GTD a Cult?

I have, once again, fallen off the GTD wagon. There is a reason for this – one that has taken me six weeks or so to resolve. I haven’t been at forums, websites, or anything GTD related for about 6 weeks. I haven’t done a weekly review in six weeks, and it shows (I will get back to this later). I haven’t blogged about GTD in six weeks. There is a reason for it all.

Over the past couple of months, I have found out something out (thanks to some anonymous forum posters) about David Allen and most of the employees at The David Allen Company (if not the intent of GTD itself) that is kind of creepy. I have sat on this for weeks before blogging about it, however, it affected my performance and my implementation of GTD.

It is this: David Allen is a member of a somewhat fringe religion called The Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness (MSIA, pronounced messiah!). If you really want to find them, you can follow the link from David’s comments on his now defunct blog. They believe that the guy that leads them, who goes only by the name John-Roger, is called the “Mystical Traveler”, and that he is in line with Jesus and Moses. Reading the stuff available on the web, it is evident that this is not a mainstream religion. I have even mentioned in previous postings that I have “drunk the ‘Kool-Aid’”, and it weirds me out a little.

I had originally started this post about a month ago, and had a long and at this point I had a long diatribe about how I found all this out, links to various forum postings and pieces of information, and other such stuff. I’ve thought about it for weeks, and my answer is as follows – stuff it. Who cares what David’s religion is? Who cares what he believes? He has given us a system that does as advertised – increases our productivity. I’ve decided to put it out of my head, use what I can, and dump the rest.

That said, as I have mentioned in previous posts, I did cancel my GTD Connect membership. I was a little worried about how the money would be used, sure, but at the end of the day I didn’t get $50USD value out of the thing. So I cancelled, and they were gracious about it and wished me well in my future GTD endeavours.

Getting Things Done is a great system for personal productivity, and irrespective of how David Allen got his experiences and developed the program, he has chosen to share it with the rest of us. Take what you need, leave what you don’t – and leave his personal choices out of it. Just get on with getting things accomplished.

I really encourage some discussion about this issue. It caught some peoples' attention at the Davidco Forums when it was first brought up. There is no denying that David is a member of MSIA, but what does that have to do with GTD? It bugged me for too long, so I'm going to move on and ignore it, while still using GTD. Your mileage may vary.

Technorati tags: gtd , gtd+cult , David+Allen , Weekly+Review

Using Agendas and GTD

Also known as: Getting Things Done By Pushing Upwards

There have been a number of questions lately on both the GTD Forums and the Yahoo e-mail group about how to use the Agendas (or @Agendas  for the Outlook users out there) category.  I have been using the Agendas category for about a year now, and I think I’ve got this down to a way that works for me.  Your mileage may vary.

This is something that is suggested in David Allen’s book “Getting Things Done” , but it seems to stymie many people.  The idea is that you keep a list of the people you communicate with regularly, and thereby keep a list of what you need to talk to them about – those pending things that other people have agreed to, that need to follow-up on and cover in future conversations with different people, that you need approval on, etc.

I’ve found that the Palm format, and Palm Desktop, is very flexible to dealing with Agendas.  All I’ve done is made a separate category under my tasks list for Agendas, in which I list each person I deal with regularly – either someone I task things down to, or someone I’m waiting for approval from before moving on.  I use the note section of the individual person’s “task” to act as the agenda, and record what it is I need to speak to them about or what I’m waiting for from them.  When I have them on the phone or in my office, I reach for the laptop or grab my Palm, and ensure that we are covering everything.  

It is remarkably effective.  I have far fewer of those moments where I hang up the phone and immediately think of three other things I meant to talkd to them about.  Being outside of our head office and therefore away from our executive core, I can make a record of what needs to be discussed or what I am waiting for their approval on.

This is really helping me “push things upwards”, ensuring that no timelines get missed, that directions discussed don’t get pushed aside – to ensure that our business is going forward in a tangible, dramatic way.  It is such a small, but dramatic, tool, and one that anyone can benefit from using.  This is how I’ve implemented it – I would appreciate anyone’s comments on how they have done the same.

As an aside, during some of the discussions I’ve learned that there is some functionality in the Palm Desktop software that isn’t in Outlook – namely, the ability to have different categories for each “application” – Calendar, Tasks, Memos, etc.  I have always used Palm Desktop, so I could not understand the constant need for people to put @ in front of their categories - @ being a context delimiter.  There was no need, in my mind, to have @Agendas, or @Someday/Maybe.  I always read those as “At Someday/Maybe”.  It turns out that Outllook only has one set of categories that are global for all of the portions of the program – Calendar, Tasks, etc.  So the @ symbol helps them to be sorted to the top of the list.  Now my confusion is resolved.

Technorati Tags:gtd. agendas+gtd, outlook+gtd, palm+desktop, responsiblity+tracking, palm
Generated By Technorati Tag Generator

GTD Connect - Final Thoughts

I have decided that Connect is not worth it. Not yet anyway. I was very excited about Connect, but taking an objective 2-month look at it, using nearly every day, I don’t think that in the long run it is worth my money at this point. Of course, as always: your mileage may vary

There is not a lot of new material, although there is some. There are interviews with various GTD “luminaries”, folks who are in high-profile positions and use GTD. There are some additional, and sporadically participated in, forums. Certinaly, the public forums are much busier. However, here are my main reasons for leaving:

---

1. Most of the content is old, although it is not stale.

Once you have downloaded the PDFs and podcasts, and once you have posted in a couple of forums, there isn’t a lot there that is new. A lot of what is there for download is from the 9-or-so month beta period. Once you’ve caught up, well, there isn’t much left to do on the site.

2. New content isn’t posted as frequently as $48.00USD would lead you to expect.

For that price, I was expecting new major content every week (podcasts, etc.), and new minor content (articles) every day or two. You would think that there would be at least something new every week. It seems like there is something perhaps every 4-5 weeks – new interviews with a “luminary”, new TechGTD interviews with a “luminary” from the high-tech world, etc. However, these come at intervals that are far apart from what one would expect for $48USD per month.

3. Truly, $48USD per year would be a reasonable amount for what I have seen at Connect.

The idea of Connect is great. The reality is that, as an early adopter, you are like anything, paying for being on the leading edge by having to make some stuff up as you go along – like making up that there is a lot in Connect for your $48. As I said above, there are new podcasts every 4-5 weeks, but if you look at Merlin Mann's 43 Folders Podcast and The Cranky Middle Manager, you get that now, if not more often, and you get it free. Everything else is on the site is kind of fluffy.

4. GTD Connect doesn’t seem to have a focus on what it is trying to do.

Clearly, GTD Connect is trying to ensure that folks who want a way to reach out and speak to the folks at The David Allen Company have a way to do so. They are trying to ensure that you have a way to reach David, and trying to ensure that those who feel they need to avail themselves of some kind of contact below a coaching level can do so. To be fair to both sides in this debate, they are also trying to ensure that Davidco has a pretty steady stream of income – which is just fine in my opinion, as Allen and his folks have every right to make money off of his ideas. Hell, the book has sold several hundred thousand copies, so he’s kind of done that already, but this is for the select few that want more. Good for them for doing it.

The problem is that Connect doesn’t seem to have an idea about what it really wants to do. It wants to reach out to folks, but is using a shotgun approach – new articles (which used to be free newsletter articles from Davidco), new podcasts (which were never available before, admittedly) interviews, etc., etc. But nothing that really gives a feeling of focus – something I think everyone that uses GTD is really, truly looking for.

---

Because of these reasons, I’d decided to lapse my membership. Perhaps in a year or so I will get wistful, think it was a great idea, and join again to see what it is like, but probably not. There just isn’t enough in there for me. As with anything, your mileage may vary.

Technorati Tags:gtd, gtd+connect, connect, davidco, david+allen, productivity
Generated By Technorati Tag Generator

Scanning your contacts list.

For nearly a year, I've had a remarkable piece of technology that not enough people know about - the Cardscan Business Card Scanner (Cardscan was formerly called Corex). They have a variety of products, including an updated version of their software since I bought my unit. However, in comparison to the other products on the market, the Cardscan scanner (no matter the flavour) is outstanding.

I started out wanting to get what I figured was over 300 contacts into my Palm Tungsten E. Impatient as I am, I went out to Staples and picked up the Targus Mini Business Card Scanner. I found that the scanner unit worked fine, but the kicker – the software – was lacking, at best. The software was very poor on recognition, very slow, and while it did transfer to Palm Desktop well, the OCR was very low – perhaps 65% accuracy.

Frustrated, I started to think there must be something better out there, so I downloaded a copy of Cardscan’s v6.x software for demo, from their website. The accuracy was astounding when compared side-by-side with the Targus software (Newsoft Inc.’s Presto! Bizcard 5 – just as well, as the use of “Biz” is a scourge in itself). I immediately ordered the Cardscan Executive (note that the link shows the new version), and it arrived soon enough. What a great combination of hardware and software.

The colour scanner is fast, efficient, and rarely has a problem – usually with thicker cards. The cards feed in landscape mode, making scanning quick, and you can scan multiple cards at a time (I normally do up to 20) before it starts the recognition processing. While this can take a while due to the complexity, it is certainly quick enough – I normally do the scanning when on a conference call or when I am also processing something mindless.

To put it to the test, I recently brought it to a conference where our company received over 200 cards to process. It made very short work of them. For the next one, I would like to try Cardscan’s Lead Qualifier, which is designed for use at trade shows like the one I was at.

I would be very wary of anything that bundles with the Newsoft Inc. software. However, the Cardscan products are wonderful pieces of software and hardware technology, and are highly recommended.

Technorati Tags:cardscan, business+card+scanner, palm, palm+desktop, contacts
Generated By Technorati Tag Generator

GTD Connect

I recently took the plunge, and became a member of GTD Connect, the David Allen Company’s pay-for-service program that David calls a “club”. I figured for one month, I could try it and see what it was like. There’s a lot of opinion out there about it, including on Eric Mack’s blog and on the Yahoo Groups GTD Lists, among others, but I thought I would drop in my $0.02 here.

I think David has a great idea with GTD Connect for those that are higher-level achievers, or have less time to search around the various bloused websites out there. There’s also a lot of interest from struggling GTD’ers like me, many of whom are concerned about the price of GTD Connect.

They’ve put together a very good package of audio, video, and forums where you can meet other GTD practitioners and share your victories. There is a great deal of content that is only available to Connect members – audio interviews, cool videos, etc. The question is – is it worth it? Well, yes and no. The cost is kind of high, and there aren’t all that many members out of the gate, so it is hard to tell the value of the forums. But the original David Allen Company forums are accessible through the Connect site. The audio and video, though, are great – I’ve downloaded several onto myMP3 player, and listen to them often.

So, is it worth it? It really depends on who you are. Many people have suggested that $48 is too high; just as many like a “high barrier to entry”. I spend less each month on my gym membership. I spend less each month on many things. Did I get $48 in value out of this? You bet. But because GTD Connect has just launched, I don’t know that I will over the next few months, now that I have accessed all the back content. After January, though, I believe it will be more than worth it as David Allen Co. get more stuff up there, and more members are participating.

That said, I think I will renew for a second month, giving it a full 60 days. The David Allen Company has put a tremendous amount of work into GTD Connect, and they should be proud – but they should focus on maintaining that and building up their content.

As to the price – would I like it cheaper? Yes. If I need to give connect up, will I? Yes. But if it were ½ the price it is now, I’d consider it very hard. However, David and his staff have to eat too. There are lots of folks that have pointed out that David Allen has given a lot of folks a lot of information for not much – 2 books, the website, the forums, and the e-mail lists and other associated things that have been spawned as a result. Connect is a way for him and his company to add value to those who choose to join. The problem is, we all want to be members of Connect. My wife and I jokingly refer to David as my personal cult leader, but I’ve drunk the Kool-Aid and I’m not going back. And we all want to be there, but we all can’t afford it. So be it, but I don’t begrudge David Allen Co. for doing it. As the Chinese proverb says (and I’m paraphrasing) “Grow, even if slowly, or you will whither and die.”

They’ve done a good job, there is lots of value – but you really have to try it for yourself to see if you get the worth out of it that others do.

----

I’ve had a lot of comments to my post about hacking GTD, both here and here. After I wrote that post, I began my trial of GTD Connect. Interestingly, one of the interviews available through Connect is with Mark Orchant, and during that interview he laments the same sort of endless hacking of GTD. It was interesting to hear that I am not alone in this.

Technorati tags:gtd, getting+things+done, hack+gtd, gtd+hacking, gtd+connect

Two new books

I was on vacation recently, doing a little recharging and unhooking, and read two fascinating books - The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell, and Love is the Killer App: How to Win Friends and Influence Business, by Tim Sanders. Gladwell, a former columnist with the New Yorker, wrote a fascinating tome based on the idea that, like viruses, fads, crime rate reduction, restarurant popularity – choose the latest thing creating a buzz – all have a reason, a single point in time where they exploded, where they became "sticky", and he has dubbed this the Tipping Point. This was a really fascinating read, and it will take some time for me to fully digest it.

The other book that I mentioned, Love is the Killer App, is a book I picked up on a whim after attending a leadership telecast in the spring. While I have to admit I am not a fan of Sanders’ writing style, his insistence on using words like “biz” and “lovecat” to sound hip, and his invention of new words like “bizlove”, I think the content that Sanders includes is worth the read. He is very focused on reading within and without your core business – general reference, marketing and advertising, anything you can get your hands on. But after digesting it and absorbing it, he insists that you try and apply it – something I am very often guilty of. He also suggests that you not just apply it – evangelize it. Preach about it. Refer it to friends and business colleagues.

I have done this recently with both Getting Things Done and The Tipping Point, referring these to business associates and friends and family. For me, it is a bit of going out on a limb, however Sanders is right – it really does force you to internalize what you’ve read and use it properly when you are trying to tell someone about the book. Good stuff in both of these.

Technorati Tags:gtd, business+books, tipping+point, love+is+the+killer+app
Generated By Technorati Tag Generator

Stop your infernal hacking of GTD!

I’ve participated on mailing lists (see links to the side), and David Allen’s own forum. I’ve read blogs, and I’ve read responses. I’ve seen people refer someone, with good intent, to different software packages. I’ve seen posts on how people have found the perfect application after 100 milliseconds of looking around it’s menus, and seen other posts about how TuboCalendar3000 will have GTD features or things that will have “transference” to GTD. I’ve seen people dismiss out of hand something that works for someone else, because they believe the program they use is the best.

I’ve seen Moleskine notebooks, Hipster PDAs, Palms and Treos, Windows Mobile Devices, and everything in between, from the simple to the elegant. I’ve seen excitement spawned by the latest GTD-related software at SourceForge, or from XYZ company, or from Joe in his basement McGyver-ing something from VB, Java, some string and a peach pit. All this has lead me to a conclusion:

WE ARE ALL WASTING TOO MUCH TIME HACKING OUR SYSTEM TO GET THINGS DONE, AND NOT ACTUALLY GETTING ANYTHING DONE.

Consider this a challenge, a manifesto, a rant, but please consider what I am saying here. I’ve experienced it. I’ve experienced the backlash that accompanies the posts about not wanting to try the latest and greatest version of Shadow Plan, or My Life Organized, or the aforementioned TurboCalendarTaskListandBreakfastCooker 3000.

It is time to confess, I am a PV (Plain Vanilla – I’ve even seen someone refer to Plain Chocolate, an update on Plain Vanilla, as if it is a Plain Vanilla 2.0) Palm user, using a Tungsten E and Palm Desktop. I will also tell you that I am a recovering Agendus user, and I stopped using it because of performance issues. I do not work in the technical or sciences field, but I am a real user of GTD on a day-in-day-out basis. (I have my Green Belt, thanks, despite what I thought in a previous post). I am happy with my system and it works for me. This is what everyone should strive for – something that works for them. I have no argument with that.

However, every day when I read a forum or read my e-mail lists, I read about someone who has found the latest and greatest software, or has been using MLO and has developed the XYZ Template (not sure if MLO has templates, I’m sure someone will chime in and tell me how it actually works…), or is resurrecting some long-dead program on their Apple IIe to see how it works with GTD, and to see if they can hack the Palm to sync with it, or there is some new program that seems GTD-ish and they are going to press the developer to include some GTD hooks. All the other GTD'ers then chime in with advice on how to set XYZ up, or how to go through a complex syncing to get it to sync with ANOTHER program, or a comment about how they tried it, but chose another program, and the poster should too.... It is all just so much window-dressing. It is all so time-wasting. It is what one poster on one of the forums called Productivity Limbo - a phrase that I really like. I’ve been there, I got the t-shirt – and trust me, you don’t want it.

I was at a point about a year ago, when I was en-route to work and recording voice memos to myself for later processing, when I screamed into my phone that I should stop farting (not the words I used) around with various software for my Palm, pick something, and use it. I did settle on Agendus for about a year, until 3 months ago, when the aforementioned speed problems made me stop. I kept that voice memo around for about a month to remind me to stop the constant treadmill of downloading and trying, downloading and trying.

If you have been on this cycle, think of this: how much time have you wasted importing all your todos/appointments/checklists/whatever into each system you’ve tried? How much time trying to seamlessly transfer data from one desktop program to another? How much time farting around, and calling it “Hacking the GTD system?”.

If you have found something like Bonsai or MLO or whatever, and have been using it for sometime, and that is your system, then great for you. But if you are like many that I see that are flitting from one system to the other, to the other, to the other….. I have some news for you:

THERE IS NO PERFECT GTD SYSTEM! It is dependent on the user using it, regularly, as their trusted system.

By all means, try something. But do it slowly and deliberately. Use something for a period of at least weeks if not months before you determine there is no way that you can integrate it into your system and be happy. Then, slowly, as if you are beta-testing, try out something new.

Good luck to you all, but remember – as you go on your quest, make sure that you are doing something on your way there, otherwise it is all for naught.

P.S. - Whether you agree with this post, or disagree with it, please leave a comment. I'm interested to see if other people feel this way, or if everyone thinks I'm out to lunch.

Technorati Tags:gtd, gtd+hacking, hack+gtd, gtd+hack, geting+things+done, david+allen
Generated By Technorati Tag Generator

A tired (and slightly overexposed) Kona.

The week of living GTDly…

This week has been a great week.  I’ve just got back from 2 weeks of almost non-stop traveling, having spent 3 days of the past 10 actually in the office.  I have achieved so much, and done so much that is on my lists, it has been phenomenal and restored and refreshed my belief in “Getting Things Done”.

I have been whacking away at things.  I know where nearly everything is, I know nearly everything that needs to be done… I’m busy, but I have for three days had a mind like water.

In my internet travels, I came across this valuable little list at the David Allen Forums, which helps you judge where you are in your journey on GTD:


GTD/READY TO TEST FOR YOUR BELT?

Lately some rather sophisticated people have asked me what I initially thought was a rather unsophisticated question: “How do I know what belt I’m at?” In other words, in the martial art of workflow, they wanted to know how well they were doing – how far they were from earning the coveted black belt in the Getting Things Done school of self management. One, a senior engineer, said, “David, you keep referring to ‘black belt’ and several of the attributes it signifies. There must be some way to determine how far along we might be in that continuum.” Though he excused his curiosity in the matter to his system-oriented mindset, I realized he had a good point. When I studied karate, the belt rankings were highly useful as milestones, often motivating me to keep going when I would hit plateaus in my training during which I wasn’t very aware of my progress. As I went from white to green to brown belt rankings over the course of four years, I could sense the next level up as a reachable step, when black belt would seem too elusive a goal.
So for those of you who may share that interest in some kind of marker for determining your rank, I’ll proffer a set of characteristics for the belts.

White Belt

You’ve recognized the art of workflow management as something to get personally better at. White belt is actually a rank to be proud of – it means you’ve begun, which puts you ahead of those who are not conscious of, or not interested in, improving your game. You’ve had a taste of what it’s like to clear the decks, with perhaps a Mind Sweep and an initial gathering of things that have your attention in your work area and maybe at home as well. You’ve become more conscious of your in-basket as a place to toss still unprocessed stuff. You’re writing things down a little more than you previously did, a little more consistently. You’ve made a stab at setting up some sort of list-management tool and structure.

Green Belt

You’ve got some lists that you use regularly, and you’re comfortable with your system for some basic things. A self-management tool is with you most of the time. You’ve tasted the thrill of zero in your e-mail in-basket a few times. You’ve set up a workable paper-based filing system, and have a labeler you use yourself. You’ve purged and organized at least one major “black hole” storage area at work or at home. You’ve actually done one relatively thorough Weekly Review and tasted the accompanying on-top-and-in-charge feeling. You’ve started to swear by the Two-Minute Rule. You’ve got some sort of portable note-taking device you’re actually using now and then. You try to convince people around you how cool all this stuff is and that they should do it too. “What are we trying to accomplish?” and “What’s the next action?” are creeping into your operational vocabulary with others at work.

Brown Belt

You don’t hesitate to write things down, even when old-fashioned people around you aren’t. You no longer need a reminder to get your head empty regularly. You’re doing “Monthly Weekly Reviews.” Home and office are equally under control. “List maker” is no longer a pejorative. No notes are left on legal pads. E-mail is a zero at least once a week. Processing your paper in-basket is actually fun, most of the time. You have a “Projects” list that is probably 75% complete and current. In the dentist’s office, you have your own reading material. You’ve stopped interrupting people around you for non-emergency communications, choosing e-mail or notes into their in-baskets instead. You’re feeling comfortable with a big list of undone actions. You’ve set up a Someday/Maybe list and have moved items there from your Projects lists, and vice-versa. You don’t share your labeler. All paper-based reference that won’t stand up by itself is in your files, and you actually like to file stuff. You’re somewhat intolerant of those who don’t exercise the same best practices. You’ve started some good checklists. You know what to do with almost everything. Your next-action lists are actually next actions, not small sub-projects. A majority of your focus is thinking about your stuff instead of of it. “What are we trying to accomplish?” and “What’s the next action?” are creeping into your operational vocabulary with others at home.

Black Belt

You have to look at your Calls list to know whom you have to call. You trust your intuitive prioritizing all day long. You can’t stand not doing a complete Weekly Review, and you’re operationally squeaky clean at least every couple of weeks. Your review time regularly takes you down constructive rabbit trails of creative thinking, decision-making, and idea generation. You no longer complain about lack of quality thinking time. You can leave a mountain of stuff in your in-basket and still have a good time, confident it’s all in a trusted system and will get tackled soon enough. You’re using speed keys instead of your mouse. You create useful temporary checklists on a whim. You’re willing to tackle thinking about any project or situation on call. All of your reference files have been reviewed within the last year. Your systems are completely accessible, functional and intact as you move from location to location. Others are highly sensitive to what they bring into your environment. There is little distinction between work and personal – there’s simply a positive focus on whatever you’re doing. You know how (and do) get yourself totally back into control by yourself, when you’ve slipped much longer than you’re comfortable with. You don’t need to convince anyone about the methodology – you’re usually not thinking about it, merely using it. You’ve stopped complaining about e-mail. You’ve lost only a couple of receipts this year. Friends no longer want you to see inside their offices or cars.

Black belt – 2nd Degree

Time has disappeared, most of the time. You often move fast, but you’re seldom busy. When you’re playing with the dog, you’re not thinking about any of the big stuff – you’ve already thought about it. You know what every key in your desk drawer is for.


That’s a nice little test.  Right now, I feel like a Brown Belt.  That’s a good feeling having been away from so much.  I still have  a ton of work to do at the house, but if the office is clear that helps me relax about the house…

The Yahoo Groups and the David Allen Co. Forums

The Yahoo Groups and the David Allen Co. Forums

I’ve mentioned a few times the Yahoo Groups, listed at the side, that are user-based groups that support other users of “Getting Things Done”.  I’ve also mentioned the forums at the David Allen Company’s website.  These are both wonderful sources of information for other GTD’ers.

There are three Yahoo! Groups – the Getting Things Done group, the GTD Palm group for Palm-OS users that have implemented GTD, and the Ready for Anything group, who review and analyze David Allen’s other book by the same name, with a chapter-a-week emphasis.  I heartily recommend each one of these groups, and I think they are frankly an outstanding resource for real-world reviews of software products that have been tried as implementations of GTD, advice and tips, support when you get bogged down, and general camaraderie.  Similarly, the forums at the David Allen Company’s website are outstanding resources as well, drawing in users of other products, including the David Allen Company’s own Outlook Plug-In for Getting Things Done.

I am sometimes amazed when I realize that some of the groups have over 1700 registered members.  Not all of the members are active – in fact, many of them aren’t, and are just lurking.  But they are there, and we’re all hoping they are getting something out of the discussions on the boards.  If you’re interested, c’mon by and give it a lurk.

What a bear of a week that was... and another tearing around the corner...

We had three new people start with our office at once, and by extension that meant that they absorbed a lot of my time this past week.  I welcome that, as new people mean growth, rather than stagnation.  However, it comes at a time when we are also moving offices, and I will need to be on a business trip at the end of next week, and busy for the next few weeks.  It reminds me of a great quote that I first read in David Allen’s “Ready for Anything” (see the link to the side):

“For a long time, it had seemed to me that life was about to begin – real life.  But there was always some obstacle in the way.  Something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid.  Then life would begin.  At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.”
                              -  Fr. Alfred D’Souza

That statement has summed up how I’ve lead myself for the last few years, until GTD.  Since I got hooked, I’ve been very good at actually getting things done.  Last week, however, I felt like the old me, being crushed under the weight of everything that is coming at me, and “waiting until…” all the stuff coming at me was done.  It was just easier to do that.  It was also easy to say, on Friday afternoon, “Ah, nothing got done this week.  Move on to the next.  We’ll deal with it Monday.”

Only Monday is a landslide waiting to happen.  We’re moving offices on Tuesday, so there is last minute packing, arranging, removing, etc., etc.  There will also be the “We need a new…”, and the “We broke our old…”.  Stuff, all stuff, but stuff to be managed in a short time window to keep everyone happy.

Now, on reflection, real life is in fact what I make it, what I deem it to be (thanks for the inspiration, Father).  I can go in tomorrow, get some solid work done for about 2 hours first thing in the morning, pack, and then deal with the rest when I can deal with the rest.  It isn’t rocket science – far from it.  It’s Getting Things Done.  It’s getting things organized.

One of the nice bits about the move is the purge, which I never did complete per the book.  I’m hoping that the purge instinct will be very strong, and that we will as a group shed and shred some stuff.

Wish me luck.  I know I’ll need it, but I also know that I will have way more control over this week, versus last week.

The Weekly Review

The Weekly Review – The Heart of “Getting Things Done”

I admit it.  I am right now a closet runway planner.  I am only looking at GTD from a runway level, and the 10,000 foot level – very rarely higher.

10,000 feet feels different than I thought it would – it feels like getting through the week, and all I am doing is checking off to-dos that I’ve done.  Then again, that is a good thing, although I could check them off when I did them and that would be even better.  But there is more to it than that – there is a ton of self management that is involved in that process.  It gives me a feeling of being in control, of deciding, what I am doing next.  It makes me feel like nothing is slipping through the cracks, and that is terribly important.

One of the keys that I’ve found to ensuring that nothing is slipping is taking notes throughout the day.  Most people I know would freak to find out I was “taking notes on them” but that isn’t the principle.  It lets me process my notes from the previous day and ensure that nothing is slipping.  It lets me keep a record, so that I know what I have committed to – childish, but if I haven’t written it down, it’s like my mind doesn’t think it exists.  I’ve heard lots of people rave over Moleskine notebooks – heck I even bought my wife one for Christmas, and she loves it.  However, I’ve found a great, cheap notebook that does the trick, and you can find something for your needs too.  If you have to know, mine is the Blueline A9C, a steal for about 8 bucks Canadian, and from a Canadian company too.  Reviewing my notes from the week prior during my weekly review or the first thing on the first morning in the office really helps me to stay focused on that runway and 10,000 foot level.

Now if I can just get myself to soar a little bit higher….

Ahh... right where he prefers to be, and with a snack too!

Actually, I'm feeling kind of harried...

This has been one of those crazy, hectic times where you wonder where the day goes.  By the end of it, you’re just happy that it’s over, and that you’ve managed to accomplish something.  However, these are the times that show exactly how effective GTD can be.

I admit (sorry, SWMBO) that I left work late tonight – in a bid to ensure that I had emptied all of my in-baskets.  I am going to be super-busy tomorrow, the continuation of a 2.5 week trend, so I prioritized those few tasks that I must do tomorrow morning, to ensure they get done before I head off on my merry, busy way.  I will once again be in and out of the office.  But this is where GTD shines.

On my Palm Tungsten E handheld, my lists are with me.  I can make my calls, I can hammer away at other tasks – anything that doesn’t need my computer or my office, I can do while I’m in my car.  All because I have my lists.  I’ve also started to take a page from Michael Hyatt in his blog article Working Smart: Recovering the Lost Art of Note-Taking, although this only reinforces something I never did under the Covey system – the Daily Record of Events.  Within my notes I also record all of my voicemail messages, with this notebook becoming an indispensable part of my “trusted system”.

The thing is, GTD doesn’t make these periods any less busy.  But it does make them much more manageable and much less stressful.

Trying to achieve balance

It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted.

It has been fairly intense lately – not insane, but intense.  I’ve had to determine what my priorities are.  Maybe my priority should be shorter blog posts.  ;->

In any event, it’s been since the middle of last month since I’ve blogged.  I’m still buzzing out on doing weekly reviews (although I’m trying them on Monday mornings now), and still loving the fact that I am getting things done.  I am on top of my workload, have delegated major projects without micro-managing, and am also trying to organize an office move at the same time.  I still love the pace, but I’m try9ing to find enough balance where I can include blogging once or twice a week.

I’ve been trying hard to achieve a lot of balance.  I’ve cut down on the mindless reading that I’ve done online, and have focused on just a few sites that I scan every day or two.  I’ve cleaned up my page here, and it should do nicely for the next while.  I’ve really focused on my family, and creating a hard edge regarding my work and home balance.

This will actually be much easier once we move offices as well, as my commute will be much more sensible.  But until then, I will be busy planning, reviewing, working, and generally trying to get things done.  Pardon the pun!

This one might be Kona's biggest log. Ever.

A long time between posts, and a lot of progress

A long time between posts, and a lot of progress.

It’s been before Christmas since I’ve posted, so Happy New Year.  It’s been a great year for me so far, and if this is a sign of things to come, bring it on!  I have to say that making the decision that GTD was “right for me” has been one of the greatest gifts I have ever given myself.  Not only did I find a system that I can implement, understand, and not feel guilty about, it is simple, allows (allows?  Encourages!) the use of gadgets, and lets me sleep well at night.

I’ve taken to calling David Allen “my cult leader”.  I read a lot of GTD blogs, and I will update list shortly.  SWMBO has even started to read GTD, although she admits that the first section of the book is kind of hard to wade through.  Not like the molasses of wading through The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, but still wading.  (I have to admit, I’ve read the book three times, and I think Getting Things Done should have the first and second sections switched around.)  But at least she is reading it.  I’ve recommended it to a co-worker in another of our branch offices, and even one of our clients who has noticed “something” different about the way I’ve been working.

My inboxes?  Still clear.  My desk?  Still uncluttered, except for the working stuff I keep all over.  I know that I should change, but I’m using 3 wire baskets, side by side, as my “In”, “Out”, and “Pending” buckets.  I like it, they work for me.  (Sometimes, my in-basket has to take 3 inch thick files, so I need a sturdy, deep one.)  My files?  The new ones are all labeled thanks to my Brother P-touch 1280; the rest of the files will be taken care of during our upcoming office move.

I’ve managed a couple of weekly reviews, however, only at the runway level.  They seem rushed, like I’m trying to find out how they work.  It seems like all I’m doing is making sure that everything that should be on my lists is there, and everything that has been done has actually been checked off.  I’m sure that I haven’t got everything on my list yet – I have 95 taks, including 12 projects, but I’m working on it.  I will keep at the weekly review, and try to put more and more into them – goals, long range planning.  I’m likely to change when I do them – maybe Sunday evening at my dining room tab le just isn’t the right time or place.  The thing is – I really have a good feeling about what I’m doing, irrespective of the weekly review.  

So I’ll keep at it.  I’m really quite satisfied with how things are going.  I’m quite happy with where my priorities have moved to – and that’s probably why.