60 en-us Featuring company news, blogs, articles, and podcasts designed to help you win at the game of work and business of life. http://www.davidco.com/master_rss.php ℗ & © 2008 The David Allen Company Winning At The Game Of Work And Business Of Life David Allen & Company Podcasts on productivity and Getting Things Done®. The David Allen Company info@davidco.com no info@davidco.com (Kelly Forrister) The Organizing Playground radio show interviews The David Allen Company's Kelly Forrister --> Kelly Forrister teaches seminars and provides individual coaching for clients worldwide. She teaches David Allen's "Getting Things Done", and has been working with his methodology for more than 15 years. Listen in as Kelly shares some of her passion... Click here to listen now or click here to download. (mp3, 55:08). For access to all previous podcasts, check out our complete podcast feed.
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info@davidco.com (Kelly Forrister) http://www.davidco.com/podcasts/play/15.html http://www.davidco.com/audio/KellyOrganizingPlaygroundFeb19.2008.mp3 Fri, 07 Mar 2008 09:27:07 PST 55:08 gtd,organizing gtd organizing Get a Life! is the title of a feature in the current issue of Fortune Magazine. GTD goes toe-to-toe with other coaching methods, with predictably great results. Business Week has also recently published a feature article about David Allen and GTD, entitled Getting Serious About Getting Things Done. There's sure to be more GTD in the press as we approach the publication of David's new book, Making It All Work, in December, and the GTD Global Summit a few months from now. - The David Allen Company Team Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened, but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm. - Robert Louis Stevenson
Get a Life! is the title of a feature in the current issue of Fortune Magazine. GTD goes toe-to-toe with other coaching methods, with predictably great results.

Business Week has also recently published a feature article about David Allen and GTD, entitled Getting Serious About Getting Things Done.

There's sure to be more GTD in the press as we approach the publication of David's new book, Making It All Work, in December, and the GTD Global Summit a few months from now.

- The David Allen Company Team


Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened, but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

]]> info@davidco.com (David Allen) http://www.davidco.com/whatsup.php Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:31:48 PDT GTD Productivity Getting Things Done David Allen DavidAllen Time Management http://www.davidco.com/whatsup.php?=d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e I recently presented a seminar where a participant brought up the project of getting her daughter into college. Since that was a current project for me as well, I wrote to her about how I applied the Natural Planning Model to this project. For those of you unfamiliar with the Natural Planning Model, it is David Allen's approach to getting projects creatively under control. The specific details of this five-phase approach can be found starting on page 54 of David Allen's book, Getting Things Done. Here is the email I sent to this participant regarding her project: Dear Sara, I wanted to share with you what I did to help my son with his efforts to get into college. Like your daughter, my son is a senior looking at schools. The deadlines for college applications had been approaching, and he had not completed any applications. In response, I took him through the Natural Planning Model. Specifically, here's what I did with him: 1) Purpose I asked him to tell me why he wanted to go to college. At first he started with reasons that seemed to belong to others, but I encouraged him to get real with it — why did he really want to go to college? Was it to learn a trade? Develop strong friendships? Have an adventure? Meet new people? Enhance his education by broadening it or giving it more depth? 2) Guiding Principles I asked my son what was important to him as we went through this process. He said that he wanted the process to be easy and fluid, and it was also important to him that we do it in a spirit of cooperation. 3) Vision Once we got his Purpose and Guiding Principles clear (and I had him write all this down by the way), I asked him what his ideal scene was for college as best as he could describe it in that moment. I used the following cues to stimulate his thinking: - Large or small school? - Metropolitan or rural setting? - East coast? West coast? In between? Or abroad? - Large classes or small intimate learning settings? - Male/Female ratio? - Living on/off campus? - What is his major? - What will he know at the end of four years? - What types of courses will he take? - Athletics? - Drama? - Other extra-curriculars? — he came up with wanting to be close to ski areas (!) - Political/ideological/religious leaning of the school? 4) Brainstorm We skipped this phase because he already had plenty of schools he was interested in. For kids who haven't yet identified schools of interest, I'd encourage them to take a very broad look at every school that holds any appeal to them, using tools like Barron's, etc. 5) Organize I then had my son rank each of the schools on his preliminary list on a scale from 1 to 10, based upon the criteria he himself had established in the Vision section. When we looked at the schools ranked 6 and above, we realized we had too many. When we only looked at schools ranked 7 and above, we came up with 10, which seemed more manageable. I'd also recommend that students apply the idea that most college counselors encourage — to include a few "fall-back" schools, as well as at least one that would be a stretch for them in terms of the average GPA and SAT scores. 6) Next Actions There were a few schools for which my son lacked sufficient information to be able to rank them, so that became a next action for him — to take "virtual tours" and see what number he would assign based on that information. There were only a few, however, so the next actions we identified were to determine the application requirements for each school in his top ten and set them into a grid so that we could see which applications were due when, and what needed to be completed. This process worked very well. Not only did it get my son moving toward getting his applications done, but it also shifted the energy that we all had around it from drudgery to joy and anticipation of the adventure ahead. I would love to hear from any of you who might try this with your high-school student. I can be reached at wayne@davidco.com.

Here is the email I sent to this participant regarding her project:

Dear Sara,

I wanted to share with you what I did to help my son with his efforts to get into college. Like your daughter, my son is a senior looking at schools. The deadlines for college applications had been approaching, and he had not completed any applications. In response, I took him through the Natural Planning Model. Specifically, here's what I did with him:

1) Purpose

I asked him to tell me why he wanted to go to college. At first he started with reasons that seemed to belong to others, but I encouraged him to get real with it — why did he really want to go to college? Was it to learn a trade? Develop strong friendships? Have an adventure? Meet new people? Enhance his education by broadening it or giving it more depth?

2) Guiding Principles

I asked my son what was important to him as we went through this process. He said that he wanted the process to be easy and fluid, and it was also important to him that we do it in a spirit of cooperation.

3) Vision

Once we got his Purpose and Guiding Principles clear (and I had him write all this down by the way), I asked him what his ideal scene was for college as best as he could describe it in that moment. I used the following cues to stimulate his thinking:

- Large or small school?
- Metropolitan or rural setting?
- East coast? West coast? In between? Or abroad?
- Large classes or small intimate learning settings?
- Male/Female ratio?
- Living on/off campus?
- What is his major?
- What will he know at the end of four years?
- What types of courses will he take?
- Athletics?
- Drama?
- Other extra-curriculars? — he came up with wanting to be close to ski areas (!)
- Political/ideological/religious leaning of the school?

4) Brainstorm

We skipped this phase because he already had plenty of schools he was interested in. For kids who haven't yet identified schools of interest, I'd encourage them to take a very broad look at every school that holds any appeal to them, using tools like Barron's, etc.

5) Organize

I then had my son rank each of the schools on his preliminary list on a scale from 1 to 10, based upon the criteria he himself had established in the Vision section. When we looked at the schools ranked 6 and above, we realized we had too many. When we only looked at schools ranked 7 and above, we came up with 10, which seemed more manageable. I'd also recommend that students apply the idea that most college counselors encourage — to include a few "fall-back" schools, as well as at least one that would be a stretch for them in terms of the average GPA and SAT scores.

6) Next Actions

There were a few schools for which my son lacked sufficient information to be able to rank them, so that became a next action for him — to take "virtual tours" and see what number he would assign based on that information. There were only a few, however, so the next actions we identified were to determine the application requirements for each school in his top ten and set them into a grid so that we could see which applications were due when, and what needed to be completed.

This process worked very well. Not only did it get my son moving toward getting his applications done, but it also shifted the energy that we all had around it from drudgery to joy and anticipation of the adventure ahead.

I would love to hear from any of you who might try this with your high-school student. I can be reached at wayne@davidco.com.

]]> wayne@davidco.com (Wayne Pepper) http://www.davidco.com/coaches_corner/Wayne_Pepper/article82.html Wed, 19 Mar 2008 09:51:22 PDT GTD Productivity Getting Things Done David Allen DavidAllen Time Management LifeHacks Life Hacks Self-Help Self-Improvement Priorities Tips Time Savers http://www.davidco.com/coaches_corner/Wayne_Pepper/article82.html Coach's Corner 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.




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.

]]> kelly@davidco.com (Kelly) http://www.davidco.com/blogs/kelly/archives/2008/11/best_worst_prac_1.html Mon, 03 Nov 2008 08:41:53 PST GTD Best Practices http://www.davidco.com/blogs/kelly/archives/2008/11/best_worst_prac_1.html Kelly's Blog Email out of control? Exploding email in-boxes are an ever-increasing source of suffering and frustration for today's knowledge workers. In my one-on-one coaching with clients I sometimes see daily email loads hitting 200-350 emails per day. How is anyone supposed to keep up with that!? I've collected below several ideas for how to overcome email overwhelm. The ideas focus on the basics of how to manage an inbox, and the practices individuals can do to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the emails they send and receive. The Basics of Email Processing Consider that in order to stay in control of your emails you must regularly spend the necessary time to assess and define all the next actions and projects that may be sparked by them. Next time you process your email try the following tips: - Don't leave an email in your in-box once you've define what needs to happen with it. For instance: if it's junk, trash it; if it's actionable, drag it to a "NEXT ACTIONS" folder or create a task on your task list with the email attached; if it's reference, get it to the appropriate email reference folder or create a new one. In other words, try to not let your in-box become an overwhelming collection of unclear open-loops dragging down your psyche. Close the loops as you empty your in-box - and yes, you can regularly get your in-box to zero! - Use the Two-Minute rule. While processing your in-box, if an email is actionable and the action can be done in less than two minutes, do it right away. Why let the email pile up in your in-box or task list if you can do it that quickly? Consistently applying this rule will energize your email processing time and prevent days of procrastination. Renegotiate with the Sources of Your Emails Sometimes the reason an email in-box is overflowing is because the sources of the email have been allowed to grow unchecked. I don't know how many times I've seen clients dramatically cut their daily in-box total by 30-50% just by taking the time to renegotiate which emails actually get sent to them. In other words: - Unsubscribe from newsletters, marketing messages, and team cc lists you no longer need to see. - Use your junk mail feature to prevent future marketing messages from hitting your inbox. - Create email rules to pre-process certain emails directly to reference folders if you know you'll never need to take action on them but want to keep them as available reference. - Always look out for opportunities to unsubscribe from lists and renegotiate with senders of recurring emails you don't need. - To cut down on pileup when you're traveling, use the "out-of-office" feature of your email, in addition to your voice mail, to notify people when you are traveling. Create Clear Agreements About Email Come to agreement with your teammates about how email is and is not to be used. For example, if there is no response requested or required, is an "I got it" email even required? Is everyone expected to respond to all emails within a certain number of hours or days, or not? Should a phone call or IM be used instead of email if the information is urgent? Working out these basic questions can save your team a lot of time and energy. You might come to agreement about certain codes to use to assist each other in processing email. Certain acronyms used in subject lines can help teammates quickly identify action items and other important messages. Sample acronyms: "AR" = Action Required; "MSR" = Monthly Status Report. Another very useful code is "EOM", which means End of Message. If the information you are sending can all fit on a single line of text on the subject line of the message why type it into the body? This allows your recipients to get your point without even opening the body of the email. Just end the subject line with "EOM" and make sure everyone on your team knows what that means. "NNB" is another example of the same thing: Nothing New Below. Choose Recipients Wisely When possible, try to limit the number of recipients on the "TO:" line to one. Send group mail only when it is really useful or required for all recipients. Use "reply-to-all" and "CC:" buttons sparingly. Come to an agreement with your teammates that being on the "CC:" line means that you're only being informed FYI and no response is necessary. When an organization or team is plagued by emails with too many recipients in the "TO:" field, it is often an indication that there are not clear and separate roles and responsibilities defined among colleagues. This could be a symptom of a larger problem. If five people are sent a request and all are in the "TO:" line, it may not be quite clear who's really supposed to take action. Be Courteous Do your part to help your recipients understand and process your emails easier and faster. Remember that everyone will benefit from fewer, clearer emails in their in-boxes, including you. What goes around comes around. - When forwarding a message or replying to all, take the time to change the subject line if the reason for the email has changed. - If you are forwarding a long string of messages to someone new, briefly summarize the conversation so they don't have to read every bit of the trail. - If you send a 20-page attachment, be specific and tell the recipient that the important information is on pages 2 and 17. - Be thoughtful about large attachments, especially if your company culture is dependent on mobile email devices. Consider using a link to a folder on a shared network. I know there must be more great email processing tips that I'm missing here. Please chime in and add to the knowledge (but don't send me an email! ;-)



Exploding email in-boxes are an ever-increasing source of suffering and frustration for today's knowledge workers. In my one-on-one coaching with clients I sometimes see daily email loads hitting 200-350 emails per day. How is anyone supposed to keep up with that!?

I've collected below several ideas for how to overcome email overwhelm. The ideas focus on the basics of how to manage an inbox, and the practices individuals can do to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the emails they send and receive.

The Basics of Email Processing
Consider that in order to stay in control of your emails you must regularly spend the necessary time to assess and define all the next actions and projects that may be sparked by them. Next time you process your email try the following tips:

- Don't leave an email in your in-box once you've define what needs to happen with it. For instance: if it's junk, trash it; if it's actionable, drag it to a "NEXT ACTIONS" folder or create a task on your task list with the email attached; if it's reference, get it to the appropriate email reference folder or create a new one. In other words, try to not let your in-box become an overwhelming collection of unclear open-loops dragging down your psyche. Close the loops as you empty your in-box - and yes, you can regularly get your in-box to zero!

- Use the Two-Minute rule. While processing your in-box, if an email is actionable and the action can be done in less than two minutes, do it right away. Why let the email pile up in your in-box or task list if you can do it that quickly? Consistently applying this rule will energize your email processing time and prevent days of procrastination.

Renegotiate with the Sources of Your Emails
Sometimes the reason an email in-box is overflowing is because the sources of the email have been allowed to grow unchecked. I don't know how many times I've seen clients dramatically cut their daily in-box total by 30-50% just by taking the time to renegotiate which emails actually get sent to them. In other words:

- Unsubscribe from newsletters, marketing messages, and team cc lists you no longer need to see.

- Use your junk mail feature to prevent future marketing messages from hitting your inbox.

- Create email rules to pre-process certain emails directly to reference folders if you know you'll never need to take action on them but want to keep them as available reference.

- Always look out for opportunities to unsubscribe from lists and renegotiate with senders of recurring emails you don't need.

- To cut down on pileup when you're traveling, use the "out-of-office" feature of your email, in addition to your voice mail, to notify people when you are traveling.

Create Clear Agreements About Email
Come to agreement with your teammates about how email is and is not to be used. For example, if there is no response requested or required, is an "I got it" email even required? Is everyone expected to respond to all emails within a certain number of hours or days, or not? Should a phone call or IM be used instead of email if the information is urgent? Working out these basic questions can save your team a lot of time and energy.

You might come to agreement about certain codes to use to assist each other in processing email. Certain acronyms used in subject lines can help teammates quickly identify action items and other important messages. Sample acronyms: "AR" = Action Required; "MSR" = Monthly Status Report.

Another very useful code is "EOM", which means End of Message. If the information you are sending can all fit on a single line of text on the subject line of the message why type it into the body? This allows your recipients to get your point without even opening the body of the email. Just end the subject line with "EOM" and make sure everyone on your team knows what that means. "NNB" is another example of the same thing: Nothing New Below.

Choose Recipients Wisely
When possible, try to limit the number of recipients on the "TO:" line to one. Send group mail only when it is really useful or required for all recipients. Use "reply-to-all" and "CC:" buttons sparingly. Come to an agreement with your teammates that being on the "CC:" line means that you're only being informed FYI and no response is necessary.

When an organization or team is plagued by emails with too many recipients in the "TO:" field, it is often an indication that there are not clear and separate roles and responsibilities defined among colleagues. This could be a symptom of a larger problem. If five people are sent a request and all are in the "TO:" line, it may not be quite clear who's really supposed to take action.

Be Courteous
Do your part to help your recipients understand and process your emails easier and faster. Remember that everyone will benefit from fewer, clearer emails in their in-boxes, including you. What goes around comes around.

- When forwarding a message or replying to all, take the time to change the subject line if the reason for the email has changed.

- If you are forwarding a long string of messages to someone new, briefly summarize the conversation so they don't have to read every bit of the trail.

- If you send a 20-page attachment, be specific and tell the recipient that the important information is on pages 2 and 17.

- Be thoughtful about large attachments, especially if your company culture is dependent on mobile email devices. Consider using a link to a folder on a shared network.


I know there must be more great email processing tips that I'm missing here. Please chime in and add to the knowledge (but don't send me an email! ;-)


]]> michael.dolan@davidco.com (mdolan) http://www.davidco.com/blogs/michael/2008/10/attacking_the_email_monster_1.html Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:25:08 PDT GTD Getting Things Done http://www.davidco.com/blogs/michael/2008/10/attacking_the_email_monster_1.html mdolan's Blog