Don’t Flag Your Pigeons

Don’t Flag Your Pigeons

Those of us who work with our email inboxes regularly ‘at zero’ are aware of the many benefits this brings. It is therefore a surprise, when trying to encourage others to do the same, that their first response is often along the lines of “I don’t care that I have...
I Wonder…?

I Wonder…?

Last Christmas I was given a gift so special I became teary-eyed. It was a book by my favourite author and inside the cover was a touching handwritten message from him to me. However, what I found even more remarkable about it, I realised only later, wasn’t the gift...
The Gift of Presence

The Gift of Presence

I had a lovely exchange with a taxi driver the other day. That might not seem like news enough for a blog, but if rarity drives value, then such a thing in a London cabbie is very valuable indeed. They are a self-selected bunch, and the filters for job success seem to...
Discipline and Making Habit Stick

Discipline and Making Habit Stick

This week, I talk about GTD® and discipline. Sure, it takes time to make something a habit, but the benefits of GTD practice are obvious – the ability to become far more productive and less stressed. That’s where to focus.
20 Seconds to Comply

20 Seconds to Comply

Yum. Sea Bass or T-Bone? Delightful options for sure, but as I pondered the choice, I felt uneasy. I was sitting in my living room browsing the online menu for a meal that was still six weeks away and, along with everyone else in our party, I’d been emailed the link...
Creating Focus, Vision, and Direction with GTD (Video Podcast)

Changing Up Your GTD System (Video Podcast)

In this video, Todd Brown and Robert Peake talk about when it might be time to give your system a good clear-out — or even jump ship to a new tool altogether. Click to play this episode Subscribe to the Podcast Transcript [music] 00:06 Robert Peake: So welcome...
Difficulty is Not Optional

Difficulty is Not Optional

Near the end of a seminar someone will often say some version of the following: “I like the sound of what you are proposing, but I think it will be difficult”, in a tone that makes it clear that they feel it shouldn’t be. Here is my take: given the benefits GTD®...
From Someday/Maybe to the Top of Europe

From Someday/Maybe to the Top of Europe

What does it feel like to do one of those things in life that feels like a dream come true? All too often we get caught up in the constant busy-ness of our lives – a living embodiment of the daily grind – that we forget about the big stuff. The things that...
What Could Go Wrong?

What Could Go Wrong?

No part of me is more English than my need for a regular cup of tea. So, with the end of the webinar that I’d been delivering close at hand, my attention was turning to a hard-earned cuppa. For this reason, perhaps, I was caught slightly off-guard by the excellent...
Surviving Digital Climate Change with GTD

Surviving Digital Climate Change with GTD

‘Seriously? They’re posting business-critical information as a reply to a private Facebook thread?’ I was as incredulous as my client at this lack of basic ‘communication hygiene’ – expecting colleagues to find what they needed to...
Train Wreck on an Airplane

Train Wreck on an Airplane

I was flying out to Lisbon the other day, and noticed – yet again, with almost self-harm triggering frustration – just how crazy long it was taking to get us passengers onto the plane. To give them credit, the airline was going through the motions of making it faster,...
GTD, the Future Vision and the Power of Outcome Thinking

GTD, the Future Vision and the Power of Outcome Thinking

This week I talk about the power of outcome thinking and defining visions for ourselves of the future we want to create. Using the Getting Things Done® (GTD®) methodology, we can create the best possible outcomes based on desirable visions of our future, leading to a...
Creating Focus, Vision, and Direction with GTD (Video Podcast)

GTD and the Power of Clean Edges

In this video, Todd Brown and Robert Peake talk about what is meant by “clean edges” in the GTD methodology, and why they are so important to stress-free productivity. Click to play this episode Subscribe to the Podcast Transcript [music] 00:06 Todd Brown:...
The Long Goodbye

The Long Goodbye

In a couple of days I’ll wave goodbye to my daughter. As my eldest child, she’s the first to head off to university and after that we’ll be separated by a long day of driving to East Anglia, much of it staring at the featureless flatlands of Lincolnshire or stuck...
Kill Your Darlings

Kill Your Darlings

It is a truth universally acknowledged that if you gather together musicians of a certain age, eventually they will start quoting ‘This Is Spinal Tap’. Rob Reiner’s 1984 mockumentary – if you will, rockumentary – chronicles the demise and fall of one of...
Defeated Devices

Defeated Devices

“What do you see?” The question took me a bit by surprise. I was just settling in for lunch with my friend Dan. Pleasantries had been exchanged, and I was scanning the menu when he’d reached his wrist across the table and held it where I couldn’t miss it. “Uhm, your...
GTD and ‘Orienting Maps’

GTD and ‘Orienting Maps’

Do you have a set of useful reminders to help you focus on the right things, in the right place, and at the right time? This week I talk about how GTD’s ‘orienting maps’ can help you reach your desired outcomes with greater...
Don’t Kiss the Frog

Don’t Kiss the Frog

Christina Wallace found love on the internet quicker than most by recognising that online dating was good at expanding her dating pool, but not good for spotting chemistry, intelligence, charm, politics, marital status, creditworthiness, hygiene and anger issues. She...
Enforced Idleness

Enforced Idleness

Susan Hunter, currently in limbo, works to create order in service and manufacturing organisations, from privately owned SMEs to large international groups, in the UK, Continental Europe and North Africa. Susan is a graduate of London University and has a diploma in...
Sweet Dreams

Sweet Dreams

“Sweet dreams are made of this / who am I to disagree? / I travel the world and the seven seas / everybody’s looking for something.” -Eurythmics Sleep means energy, and energy is precious. Just ask any new parent, shift worker, or long-haul pilot. In...
Creating Focus, Vision, and Direction with GTD (Video Podcast)

Managing Others with GTD (Video Podcast)

In this episode, Todd Brown and Robert Peake talk about how GTD can help you manage your personal and professional relationships clearly and effectively. Click to play this episode Subscribe to the Podcast Transcript [music] 00:06 Robert Peake: Welcome everyone to...
‘No’ is Guaranteed

‘No’ is Guaranteed

“Not my circus, not my monkeys.” Ever heard that one? It is one of my favourite linguistic imports. If you are not familiar with it, it is the very visual Polish take on staying clear of problems that are not yours to solve, and for me it captures what might be a...