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May 24, 2006

Implementing GTD

One of the things I love about our approach is that we are system neutral. In seminars, I'll often demo Outlook or Lotus Notes because they are easy to project on screen, but GTD can really work with any system, tool, or planner as long as you work it. David says a good system is a "complete, current, total-life reminder system which you review regularly."

I encourage people to choose their system or tool like they would pick their car. Choose one that you like, you trust and that matches your style. Some people are more digital than others and really like everything streamlined and searchable electronically. I'm seeing lots of people these days choose a hybrid system of electronic and paper, where their main hub is on their computer, but they print out their calendar and tasks to carry around with them for on-the-fly changes. For years I used a Time/Design paper system and loved it. It was only when I became a Palm geek in the late 90's that I let it go. Otherwise, I loved the visual appeal of a paper system.

There is an amazing wealth of materials out there about getting started with GTD. A few of them we've authored for specific tools our clients use and a few have come out of GTD champions who took it upon themselves to share their knowledge (thank you!):

David Allen Company whitepapers:
GTD and Outlook
GTD and Entourage
GTD and Lotus Notes (hopefully coming summer 2006)

GTD Community whitepapers:
Gary Stringer's whitepaper on GTD and BlackBerry
Bryan Murdaugh's how-to guide for GTD and Gmail

And certainly Merlin Mann's site, 43folders.com, is worth a visit.

Posted by Kelly at 09:55 AM | Comments (1)

May 15, 2006

Making GTD stick with teams

I wanted to share some ideas about helping GTD stick with teams. If you've been through a seminar and find that the GTD honeymoon is over, maybe something here will kick start you back into why you were inspired to get back on track.

- One group I've worked with has a GTD User Group meeting every Friday morning at 10am. Sometimes they do their weekly reviews together in a conference room with laptops and in-boxes in tow. Other times they are sharing tips and tricks or challenges and wins they are having. I've sat in on a few of these meetings and found them inspiring and useful. If weekly seems like too often, consider monthly or as needed. I'd suggest setting an agenda so the meetings stay on purpose.

- Consider a group purge day of reference filing. Everyone could probably benefit from some dedicated file purging time. It may be easier (and more fun) to do if the whole group or company is doing it together. Perhaps an hour on some day that tends to be quieter than most.

- Create your own internal newsletter, SharePoint or Intranet site with GTD tips and tricks.

- Do a refresher seminar with someone from our team. I've done some really great follow-up classes for companies based on the key points of GTD. One I did recently went through a review of the five phases and had them breakout into teams after each phase to talk about what's working, not working, best practices etc. Our director of tele-coaching, Meg Edwards, created a refresher session for a client recently that was done entirely by phone using Skype. Pretty cool stuff.

- I personally find it helpful to re-read the Getting Things Done book. Inevitably I'll read something that I swear wasn't there before. Lately I've also been listening to David's second book, Ready For Anything, on my iPod while I workout. They are nice little sound bytes that are easy to digest. I like when it's on shuffle because I'll hear something from David interspersed with my 70's disco, like Macho Man. Pretty funny.

Posted by Kelly at 03:10 PM | Comments (2)

May 08, 2006

Drawing your attention back to key email folders

David Speight wrote to us with a handy tip for showing the total number of items in an Outlook email folder. This is especially handy for the @Action and @Waiting For folders, if you are using those folders to store pending emails. Some people use those folders as their only reminder of the action, while others store the email in the folder but also capture the action on their Task list. I think David's tip is great if the folder is your only reminder and you risk out of sight...out of mind.

David writes:

"As my view pane is usually my Inbox, seeing the total number of items in '@Action' and '@Waiting For' in the navigation pane (in my Favourite Folders, after Inbox, so always at top), visually draws my attention and focus back to my priorities."

Here's how to do what David is suggesting if you are using @Action or @Waiting email folders:

1. Right click on each folder and select Properties
2. Select "show total number of items" instead of "show number of unread items"
3. Click OK

By the way, the @ before these two folders will make them appear at the top of your folders, versus being sorted into the alpha sort with all of your other email folders.

Posted by Kelly at 12:05 PM | Comments (3)