May 04, 2009

Building a GTD House

There was a great discussion on GTD Connect about how to setup a new GTD system. I offered some tips on what I would consider when building a system.

I look at a GTD system as being like a house. You need 5 basic rooms in that house for your Projects and Actions (10k and runway). For most people, their Calendar already lives somewhere. If that works for you, keep it there. If not, find somewhere else for it that does work for a complete personal/professional view of calendar stuff. For the other 4 rooms, you just need something that will allow you to create lists that can sort by context/category, allow due date (but not force it) and allow a field to capture additional notes on the entry (when needed). So that house might look like:

Ground floor (where you'll spend most of your time):
Next Actions list(s) (these are context lists tracking your next actions)
Calendar
Waiting For list(s)

Second floor (good overview, looking down on the ground floor):
Projects list(s)

Attic (place to keep the 'seasonal', not yet needed stuff):
Someday/Maybe list(s)

You want this house to live somewhere that is:
- a place you like (don't underestimate this one)
- a place you can access the information easily (too slow will fustrate you)
- somewhere you feel free putting things into (not everyone wants "get legs waxed" on their work computer)
- portable, if needed (printing works, if not handheld sync)
- something you would feel like maintaining if you were sick in bed (don't get sucked into complicated is better)
- it is scalable for your personal and professional work (give yourself room to capture it all and continue to grow)

Out in the backyard, in a tool shed you can get to easily, you'll also want a place for your non-actionable stuff (checklists, reference lists and reference files.) And, please, get a good filing cabinet!

By the way, this is not in the GTD book--just my way of explaining this after years of doing seminars and looking for the easiest way to demystify "lists" for people.

Hope it helps.

Posted by Kelly at 02:28 PM | Comments (4)

March 05, 2009

Best & Worst Practices of Doing - Part One

By the time you get to Doing, you have already decided what you are going to Do. Now it's a choice of which you are choosing to Do.

Best practices: Making balanced, trusted, intuitive choices about which to do
Worst practices: Driven by latest & loudest and emergency scanning

The Three-Fold Nature of Work - How to spend your time and energy:

- Doing Pre-Defined Work - picking from your existing work on lists and calendar
- Doing Work as it Appears - choosing to act on what shows up (Doing an email, rather than processing an email)
- Defining Work - processing your Inboxes (most people need at least an hour a day just for processing)

There is a unique balance for each of these 3 that will be different for every person. We all need time in each. For example, someone in a client-facing role would naturally need to be ready to "Work as it Appears." A project manager might need to spend more time doing "Pre-defined Work" to keep the project moving forward. It's a balance.

Universally, I can tell you that the majority of people we work with spend far more time Doing Work as it Appears than they think they should (latest & loudest), and not nearly enough time Defining Work as they know they should (hence, bloated Inboxes and feeling buried.)

Next up, I'll talk about Criteria for Choosing.

Posted by Kelly at 10:54 AM | Comments (1)

February 10, 2009

What is GTD? podcast

I did a "What is GTD?" podcast recently for the members of a non-profit group called the Project Leadership Podcast. It's about 30 minutes and is my take on David Allen's work and GTD.

Posted by Kelly at 11:58 AM | Comments (4)

January 30, 2009

Best & Worst Practices of Weekly Review

Moving on to part four in my five-part series on the best and worst practices of GTD: Mastering Workflow. Next up is the glue, the elixir, the special sauce of GTD--the Weekly Review stage. David Allen calls the Weekly Review, in particular, the critical success factor. It's a key to stress-free productivity and it's probably one of the pieces of GTD's approach that people avoid the most, yet it can often reap the most benefits.

Bottom line, if you don't have a systematic and thorough approach to reviewing your work, you'll never break free from the busy trap of thinking you need to be thinking and worrying about your work all of the time.

On the flip slide, there is a magical quality to the Weekly Review in that it actually saves time, energy, focus and attention on what you need to be thinking about, by giving you a systematic and trusted approach for reviewing your personal and professional commitments, so you can trust that you are making the best choices about what to DO (part five of this series!).

Unfortunately, avoiding regular reviews (certainly even lightweight daily reviews and thorough weekly reviews) means your action reminder system gets out of date and starts leaking. How do you know that? Your brain starts taking back what it let go of because it doesn't trust you're on it and seeing it when you need to. You start waking up in the middle of the night with the gnawing sense of anxiety that something fell through the cracks. You start getting into the busy trap of doing work as it appears, rather than working from your pre-defined work, because you know it's not current anyway. Out of survival, your brain starts trying to do a review of your commitments ALL OF THE TIME, 24/7 because it doesn't trust you're going to do one. I could go on, but I think you get the idea.

Best Practices: Reflect on a complete, current, and consistent inventory of your commitments--on a regular basis! A weekly review ensures your projects, calendar, and next action lists are clean and current.

Worst Practices: Letting your system get so far out of date it dies, or feels like a major effort to bring it back to life. Telling yourself you don't have time to do a review. Setting up the Weekly Review as a recurring appointment on your Calendar, then not showing up to your own meeting (good way to erode trust in your commitments).

Tips & Tricks for Weekly Review:
Although I've talked mostly about the Weekly Review, you will likely have different types of reviews:
-On a daily basis, the two key parts of your system you probably need to review are your Calendar and Next Action lists.
-On a weekly basis, we recommend as thorough a review as you can of all of your projects and actions. If you want the official GTD Weekly Review checklist, go to pages 184-190 of the GTD Book.
-On a monthly basis, you're likely going to want to look at your 20,00 / Areas of Focus to make sure you're giving attention on to those areas.
- On a yearly basis, you're going to want to review any higher level goals, visions, strategies in your personal and professional life.

-Most people need about an hour for the Weekly Review, sometimes more, sometimes less. Depends on your work and what your past week has been like. Give yourself a time limit if you're afraid of how long it might take. Just get as far as you can.
-Do it in an uninterrupted space.
-Acknowledge yourself for doing. Rewards work!
-During the Weekly Review, resist the temptation to Do what you find, unless it takes less than two-minutes.
-Do at least one, if you've never done one before, to have a reference point for the experience to help get yourself motivated to do another one.
-Any day works, although Friday seems to be the most popular day for most people.

If you've been one of those people who has implemented most of the GTD approach, but haven't gotten the Weekly Review down as a regular habit yet, you're not alone. It's no wonder our Weekly Review set is one of our most popular coaching tools.

It takes effort, but the rewards on the other end are sweet. Don't rob yourself of the value of GTD by doing the work to Collect/Process/Organize, but never stepping back to review and reflect on where you've been and where you're going.

Posted by Kelly at 09:29 AM | Comments (3)

November 24, 2008

Best & Worst Practices of Organize

Moving on to part three in our enthralling five-part series on the best and worst practices of GTD: Mastering Workflow. This week we're on to Organize. Often a crowd-pleaser, organize is where you get to decide where to put things. If you're at all familiar with GTD you know that David Allen does not tell you which tools to use--GTD is tool agnostic--so those choices are up to you. Not saying all tools, software programs, paper planners work seamlessly with GTD, but where you organize your stuff is up to you. GTD gives you the best practices of how to organize, not where.

There are 5 key "buckets" to consider when organizing your work:

Reference - no action, you just need to hold on to it.
Someday/Maybe - no current action, but you want to incubate it for possible later action.
Projects - a list of your current outcomes that require more than one action to complete
Next Actions - one list or sorted by context, to manage your physical, visible next steps (project related and not)
Waiting For - actions that require you to track that you are waiting on someone or something.

In the GTD workflow diagram, Organize is the outer ring, after you've processed it.

Best Practice: easily retrievable in clear categories
Worst Practice: unclear Stuff, confused piles, and lists

Tips & Tricks for Organize:

- Keep it simple. The number one problem I see with the majority of list managers out there (sorry, but especially the ones that self-deem themselves "GTD-friendly") is that they are too complicated and anything but friendly. Too many features actually can cause stress, not reduce it. Read my post on What Makes a Good GTD list manager.

- Pick an action list manager that attracts you more than repels you. You should like your total-life reminder system in order to be motivated to use it.

- Make your system portable. If you're tracking "@home" next actions on your work computer, and don't have that list with you when you are home, the system will fall apart. If you can't sync to a handheld, printing your electronic lists works just fine.

- It's got to be at least as good, or better, than keeping it in your head. Otherwise, why would your brain want to let go of stuff? Your brain has to know there's a better tool to do the job or it won't let itself get fired from trying to be your To Do list.

- Know your style and choose around that. If you're not an electronic person, let go of the idea that an electronic list manager is going to manage your life. If you're a paper person, go with a paper planner. Don't force yourself into something that doesn't match your natural style and creative expression.

- Let go of the idea that there is a perfect list manager out there, if that's stopping you from diving fully into GTD.

Your list manager isn't the only thing to consider with organize. There's also your desk setup, your hard and soft-copy filing, your tools on-the-go, your project support etc. Short of repeating what's in the GTD book, let me leave you with this: How easy is it for you to clear your head and put it into trusted places you know you can easily get your hands on again when you need it? That's the key to organize.

Next topic will be the ever-important critical success factor of Review. Ahhh...the elixir...the special sauce...the glue that keeps this all together.

Posted by Kelly at 09:30 AM | Comments (11)

November 03, 2008

Best & Worst Practices of Process

This is part two in a five part series on the best & worst practices of GTD: Mastering Workflow. This week we're covering stage two: Process. Also known as the decision-making, defining or clarifying stage, this is where you are making decisions about the "stuff" you've collected in your Inboxes. There are a few key questions that get asked when you are processing something:

Best Practice: make decisions about your stuff when it shows up
Worst Practice: make decisions after it blows up

Here's the big, obvious best practice of Process: You're going to have to make a decision eventually, why not make it with the least amount of effort and attention when you first handle it? I'm not talking about intuitively holding on something before making a final decision (should I do this or not?)--there are times when holding off on making a decision is the best thing to do--I'm talking about those decisions that don't go away just because you close the email and go on to the next one.

Tips & tricks for Process:

- The biggest improvement opportunity I see with people around Process is giving it enough time. It takes about 30 seconds, on average, to process each piece of stuff/input you get. If you get 60 emails a day, you're gonna need 30 minutes just to Process it. It won't get to zero on it's own. Most execs I coach need about an hour to an hour and a half per day just for processing.

- Get super clear on your next action. The clearer the better to reflect your very next physical, visible step. If you capture you're next action as "Talk to Bill" but you know you need to update the proposal before you can talk to him, "Update the proposal" is what goes on the next actions list, not Talk to Bill. If you really need to capture Talk to Bill as the next sequential next action, store it with project plans, just not the next actions list.

- Don't give more time to things than they deserve. If you can complete something in less than two minutes, handle it when it first shows up.

- Decide before you organize is a good rule of thumb. If you haven't decided your next action on something, organizing it into a neat pile won't free your mind of it. Your brain will just have a neater pile to stress about.

Next up...best & worst practices of Organize.

Posted by Kelly at 08:41 AM | Comments (7)

October 22, 2008

Best & Worst Practices of Collect

Merriam-Webster defines Collect as: to bring together into one body or place. In GTD terms, it's the point of entry where all of your "stuff" lands in your trusted Inboxes, to be processed.

As with all of the five phases of GTD: Mastering Workflow (Collect>Process>Organize>Review>Do), Collect has best practices and worst practices:

Best practices: out of your head, into leak-proof locations, clean edges between collect and organize
Worst practices: in your head, spread all around, blended with reference and what's already been decided (collect is not organize!)

Tips & tricks for Collect:
- Create a trusted Inbox for your desk to capture hard copy stuff. Even if you think you're paperless, you're not.
- Create an "In" folder for when you're on the go between home and office, away from your desk in meetings, traveling, etc.
- If people try to hand you something, redirect them to the Inbox (your chair is not an Inbox!)
- Keep your Inboxes reserved for new incoming stuff only--it's too easy to go numb to your Inboxes when it's an amorphous blend of new stuff, reference, waiting for's and next actions items.
- Use your Inbox yourself. It can be a fantastic way to bookmark your own brain when you get interrupted.
- Have as few Inboxes as you can get by with, but as many as you need
- Get an Inbox for each person in your house (creates clean edges for who owns what and handles the mundane "business" of personal workflow)
- Get an Inbox for each person on your team, in your department....in your company
- Walk around with a collection tool wherever you go, so that when something pops into your head that has your attention, you've got a way to collect it other than in your head

Believe it or not, Collect is often where people have the biggest improvement opportunity. In my experience, people often don't even have a trusted Inbox, or if they do have an Inbox, they never process it. Or, people collect in so many places, it's like a scavenger hunt to find where they left it and process becomes a daunting task, leading people to handle latest and loudest instead because it's often simply easier to find. Or, one of the most common ones I see is blending collection with the stuff they've already processed and organized. If people really got how much time that wastes, because it causes them to re-look at what they've already decided, they would never blend them again.

Next up...best & worst practices of Process.

Posted by Kelly at 08:40 AM | Comments (9)

April 15, 2008

A short list of a few good GTD list managers

Choosing a GTD list manager is much like walking onto a car lot and choosing what kind of car you like. Good chance you're going to be attracted to something completely different than the person next to you.

Good news is that, like a car, if the one you choose has the core components we recommend, it'll get you where you need to go.

A good GTD list manager should give you a bullet-proof, rock solid, trusted place to track your projects and actions. A starter set of lists David Allen recommends to store in that system would include:

Projects
Someday/Maybe
@Agendas
@Anywhere
@Calls
@Computer
@Errands
@Home
@Office
@Waiting For

A few questions to get started:

1. Are you a paper or electronic list person? There is a big difference and it's not only based on how technical you are. Some people prefer the touch and feel of paper. Some prefer electronic. It's usually personal preference and both work well with GTD. If you went to jot down a quick reminder to yourself right now, what would you reach for, your computer or pad of paper on your desk? That might give you a clue.

2. Do you want your lists to sync to a handheld (Palm, BlackBerry or Windows Mobile?) If so, you'll need an electronic list manager to make that happen.

3. Will other people need to see your data? Such as an admin or family member? Electronic may be easier for that than paper.

4. Are you away from your computer most of the time and don't have a handheld? If so, then you'll want to be able to print your electronic lists to work with them when you're on the go or use a paper planner.

5. Any security issues to consider? Some companies, for good reasons, don't want their employees putting company data, like the kind of stuff that would go on lists, on a web-based tool outside of the secure network.

6. Where is your calendar now? Many people will put their lists in the same program as their calendar, to have a central dashboard.

Here's my short list of list managers that I have either personally use or have used, am familiar enough with it because I have coached others on it, or I've heard enough good things about from other GTD'ers to know it works.

PAPER PLANNERS--->
Nearly any paper planner, including a 3-ring binder you can go grab from your supply closet, can work if you like the ring style, paper size etc. My first few years doing GTD were entirely on a paper planner. Just don't hold yourself to the rigid forms they'll include with the planner. Choose the binder style and tabs you like, then use simple lined paper for your lists.

DESKTOP-BASED LIST MANAGERS--->
Palm Desktop (PC or Mac)
Outlook Tasks (PC only)
Outlook Tasks with GTD Add-In (PC only)
Lotus Notes To Do (PC or Mac)
Excel Spreadsheet or Word Document (PC or Mac)
MindManager (PC or Mac)
Entourage (Mac only)
OmniFocus (Mac only)
OmniOutliner (Mac only)
Kinkless (Mac only)

WEB-BASED LIST MANAGERS--->
Google Spreadsheets or Documents
Google Notebook
Remember the Milk
Toodledo

No endorsement implied here from me or David Allen Company, just some direction for you all on your list manager quest. Good luck!

[KF 4/27: You'll will find comments below from people who are suggesting and promoting other products than what I've listed in my post. Please know, since it may not be obvious in their post, some of these comments are posted by the seller of that software with the direct intention of getting you to buy that product. Since I don't have the time or inclination to test everything people are suggesting, nor do I want to block comments on my blog, please just use your common sense when checking out software people are recommending through my blog. Thanks! Kelly

Posted by Kelly at 11:32 AM | Comments (13)

April 10, 2008

What makes a good GTD list manager?

Having a total life reminder system is a key to GTD and a trusted list manager to track projects and actions is one of the first choices for people to make when implementing the system.

Unfortunately, some of the programs out there that are trying to be "GTD list managers" miss the mark not by what they didn't include, but by what they did include. Some of them build in too many convoluted features, that in GTD terms make the whole thing more complex than it needs to be. Not saying you can't get value from some of those programs, but you'll be watering down the simplicity and elegance of GTD if you force yourself into using every feature that some of them include. If you get what the core components should be, you can usually get creative at customizing or ignoring what will end up being a drag for you down the road. So what makes a good GTD list manager?

Key features to look for:
* Sorting lists by context - many programs have a "category" feature that will easily support this.
* Ability to assign a due date - not forcing it on all of them, but allowing it for those that need it.
* Portable for on the go access - can be synched to a handheld or printed.
* Easily accessible - less than 60 seconds to get something in/out.
* More attractive to you than repelling - you've got to like the system you're entrusting your brain to.
* Doesn't force priority codes - if you know GTD, you know that forcing priority codes is old news and rarely accurate anyway.
* Place to capture additional notes - attached to an item to capture relevant info related to the item.
* Ability to search and sort in various ways.
* Robust enough to handle all of your stuff.

Is there a perfect GTD list manager out there? Probably not. But lots of them will work just great if you keep it simple and stick to the core features that work, without you thinking about how to make it work. It becomes seamless and like second nature to you.

Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity.
- Charles Mingus

[KF 4/27: You'll will find comments below from people who are suggesting and promoting software products to do GTD. Please know, since it may not be obvious in their post, some of these comments are posted by the seller of that software with the direct intention of getting you to buy that product. Since I don't have the time or inclination to test everything people are suggesting, nor do I want to block comments on my blog, please just use your common sense when checking out software people are recommending through my blog. Thanks! Kelly

Posted by Kelly at 04:29 PM | Comments (25)

March 29, 2007

Building your GTD house

Last count, there were something like 60+ software programs based on GTD. Add another several hundred, if not thousand, web sites chewing over GTD and all the options for implementation. With so many choices, it can become overwhelming to build the "perfect" GTD system. And, you'll never hear David Allen say one product/tool/list manager is the only way to do GTD. Wouldn't that be nice actually? It would simplify things for all of us! Choosing your system comes down to your personal preference and some people find themselves faced with the paradox of choice.

At a bare minimum, a GTD system would have 4 primary action lists/views: Projects, Actions, Waiting For and your Calendar. If you set out to find a good list manager to bucket these primary lists, that's a good place to start. Here are 4 tips for building your GTD house:

1. Start with what you know. Yes, there are a ton of options out there for making your life faster and easier, but if you've got to spend time learning the tool before you can easily work the system, start with a tool you already know. Lots of people start with paper lists for this reason. That alleviates the immediate pressure of mastering a new software program. If you go digital, make sure the program you choose doesn't overcomplicate things. I go for speed, not complexity. It's one of the reasons I've been a fan of Palm Desktop all these years. It stays simple enough while giving me room to manage a sophisticated set of lists.

2. Populate your system as thoroughly as you can and review it regularly. The best way I know of for my brain to trust my lists (more than holding it in my brain) is for my lists to become like my second brain. Nothing is not worthy of the lists (repot orchids or update the workbook--it's all on the lists.) If it is an agreement I've made, it's in my system and my brain trusts it's OK to let go of it knowing I'll see it in any daily or weekly reviews. Remember, the brain doesn't necessarily know the difference between buy shampoo and finish performance review. To your brain, they are just incompletions that the brain will lob over the fence to get your attention whenever it thinks your free (not necessarily when you can do anything about it.)

3. Make your system portable. If you don't have a way to sync your lists to a handheld (Palm, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile device) then print them on a regular basis. Downloading stuff from your brain only works if you can access the lists you need, when you need them. If you're at the hardware store on a Saturday and your lists are back at your office then you've trained your brain that off-loading your actions is not a good idea. Same thing with sitting in your boss's office and your Agenda items are buried in a list or folder back at your desk. Having your lists with you will also give you more chances to take advantage of weird windows of time for adding to your lists as well. Nice to capture buy shampoo the first time it comes around, rather than the 10th.

4. Give yourself time to make it a habit. Good or bad, a habit takes about 28 to 32 days to get created. I suggest picking a list manager and trying that consistently for about 30 days. If you find it's not a good fit, then switch. At least you would have given yourself a chance to get the basic moves down with it and see if it matches your style.

I was watching this bee outside my office window this morning, as he considered his choices with my Stargazer Lily.

Ah...if only life were that simple!

Posted by Kelly at 11:05 AM | Comments (9)