and an auto-labeler with plenty of tape–just so we could create an appropriate place to put 75% of the “stuff” lying around their desk, credenzas, and floors of their offices. The bottom line: You each need your own personal, at-hand general reference filing system. It should take you less than 60 seconds to pick something up out of your in-tray, or print it from email, decide it has no action but does have potential future value, and finish storing it into a trusted system. If it takes you longer than a minute to complete that action, you won’t do it–you’ll stack it instead. If you have a trusted secretary or assistant who maintains that system for you, so you can put a “File as ___”, Post-it on the document and send it “out” to him/her, great. But ask yourself if you still have personally interesting or confidential support material that you need accessible at any moment, when your trusted assistant is not around. If so, you’ll still need your own system, in your desk or right beside it somewhere. Create one A-Z alpha filing system, not multiple systems. People have a tendency to want to use their files as a reminder system in addition to reference, and therefore attempt to organize their files by projects or areas of focus. This magnifies geometrically how many places something isn’t when you forget where you filed it. One simple alpha system files everything by topic, author, or company so it could only be three or four places (if you forget where it is.) The ultimate filing system files by number with a computerized cross-reference database that tags topics with specific files. If you’re not there yet (who is?) come as close as you can by creating a single, simple alpha system. It’s also very helpful visually to have alphabet tabs within the files (“A”, “B”, “C” etc.), so it’s a no-brainer to find files and where to put them on the run. It even helps to label the outside of the file drawer (“A-F”, “G-M”, etc.) for the same reason. Keep a big, mambo stack of fresh, new, third-cut, 2-ply top file folders instantly at hand from where you sit when you process your in-tray. Have your labeler there as well. If it’s even the slightest hassle to label and file something into a new topic folder, you won’t do it, in the heat of operational life. Purge your files once a year. That keeps them from being stale and you from feeling like it’s a black hole you’re putting things into. It gives you the freedom to keep anything you think you might want or need later. Do you really need hanging file folders (those files that hang from wire frames)? They’re much less efficient for rapid personal general filing than plain-old freestanding files held upright by the metal sliding support in the back of the drawers of most good front-opening filing cabinets. There are only a few people who need to hang on to thick manuals and other materials that make the wide, hanging files useful.

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Articles

Unfortunately, most desk file drawers are built for hanging files, and many companies have issued side-opening filing cabinets as standard office furnishings. (They’re really only good for pulling out the wire and using to store office supplies!) If you absolutely have to use hanging files, I recommend that you put only one file inside each hanger and label the initial file instead of the hanging file. This makes it much easier to see and find the files, and allows an alpha system to work much better without fighting with overstuffed hangers. It also allows you to take the file into meetings, keep it temporarily on your desk for work in progress, and generally handle it more effectively. Typeset label your files! I’ve never seen an exception–anyone who has taken my advice and printed their file labels with a labeler has stuck with it, and seriously upgraded their general reference system. I don’t know why it works. I just know it works. Labelers are not cheap (expect to pay $100) but typeset labels just change the nature of files, for the better. We have found Brother labelers to be the best and easiest to use. Frankly, you don’t need anything but the most basic functionality–I recommend the least-expensive model that sits on the desk (much easier to use than the handheld ones.) Get extra black-on-white tape cassettes–they are the easiest to read, and you can reuse labels over each other. A few models we have used and could recommend are the PT-15, PT 310 and the PT-18R. Never let your file drawers get more than 3/4 full! Nothing creates resistance to filing worse than overstuffed file drawers. They should always remain comfortably loose enough to get files and materials in and out with ease (and without destroying cuticles!) Be prepared to need more filing space. If you maintain full cabinets, and discover how easy the above system is in organizing all kinds of potentially useful information, you will likely need more room for your files. Almost without exception, people I work with want more file drawer space. Both purge and archive elsewhere out-of-date material, and/or be ready to buy more cabinets. As a rule of thumb, I would have four file drawers for your personal general reference files.

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Frequently Asked Questions

General Questions What is GTD Connect ®? GTD Connect is David Allen’s online learning center for implementing and mastering GTD®. We encourage you to explore our free trial membership to take advantage of the many wonderful resources on the site to support you, including Webinars with Coaches, GTD Setup Guides, lively discussion forums and more. If your intention is to learn more about the GTD methodology the GTD Connect membership will support you.

This seems like it would take a lot of time to implement and maintain. Isn’t this overkill? Implementing and maintaining are two different things. To capture, clarify, and organize a lot of old backlog and set up a system from scratch may require two or more uninterrupted days of your time and focus. (Though we have never had anyone say that process wasn’t worth every minute of the investment!) Once you are current, it does require time and energy to keep it maintained, processing and organizing everything you collect (typically from 30 to 90 minutes each day). But what’s the option? It will take you at least that long, whenever you do it. It takes a lot more time and effort (and creates a lot more stress) to continually rehash the unprocessed stuff.

How do I explain GTD to others? Getting Things Done, also referred to as “GTD,” is a work/life management approach that is based on the principle that you have to get things out of your head and recorded in a system you can trust. This frees your mind from the job of remembering everything that you need to do, and allows it to concentrate fully on actually doing those things. Central to the GTD method is a simple thought process that you must go through with every task or problem that you are faced with. Two questions must be answered: “What is successful outcome?” And, “What is the next action?” By clarifying what must be achieved, and then deciding on the very next physical step that is required, we can generate a clear set of next actions that can be taken as soon as we are in the right context to do them. Thus, a key part of the GTD method is creating lists of tasks that are specific to a context, such as a list of calls to make or things to do at the office. The author of Getting Things Done, David Allen, summarizes the approach this way: “Get everything out of your head. Make decisions about actions required on stuff when it shows up–not when it blows up. Organize reminders of your projects and the next actions on them in appropriate categories. Keep your system current, complete, and reviewed sufficiently to trust your intuitive choices about what you’re doing (and not doing) at anytime.”

What about all those people I have to deal with who don’t do this stuff? T he more out of control your environment (including people), the more critical that you implement your own GTD process. You need to know what’s yours and what’s not, and manage your own “10 acres” with rigor. And as you hold new standards, it impacts everyone to some degree. Though there’s no guarantee, the more you manage your own stuff pristinely, the more people tend to engage with you at that level.

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Frequently Asked Questions

I think email is becoming a two-headed monster. It is vital but more and more people ignore them, don’t read fully, etc. How can we move forward with accomplishing goals in this environment? Are there ideas your team can offer to industry regarding effective corporate communications and task handoffs? Essentially email is no different than paper or verbal communications with the same weaknesses if things are unfocused, unclear, and/or unnecessary. Because of its accessibility, email has just magnified those problems when those standards in communication are allowed. The key is having a culture and relationships that have established (really) the best-practice standards, such as communicating on purpose, while respectful of others’ time and attention. Then, it’s a lot easier to ensure that happens within all the media, including email. If you don’t have those standards, I’ll bet it’s not just email that has those problems.

I am part of a team with five teammates who are not using GTD®. How do I handle the frustration within the lines of communication and organization/productivity? The more anyone around you is out of control, the more you need the GTD method! You can only be responsible for what YOU need to track about what THEY are supposed to be doing, and following up with them accordingly. Of course, the more they get onto this method, the more they’ll be doing their part...but you’re going to have to manage yourself, no matter what.

This all seems well and good while I’m in a seminar, but how do I stick with getting to “mind like water” when I’m back in my day-to-day world? Much like exercise, it’s a matter of getting so accustomed to the positive experience of having done it regularly, you’ll feel creatively uncomfortable with anything less. The more often you come “back to the well” of a cleaned-up backlog, clarified outcomes and actions, and a well-reviewed work and life, the easier it will be to have those behaviors integrated and on automatic. You’ll process your in-tray for the same reason you brush your teeth–if you don’t, the “scuzz factor” gets too high. The key is to keep on coming back to the game as many times as you might slip away. (The Weekly Review is a master key!)

What are areas of focus vs. Someday Maybe? “Areas of focus” would be a high-level checklist of all the areas in life and work that you want to keep your eye on, ensuring that you are doing what you need to be doing to maintain them at your standards. Examples might be health, relationships, career, finances, creative expression, etc. You may or may not have actions and projects about them—if the area is fine and “on cruise control,” no need. But if it’s not where it needs to be, you need to ensure that you have projects and actions to get them there, such as “Set up regular exercise program,” “Call Jim re: suggestions about health clubs.” “Someday Maybe’s” are things that you might want to do (about anything) at some point, but not yet. You just want to be reminded about them on some regular basis to ensure that you are OK with the fact that you’re not doing it yet. For example, learn Italian, climb Mt. Everest, own a vineyard. You will probably have “Someday Maybe’s” in many of your areas of focus as well as active projects.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Do you have any pointers for perfectionists? Just focus on doing the next action perfectly, which is a lot easier than trying to be perfect about how you approach something bigger. Be as retentive as you want. The only problem is when it stops action. Be a perfectionist about the process, which will require, of course, making decisions on the front end that might not be perfect. Think about what might go wrong if you avoid decisions and action! (If you need a negative motivator.)

Gear How should I choose which system to use (digital vs. paper)? Pay attention to your intuition, or just simply: What do you feel like using as a system? We’ve discovered people tend to resist the GTD® implementation process enough as it is, so you need all the help you can get to be motivated to work the system. If you know you’d like to be digital, don’t waste time on a paper system. But if you like the look and touch and feel of a cool notebook, go for it. No system works unless you work it.

Calendar How do you handle weekly tasks that are not specific to a particular day of the week? There’s no universal answer to it, as it all has to do with what habit can you install for yourself that will ensure that you are reminded of the “pending” things to get done “sometime this week/month” One approach would be to put the checklist on your Weekly Review, and when you notice that something needed to be done, clarify the next action, and park that on the appropriate action list, with a due date by it (e.g., confirmation calls and your student’s lesson plan), and perhaps another notation on the calendar for the day it had better be completed by. You could also put it on a “Daily checklist”–either on a Post-it® on your paper calendar you move day to day, or a repeating attached note on a digital calendar entry daily. It’s tricky, because you will go numb to the trigger if you 1) look at it too regularly and don’t make concrete decisions when you do, or 2) miss looking at it when you should. Truth is, each of your various activities, because as you say they are so widely different, might need a different kind of triggering mechanism. Some things wouldn’t need a note, because their very presence would be sufficient reminder something needed to be done (e.g., cat litter).

Most of the day I am dealing with actions I am expected to do. Most of them have a due date. Where should I place my reminder? You have as many next actions as you have, and, yes, you should be looking at everything on your Next Actions lists (by context) when you have any discretionary time, and you are in that context. So, yes, they should be reviewed sometimes several times a day. You need to relate to your Next Actions lists as your “real to-do lists” as much as your calendar, and save the calendar for “they-die-if-not-done-that-day” things. It’s good to put the due dates on the actions on the lists as well, as an extra precaution. The Weekly Review ensures that you “hard-wire” your intuition to be making quick judgment calls, day-to-day, minute-to-minute, using the lists as a focusing tool. Much of what happens with and around you during the week won’t be on any of your lists–it’s the ad hoc stuff, but having something that represents a stable inventory as best you can define it, to work against, is the only source of stability.

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Frequently Asked Questions

If you need a “weekly priorities list,” in addition, to help you stay focused, fine. Sometimes we need that kind of thing, though most of the time, not.

Lists How do you recommend keeping project notes and/or support material? Most projects (given our definition of “more than one step”) don’t need much of any support material, and if they do, one or two pages of notes and bullet points is usually sufficient. If you have lots of detailed project plans and other support materials, it would just make more sense to keep all that in digital or paper folders.

I feel like I’ll spend all my time maintaining these lists. If by “maintaining” the lists you mean, “write action reminders down in a retrievable place that you’ll look at when you need to,” then it’s not going to take you nearly as much time, effort, and stress as filing it in your head, constantly feeling pressured about what’s in there, and having the thought occur again (and again, and again) in your mind because it doesn’t trust your system.

What do you do when the Next Actions lists get really long? Do you keep interacting with all of it, or is there another alternative? Your Next Actions lists should just reflect your commitments. If the lists are “too long,” either you need to get used to a big lists of still-undone things (renegotiating regularly with the whole batch that it’s OK you’re not doing all of them right now) or you need to make fewer commitments. However, most people’s lists aren’t really complete, which makes big lists feel much worse, because you don’t know how much ELSE there might be lurking in the dark. When it’s really the TOTAL of actions, then it actually makes it much easier to see it from the bigger picture and make good, objective judgments about the actions and your interaction with them.

You suggest a lot of lists. Are they all necessary? We suggest you keep your system as simple as possible, but no simpler, as Einstein says. The most complex-looking part of the process is the set of various lists for next actions (at phone, at computer, at the office, at my boss, etc.) But there’s method to that madness. If you buy into the best practice of tracking everything you have attention on, you will probably have over 100 next actions. Sorting them into separate lists by context actually makes it easier to review what you can do at any point in time. In other words, when you’re out and about with a mobile phone, you would rather see one list of calls to make instead of having to find them all on a big list of all your actions grouped together.

Motivation About procrastination: How do you keep from taking the “easy way out” of answering calls and responding to emails etc., to avoid the high-level work? It’s usually because of lack of sufficient reason to be doing the thing or lack of a sense of control in the initial engagement–physically, mentally, or emotionally. If the life of someone dear to you was dependent on you finishing the writing project in the next 24 hours (an outcome meaningful enough, I would guess), we think you’d find yourself breaking through some resistances to getting started. Or, if you absolutely knew what the first four paragraphs were (control), you’d find it easy to get started.

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Frequently Asked Questions

At the deepest level, our own sense of self (self-image, self-esteem) is probably the ultimate driver or inhibitor of our actions, and that’s another seminar! But given whatever that self-image is, clarifying the value of the purpose of something and getting a clear next action about how to get started will at least give you the best ammunition, given whatever energy of confidence you start with as internal resource.

I have a long list of things I think about doing but am unable to commit to actually choosing one. Is this something you can address from your own experience and from coaching others? Maybe there’s a good reason not to choose. There is probably a fine line between “intuitive holding,” though, and procrastination or resistance to making decisions. But before you think you need to do something about this, you might ask yourself which it is. Usually, people don’t decide because they don’t have enough information. You can get more information from other sources (people, the Web, the library, etc.) or perhaps from internal sources (intuition, dreams, etc.). If it needs to be internal, it may take time for you to mature the question on the less-than-conscious levels. As you’re aware, no choice is a choice. It may be a choice not to change, but that’s probably not going to be very viable for very long, because things will be changing around you, and you’ll have to be making choices to stay on an even keel. If you are dealing with the fear of “What if it’s the wrong choice?” then you just need to focus on the positive direction about what you really want and where you really want to go, so that your internal mechanisms will have an impetus to ferret out the best methods to get there.

What are the main reasons why people let themselves get overwhelmed at work? People tend to both over-commit and to be inefficient. Few people know exactly how much work they actually have, and therefore must take everything on that they think about and that others ask them to do. Their integrity forces them to agree to take things on because, not being real clear how many projects they already have on their plate, some part of them thinks they actually MIGHT be able to do it. And most people are inefficient because they don’t force themselves to decide what things mean and what they are actually going to do about them when they first show up. So, they are constantly rethinking the same things over and over and not making any progress in doing so–only adding to their stress. And when they DO finally decide what to do, it’s usually because they have allowed the situation to get into “last-minute” mode, and they now have to go deal with things as a crisis, one at a time, instead of in an orderly, timely, manner. For example, when you are talking to your boss about the urgent thing, why not also talk about the five things you need to talk to him or her about, before they are urgent? Most people are not that good at making next action decisions and organizing the results effectively. The inefficiency creates greater inefficiency, and it can get out of hand easily.

What can be done to keep from getting overwhelmed at work? Rigorously capture, clarify, and track every commitment you make–little or big, urgent or not urgent, personal or professional–in a trusted system (not your head). Make a clear distinction between the projects you are actually committed to finish, as soon as you can, and the ones that should be moved to a Someday Maybe list. Review and update your active projects list regularly, to mature your intuitive ability to know what your limits really are. Decide immediately the next physical action required to move each active project forward (call, email, talk to, buy, etc.), and organize reminders of those actions based upon the critical context for the action (does it need to be done with a phone? a computer? at home? at the office?). Review those lists whenever you have any discretionary time, in those contexts.

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Additional Resources and Contact Information

•• Read or listen to the audio books of Getting Things Done ®, Ready for Anything ® and Making It All Work for more detail, specific questions, and inspiration. •• Explore GTD Connect® by logging into gtdconnect.com, David Allen’s online learning center for implementing and mastering GTD. You’ll likely take away many good ideas and helpful strategies from this guide. GTD Connect will help you take it further with: –– The GTD Getting Started and Refresher series –– Forums to ask David Allen and the coaches questions –– Monthly Webinars on the GTD best practices –– Setup Guides for setting up your Projects list(s), Next Actions lists and email –– GTD Podcasts and coaching videos to take on the go –– The GTD-Q® to assess where you are and tips for getting where you want to be •• Visit davidco.com, gtdconnect.com, and gtdtimes.com for lots of free support material, conversations about best practices, information about supportive products and services, and access to a global network of people sharing the best ideas about productivity. •• Sign up for the David Allen Company free newsletter (released every 3 to 4 weeks) called Productive Living at davidco.com. •• Test your typing skills and determine if you need to purchase tutoring software. Improve your skills if you are not typing 40 to 60 words per minute. Go to www.typingmaster.com to take a free, online test.

For additional information, we can be reached at: David Allen Company 407-F Bryant Circle Ojai, CA 93023 805-646-8432 Fax 805-646-7695 [email protected] www.davidco.com

davidallengtd.com ©1998, 2008, 2010 David Allen & Co. All rights reserved.

A vision without a task is but a dream; a task without a vision is drudgery. A vision and a task is the hope of the world. –From a church in Sussex, England, c.1730

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