The Hole in the Ground

The Hole in the Ground

In traditional English seaside towns, some things never change – the fish’n’chip shops, the amusement arcades, the ice cream parlours and the seafood stands, to name but a few. I know this because I grew up in one on the north Norfolk coast in the 1970s and in...
Are You Talking To Me?

Are You Talking To Me?

Robert De Niro asks a very important GTD® question with his famous quote in the movie ‘Taxi Driver’. “Are you talking to me?” You wouldn’t believe how many projects are found on lists that don’t ‘talk’ to their owners. First of all, some project names don’t talk to...
This Summer’s Flotsam and Jetsam

This Summer’s Flotsam and Jetsam

Monika Danner has worked in corporate HR and leadership roles for more than 15 years. She has been a GTD® practitioner since 2014 and is now a certified GTD trainer for Next Action Partners in Germany. “Your projects list is a composite picture of the future you want...
Am I Going in the Right Direction with GTD?

Am I Going in the Right Direction with GTD?

You won’t get the great benefit of seeing your world from a higher perspective in your Weekly Review® without first having a complete Projects list. And… You won’t fully understand why you should keep a complete Projects list until you’re getting the benefit of seeing...
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...
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...
Clean Edges

Clean Edges

If you want to know what clean edges in a system looks like, take a peep through a microscope. Life, in its simplest form, is about integrity. When the walls of a cell break down, the cell is finished – returning to the primordial elements that once made it up....
Il Camino

Il Camino

For the fourth year in a row I’m out walking Il Camino, the pilgrimage in Spain. It is an amazing experience, but the connection to GTD® might not be obvious. Still, apart from the obvious checklist for all the things I want to bring – ranging from walking boots to...
On A Wing and A Prayer

On A Wing and A Prayer

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, as a more accomplished writer once put it. I was about to set off for The Caribbean, to an island I’d wanted to visit my whole life, yet I was stressed out of my mind.   For the last few days, ‘the...
GTD & D&D Part II: How to Lead a Team of Dragon-Slayers

GTD & D&D Part II: How to Lead a Team of Dragon-Slayers

I have a confession to make. I have been routinely engaging in conflict-resolution sessions with a group of creative, talented mid-career professionals. We have been collaborating on solutions to complicated, high-stakes problems by drawing on the unique strengths and...
“Cheer up, it might never happen”

“Cheer up, it might never happen”

As cold, wet weather and grey skies descend on the British Isles, out come the scowls. A particularly cheeky response to encountering a dour-faced stranger is the peculiarly British quip, “Cheer up, it might never happen.” Obviously, there are situations...
Four Things to Do to Make the Most of Your Year-End

Four Things to Do to Make the Most of Your Year-End

Well, the end of the year is around the corner. Snuck up on you, did it? You’re not alone. The good news is that for many of us, as things slow down toward year-end, we can find the space between the holiday parties to refine our GTD® systems and practices. Here are...
FOMO, YOLO, and GTD

FOMO, YOLO, and GTD

Being often in a hurry, millennials love to abbreviate. One of my favourites is “tl;dr” (too long; didn’t read). In case you’re a millennial reading this now, here’s the “tl;dr” version of this article: if you’re afraid...
Guest blog: my life with Getting Things Done® 

Guest blog: my life with Getting Things Done® 

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...
A journey of 1000 miles begins with a tangible next action

A journey of 1000 miles begins with a tangible next action

David Griffin is a senior consultant at Cambridge based 42 Technology, which offers pragmatic engineering innovation, design and development services to clients in a range of industries. He first started with GTD in 2003, when Palm Pilot devices were no longer cool...
Avoiding target fixation with GTD

Avoiding target fixation with GTD

On April 21st, 1918 Manfred von Richtoven, ‘The Red Baron’, was shot and killed by an anti-aircraft bullet. Considered the greatest flying ace of his time, he had made a rookie mistake by flying too low into enemy territory. It was a mistake he himself...
Is that yours?

Is that yours?

Sometimes simple questions can provoke profound responses. Take, for example, the question, “Is this your project?”. Most busy professionals, once they have built a trusted GTD system to manage all their commitments, end up with upwards of fifty projects...