« January 2008 | Main | March 2008 »

February 26, 2008

Handling meeting notes

Someone recently asked David Allen for his best tips, tricks and processes for handling meeting and conversation notes.

Since this is a common question we tend to get, I thought I would share David's reply:

"I process most meeting notes into our custom contact manager database. That's where I track most everything that's worth tracking. Sometimes I just put a small note in the notes field of my tel/add for the person, if it's just like on this day we did this and that...

The real question to ask yourself is: What's the purpose of the notes? Only with a clear answer to that do you know how much detail you need to keep, and where and how you should keep it.

Many times I just keep my handwritten notes in their file, in my general reference files.

There's no clear black and white delineation about information, if it's just information that "might be useful" at some later time. Always a judgment call, weighing the payoffs and the prices."

Posted by Kelly at 10:19 AM | Comments (13)

February 20, 2008

GTD is for anyone, but those techies sure love it

While GTD's popularity seems to span across generations and professions...it's the techie groups that seem to be especially drawn to it. Perhaps it's due to the "open source" nature of GTD that allows people to engineer their own list manager. We don't tell you what tool or program you need to use. If you understand what builds a great system, there's tremendous freedom in what that looks like to make GTD work.

NPR explored this topic yesterday in a feature about GTD and it's appeal to the technology world. Running time 4 minutes.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19105832

Posted by Kelly at 08:58 AM | Comments (1)

February 12, 2008

It's either actionable or it's not--there is no gray zone

There are two forks in the road when you process an email: it's either actionable or it's not. Yet time and time again people tell me that they get emails that they think fall into this mysterious gray zone. It's the email from a coworker/customer/friend that implies action, but it's not an action they want to take. Yet their standard won't allow them to delete or ignore the email because some part of them thinks they should be doing something about it. Guess where the stress tends to show up? In the gray zone that gets created from the "shoulds without a decision" about this kind of stuff. Does receiving an email automatically create an agreement just because it landed in your inbox?

I was coaching someone recently who had tons of emails that fell into this gray zone and her reaction was to simply file them into a Reference folder. My role, when I'm a GTD coach, is to be vigilant with (and for) people when they are processing their stuff. I noticed that when she moved something into the Reference folder, she said "I'll get back to that someday," but she didn't track that action anywhere. So did she really let it go? Of course not. She still has an implicit agreement to do something about that email, so filing it away just moved it to a less obvious place.

I received an email recently that could have easily fallen into that gray zone if I let it. My first reaction was to delete the email but I knew the person would be expecting my reply. And they would have every reason to expect my reply because I've handled this kind of thing in the past, even though I don't consider it core to my job. So I can't blame them for sending it, I've trained them that it's OK to send that kind of input to me until I tell them otherwise.

One of the most powerful aspects of GTD, in my experience, is the part about agreements. What am I doing to create, promote or allow the input I am receiving? What's the agreement I am making with everything that I collect? Is there anything I can do to better communicate when my priorities and interests shift so I stay clean, even when things land in my world that I don't want or think I should do? Am I clear about my Horizons of Focus (runway-50k perspective) to know if this is my job to handle? There lies the simplicity and freedom in working GTD. Pay attention to what has your attention and agreement.

This all may generate more questions than answers, but I thought it was worthy of a blog post. I'd love to hear your input on this (no implied agreement! just for those of you who want to...)

Posted by Kelly at 08:34 AM | Comments (11)

February 01, 2008

Shifting your position

Did you ever move your bedroom around as a kid? Even a simple thing like moving your bed from one wall to another? Remember going to bed that night? It felt new and exciting. Same furniture, new perspective. If that worked for you as a kid, it can work for you as an adult. If you're feeling stuck, bored, repelled, low energy or uninspired when you step into your office space, change your perspective.

Here are 10 simple things you can do to breathe new life into your workflow systems:

1. If you've got a desk that can move to a new position, move it.

2. Rename your lists. I change the names of my GTD action lists all the time. It's a simple thing, but it works. @Computer becomes @Offline and @Online. @Calls becomes @Phone. @Agendas becomes @Talk to. Same purpose, just fresh new lists.

3. Clean something. Anything.

4. Get a labeler. It's a mystical thing. Ask someone who has one.

5. Get new gear like In, Pending and Out trays that you really like. Don't settle for the company issued ones if you don't like them.

6. Make sure your workspace ergonomics really work. I coached a guy one time who was right-handed, but actually endured his mouse being on the left side. He literally reached his arm across his body to use the mouse.

7. Update your framed pictures of your kids, friends, families or favorite vacation photos.

8. Get your reference filing system (hard or soft copy) to a place where you are actually more attracted than repelled by it. Review, purge, reorganize. Whatever it takes.

9. Get the best lighting you can for your eyes. If the fluorescent lights bother you, get a lamp for your desk that is closer to natural sunlight.

10. Do a GTD Weekly Review. Honestly, if it didn't work, we wouldn't suggest it.

Posted by Kelly at 06:15 PM | Comments (6)