« November 2007 | Main | January 2008 »

December 27, 2007

The Power of the Reticular Filter

As we approach the end of the year and the beginning of the next, I find myself reflecting on where I am and what I'm grateful for. One thing for which I've always been grateful is having this wonderful job as a coach at The David Allen Company.

The story of how I became a workflow coach is a great example of the power of the reticular filter in action. The reticular filter is that part of our brains that filters in and out what matters most and least to us, respectively (see here for more about the reticular filter.)

Over the course of my previous professional experience I had often wondered if I should become a coach, but I'd never really verbalized my thoughts or taken any actions to discover more. I didn't have the cajones to jump out of the the track I'd been in for years into the world of coaching. Then, one day, I was talking with my wife, AnneLise, about career musings and shared with her that I was interested in investigating a career in coaching. She agreed, saying, "Of course you should be a coach. You're already an amazing coach." Hearing her reflect back to me what I probably already knew deep down inside, gave me the courage to embrace that possibility and start taking actions toward becoming a coach. And suddenly my reticular started filtering away...

Just a few days after that, in my search to learn more about the world of coaching, I volunteered to be coached in an all-day integral coaching course at a nearby coaching school. My coach was supportive, sensitive and objective. She took me through several exercises in which I created my vision of what my experience of my life would be working as a coach - in other words, we created not just a successful outcome statement, "Coaching Career Launched," but also a much deeper, richer vision of how it would feel, how it would look, what I would be doing and saying. The works. The conversation we had that day created an incredible opening for me - and suddenly all I could do was see opportunities to make my new vision come true. My reticular filter was now programed to filter in the internal ideas and stimulus from the outside world that would all help me achieve my new goal and vision.

Literally, two days later in a conversation with a friend, I noticed him mention something about GTD and I was suddenly reminded of David Allen, and the workflow coaching I'd once received and loved. Within a week of that I was starting the interview process to become a workflow coach...

If I hadn't already set my goal and articulated my vision, that mention of GTD would have probably just floated by me like so many other bits of information I pass by every day. But this time I noticed it.

From the moment I actually set the vision and goal it took about two months before I was hired and hit the ground running with my coaching training. My own personal experience is my best evidence of the power of setting intentions, articulating goals, and letting your own reticular filter do what it does best.

I'm sure you all have similar stories about seemingly serendipitous things that happened or showed up once you set your mind to a certain goal or vision. I'd love to hear about it.

Posted by mdolan at 01:54 PM | Comments (1)

December 19, 2007

Getting Back on the Wagon

If you've got a solid personal productivity management practice in place, like GTD, you probably engage in some sort of regular wholistic review of the stuff on your lists and in your system. Without doing this regularly it's hard to feel totally in control and in perspectice about your work and your life. At the David Allen Company, we recommend to do this weekly. Here's a link to a free PDF with information about the recommended steps of the weekly review.

And.. I've got something terrible to admit...

The other day, it took me pretty much a whole day to do my weekly review, because I hadn't done one for over three weeks!!

"What!?" you say, "A David Allen workflow coach missed TWO of his own weekly reviews? Heresy!!"

Yes indeed. It's true. Even a DavidAllen coach can be rather human when it comes to occasionally missing a weekly review. And you know what? The experience of falling off the weekly review wagon and finally getting back on was actually a big eye-opener for me. When I actually caught up and finished the weekly review my mood shifted, my peace-of-mind increased, and even my body felt more vibrant. But only through experiencing that post-weekly-review glow could I really see just how out of sorts I'd been the couple of weeks prior. It's as if I just got a new prescription for eyeglasses and I suddenly realize just how fuzzy everything was without them. The experience also made me realize just how cranky I get if it's been too long since my last weekly review.

And so I encourage you: If you're a student of David Allen's GTD and you've fallen off the wagon of the weekly review, give yourself a break, set aside some time, and get back on the wagon. If you're like me, your holiday season might be a little more in control and a little less cranky.

Posted by mdolan at 07:11 PM | Comments (2)

December 12, 2007

Master of one's own domain

This week I'm coaching four members of a team who are all using Lotus Notes. For months before I arrived they had been experimenting with and using the "Assign to-do" feature which is part of Lotus Notes To-Do's, with which one can essentially create a To-Do and send it via email to land in someone else's email and To-Do list. (there is a similar function in Outlook Tasks as well). But not everyone in the group was loving how it was working out.

The head of the group was interested in using this feature so that he could essentially assign and track all of the requests he sends to his team members in the same step on his own To-Do lists. However, in the practices of GTD, we typically don't recommend using this feature because it essentially ends up adding tasks onto others' To-Do lists without giving them an easy way to fully process it for themselves.

In other words, if I had a task from my boss appear in my to-do list that sounded something like "please take care of the PDG report," that's probably not the way I would articulate my own next action about the PDG report. I would instead process that request into a specific project and/or next action for myself with the specifics of exactly HOW I'm going to take care of that request. My boss wouldn't really know what my actual next physical, visible action needs to be. Only I can define that.

It's much more helpful for me if all of the things on my own next actions and projects lists are created, worded and processed by me, in my own words - so that I'm the master of my own domain, so to speak.

If there are a lot of things on my own next actions lists that I didn't actually put there, my assumption is that I'll start to lose trust in my lists a bit and maybe even be confused when reviewing them.

I ended up recommending that they not use this feature of the software and instead just use other normal means of communication (like emails and conversations) to assign tasks and request actions.

I wonder if anyone out there has found any success using this assigning tasks feature of Outlook or Lotus Notes - and how that has worked with a GTD structure of processing if there was one in your environment.

Posted by mdolan at 06:50 PM | Comments (11)

December 08, 2007

Getting the Water Just Right: The Someday Maybe List

I've noticed a broad theme about GTD, both in my own practice and in the coaching I provide to others: Keeping your GTD system healthy is all about recalibration.

In my own approach, I notice that it helps to always keep one eye on the look-out for how well my system and approach is serving me. Over time, things change in and around me. So I've got to make sure that I regularly recalibrate the agreements I make with myself to fit the environment and situation I'm in.

My experience of it is like an ongoing fine-tuning of the temperature of a shower in a house that has inconsistent plumbing. I've got to recalibrate my system regularly so I don't either burn myself or chill out too much.

If you know anything about the practice of the weekly review, you know that there's a lot of recalibration built in. In my weekly review I not only collect and process all of the stuff I haven't yet processed, but I also take a fresh look at all of the agreements I've made in the past and give myself the chance to change my mind. The weekly review is like the macro-level recalibration - and it's essential to keep things running.

Someday Maybe
One specific example of recalibrating during the weekly review has to do with the Someday Maybe list. I always try to keep a healthy give-and-take between the things on the Someday Maybe list and my Actions and Project lists. The Someday Maybe list is like the release-valve of my commitments. If I'm doing a weekly review and I notice that I'm starting to reach capacity in terms of workload versus energy, it's time to recalibrate and shift some things that were once committed projects into Someday Maybe mode. I can always tell that I need to do this when my overall feeling of relaxed control starts to morph into the beginnings of a slight feeling of anxiety (Yes, even a DavidAllen coach feels anxiety sometimes). I can actually feel it in my body. And when I do, that's an important signal for me to start recalibrating and renegotiating those agreements.

Of course the opposite is true as well. When my schedule and bandwidth start opening up and my energy starts to be available for more commitments, one of the first things I do is hunt on my Someday Maybe list for some juicy bits for which I've been hoping to have time.

Have you ever noticed that when you don't have a lot to do, you do proportionally less with your time? Recalibration is about keeping your commitments at just the right level so that you're not swamping yourself and you're not succumbing to laziness.

Posted by mdolan at 02:10 PM | Comments (1)