“How easily you can make a mess is how truly productive you can be.

I don’t usually work in a neat fashion. Whether I’m writing an essay, arranging flowers, or making guacamole, I wind up strewing stuff all over the place. If you were to walk into my office while I was working or thinking about something, you’d likely see notes, books, and files strewn around somewhat randomly; a mind-map on my computer screen; doodles and words scrawled on my whiteboard. When I really get involved in something and my creative juices start flowing, it’s likely to look like something exploded in the middle of it. I have a singular focus, but it doesn’t seem orderly until it’s done. My best work happens that way. Yours will too.”—David Allen

To read the rest of David’s essay about the value of clear space for making a productive mess, subscribe to his free Productive Living Newsletter. Next issue comes out the end of May.

As an architect, I run a design-oriented architectural practice, along with several job roles, and consistently attempt to balance work and a family life.  Over the years, I have found that organizing next action items by context is difficult for me to implement for the following reasons:
1.    I tend to be very intuitive and think about next action items by project in lieu of context.  Once I disconnect the next action from a project, it seems to lose some relevance and importance.
2.    The knowledge worker is now mobilizing the tools of his trade; his “office” is redefined and flexible to temporarily become the location that he is inspired to work in.  The knowledge worker is part of the mobile workforce; therefore, next action items organized by contexts, such as: @ work, @ home, @ computer, @ iPhone are becoming more and more interrelated, and less segregated.

I agree with your theory in regard to deciding what next action item to accomplish by the energy level you have at the moment, or the time available.  I am also familiar with the work of Tony Schwartz on The Energy Project.  Have you given much thought to redefining contexts, organizing by project, and if so what do you recommend? What if you organize next action items by energy level, such as:  @ high energy level, @ medium energy level, or @ low energy level?

Any wisdom or advice to share? I am very interested in your response.

David’s Answer: Great questions. In truth, the only reason to organize by context is for streamlining decisions about your focus. In other words, it doesn’t make sense to keep having to consider options that are impossible. If something has to be done at your house, why include it in your options when you’re not at your house? But context, to your point, could mean ANY context – time required, energy required, type of activity, etc. There are times when I need to segment some of my At Computer stuff into a Creative Writing category, because I have to be in a certain frame of mind and location to do that kind of work. Before I go on a big trip, I create a “have to do before the trip” context. I had a CTO once who had an At BrainDead context, for those kinds of tasks to do, when he was toast. Etc. Etc.

Whatever works. Just doesn’t make a lot of sense to NOT be able to see something you could be doing (if you only had actions you could see when you opened up project notes); nor does it make sense to have to sort through options when they’re not an option. Otherwise it’s all fair game.

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Live webinars on GTD & iPhone are scheduled on these dates.

Wednesday, May 29, 10am Pacific Time

Thursday, July 11, 10am Pacific Time

There are two key questions I have found to be enormously helpful with priorities. Ask yourself:

• What’s the value in getting this done?
• What’s the risk if I don’t?

Try asking yourself those questions next time you’re staring at your list and deciding how to best invest your time and attention.
—Kelly

Kelly Forrister is a Senior Coach & Presenter with the David Allen Company.

Fast Company has an article on Why Productive People Have Empty Schedules. Buffett and other leaders emphasize the importance of saying “no” in taking control of your schedule.

GTD emphasizes the value of having a complete and current inventory of your commitments.  That way you’ll know what you can say yes to, and when saying no is more productive.

Open to all monthly and annual GTD Connect members. Tuesday, May 14, 10am—11am PT.

Not a member? Join for $48 and get this webinar and the wealth of content on GTD Connect for 30 days.

(Please note: live webinars like this one with David, podcasts, and public seminar special rates are not available for free guest pass members.)

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Answer from Coach James Stevenson: I agree that there are times when acting quickly might not be the best course of action. Your example of buying tires now instead of waiting for the Sunday paper or looking online for sales and coupons could cause me to spend more money than necessary (NOT the optimum outcome!). In reality there are many times in life when acting quickly would not serve us well.

Having said that, the Processing step within the GTD methodology is about deciding what needs to be done as opposed to actually doing it (unless it falls in the “2-minute rule”). It is the difference between Defining versus Doing. (See the article that I wrote for GTD Connect on that subject.) In keeping with the example of needing new tires, your Next Action may very well be “research great deals on new tires for my car.” For me, that Next Action would land on my @Computer list since I would be searching online for those deals. In other words, my true Next Action is not buying new tires, but finding the best deal on a new set of tires. Interestingly, once I found a great deal on new tires, my new next action would still not be “buy new tires,” but it would be scheduling time on my calendar to take my car to the shop for new tires…but that’s just me!

I hope you see that GTD encourages you to do the executive thinking up front and get clear on the very next thing you would actually do. And, as you point out, it isn’t always to jump in to action.
Bottom line is that your thinking is right on target.

James Stevenson presents GTD seminars and does one-on-one coaching for the David Allen Company.

There you are. Staring at your screen. Your smartphone in your hand, laptop in front of you and a pile of papers on your desk. All ‘to do’. As quickly and as accurately as possible. David Allen can help.

David Allen is well known for his simplicity. With a few simple rules you can change your behaviour and get a grip on your overloaded inbox. Allen prevents you from drowning in the flood of messages.

This interview covers the following topics:
1. How do you keep more than one million Twitter followers happy?
2. The simplicity and logic of the GTD methodology.
3. Besides practical also spiritual tips.
4. Why you should see your smartphone as a bucket.
5. In five steps from unrest to overview.

The interview is available here. (May take a couple of minutes to download.) And click the Play button below for an overview of Earned Attention.

“Thinking hard?” Hardly.

If you can walk, can you walk faster? Of course. Apply some effort, move those muscles more quickly, and your speed increases.

If you can think, can you think harder? I don’t think so.

In my experience “thinking hard” doesn’t work. I can still hear the voice of Mrs Hamm, my third-grade teacher, “c’mon kids, think hard.” We’re given the sense from an early age that thinking can increase in intensity by applying effort, just like walking.

Applying effort to thinking just seems to get in the way. Telling myself to “think harder” generates resistance and frustration, not better or more effective thinking. But that doesn’t mean I can’t think better, or more effectively.

What does seem to work is removing barriers.

I start by reducing distractions, both internal and external. If I’m feeling diverted by my thoughts, I do a quick “mind sweep.” I write down everything that’s on my mind, big or small, personal or professional. I need to call Ed regarding the contract. I want to talk to Debbie about booking the hotel for our holiday. The client needs the proposal by Friday. Just getting these things out of my head goes a long way toward reducing internal distractions.

I also consider external distractions. I check my surroundings. If I’m feeling distracted by my environment, I see first whether I can minimize or eliminate some sources of that distraction. I close my email client (yes, it can be done). I put my phone on silent. If possible, I get out of a distracting environment altogether. If that’s not possible, I recognize that my ability to get work done that requires deep thinking may be limited. In that case it might be better to focus on quick and easy wins that require less mental resource.

Once potential diversions are eliminated, in my experience thinking is really just about focus. I’m not “thinking hard,” I’m focused on something without distraction. The only “effort” is choosing what to focus on, and then maintaining that focus. Once I’m in that state, I find that effective thinking happens very naturally.

So the key here seems to be to get out of my own way, not about applying effort. It’s as if the secret to running faster were just a matter of reducing drag, not about muscle power. Create the environment to eliminate distractions, choose your focus, and watch the ideas flow.

You can read other blog posts and find out more about Next Action Associates, the only Certified International Partner for GTD in the UK, here.

Highlights from this Podcast:

• David gives an overview of the Getting Things Done (GTD) Process and how you can get started today.
• GTD is less about organization and more about “Freeing space in the mind”.
• Leaders at every level need to free up bandwidth to maximize their leadership potential.
• David discusses his famous “Mind Like Water” concept.

David Allen’s answer: Read Charles Duhigg’s book, The Power of Habit, about habit change. Build in the simple but potentially keystone habit of doing the hardest/most-resisted thing first, especially early in the day when you still have decision-making muscle. Look forward to the easier and more fun and interesting stuff you’ll do the rest of the day as reward.

Review your higher-level commitments to yourself, and ask yourself if you’re on track with them. If you are, then who cares whether you’re creating or completing.

Build a simple habit of finishing something (anything, little or big) before you do your “create” thing.

It’s natural to want to create a system for priority coding (like “A, B, C” or the flagging feature that’s showing up in a lot of software programs) to tell you the most important things to do. But it’s a short-term insurance policy that won’t give you the trust you need when the time comes to take action.

All the best,

DAVID’S FOOD FOR THOUGHT

LEAPING FROM HOPE TO TRUST

Every decision we make about what action to take at any point in time is an intuitive risk. I have twenty minutes before my next meeting—should I call Bob, work on chapter eight, or go get Susan’s opinion on the new software?

The over-simplicity of “A, B, C” or “high, medium, low” priorities or daily to-do lists can never really answer that question sufficiently for any of us. No matter how organized we get, how squeaky-clean our systems and our processes are, or how current our strategic and tactical planning is, we have to ultimately trust our hunches about the best thing for us to do at 10:43am or 3:22pm today. It’s true that we can utilize those prioritizing frameworks to good advantage, from time to time, to help us focus constructively. But to the degree they potentially limit our options unnecessarily and constrict spontaneous, creative thinking that is dynamic to the moment, they do us a disservice.

This excerpt is from the most recent issue of David’s “Productive Living” newsletter. It’s free and sent about every 4 weeks. You’ll find essays from David Allen, thought-provoking quotes, and productivity tips you can use every day.

The Guided GTD Weekly Review webinar is just what you need. It’s a 75-minute “working webinar” where you will be led step-by-step through what David Allen calls the “critical success factor” for GTD. Get a taste of Getting Clear (processing inboxes to zero), Getting Current (reviewing Project, Next Action, and Waiting For lists), and Getting Creative (being creative & courageous).

The webinar is this Thursday, April 25, from 10:00-11:15am Pacific time. Click here for more information and to register. At $49, it’s a great investment in your current and future productivity. Imagine how great next weekend will be after you’ve done a full weekly review this week.

The comments about the post are perhaps even more interesting than the post itself.

Have you committed all your GTD lists to the cloud? If so, how reliable is your access when you are out and about?

Then I heard David Allen say that creative, bright and sensitive people procrastinate the most. I perked up and thought to myself, “Hey, that’s me, smart and imaginative! How did he know? And how very kind of him to describe us (people who procrastinate) that way.”

The GTD methodology resolves procrastination. An example happened to me many years ago. The engine light flashed on in my car. My first thought was, “This is going to cost me thousands of dollars and that’s not in my budget.” I didn’t want to think past the doom and gloom of how much it was going to cost. Also, the idea of getting my car fixed meant figuring out so many other logistics: Do I take it to the Subaru dealer or my own mechanic? How do I coordinate carpooling for my family and myself? The general inconvenience and the unknown overwhelmed me. Every time I got in the car the engine light went on and triggered all those thoughts in my head. For a couple of seconds I would feel the anxiety, but then I distracted myself with something else and forgot about it.

Three months later, after seeing the engine light go on yet again, I thought to myself, “OK, this is ridiculous. I need to practice what I preach.” I took out some paper and asked myself what I would like the SUCCESSFUL OUTCOME to be. Just like the engine light went on in my car, a light went on in my head. I wrote down: R&D engine light in car. Then I asked myself, “What’s the NEXT ACTION to get there?” So I wrote down: Call the car dealership and ask them about the engine light. I noticed that even though I hadn’t made the call and didn’t know what the outcome of that call would be, I felt so much better. I took a moment to reflect on why suddenly I didn’t feel so overwhelmed and stressed about my engine light.

I realized that the two things I did that caused me to procrastinate were:
1) I had a negative definition of the outcome (too much money that I didn’t have in my budget).
2) I focused on the complexity involved in getting it fixed, which overwhelmed me, so I did nothing.

The two things I did to get it moving were:
1) I changed the negative definition of the outcome to a positive definition that motivated me. (R&D engine light in car.)
2) I clarified and defined the next action that simplified what I needed to do so I could relax about the complexity around it. (Call dealer about engine light in car.)

All this required was a few minutes of focused thinking. Within two weeks my engine light was handled, costing a whole lot less than what I had imagined. Now, this is just one small example from my life. But it has had an enormous impact on me because it is magnified by the professional and personal decisions, possibilities and responsibilities that come my way each day. It makes sense that this methodology can handle any amount of volume or intensity.

What can you unstick by simply asking, “What’s my desired outcome?” And then asking, “What’s the next action?”

Meg Edwards is a Senior Coach with the David Allen Company. You can read more articles like this in Coaches’ Connection on GTD Connect.

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Most people are not getting their email inboxes to zero on a regular basis, for one or more of these three reasons.
1. They don’t know how to process their email.
2. They don’t know where to put processed email, i.e. how to organize it.
3. They don’t create the time to process their email to zero.

The GTD Managing Email webinar on April 18 addresses all three of these reasons. This webinar will share the best practices of managing email and getting your inbox to zero on a regular basis. The focus will include strategies for dealing with backlog email, structuring email to support action management, the GTD models for processing and organizing email, and storing reference information.

Yes, you can achieve inbox zero!

Click on Start Prezi in the center of the screen.  When it starts in a couple seconds, you can advance the slides manually by clicking on the arrow, or choose Autoplay from the lower-right. You’ll see it zoom into each step, and you may still want to click the full screen option.  Enjoy!

Hi Folks,

Is it possible to still be productive when you feel like you are drowning in a culture of interruptions? You bet. But, the strategies won’t come from traditional time-management approaches. My Food For Thought this month shares my approach to interruptions and how to effectively manage them versus how to just tolerate them.

All the best,

DAVID’S FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Curing Interruptitis

I often get this question/pushback as I’m teaching: “All this personal productivity methodology sounds fine and good, but what about all those interruptions that plague me during my day?”

There are plenty of traditional “time-management” suggestions about dealing with “time wasters.” But I’d rather not waste time dealing with time wasters. For most of the people I interact with, the standard tips are either self-evident and in play, or impossible.

So I don’t spend a lot of time on time management tips. Not that they don’t have value—many of them do. But there are a billion exceptions to the rules. I have a more radical suggestion. Two actually.

1. Keep the inventory of everything you have to do current, complete, effectively organized, regularly reviewed, and instantly retrievable at a moment’s notice, while maintaining regular thinking about the projects and bigger things that you really want to accomplish. Then you can much more confidently and maturely differentiate between inappropriate disturbances and unexpected opportunities or useful interactions as they show up.

2. Get your act together about how easily and quickly you can take in any input, store it safely, and effortlessly glide back to whatever you were or now need to be doing, without having to process or complete it in that moment, knowing it will get handled at a better time.

• Keys to Getting Things Done on April 11
• Managing Email on April 18
• Guided GTD Weekly Review on April 25

Click here to learn more about GTD webinars.

Too busy? Maybe you’re procrastinating

After a busy day, are you leaving the office tired and satisfied? Or just tired? You’ve spent the day in nearly constant activity. And you may have been procrastinating the whole time.

“Huh?” you say, “I can’t have been procrastinating. I’ve been really busy.”

Here’s the thing: when we’re busy we can easily trick ourselves into thinking that all of that activity means that we’re not procrastinating. We’re busy, sure, but we’re not focused on the things that should really have our attention. If someone were to tap us on the shoulder and say, “that thing you’re doing, is that the best use of your attention right now?” we would hesitate to agree.

We’re busy procrastinating.

The explosion of digital channels and smart mobile technology makes it very easy to integrate busy-ness and procrastination. There are a lot of “channels that lead to you.” Email, sure. But also Facebook and Twitter and instant messaging and LinkedIn and…

The inputs in these channels come at us thick and fast. That makes it tempting to let the real-time arrivals drive us. Procrastination is always only a click away.

Ask yourself: what are the odds that that e-mail at the top of your inbox is the best thing to focus on next? If not and you choose to deal with it anyway, then you’re being driven by “latest and loudest,” letting your channels dictate your priorities.

Or maybe your procrastination looks like this: you’re snacking on quick wins. This is what I quite often see when people say they’re “cleaning up email.” They’re scrolling down into the older strata of their inbox, looking for things that can be handled quickly, ideally without much thought or energy. But in doing that I’ll often see them scroll right past something that’s strategic, critical even. But it’s too big, or too complex. So it doesn’t get any attention.

If you’re struggling with procrastination, then what’s to be done? To get it under control, we need to make getting moving on the right things as attractive and friction-free as possible.

You can read other blog posts and find out more about Next Action Associates, the only Certified International Partner for GTD in the UK, here.