Meghan Wilker–mom, social media maven, and GTD’er-extraordinaire, brings her tips for surviving the holidays GTD-style. Enjoy!

This weekend kicked off the holiday season which, for most people, is synonymous with utter chaos. Often, work projects need to be wrapped up by end-of-year, we are inundated with party invitations from friends, clients, and vendors and — on top of all that — family commitments multiply. Oh, and then there’s that whole “buying presents” thing, which is made all the more fun by the current economy (aka “these uncertain times”).

Here’s how GTD can help you maintain your sanity this holiday season:

Calendar Kung Fu
If you haven’t already gotten a calendar management black belt, use the next two months to earn it. My favorite moves include:

• When party invitations arrive, put the party on your calendar immediately with a question mark at the end of it. This is your placeholder until you RSVP. Then, drop the invitation into your Action Support (or Tickler) folder and review your invitations once a week or so. Seeing all the placeholders on your calendar will help you decide which events to attend: Can I really make it to that client happy hour if we’ve got parties with our close friends the next night? Don’t overextend yourself by feeling like you “have” to attend everything you’re invited to; make decisions about what to attend based on which events are important to you. Sound snobby? It’s not. Your time is precious; don’t waste it!
• If you’re using a digital calendar, use the Notes field to remind yourself of anything you’re supposed to bring to the party, who your babysitter is for the evening, etc. If you’re using a paper calendar, your tickler file is a great place for these reminders.
• If you haven’t already found a good way to share calendars with other family members, now is a great time to start. Much pain and suffering can be avoided when you can see, at a glance, that a holiday party conflicts with Junior’s piano lesson and your spouse’s business trip. Here’s an article I wrote on sharing calendars with Google but, if you can get everyone in the family to keep it updated, a paper calendar can work just as well.
• Block out time on your calendar for gift shopping so you don’t find yourself wandering the mall on Christmas Eve in a panic. (Trust me, I’m speaking from experience.) If you’re a big shopper or bargain hunter, put reminders of big sales on your calendar so you don’t forget them.
• If you’re hosting parties, block out the prep time you need in the days and hours before the party.

Tickle Me Elmo (er, GTD)
The Tickler file can really save your bacon at this time of year: event tickets, invitations, directions, coupons and gift cards* — anything that you need on a specific day belongs in your Tickler. GTD Times just recently posted a great article on the importance and usefulness of the Tickler.

I also use it to “mail” reminders and affirmations to myself. If the holidays are a time of year that stress you out, it can be nice to get a soothing quote or reminder once in a while. Toss it somewhere in your Tickler and surprise yourself.

*If you know you’re going shopping on a certain day. Otherwise, I have a Gift Cards & Coupons folder on my desk where I centralize everything. I check that folder before I head out on any shopping excursion.

Simplify Shopping
If you have a fair number of people to buy for, consider creating a Google doc to keep track of your list. As ideas occur to you jot them on your Google doc. You can share the doc with others (like your spouse or other family members) and cross things off the list once they’re purchased. This helps spread the shopping load and takes a lot of noise out of your head.

Knowing what you want to buy ahead of time also allows you to do a bunch of homework on where to get the best price. It’s also a great place to keep track of links to places you’ve found to buy the product online. Then, on your “shopping day” you can place as few orders as possible (thus reducing the number of shipments and, in some cases, reducing shipping fees and/or packaging).

Weekly Reviews
Once things start getting nuts, Weekly Reviews are more important than ever. Don’t let anything encroach on that time; use it to clear your head and recalibrate. One of the most wonderful ways to use the Weekly Review at this time of year is to remember your priorities. Looking over your Areas of Focus might remind you that what you really want is to spend more time with your kids, not more money on them (which simplifies that whole shopping thing a lot more!). Or, it may help you decide to attend a client gathering instead of your neighbor’s cocktail party because you’re trying to do more professional networking. Whatever it is, the Weekly Review can often help remind you of where you want to spend your limited time and energy.

Happy holidays!

Meghan Wilker is a regular community contributor to GTD Times. She’s also been featured in David Allen’s In Conversation series on GTD Connect, spotlighting some of the most fascinating people in our network of GTD’ers around the world.

Dear David,

I’m probably in the camp of those who need GTD the least and who benefit from it the most. I’ve always been an “organized” person and have been praised for my ability to get things done and not let things “fall of my plate” or “radar screen” depending on the metaphor you prefer. That said, my life has taken a turn for the more complex and chaotic recently and I’ve found GTD to be the thing that helps me keep it together. A while back, my mother was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. (For those who don’t know, this is Stage IV cancer where it has spread throughout the body and is incurable. Amazingly, with the treatments available, women are able to sometimes live for years with this diagnosis.) I am my mother’s caregiver, with no other family support. As you may imagine, the complexity of managing all of the new doctors/specialists, medical information and appts (along with my already busy career and life) is incredible. And just to make things fun, I live in one state and my office is in another state, so I’m on the road a lot.

Here, specifically, are the behaviors that GTD has influenced and I find particularly helpful:

• I take notes on my laptop at all of my mother’s doctors appts. This makes it easy to find information later and to capture the next actions quickly. Also, it allows me to copy and paste the notes into an email to my mother so she can reference the information later.
• I have an “area of responsibility” called mom, and track all of my projects related to her care in one place in my system.
• I keep items that she will take care of herself (like filling a prescription) on my @waiting list to make sure that nothing falls through the cracks.
• I keep an agenda list for each of mom’s doctors and add questions as they come up. This way they are handy in and in one spot when we arrive at the appointments.
• I do bi-weekly reviews of the “Mom” related projects and actions with Mom (like a sub-set of the weekly review) so that we’re up to date on our active projects and commitments related to her care.

All of this helps me make sure that I’m caring for her the best I can and focus my mental energy on enjoying the time I have with her. Another benefit is that, in this rough economy, I’ve actually had two doctors offer me jobs on the spot when they realize how well I’m organizing all the details of my mother’s care and ensuring that nothing falls through the cracks!

Thanks for your books and all of the great tools! I refer to the job aids and listen to the audio resources on a regular basis.

Best regards,
Tara Nofziger

If you have a GTD story to share with our readers, we’d love to hear from you at editor@gtdtimes.com.

There are 3 components to consider with your projects:
1. Tracking the outcome on a Projects list(s) that serves as an master inventory of your Projects.  For example, “Complete 2010 Budget.”
2. Tracking the project support, future actions and reference for your projects.  For example, budget research you have been gathering, than you will use when working on the project.
3.  Tracking the next actions for the projects, on your context-sorted next action lists.  For example, “Call Jose in marketing for his dept. budget figures,” or “Book meeting to go over taxes.”

The key to your next action lists is that they only hold your next actions. So if you have a project that has 10 steps, but only 1 of those is a next action (meaning you have all of the information you need to take the action) then only that 1 would be organized on a next action list.  Many people will have some kind of keyword or enough in the description of the next action to tell them what project it relates to. And some programs (like the GTD Outlook Add-In or eProductivity for Lotus Notes) will link your next actions to your Projects automatically.  All 9 other actions that you cannot do yet are project support–until they become next actions.

Our latest newsletter, called Productive Living, has an essay and coaching tips by David Allen on projects.   There is also a free podcast on How to Organize Project Actions.  And, there are a wealth of resources on GTD Connect, our online learning center, about projects.

Each of my “friends” fit into one of these categories. Note that I do not consider a romantic partner, or children if I had them, to be friends. Similarly, if you have a singular “best friend” that person need not be on the list. These persons are not comparable to others and are each their own category.

1. Closest and current friends. These are my dearest friends and are, fortunately, a current and regular part of my life. Contrast with Category 2
2. Closest but not-current friends. I value these friends equally to Category 1 friends but life circumstances have deprived me of enjoying them as I wish. The main reason is that they live far away. I know that if circumstances improved they would be Category 1.
3. Forever-friends. I want these people to be friends for life, but they do not have the same level of value-sharing as I do with Category 1 & 2 friends. Many of these friends are from various schools, my childhood, etc. Some of them were Category 1/2 friends but we grew apart. Many relatives might be in this category, as well.
4. Current acquaintances. I know these people and like them, but my interaction is very context-specific. If that context changed the relationship would likely end. Examples are neighbors, some co-workers, work-out partners or sports team members, and service people like your local butcher, bartender, storekeepers, hair stylists, etc.
5. Not-current acquaintances. These are people I know and like, but they are not actively in my life and presently I do not expect to do anything to change that. Whenever I run in to them, I am glad to see them. Examples would be people I see if I happen to visit their towns (or vice versa), or see them at a party of mutual friends. However, I do try to reach out via email or calls on occasion.

These categories, as you can imagine, form a pyramid: Categories 4 & 5 are massive; 2 & 3 are greatly diminished in size, and 1 is very small.

This list is practical for when you need to send Christmas cards, announcements, etc. But the really important reasons to do this are:

1. By categorizing your friends, you can then allocate your time and resources to your friends in proportion to their level of importance. Recently I told a Category 2 friend how much he matters to me, and I deeply regret the deeply between us but I have the highest esteem and affection. That made me feel good, and I think it made him feel good too.
2. It helps you to evaluate your friendships objectively rather than emotionally. For example, I felt very bad for years for not keeping in touch with my childhood best friend. Through categorizing him, I realized my emotions for him were misplaced: he was not a Category 2 friend any more. At best he is a Category 3. While that caused sadness to me, because I realized we were no longer close, my emotions readjusted and now I am content with this fact.
3. It is dynamic. If you have time for more friendships, you can look to promoting someone one by engaging with them more. If you are too busy, you can reduce the amount of time you are spending with Category 3, for example.
4. It triggers action: review the list and do something for friends you have not contacted in a while. A phone call, email, ordering a gift, etc., may be all you can do.

Finally, if you have trouble deciding where a person fits — say, a Category 2 or 3, or a 3 or 4, consider how they relate in importance to people in those categories. This is how I re-categorized my childhood best friend: I had to be honest with myself and recognize he did not hold the same status to me as did the others in Category 2.

Try it and let me know what you learned.

Chip Joyce is a business development expert, regular community contributor to GTD Times and member of GTD Connect.  You might enjoy his other posts too. You can also reach him by email.

“The Tickler File demands only one-second-per-day new behavior to make it work, and it has a payoff value exponentially greater than the personal investment.” – David Allen

It’s easy to set one up.  Get 43 folders and label 12 for the months of the year and 31 for the possible days of the month.  Or, get a snazzy pre-printed set from us.  Read chapter 7 of the GTD Book for the details on how to work it, or grab this free article.

Still not convinced it’s for you or what you might use it for?  Here’s what David shared about what you might find in his:

• Train ticket for the day I need it
• Web printout someone gave me about a product I might want, but I didn’t have the right credit card on me – I would later
• Agenda/address/contact page for client session
• Hotel confirmation fax
• Hotel confirmation email printed out
• Store receipt from a store for shipped things–until I receive it
• Confirmation letter of closing an automatically billed account until next statement to verify
• Inspirational postcard I wrote myself from a retreat
• Agenda for a meeting which includes a speech I’m giving
• Stuff I don’t have time to deal with until I’m back from my next trip
• Workbook to edit, for 3 weeks ahead of the next seminar, for capturing all the edits between now and then
• Canadian money for the day I’m leaving for trip with Canada on it
• A letter and brochure about a book I’ve written a chapter for, announcing it’s launch several months from now
• Letter from publisher of a magazine, saying they’re going to do another book for small businesses, want to include my chapter. I asked them for more info, they said they’d know more in a few months, so I put their letter in the next months’s folder, and keep moving it…
• Order for a phone accessory – printed receipt, for the day I’ll be back in town – should have received it by then
• Copy of a fax I sent to my 401K guy, with info about new options, for two weeks later when I’ll have had more time to think about what we might want to be doing next year.
• Estimated tax payment slips and envelopes (quarterly) – state and federal
• Last jury summons, a year from now, so I know that it’s been a year
• printout of radio interview schedule – move to next date one is scheduled (w/details about who’s calling/station/etc)
• last day to purchase confirmed (held) upgraded ticket on AA to London
• New cable channel line-up guide that goes into effect in a couple of weeks
• printout of yoga class schedule for the first Wednesday I might be able to make Suza’s class
• treasure map
• printout of web order to show up past when I expect it to arrive
• car detailing table – printed and put in the 6-month interval
• written notice from bank about new passwords for online access, to go into effect soon
• printout of my irrigation clock schedule, for the day I’ll be back from Europe… need to reset from the times I changed while we were gone
• printout of things to do specifically with my bonsai – e.g. remove air layer pot from hackberry in Sept.; consider air layering the Chinese elm next January
• printout of an email from guy who wants to connect with me at Toronto conference – he’s also speaking. I said call me that day.
• Golf club newsletter, with next dates for upcoming events
• iPod, that I use for seminars, for when I’m going to need it for a public seminar next.
• Emails from HR about birthdays coming up this month – printed and put ahead of the next one on the list

Like most of you, I have a lot going on.  Between my writing and the regular day job (the one that I enjoy a ton and it pays regularly), I’d taken on a couple of speaking engagements and started work on a book.  Apparently, I also have a wife and daughter.  I found I wasn’t doing my Weekly Review because my weeks seemed to blend into each other.    Then when I did sit down to do it, I’d felt shameful because I had made limited progress in several areas, but hadn’t finished anything to completion.  That’s when I realized I had fallen into the dangerous realm of “professional crastination” – or procrastination for short.

Procrastination isn’t all bad…but it’s definitely not all good, either.  It can be a bit akin to quicksand if you’re not clear in mind because the more you struggle with it, the deeper you sink into it.  I’m sure everyone has noticed when you are in the state of “mind like water” it’s easier to make headway, but not so much when it’s anything thicker!  So I did the smart thing.  I stood still.  I did nothing but take time for myself, which I really wasn’t doing – and hadn’t been for some time (probably about knee-deep in quicksand terms).  As I did this, I was able to sort out all the stuff that didn’t matter and get to the heart of what did.  Then I started moving.

Soon enough, I was out the quicksand and back on solid ground.  It’s far easier to take stock when you’re on steady footing than when you’re in uncertain territory.  I was back on track and flow had resumed.  The very next thing I did was to sit down and write this piece.

We all need certainty and uncertainty in our lives; they are two of our fundamental needs as human beings.  Our productivity and – ultimately- our progress are affected by how we manage those times where either of these needs present themselves.  GTD can be a valuable tool in that struggle.

Of this I am certain.

Mike Vardy is an accomplished, self-professed productivity and procrastination expert, as well as regular contributor to GTD Times. With his humor and wisdom, we hope you enjoy his perspective on doing things…eventually. Read more from Mike.

Danny,

It was great to see spend the day learning how to take the GTD process from 50% to 100%.  I was so energized by the training that I did not go to bed Friday night and let me tell you what has happened in a short amount of time:

• Went on GTD Connect and reviewed the process once again from start to finish
• Revised my Outlook to reflect the GTD way
• Kept my inbox at zero
• Did a mindsweep
• Created an in folder for my wife for her to do a mindsweep as well and place in the folder
• Saturday went to Staples and bought everything I needed to create the “bins” which I viewed on the GTD Slice of Life (on GTDConnect.com) to see how people set up their desks as well.
• Collected everything on top, below, in drawers and around my desk and have processed to about 50% with target of getting in to zero today.

Let me tell you the impact this has made already.  I went to my daughters soccer game on Sunday and actually watched her.  I silenced the emails on the BlackBerry as I trusted and knew I would get to zero first thing Monday so nothing was more important.  She had the best game of the season.  Her coach commented that he wanted to know what I fed her for lunch.

After leaving the match I asked my daughter why she played so well.  Her response brought me to tears yesterday as it is now.  She said “Dad, this was the first time you were watching my game and not paying more attention to your BlackBerry.” This from a 10 year old.  It shows that GTD is more than just a system, it is a program that allows us to experience life at such a deeper level than I could have imagined prior to Friday.

I can’t thank you and David Allen enough on this program.  I am convinced that David should receive a Nobel Peace Prize for this.  I will continue to strive for mind like water as I move forward.

-Kevin

If you have a story you’d like to share with us, please send it along to editor@gtdtimes.com.

GTD for some is a life changer. I can tell you that I personally went from work drawers full of paper piles to an organized filing system and, every once in a while, a clear desk.  But GTD isn’t about organization. It’s about capturing your commitments in a trusted system and using your now free brain to make decisions about what you should be doing right this instant.

When people ask me to recommend a tool for keeping up with business contacts, I don’t have a piece of software I recommend, but rather a systematic approach that could be used in a variety of programs or even on paper.

Let me explain. You may find yourself at a business function. It could be a meeting, a local event, or a national conference. You will probably meet new people, have a few conversations, make a few light-hearted promises, and collect a pocket full of business cards.  The meeting is not where people experience the most stress, it’s the next day. The next day you get back to your desk, open your drawer, and throw in a pile of cards. You’ll deal with them later, right?

If you are trying to develop or grow a professional network, this is a huge mistake. What GTD teaches you is that each one of those cards is a mental commitment you’ve made with yourself. You’ll spend more time and energy worrying about , “who was that guy I met?” and “what did I say I would send her?” then you will if you just process the cards right away.

Instead of throwing those cards in your drawer, get yourself a card scanner (they are cheap). Scan those cards into whatever system you use (Outlook, Apple Address book, Lotus Notes, day planner, etc.)

As you verify the scanned information for each card, do a brain dump into the notes section. Where did you meet this person? What did you talk about? Capture every bit of information or minor detail about this person you can. Get it all out of your head.

Now ask yourself whether there are any “next actions” related to this person. If there are, capture them in your next actions list.

Example: “look for old boating book for Ned Smith”

If it is your desired outcome to develop a meaningful and productive business relationship with this person, create a project on your projects list called “Relationships: Ned Smith.” That way you have captured your desired outcome somewhere you can review it. During each weekly review, you can determine the next action needed to move that relationship forward.

The GTD system recommends that you have a series of lists you review on a regular basis. One list you should have is a relationship “hit list.” This is a list of your 10-15 most important business contacts. You should review this list monthly to make sure you “ping” each of these contacts (send them a note, call them, take them to lunch) at least once per month.

Using GTD will improve your ability to develop and maintain successful business relationships. Get those cards out of your drawer. Get those commitments out of your head. And get them into a trusted system.

Matt Handal is a marketing professional who offers actionable advice on marketing, business development, and productivity at www.HelpEverybodyEveryday.com. He is an avid GTD’er and can be reached by email.

Before we get started, I should identify the basic function of the software.  MyCaption allows the user to create and annotate Tasks, Appointments, Memos, Email, SMS messages, at the touch of a button.  The process is such that after the software captures the user’s vocal recording, that data is sent to the company’s servers, where it is delivered to the BlackBerry device as one of the above formats.

So how can it work for GTD?First, as a Collection Tool.  Let’s say I’m out and about and I have a thought that I want to remember to watch David Allen’s latest Webinar on GTD Connect.  I would push the side button on my BlackBerry (which I’ve specifically mapped to the Task function) and a recording interface pops up.  I can then speak for up to 3 minutes, offering whatever information I might need (”watch David’s Webinar on Priorities”).  What I then receive back within 5 minutes is a notice that MyCaption has created a new Task, and I’m given the option to go to Tasks.

Notice however, that I identify this function as Collection.  That’s because I cannot yet place that Task within a Category, neither can I create a new Category if I wanted to.  In speaking with the developers of MyCaption, this is a function that they are currently investigating, but for now it’s unavailable.  So after creating this new uncategorized Task, I’ve essentially captured “stuff” that needs to be processed.  What I will do then is to sync my BlackBerry at some later point in time, and the Task shows up in my Outlook Tasks uncategorized (at the top of my view) and I now can Process this new input as I would any other new piece of collection: by asking “what is it?” “is it actionable”, etc.  Using my previous example, I would open the Task and categorize it as something to do “@Online”.  The inability to categorize while you speak is clearly a limitation, however the MyCaption solution is much more streamlined than paper collection as far as I’m concerned.

While that describes my primary use of the software, there are other features that many of you may find very valuable.  I can speak a reply (or replay all) to an email.  I can do the same with SMS text.  I can create an appointment through speech, you can annotate a Task so that my speech shows up as text in the “Notes” section of the Task.  My lifestyle is not so mobile that I find all these features useful, but as I hear of more and more BlackBerry users giving up their laptops on the road, these features may end up being mission-critical life-savers.

I should note that there can be a delay to receiving input (Tasks, etc.) from the MyCaption servers, and that can prove sticky if you’re trying to cleanly shift your thinking from one area to another, only to have the first area come back at you, but to me that’s a minor distraction, and the functionality of MyCaption well-compensates this downside.

There’s also the requirement that for email, recipients need to be either identified as MyCaption recipients on the BlackBerry, or your Contacts need to be loaded on the MyCaption servers, also a minor downside.

All in all, I find MyCaption to be one of the better GTD tools around for the BlackBerry.

Wayne Pepper is a senior presenter and coach with the David Allen Company.  While this review is based on his personal and objective opinion as a GTD expert and BlackBerry user, he received a free copy of this software to do this review.  Please note that this is not an official endorsement from the David Allen Company. We are not affiliated with MyCaption.  But they have a cool tool that works well, and we think you might like it too.

David Allen’s answer: 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 e-mail 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 e-mail. If you don’t have those standards, I’ll bet it’s not just email that has those problems.

More resources on GTD & email:

• Becoming Master of your Email Inbox article
• Getting Email Under Control article
• The GTD Setup Guides
• Managing Email Webinar on GTD Connect

What standards have you, your team or your organization agreed upon to make email more effective and efficient?

Salespersons are trained to sell, not to consult. So most people do not do well in “consultative sales” despite what they said when they were interviewed.

Fortunately, those of you who discovered GTD have two great tools at your disposal. Specifically, they are David Allen’s “Project Planning Trigger List” and the “Natural Planning Model.” Learn to master those two tools and you are sure to increase your sales. [Editor note: you can find both models in the Getting Things Done book, or in this laminated set of GTD System Guides.]

For the truth is that your customer is probably overwhelmed by the project at hand. Maybe they identified a problem and finally got the boss’s go-ahead to look into purchasing a solution, and that is why you are in a dialogue with them. You and a few of your competitors, that is. Competitors who have products that might well be better than yours, or cheaper, or which have a better brand. Competitors who probably have a dashing salesperson with a bigger expense account and box seats and a country club membership.

The only thing you have to offer is to be recognized as the problem solver, and a lot of that includes identifying what exactly is the problem and to get there you need to ask a lot of really brilliant questions that your client has not even thought of. Let us consider an example of two competing salespersons.

Imagine yourself wanting to hire a contractor to put in a swimming pool for your backyard. One salesperson drives his dazzling new BMW M5 up your driveway. Being president of the largest pool contractor in the state has really paid off! He tells you about his millions in sales and what celebrities are sipping umbrella drinks in his masterpieces at this very moment, and his brochures are slick. You wonder, is that Jennifer Aniston floating in that pool? He then measures the yard, careful not to get his Brioni suit soiled, and then asks you what your budget is. Judging by his expression, obviously you are not going to be in the Jennifer Aniston pool. He smiles, though, and he tells you that you can have a pool of a certain size, but for 50% more money you can get a nicer look. He leaves some of those brochures for you, writes a quote and hands it to you. He must be going, he says. Will and Jada’s pool is finished and he needs to stop by for cocktails with them.

Then another salesperson comes in driving his F-150. He has a worn binder with product specs and photos, and the pages are mangled. Clearly he has taken the photos himself, and there is nothing near Jennifer or Will or Jada in any of them. He looks at your yard and then asks if you all can go into the kitchen and sit around the table to talk. He asks a lot of questions and takes notes. He asks things like:

• Who will be enjoying the pool? Oh, you and your wife, and the kids. Let’s get them to talk about what they hope for. How about the grandparents? Oh, they come over on weekends? Do you want to get an idea about whether they think it would be fun to have a pool?
• What is your plan for your house? Do you plan on staying for a few years? Every plan to expand the house? What’s the overall look you want?
• Who will be involved in decision making when the project is under-way? How do you want to be involved? How do you want us to communicate?
• How much money were you thinking of spending? Do you want to get the best pool you can afford or do you want to consider less expensive options too? Are you concerned about seeing an increase in value in your property, should you decide to sell?
• Do you have anything going on in the next fews weeks that might interrupt with the installation, such as parties, neighborhood activities, vacations, etc.?
• What is going to make you confident you got what you wanted, that we delivered as promised?
• Is there anyone else who needs to give approvals? Neighborhood boards and associations, etc.?
• Your neighbors are going to see you having a great time in the pool. Do you want to tell them your plans and make sure they know they are welcome to come over too?
• Do you need to check with the city ordinances? How about with your homeowners insurance policy?
• How about if we mark off the area where the pool will be and make sure you are comfortable with losing that land for other purposes, and we’ll show you how we will have to get the equipment in here too, OK?
• Would you like to read about the various technologies we have to offer, and hear my opinion on the pumps, filters, lights and surfaces that we can consider?
• Are you active in any groups whom you might want to entertain with a pool party? That’s a great way to start enjoying the pool to its fullest.
• Let’s make sure we understand the risks involved: we are going to be moving a lot of heavy equipment and tearing up the land, so we’ll make sure you understand what is involved. You need to be comfortable with it, OK?
• Have you thought about what a perfect pool experience would be? What would be a bad experience too? Let’s really spend some time thinking about those scenarios and see what we can learn before making any decisions, OK?

Tell me who’s just won your trust? (If you like the first salesperson, quit reading here.) I hope you like the second salesperson!  For he doesn’t just know about pools–he is really looking out for you. He is thinking about the impact of a pool in all aspects of your life. He is thinking of how it effects your family, your community, your friends, your finances, your plans for the house, etc. He has just made you think about things you never considered–and they are all important. You just found the swimming pool genius, and no one has a chance to sell you a pool except for him, right?

How do you position yourself in that way as a salesperson for your company and product? The good news is you do not need to be a genius. (The other good news is you can have a BMW M5, celebrity clients, and still be a great salesperson.)

The Project Planning Trigger List is a great place to start. It is a brain-storming tool: it asks a lot of great questions to consider in order to clarify the project. If you have a planning meeting with the client and lead a brain-storming session based on these questions, your credibility is going to sky-rocket. Because not only are you going to uncover some real gems in the discussion, but you are going to demonstrate that you are a big-picture thinker. If you are selling to a company, you have proved you are thinking like the CEO because you are looking out for the company as a whole. The way you do that is to ask questions about the following.

• Resources: whose input is needed, whose could you use, what resources might you need
• Executive issues: how it relates to overall company strategy
• Administration: how are we going to manage this project
• Finance: what funds are available, what are the costs, what are the potential payoffs, etc.
• Operations: how does this fit in with other operations of the company, and how are we going to ensure delivery
• Quality: how to monitor progress
• Politics: whose buy-in is needed, and how to get it
• Stakeholders – considerations?: the board, stockholders, employees, vendors, customers, community?
• Legal: any issues to consider?
• Space/facilities/equipment: what do you need and how do you get it?
• Research: why might you need to know?
• Public relations: should you let others know what you are doing?
• Risks: what could happen and can you handle it?
• Creating thinking: push the limits of your thinking, consider wild outcomes, both good and bad

Compare these two lists and you will see I adapted the Project Planning Trigger List to the fictitious example of how to sell a swimming pool. I bet when you read my questions about the swimming pool you thought, “that Joyce guy must sell swimming pools!” Actually, I hardly know anything about swimming pools. I just picked a product randomly as an example, and I used the Project Planning Trigger List to help me think of some really good questions. Imagine what you can do with it by applying it to the products and services you really sell.

(Please look forward to Part 2, in which I will explain how to apply the Natural Planning Model to sales.)

Chip Joyce is a business development expert, regular contributor to GTD Times and member of GTD Connect.  You might enjoy his other posts too. You can also reach him by email.

In the original Getting Things Done, much of the focus was on paper systems with an electronic complement. These days much of our world is the opposite.

I try to have as much as possible in electronic form with a paper complement. Having things on a computer or PDA allows it to be searchable and easily changed from one category to another. But just because we can search for something doesn’t mean we should. Why not just know where it is?Despite limitations of paper systems they do have the advantage of offering visual and tactile boundaries where a computer based system allows data to stagnate easily and just be searched. This clogs not only the system but our heads!

I have several programs on my iPhone dedicated to organizing and sorting information.  But I found myself using all of them all of the time. That didn’t make sense – I don’t open my file cabinet every day. My electronic boundaries had broken down! To-Dos had meandered to my references and journals had infiltrated my to-do lists. I found myself adding projects and actions to my reference memos because I had that program open but we would never add a To-Do into our file cabinet! So, electronic boundaries needed to be set and implemented as everything had turned into a digital inbox. Here are some tips to clean the digital house.

I use SplashNotes for my contextual action lists and ShoveBox for my digital file cabinet. ShoveBox is really great because it can handle PDF files, pictures, web archives and bookmarks as well as text. It also syncs with it desktop companion. The calendar program (iCal) is obviously for items that need to be scheduled. I found the Notes program to be less than useful so for me that is relegated to short text for mental affirmation and meditation. I also use a program called The Daily Tracker for habits that I am forming or breaking. All of these are on the first page or the dock.

By putting an item in the appropriate program my head felt immediately better because it knew where to look! I didn’t need to check my electronic file cabinet every day. A quick morning scan of the calendar and a check of my contextual action lists was all I needed. After a workout I know to enter it into the Daily Tracker for logging. If I encounter dead time I can open Notes and review my meditations.

With all of my content in order – and it does take time just as the paper review process – the GTD system can continue to flow into the modern era and beyond.

Peter Tambroni is currently a classical musician, music teacher,writer and photographer in suburban Chicago. He holds degrees from the Crane School of Music and the University of Illinois at Urbana – Champaign. He is currently vice president of the School District 83 Teacher’s Association.  Peter maintains and writes for MostlyBass.com and EvolvingEducator.com.  With his busy schedule, using GTD methods is an absolute must!

What’s different about this map versus the diagram that’s in the GTD book?

The diagram in the book (page 120) only includes Collect, Process and Organize phases. This new one also includes Review, Horizons of Focus, 3-Fold Nature of Work and Criteria for Choosing.  It’s a very cool map describing how all parts of GTD intersect and work together.

Can I still use the one in the book?

Absolutely. You can also grab the original one for free here.  Nothing in the methdology changed–but the new Map expands on it in a much more detailed and comprehensive way to tie it all together.

What’s on the DVD?

The DVD is David Allen walking you through the map, giving his coaching and guidance on what each section means and how to work it.  And it’s got some soothing music to reduce your stress, if nothing else. Check out the sample video.

Questions? Please write to customerservice@davidco.com.

NetCentrics has released an update for the Getting Things Done Outlook Add-In, Version 3.0.40.  This update is critical and provides you with the latest version of the Getting Things Done Add-In and offers the highest levels of stability.  This update needs to be installed before the Daylight Savings Time change (November 1, 2009) in the U.S. This update corrects the issues of the Add-In losing its activation status during Daylight Savings changes and time zone changes.

You can get it directly from the NetCentrics site. Note: please be sure to contact NetCentrics, the developer,  if you need support on this. They are the best ones to answer your questions (versus DavidCo.)  We just know so many of you use the product so we wanted to pass this along.

“A vast majority of professionals are in “emergency scanning” mode. Their self-management consists of checking for and acting on the loudest immediacies – in email, in the hallways and on the phone. Everything else is shoved to the side of the desk, and to the back of their mind. Because they’re focused only on “priorities”, and are paying attention only to the most in their- face stuff, everyone else has to raise the noise level to “emergency” mode to get any audience at all.”  – David Allen, Wired UK article July 2009.

Other free articles from David on Wired UK you might like too:   Be creative amid chaos,   How to reap what you sow,   How to make space to think,    How to know what to do with your life and   How to cope without your autopilot

Hi David,

I have enjoyed reading Getting Things Done and Making It All Work.  I own an architecture firm in Michigan, and have been implementing your GTD system into my work and life plan.  I am very close to a smooth-flowing GTD process; However, I have one obstacle to overcome, and I would greatly appreciate your recommendation…

I use MindManager 8 as an outstanding tool for identifying, clarifying and planning project strategies (drilling down to next action items).  I use “map linker” to bring in next action items to a MindManager dashboard I created to encompass the GTD process.  The map provides context categories, and subdivided categories to group my next action items (please refer to the attached MindManager dashboard map).

The problem that I am experiencing is defined as follows:

1.      At what point in the GTD process, do you let go of MindManager maps, and transition to next action lists that can be carried with you?
2.      How do you use MindManager as a tool, and to what extent?
3.      Do you copy and paste your next action items from MindManager into your lists, or do you use MindManager to track your next action items? (If so, you may have a two step process to check off completed items in MindManager and in your next action lists).
4.      Do you limit your use of MindManger for brainstorming ideas and project strategies, and then re-create next action items in your lists?
5.      Do you find that MindManager can become too complex and overwhelming with so many maps and strategies to view (as I am experiencing)? If so, how do you simplify this process?

At what point can you expend too much effort into creating MindManager maps, and become ineffective in focusing energy into next action items?

Thank you in advance, and I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to review my questions.

Best Regards,

Dean

David Allen replied:

Dean,

I don’t bother drilling down to next actions on my maps. Too much work to double-enter, and they move too fast anyway. I just do the map, figure next action, then go to my action lists (in Lotus Notes). I’ll sometimes put a shortcut in the notes section of a project on my list, to the mind-map.

I just use maps for capturing and developing projects and themes. Have lots of ActiveWord cues to pull them up fast to add things as required.

David

Dean’s response to David’s advice:

David,

Last evening I started to use your method described below.  As a result, I am more focused, and experiencing a load of stress off of my shoulders.  I am now using MindManager to capture thoughts and ideas, list projects, and to develop toward identifying short term (weekly) outcome/result goals (or sub-projects) that would move each project forward.  Then, I identify and enter each next action item into the appropriate Outlook task category, and sync to my iPhone.  No more double-entering or complex (overwhelming) mind maps to sift through to find my next action items.

Thanks for your words of wisdom.

“Less is More”

My Best,

Dean

FYI – We’re doing a Webinar for GTD Connect members about mindmapping on Nov 12th. Michael Deutch of MindJet will talk about 10 ways to get the most out of mindmapping.  (Free trial members can join webinars too.)

Because the iPhone was built without a Tasks application it means building not only a secure syncing solution, but a corresponding App on the iPhone. I thought Lotus would be doing that, but not from any releases I’ve seen so far.

A guy wrote to me this morning to ask what solutions are out there for this, as he’s about to roll out iPhones to their entire workforce. They use Lotus Notes and he’s been unable to find anything that will sync Notes To Do’s to the iPhone.  He asked if we are building it (no plans to.)

Has anyone heard of anything coming or available that will sync Lotus Notes To Do’s to the iPhone?  We’d love to hear about it.

• GTD Times – This is the the official blog for David Allen, GTD & the Coaches.  Loads of helpful advice, tips, tricks & strategies for implementing GTD.
• Podcasts - Includes the GTD best practices series with David & his team.
• Coach’s Corner - Dozens of free articles from the Coaches, from GTD philosophy to tactical tips and tricks.
• GTD Connect – The two-week free trial is a fully-functional experience of our online learning center (except for downloads.) There’s no obligation, no payment required, and nothing to cancel.
• Articles, Handouts & Learning Tools - Essays from David on GTD best practices, the original workflow map and more available as free PDFs from our store.
• GTD-IQ - Measure how you’re doing with GTD. Take it as often as you like (especially you crazy makers). There are also some free articles and videos on this site too.
• GTD Facebook Fan Page – A great place to connect with other GTD’ers chatting about a wide-range of GTD topics.
• GTD LinkedIn Network – A great network of GTD enthusiasts with more of a business focus.
• Twitter - Follow the David, the Coaches & Products dept.  @GTDSpecialEvent also runs free GTD Twitter-based classes.
• GTD You Tube Channel – A collection of fun and useful videos of David and GTD practitioners.
• Productive Living newsletter – David’s free newsletter with “David’s Food for Thought,” product specials & community news. Sent every 3 weeks.
• Video of David @ Google – A great overview from David on the keys to control + perspective.
• DavidCo Discussion Forums – These rich forums are a great way to ask questions, search for answers and connect with other GTD’ers around the world.

The last three weeks were the most bizarre in my life so far. Thanks to GTD I didn’t get lost. I want to share my story with you and all interested GTD’ers:

On Saturday 26 September 2009 my dad passed away because of a sudden brain hemorrhage. He was on a trip in Israel with members of his church. It was his dream for 35 years to see The Promised Land himself.

Wednesday 16 September 2009, 16:07h. It was my second workday after a four-week-holiday. I had my Areas of Focus clear and my Project list straight to get back on track again. Ready to dive into the details.

Then the phone rang. It was my dad’s pastor calling from Eilat, Israel. My dad had an accident on the beach of the Red Sea. His body functions had stopped. After a succesful reanimation he came back to life. Immediately he was transported by ambulance to the Intensive Care of the nearest hospital. Dad was in coma and has not come out of it again.

On that moment I reacted without thinking. I had to tell the news to the family. I called my only brother. We had to tell the news to mom in person, so I dropped everything and went on the road.

As my habit I began to collect every thought out of my head into my system. I had to make a lot of calls and gather a lot of information. It went out in a good mindmap, which helped to point every nose in the same direction. A moment before my head was clear and ready for work and life. In the blink of an eye everything had changed. My Areas of Focus just pointed to one thing: Dad.

The next day I found myself packing my suitcase, calling family members, dad’s pastor in Eilat, the Travel Agencies, the Insurance Company, and last but not least: my boss. I went to Israel. In a few hours my aunt and I headed to Amsterdam Airport, waved our partners goodbye, and we took the plane to Tell Aviv. The only thing I knew about Israel was that the temperature in Eilat (Negev desert) was very hot. For the rest I didn’t had the time to do research on Israels culture and habits. Within 24 hours we stood next to dad’s bed in a town 4000 km (2500 miles) from home.

During my first GTD-review in Israel, a lot (actually all) of my projects went straight to “Sometimes/Maybe”. New projects appeared: Ask the doctors about dad’s condition daily, inform the home front daily about it, find a hotel, find supermarkets and places to eat, find a bank!, where is the Tourist Information?, give dad his favorite music while he’s still in coma (had to arrange a Discman), how to travel between hotel and hospital?, etc.

I had in mind to look after dad as much as possible. Heavy emotional times. But the rational business- and bureaucratic side showed up. A warranty had to be arranged for the hospital costs. The Dutch Embassy in Israel, and the Dutch Government of Foreign Business had to be involved. Happily there is a very good Consulate in Eilat. Communicating a lot with him, I could delegate the whole business to him. So I could hold my mind on dad, and keep track of all the delegated actions from beside his bed. The financial administration of the hospital watched my back, so it was very important for me to stay on top of this.

Dad could not be transported to The Netherlands. He wouldn’t survive it. And nobody could say how long this situation would continue. After a week we decided that my brother and another aunt would replace us in Israel. Our travel and tickets home had to be arranged. We said goodbye to dad, knowing that it could be the last time in life. Just before our plane hit the runway on Amsterdam Airport, my brother did let us know that dad had passed away to Heaven’s Promised Land. It was no surprise. It was just definite now.

A lot of projects could checked off, and new projects appeared: Dad’s transport home, his funeral: find a funeral caretaker, make funeral cards, make a complete address list, send the cards, arrange the divine service, etc. I could delegate a lot of stuff to family members.

His funeral happened on Tuesday 6 Oktober 2009. And we prepare ourselves for new projects again: Handle off dad’s stuff and keep an eye on mom. Happily a lot of this has no due date, so we can take some time off. Intense action must be followed by intense relaxation.

Kindly regards,
André

Thank you André for sharing your story. We know how personal this is to you and we are honored that you found the strength to pass it along to others who might find it helpful.

The GTD Times Team

But, I also think it’s important to acknowledge that GTD isn’t about always being tidy. In fact, the moments when GTD is most valuable are the messiest and ugliest moments. Take this recent snapshot of my desk, for example.

This is what it looks like after a week that included four speaking gigs, two road trips (to get to some of the aforementioned speaking gigs), an all-day conference, and two birthdays (my husband’s 40th and my son’s first). Oh, and that’s in addition to my full-time job at clockwork.net, blogging at geekgirlsguide.com and trying to maintain some semblance of a personal life. Gaaaah!

But, you know what? That’s LIFE. It’s freakin’ messy. The minute something feels “done” or “perfect” — something comes along to mess it up. The real power of GTD is in realizing that it’s not about how awesome your desk looks, it’s about realizing that — for most of us — there is no such thing as “done.” We have to get comfortable with  that fact.

Ultimately, my desk tends to reflect my state of mind: when my desk is a mess it means that, before I just go about mindlessly cleaning it, I need to get my head back in order. What are my priorities? What do I need to do? What do I want to do? What can I realistically accomplish in the time I have?

In my own life, it played out like this: on Tuesday morning last week (around the time this photo was taken), I sat down at my desk and felt immediately overwhelmed. Every inbox in my life was literally bursting at the seams. Instead of freaking out, I grabbed a very large cup of coffee and began a Weekly Review. I immediately started to feel  calmer. I checked the calendar to ensure that I could spend the day getting things back into focus. My inboxes slowly started to dwindle.  (By the way, the most frustrating thing is processing one’s inbox while more input keeps coming in — getting to zero took me all day.)  I channeled my energy either where it was most needed (urgent  emails!), or where I most felt like letting it go (Did I remember to book that hotel for our anniversary weekend?). I ended the day feeling like things weren’t perfect, but they were good enough for now, and I’d finish the rest tomorrow.

I’ll be the first to admit that this discipline of defining the edges of my own work doesn’t come easily. I’m the type of person that will stay up until 1am to finish something because I feel compelled to, not necessarily because it needs to be done. But, I’m working on it. I’m working on learning that my time is finite and I could literally spend
the next 7 days in front of a computer working non-stop with no breaks for sleep or meals and I still wouldn’t be “done.” I’m not a widget maker, I’m a knowledge worker and my work is never done.

Yeesh, it feels uncomfortable to even say that!  “Hello, my name is Meghan and my work is never done.” But, it’s true. And the more I practice saying it, the more I believe it, and the less I feel compelled to keep my inboxes at zero all the time (which, I can tell you from experience, is a losing game). The more I believe that I’m never done, the more I can choose to close my computer at 5pm and give my kids my full attention or keep my iPhone turned off on a date with my husband. These things are just as — if not more — important that my inbox or my desktop.

So, the question is not: is your desk spotless right now? The question is: do you feel in control right now, and how long would it take you to get there? If the answer gets a bit messy, don’t worry about it.  That’s part of the game.  After having said all that, I totally want to see your awesome desk. (Send those along to us at editor@gtdtimes.com)

Meghan Wilker is a regular contributor to GTD Times. She’s also been featured in David Allen’s In Conversation series on GTD Connect, spotlighting some of the most fascinating people in our network of GTD’ers around the world.

In my GTD Twitter class this morning, doing a Guided Mindsweep, a few people asked why they would write things down in a mindsweep that are already on their lists? There are a few common reasons why things will creep back into your mind:

You didn’t clarify enough. If your mind thinks there is more planning or brainstorming to do about that, or what you captured as a next action is not the next physical, visible step, it will take it back.

You’re not reviewing enough. If your mind doesn’t trust you’re looking at that choice often enough (Are we doing anything about this??), it will take the job back.  The Weekly Review is gold.  It’s not just clean-up time, it’s reassurance time for your mind that you’re “on it,” even if that’s a decision to let it incubate some more on Someday.

Having a total and seamless system of organization gives you tremendous power because it allows your mind to let go of the lower-level thinking and graduate to intuitive focusing, undistracted by matters that haven’t been dealt with appropriately. – David Allen

In other words…get a seamless, leakproof system for tracking everything you can’t do in the moment–personally and professionally.  And make sure you trust it more than holding stuff in your brain.

In our podcast series on the best practices of GTD, we’re moving on to the 3rd stage of mastering workflow: organize. Once you’ve collected and processed your work, then you just need to put it into places that you trust.

For those of you who want even more on this topic, the Getting Things Done book club on GTD Connect is just about to move to Chapter 7 of the book, which is all about organizing.  The book club is a great way to make sure you really “get” all of the pieces of GTD to put together a complete and intuitive system that makes sense for you.

What: It will be a working Twitter session. I’ll guide people through the GTD Mindsweep process through a series of Tweets.  Mindsweep is part of the Collect phase of GTD (read chapter 5 of the Getting Things Done book to get a quick overview of this process.)  It will be up to you to then process & organize it (chapters 6 & 7 of the book.)  When I’ve done these Guided Mindsweeps for GTD Connect members, many commented how great it was to have someone else jogging their brain on things they hadn’t thought of on their own. They did a much more thorough collection of the loose bits in their brain.

When: Thursday, October 15th – 9am PDT (Los Angeles time) Find your local time.

How: Follow @GTDSpecialEvent or just launch this web page during the event to follow the Tweets. Have a blank electronic document or pad & pen handy to do the exercise.

Who:  Anyone who wants a clear head. Truly.

If you’re like most people, you’ll move too fast and be engaged in too many things during the course of a week to get all your ideas and commitments outside your head. But it should become an ideal standard that keeps you motivated to consistently “clean house” of all the things about your work and life that have attention. – David Allen

Watch now

(GTD Connect members can watch these inside the Connect Media Library)

Coach Julie Ireland weighs in:

I tend to rebel against too much structure/planning. At the same time I do need a certain amount of structure, otherwise my creative energy gets drained from the uncertainty of not being clear about what my commitments are. The beauty of GTD lies in putting enough time and energy into what we call “defining our work and responsibilities”, so that when we have discretionary time we can choose very consciously and purposely to work off of our pre-defined lists, or in my case go and play in my art studio. There is real power in making that choice as the most appropriate thing for me to do, vs. attempting to work in my studio because I’m either avoiding my responsibilities or simply haven’t defined them clearly enough.

Early feedback on this new training product has been fantastic.  It’s not just a re-do of the workflow diagram that’s in the GTD book–it’s a new map that really encompasses much more of the GTD story on control + perspective, as well as a DVD of David navigating the way.  Big thanks to the creative folks at XPLANE too for taking David’s vision on this and turning it into a fun new way to learn.

I am part of the senior management in a company and am responsible for a particular department. With many changes happening in the company such as growth and expansion, in a very short span of time, things happen ad hoc and lot of time gets spent in miscellaneous activities. This ad hoc confusion de-motivates me and does not give me a purpose to work in the interest of the company, as a lot of this work is thankless in nature. Hence, how should I address this?  Should I ask my CEO for direction and let him know about things not being interesting or do I have to motivate myself to drive and take charge of the situation and take the growth process ahead?  What is your suggestion?

David replied:

You have asked a very good question, but one that I can only feed back options. Much depends on the bigger questions about what’s important to you and where you’re going. If your long-term goal is clear enough, it should give you criteria for determining whether putting up with the discomfort in the short term is worth it in the long term. On the other hand, if it’s really important to you to be inspired and enthused by your work, then it’s not worth tolerating anything less for very long. In any case, it’s not a bad idea to have an open and honest relationship with key people in your life, e.g. your boss, about such matters.

Often in times of organizational change it will be necessary to re-examine your own direction, and particularly the desired outcomes for the responsibilities you now have in your job, and often that’s going to require frequent updates from your boss and others in the environment. Maybe the best thing to do is to make sure you get as much data as you can about the current situation… sometimes it’s just a matter of getting a better grip on “current reality” so you can know where you stand in relation to some of the other questions.

I know these may just raise more questions than they answer, but those are the things I would be talking to myself about, if I were in your shoes.

Hope that helps,

David