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May 30, 2008

Those burning GTD questions...

This week I'm going to open up the lines to anyone who would like to ask me a GTD question. I've been working with this methodology for a long time and I'm happy to share strategies for getting clarity on what might be stuck for you.

Anything not quite making sense for you?
Wondering where something gets organized?
Have anything you're just not sure how to process?

This window won't be open for long so fire away while you can!

Update on 5/31: Thanks for the tremendous response. The lines are now closed :) I'll be posting some of my answers (in generic form/no names mentioned) on my blog in the coming weeks. Thanks!

Posted by Kelly at 11:53 AM

May 19, 2008

GTD on the Go....

People often ask me how I manage traveling 3 weeks out of the month and still stay on top of my stuff. It's pretty simple: my systems go with me. There is almost no difference for me to be at my home office in California or sitting on a train to New York (as I am right now.) There are a couple of key things that make my system work, almost whenever and wherever I need to get stuff done:

* My lists all sync to a handheld. I never need to boot up my laptop to see my project or action lists. If you don't have a handheld, print your lists--works just as well. Don't make it hard to access to your stuff.

* I have a broadband wireless card for my laptop to process email anywhere I can find a signal. A fact probably surprising to some of you--I do NOT do email on my handheld. I wait until I can get to it on my laptop. So much easier for me to properly process and it means I'm not always ON, since email doesn't stop coming in.

* I generally don't book meetings the first morning I'm back from a trip, knowing I'll have my hard copy Inbox to process, expense report to do, unpacking to get to, etc.

* For any hard copy stuff I might need, I use plastic folders to transport that. My traveling folders include:

In (collects receipts and anything an Inbox would)
Actions (pending actions)
Waiting For (support for items I'm waiting on)
To Office (things to get filed or handled back at my office or anything an Outbox would)
Nice to Read (just that--no love lost if I don't read it)
Travel Support (a collection of things handy for travel: maps, airline employee recognition cards, envelopes etc.)

These take up about an inch in my briefcase and always have anything I'll need on my trip.

And perhaps the most important key for me:
Just like when working from my home office, I guard my time to allow at least an hour a day to process email. This is key. Backlog is no fun.

Posted by Kelly at 02:14 PM | Comments (5)