Imagine for a moment you work in an organisation where people no longer respond to their e-mail. One where it has become ‘normal’ to have to send messages two or three times – then pick up a phone and call people – to get a response on some issue you are working on....
Last month my colleague Todd Brown blogged about Aristotle and GTD, and the topic must have jiggled loose some errant neural connections in my brain because later that day I found myself remembering a classic Monty Python sketch called the ‘International Philosophy...
Dr. Peer Wiethoff is the Foreign Trade Manager at NOKIA and has been a user of Getting Things Done® (GTD®) for over nine years. His journey with GTD revealed interesting benefits for him, even as a person who is already organised. Peer is now a certified GTD Trainer...
Not everything in life – or even in GTD – can be illustrated using wood chopping as a metaphor, but it does seem to offer some helpful parallels. I noted some of them a few years back in a previous blog, but this year I noticed a few other lessons that translate well...
Gundula Welti is a certified GTD® Trainer and has 21 years of experience in both buying and sales roles within a large international corporation. She is highly specialised in sales and negotiations and uses GTD in all aspects of her life. She says that GTD helped her...
Tim Sismey first encountered GTD in 2006, and within a week of implementing his system he was sleeping better, making more informed decisions and delegating more effectively, whilst simultaneously more able to focus on his family, friends and his passions of music and...
In his own words he looks like an accountant or a dentist, so how did an English gent from the Cotswolds become the undisputed world champion of the Reggae soundclash, a gladiatorial arena where DJs compete track-by-track to win the crowd, and only the brave survive?...
James McBrien is Managing Director of Clearwater Advisers Ltd. Clearwater specialises in showing talented individuals how to be great communicators. We show people how to be natural when under pressure. As well as running individual and group coaching programmes we...
When setting out to do work, how we define our projects and tasks has a huge impact on whether we’ll make good choices in terms of doing the right thing, keep working, overcoming procrastination and even simply getting started. This is an actual (sic) transcription of...
Artificial intelligence has made impressive gains in our time. That said, I am still more excited by the possibilities of the human mind. In particular, I am interested in how our vast collective investment in thinking about how to train computers to adapt and solve...
Occasionally, readers with writing aspirations of their own will ask something like, “How do you manage to produce those blogs every month?”. Mostly I’m kind and offer a one line response. Occasionally, if I’m feeling mean and/or expansive, I’ll check first that they...
If you’ve ever been in a speedboat, or seen one on video, you may have experienced that magic moment when, as the boat accelerates, it reaches a “planing” state. Once up on a plane, the boat skims over the surface of the water rather than ploughing through it....
“[Once you have learned GTD,] at least you have a wagon.” -David Allen It all makes sense. You want to do it. And yet, you aren’t doing it. If this sounds familiar in relation to your GTD practice, know that you are not alone. The methodology is...
This week we catch up with Andrew J. Mason: husband, father and host of the Getting Things Done podcast. He’s also presenter of The ProGuide Podcast and a narrator on Audible.com, and enjoys running, editing video, and helping others craft their communications....
This week we interviewed a ‘real life’ GTD fan to find out how it has helped refine working processes, changed the mindset, and improved quality life. George Reakes is a science teacher and Science Specialism Coordinator in an inner-London secondary...
Taking on a new goal can be easy when the path to get there is clear, and the steps along the way are fun. However, for those parts of life that are ambiguous or unpleasant, creating and holding to a vision of success is all the more important. I recently lost my...
There’s a road here in London that’s undergone a transformation over the last several years, and it has lessons for those of us interested in productivity. Exhibition Road runs from Hyde Park about a kilometer down to the busy South Kensington Tube station. It’s...
It’s the 1st of January and I’m cooking and cleaning; which can only mean one thing… I’m procrastinating and I have something more important to do. Believe it or not when you have some thing big or difficult to do and you end up doing house work instead it can...
Back in September, my blog was a call to action. I wanted as many of our readers as possible to share with us their favourite reminders from their GTD systems. The goal was to turn over the microphone to you, to inspire, amuse, and reinforce the value of GTD...
“You work too hard to be successful.“ Tom had been having a quick look at his e-mail under the table of the sidewalk café, but this last sentence from across the table jolted him back to reality. He considered himself a moderately successful individual, so he was a...
“Your ability to generate power is directly proportional to your ability to relax.” -David Allen One of the hallmarks of true productivity is a sense of fulfilment. In a recent article, I looked at the difference between performance as in professional...
One of the clients I worked with recently had quickly understood GTD as a concept and wanted to do it, but was struggling with actually doing it consistently. He finally cracked the problem when he clarified why he wanted GTD, and what it would get him if he...
