As a loyal reader, you already know that I have been using the ideas from David Allen’s Getting Things Done book for many years. What you may not know is that I have also been helping many of my IBM co-workers discover GTD and get things done.
Like most knowledge workers, my friends and co-workers struggle with tremendous email volumes and balancing heavy workloads. In my spare time, I developed a presentation that provides describes how I use Lotus Notes and GTD to become my productive.
Here are 2 simple tips that were included in the latest edition of David Allen’s Productivity Principles Newsletter:
[Wow, it’s been awhile since I posted any GTD links.]
Brett, a fellow IBMer and the creator of the GTD For Lotus Notes tool, passed allowing a link to the Productive! Magazine. It’s a free magazine that features the best posts from a variety of productivity bloggers. The magazine is available in Adobe Reader (PDF) format.
The first edition was just published.on November 20, 2008 and contains an interview with David Allen.
Gina Trapani, the founding editor of the Lifehacker blog, has published an updated book entitled Upgrade Your Life. The publisher is offering free samples of the book in PDF format here. The sample chapter contains 10 easy to use email management “hacks”. Check it out.
If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to get organized, then I recommend David Allen’s Getting Things Done book.
If you’d like to get a taste of the concepts without opening your wallet, check out this video of David Allen speaking to Google employees.
Today I had the pleasure of sharing my GTD-inspired email and task management system with a group of human resources professionals at IBM Canada.
In my presentation, I point out that a poorly defined task can lead to procrastination. One simple way to increase the likelihood of getting something done is to actually articulate the physical action required to perform the task.
Coincidentally, I just ran across an article, entitled “Dear Me: Get to work“, that discusses this in more detail. In a nutshell, the author suggests:
Write your tasks as if you are delegating them to someone you actually know.
He offers some examples to bring it home.
Below is a video of Merlin Mann, author of the popular 43Folders blog. In the video he presents his approach to personal productivity and email management to an audience at Google. Anyone familiar GTD will recognize the similarities.
Coincidentally, I have a very similar presentation that I have delivered to teams at the IBM Toronto Lab. I’ve got to hand it to Merlin, his slides look nicer.
If you’re having problem seeing the embedded video, try this link.
Thanks to Karen for sharing the link!
Gina Trapani from Lifehacker.com discusses the benefits of scheduling time to perform a weekly review: Getting into the Weekly Review habit
Michael Dolan, a coach with the David Allen Company, gives some advice on properly defining your next actions: Defining Your Work
Here’s two handy articles from Lifehacker that were inspired by the ideas in David Allen’s Getting Things Done.
Enjoy!
Here’s a tip for anyone that applies ideas from David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) system to Google’s Gmail.
