The book is being hailed as the sequel to the fantastic “Getting Things Done” and aims to start with the GTD book left off. Concentrating on winning at the game of work and the business of life.

I have already pre-ordered this via Amazon and I am sure lots of other people will also be doing who have been involved with the GTD Methodology.

Here is some blurb from the David Allen’s website.

From the author of the bestseller “Getting Things Done,” comes a new book that will change your life. “Getting Things Done” hit a nerve and spawned a movement with businesses, students, and techies all the way from Silicon Valley to Europe and Asia. Now, David Allen leads the world on a new path to achieve focus, control, and perspective. Throw out everything you know about productivity—”Making It All Work” will make life and work a game you can win.

This Post is from: Getting Things Done GTD with Personal Development and Motivation for Success

David Allen – Making it all Work

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One of the major improvements in my life since starting following the Getting Things Done Methodology, is the reduction of Open Loops. As we all know, Open Loops are those tasks floating around in the ether, that we should be doing, but we do not actively record.

An Open Loop is anything pulling at your attention that doesn’t belong where it is, the way it is.

Anybody who has read the Getting Things Done methodology will understand what I am talking about and if you haven’t, you don’t know what you are missing to get this area of your life under control.

You could say I am a busy guy. I am actively involved with 5 of my own companies. I have four children, a wife, and an active social life. Now, I have a LOT to get done! I also had a lot of Open Loops before I made the decision to get my life my organized. If you are anything like me. Numerous times in the day, you would remember that you had some task to do. This could be related to your business, home life, or other. It could be any random task that either just comes to you, or something you are doing jogs your memory and bang, there it is. You are at that moment presented with a task, and one that needs collecting.

Now, I have a pretty good memory and I used to try to remember these tasks in my head. Big mistake, and the start of an Open Loop. Then, the next day, or whenever, something would again jog my memory and I would be left with the same task entering my mind that needs completing. Some of these were important tasks that really did need to be collected and I, as I am sure you all, sometimes forgot things that were important.

Removing these Open Loops from your life is one major step towards getting organized and it is no surprise that a lot of the first chapter of the Getting Things Done book covers the importance of closing these Open Loops.

Now, one of the most important aspects of removing these Open Loops is to record the action/task as soon as it comes into your mind, without exception. It is the procrastination of not writing these down that make them into Open Loops. I much prefer Closed Loops!, Tasks and Actions that are recorded into a system that I trust. This is all part of the very simple GTD methodology.

The very simple way that I have embraced this, is to very simply write things down as they come to me. Now, you need some tools to do this, a pen and paper.

I had read about the Moleskine Notebooks on various sites such as 43Folders.com and thought they looked pretty cool so I went ahead and bought one from eBay. Well, I wrote a post about my thoughts on Moleskines, and must admit that I love them to bits. There is something about the quality that makes you take pride in writing, and collecting your notes into them.

I own the small pocket Moleskine notebook, as well as the large Moleskine notebook. Both of these are hardback books. Now these books are fantastic for taking into business meetings and I must admit the larger one has had a lot of use. The small notebook normally goes away on trips with me, both personal and pleasure. The problem I find with these Moleskine’s is that I cannot easily take them everywhere with me.

So, there were still times when an action came to me that needed recording and left me scrambling for a pen and paper to write it down. I have played with PagePacker, which is a pretty Cool Mac Application that allows you to print mini books full of Calendars, Lists, and also the GTD Flowchart. Luckily, I noticed that Moleskine did a range of products called “Cahier”. The Moleskine Cahier is small pocket sized book with a softback. It is slim enough, with only 64 pages, to fit into the back pocket of your trousers.

The new Moleskine Cahier [kaa yáy] Notebook Series are each offered as a set of 3 notebooks, featuring a flexible soft cover, acid-free paper and visible side stitching on the spine. The last 16 sheets of each notebook are detachable, by means of a micro-perforated edge, perfect for exchanging loose notes. Inside the back page there is a spacious pocket for notes or clippings.

Now, since buying a pack of three of these for a very reasonable £5 from eBay, I have tried to carry one with me everywhere to enable me to record my thoughts as and when they spring into my head, to remove all Open Loops from my life.

So, now I have the paper sorted out, next is the pen!

I have quite a few nice pens. Some I have bought myself and some bought for me as presents. I really like and own a few Mont Blanc pens, but the idea of carrying a £200 pen around with me doesn’t fill me with warm feelings, especially when I tell you about my Space Pen experiences!

After reading various blog posts about Fisher Space Pens, I decided to go ahead and buy one. It cost me around £20 for the Space Pen Bullet. This is a little pen that is the normal size when the cap is attached in writing mode and half size when the cap is closed. Quite cool. These use pressurized cartridges so they can write upside down, underwater, and in space, hence the name. Now I believe in GTD, but not enough to take my pen with me swimming or the next time I go on a Lunar Mission!, so that did not really bother me but one great side effect of this technology is the fact that due to the fact they are pressurized, it makes them so the ink does not leak out all over your trousers. I used to keep the Space Pen in the little coin pocket of my left jeans pocket. many a time I would reach into my pocket and pull out my shiny space pen, stand on my head and collect my thoughts into my nice Moleskine Cahier notebook!

Only problem was, after losing three pens, and having one washed in the washing machine (I blame my wife for not checking the pockets:) it became a rather expensive obsession!

So, loathed to spend another £20 on these pens, I was forced to look for an alternative, to strive to find the perfect solution for recording my thoughts, and keeping those pesky Open Loops, well and truly closed!

Do you know what?, I think I may have found the answer!

I am a golfer. I play, or try to play as much as I can. I have played since the ages of 8 and I am pretty good at it. What does Golf have to do with GTD I hear you ask?, well, I remember using some Golf Pencils when I was younger that used to clip to the golf scorecard. So, after 2 mins searching on good old eBay, I managed to find some using the search term of “golf pencil”.

I bought 100 of these pencils for around £3.50, that is around $7. So, they work out at 7 cents per pencil. In other words, I can buy 571 of these pencils for the price of one Fisher Space Pen. These pencils come with a clip on them

Because the Moleskine Cahier has only 64 pages, the clip will either clip inside the front cover of the notebook or right up to the middle of the notebook to save your page. I clip the pencil to the notebook as you can see in the image below. This then goes in my back pocket and has been there for the past two weeks.

I have travelled over a thousand miles in the car with this in my pocket and the pencil holds up just fine. You can sit on it, twist it, throw it, bend it, shake it!, and at the end of the day if you do break or lose it, you are not going to lose sleep over 7 cents!

This little bit of simple help has changed the way that I am able to record my tasks, as the enter my head. I am no longer scrambling around trying to find a pencil, as I always have one to hand, in my back pocket, nicely attached to my pocket notebook.

Closing my Open Loops has been the largest change that implementing GTD has brought to me. If I could say one thing to you about the Getting Things Done methodology, it would be to carry a notebook, write down the thoughts as they enter your head. It is simple, yet revolutionary. You have t get into the habit of carrying the notebook with you everywhere, pretty much as you have to wear shoes, you also have to carry your notebook,. I feel naked without mine now and it has just become a part of my daily life to carry it.

Phew, ranting over. Hope you have enhoyed this post, if you have, I would love to have a comment and please add anything you can and agree or totally disagree with my thoughts.

Keep having that productive day!

This Post is from: Getting Things Done GTD with Personal Development and Motivation for Success

How I Solved the Problem of Collecting Tasks!

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This Post is from: Getting Things Done GTD with Personal Development and Motivation for Success

David Allen on Getting Things Done – GTD

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I am presuming you have read my post on Processing, Getting In to Empty, where I explain that processing is where you take the stuff you have collected and implement the GTD Methodology based upon the GTD Workflow flowchart. If you haven’t read it, go ahead and read that post now.

Right, so you should be up to speed with where I am with this. I have now five little snippets that I consider useful enough to share in this blog.

1. REALLY clear your diary!
2. Ensure You Have LOTS of Space
3. Don’t Collect Items You Need
4. Print Out the GTD Flowchart
5. Grow Your Fingernails!

OK, the first item on my list is to REALLY clear your diary. The GTD book states this is important and I cannot re-iterate just how important this is. I cleared two days in my diary for the collection and processing phase and I am happy I did. Once I had started collection, my office and working space looked like a bomb site. This seemed to add quite a bit of pressure to my process and stressed me out somewhat. I guess this made the processing section a great deal easier and I felt a great relief when it was all done.

Now, I must admit that my phone did ring a few times during the process and I also had to get some documents back to a publisher I have been working with so I had to cut off for an unavoidable break. So, I would recommend that you book out at least two days from your schedule, or more if your schedule will allow it.

My next item is to ensure you have LOTS of space. My office is quite small, and the floor space is quite limited. My vigor in the collection phase showed with me ending up with a lot of “stuff” and not much space. This kind of made the processing harder because I had to clear quite a bit of space to organize my piles of stuff. Now, maybe this is because I deviated from the book slightly in that I gave my stuff two rounds of processing instead of one due to the amount of stuff to be trashed, as I covered in my processing post early on this blog.

Again, try to ensure that you have adequate floor space in which to carry out your processing. It makes it much easier when you are not tripping over yourself and with hindsight, I would have taken the whole task into a different room which would allow more freedom of space to carry out the task.

Third on the list is not to collect items you need later in the processing phase. Boy was I excited during the collection phase! Big empty box, stuff everywhere, wham, in the box it goes. Hmmm, when I came to collection phase, guess where my post it notes, stapler, and label printer were? Yep, you guessed it, somewhere in my collected stuff. Now, maybe it was me being dumb but ensure you put aside the items you are going to need for the processing. Seems like a silly mistake but I had to hunt for my processing items, before I could start processing!

The fourth item on the list is to print out a copy of the GTD Flowchart and put it where you can se it. I printed out a full size one that I found via Google Images, just search for “GTD Flowchart” on Google and then click the Images button, and I stuck it right on my wall in front of me. The visual help that this brings is great in reminding you exactly what you need to be doing is great!

The fifth and final item on my list is rather silly, but important never less. Grow your fingernails! This is because of those pesky labels that you will print in abundance from your label printer. I probably spent longer peeling the labels than I did collecting the stuff to put in the folders. But one thing is that the folders look great with the labels one

Anyway, until next time have a productive day and please comment to let me know your thoughts and viewpoints on my rantings!

This Post is from: Getting Things Done GTD with Personal Development and Motivation for Success

Five Processing Tips for Getting Things Done

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Hopefully, you will already have read my previous posts on Getting Started, and also my “stuff” Collection Day. Well, as stated in the collection day post, I collected rather a lot of stuff. I had two storage crates full of stuff that needed to be processed.

As I had allocated the time in my busy schedule to perform this task, I had no excuse so I got my waste paper bin ready, got a few black rubbish sacks and made a start.

I must admit that the task at hand was slightly overwhelming. My nice and neat place of work had turned into a bomb site. The emails kept coming in, the work was mounting up, and my usually tidy place of work was turned upside down. I must admit, my office is not the largest and having this amount of chaos within it did a good job of increasing my stress levels! It was time to focus and also this was more of a reason to get the processing done, so my office would be back to normal.

Here is my definition of processing based upon the GTD Methodology.

Processing is taking that stuff that you have collected and applying the GTD Workflow to identify each item, and more importantly the identification of what you are going to do with these items.

When you have finished processing, you should have performed one of the following with every item of collected stuff.

• Thrown away items that you do not need
• Delegated any items that can be delegated
• Completed any tasks that take less than two minutes
• Created reminders of actions that require more than two minutes
• Identified items that require vertical planning as projects

This is where the GTD Methodology workflow diagram comes into action and I would advise you to print one of these out and place it right where you can see at all times as a memory jogger for what you are supposed to be doing.

As it is so important, I am going to display it again and provide a quick overview of the steps in the process. Again, please buy the book – Getting Things Done, and read the full transcript of how to implement the Getting Things Done Methodology.

You can see from the workflow diagram that you start the process with your stuff. This stuff should by now be collected in your Inbox.

The first decision in the process is whether the stuff is actionable or not. Actionable items are items that you can take action upon. For example, one of my first items to process was my annual house insurance policy. There was no outstanding action for me to do with this item apart from filing it in my reference system so this is not actionable, and I would have followed the workflow diagram and filed this in my reference section.

My next item was my car tax renewal. This needed action, so it was an actionable item. There are two types of actionable items. Simple items with a next task as well as multi step items that are classed as projects, and require vertical planning, obviously utilizing the natural planning method.

Following the process, the next decision is defining what the next action is. There are three options here. The first is if the next action will take less than two minutes. If the next item will take less than two minutes, well you should waste no time and do it now. The other options are based upon the person who will take the action. If it can be delegated, it should be. The last option is to record the next action within your system of choice. In the example I have been using with my car tax renewal, it would take longer than two minutes to complete and it was an action I could not delegate. So, this item ended up being placed within my system which I will talk about in a later blog entry.

Now, the way I did this is not what was recommended in the book but I had felt I had to take an extra step. As I was running the collection/processing system in my home office I found myself with a rather large amount of personal information such as tax returns, household insurance, home appliance information etc.. So, my first, and added step was to do an initial sort through my stuff to separate it into three sections. The first section was items that were actionable, the second section was reference, and the third item was trash. Now, I know this deviates from the methodology but in my case I found that 80% of my stuff was no longer needed so went into the pile for shredding and then trashing. The remaining 20% of my stuff was already separated into reference and non-reference items. So, out came the labeler and my manila folders and I started to collate and organize the reference material.

I ensured that each item had a separate folder, and I created a label for each folder using the label machine. I sorted and labeled each of these first before I filed them into my A-Z reference file. At last, I had all of my important reference material all sorted into folders, and alphabetically filed in my A-Z filing system. Fantastic!

So, it was now onto the non-reference material. With the non-reference material I followed the GTD workflow precisely. I took each item, from the top of the pile and dealt with it. I ascertained if the item was actionable, if not, it went into the reference or someday/maybe pile. Actionable items were sorted dependent upon if they were multi-step, and more projects than tasks.

So, this is me done for this post, as my next installment to this series will concentrate on the system I have initially chosen to implement my GTD Methodology!

I hope you have enjoyed reading this, and as ever, please let me know any comments you have.

I will leave you now with todays Dilbert, that made me laugh!

Have a fantastic, organized day!

This Post is from: Getting Things Done GTD with Personal Development and Motivation for Success

Processing – Getting In to Empty – Chapter 6

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I now work from home in my home office. This is a 10ft x 10ft room with a desk, cupboard and bookcase done out in a very Ikea fashion. About six months of “stuff” has collected in the various drawers and shelves in my study, so today was the day to collect all of this into my inbox.

In preparation, I purchased two 80 liter storage crates that I would use as my oversized inbox. Armed with these I set about clearing and collecting my stuff.

For this collection task, I tried to stick to the guidelines in Chapter 5 of the Getting Things Done Book. I was very tempted to go my own way with this but as I had allocated the time, I thought that I may as well follow the guidelines in the book and do it as it should be done.

There are two forms of gathering and collecting that have do be done at this stage. The first is physical gathering where you collect all of your physical stuff and either throw it in the trash, or put it in your inbox. These are physical items that do not belong where they are. So, if you have a bookcase with books in that belong there, these do not require collecting. However, if you bookcase is a technical reference and you have a book in there which you just stuffed in one day you should really remove the book and put it in your inbox for processing in the next stage.

The next form of gathering is mental gathering. This is where you perform a mind sweep of all your open loops that are lodged somewhere within your head. A trigger list is provided in the book that contains various trigger items, aimed to get you thinking and to jog your memory about incomplete and unrecorded tasks.

I started on the physical gathering with my desk. I cleared the top of my desk, most items straight into the inbox. I then started on my drawers. These had become dumping grounds for old CDs and other items that I had just stuffed in over time.. Phew, I then did my cabinet and trimmed my bookcase. 160 liters of storage, and they were overflowing!

The next phase was the mental gathering. I really wanted to write a list on my Mac and not use a sheet of paper per item. However, I resisted this temptation and started cutting A4 pieces of paper into half as I really did think a whole sheet of A4 was too big for this process.

I started by going through items in my head, and they used the trigger list provided in the book to further refine my items. At the moment, I have quite a few projects on the go. I decided to write just the project name on separate pieces of paper and then do full project planning, using the natural planning method of course. I ended up with 74 pieces of paper with items ranging from gardening jobs, to people I had to call and catch up with. Had I recorded all my open loops, probably not, but this is the start of the process.

I have been using the Hipster PDA for a few weeks now along with a Merlin Mann recommended space pen. I knew that it is of utmost importance that I carry these everywhere now to continue this recording process that I had kicked off, and true to form, my first journey out of the house recorded another 6 items.

Do I feel any better? Well, yes. I feel excited at starting this project and also happy that I have recorded a lot of my Open Loops onto paper.

Phew, my office is now a bomb site! I have a large task ahead of me, that is the processing that is covered in chapter 6 of the Getting Things Done book.

I better had make a start!

This Post is from: Getting Things Done GTD with Personal Development and Motivation for Success

The “Stuff” Collection Day – Getting Things Done Chapter 5

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Chapter 4 of the Getting Things Done book is concerned with setting up the time, space, and tools to make a start with the whole GTD methodology. This is something which I have been waiting with excitement to start, but something that has to be planned.

Lets look at each of the three items, starting with time.

The book recommends that you spend two whole days on setting up your GTD system. Ideally these days should be together and not split up. As with any task like this, immersion in it makes it a lot easier as you can focus on the task at hand. OK, time is no problem and this is important so the dates are set in my diary.

The next item is setting up the space. Luckily, I have my own dedicated study/office within my house that is well equipped and where I work from, relatively undisturbed. However, the book also covers people who are not as fortunate and have to either share an office, or utilize some nook or cranny within their house. I must admit that it is hard enough being organized in an area, without having to share this area with other members of your family so I am happy I have the freedom of my office. I no longer have an office I “go to work in” as I am currently based at home, so this is just a single task for me.

Right, I have the time, and the space. Now the tools. There is a GTD shopping list that I will outline below:

• Three paper holding trays
• Stack of plain paper (letter or A4)
• Writing instruments
• Post It notes (3×3 ideally)
• Paper Clips
• Binder Clips
• Stapler with staples
• Scotch Tape
• Rubber bands
• An Automatic Labeler
• File Folders
• A Calendar
• Wastebasket

I had a quick run through this list to see what I was missing. The main thing I needed was paper and also folders. I have never used a filing system or tickler file and I was very interested in utilizing both as part of my GTD methodology as I believed in the benefits they would bring.

Being a network engineer, I already had the labeler and I totally agree with the clear benefits that labeling can bring. My handwriting is the bi-product of spending my entire youth on a keyboard so utilizing a labeler has always been a great idea for me.

So, off I trundle to my local Staples store.

I bought 200 file folders, 100 tabbed and 100 plain. Could not get over how cheap these were! as well as 1000 sheets of A4 paper. I also bought a rather cool looking A to Z index expanding folder. Just place this in my file drawer and I have an instant A to Z filing system. I was tempted to get the 1 to 31 version as well but this would have not made a true tickler file so I decided to stick with the manual folder tickler system.

So, I now have the time, space, and tools, no stopping me now.

Collection, here I come!

This Post is from: Getting Things Done GTD with Personal Development and Motivation for Success

Getting Started – Getting Things Done Chapter 4

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We are now going to look at the three planning models that are covered in Chapter 3 of the GTD book. These planning models are:

• The Natural Planning Model
• The Un-Natural Planning Model
• The Reactive Planning Model

Lets start by looking at the Natural Planning Model. The Natural Planning Model really is nothing new. It is not some fantastic new model devised by David Allen to help us plan and manage our projects. it is however, the planning model that is recommended by David in his Getting Things Done book. The Natural Planning Model is based upon the planning that we do on a daily basis, using just our brains. For example, think of how many tasks we plan on a day by day basis that we do not even bother to write down as these are normally classed as mundane tasks. For example, getting dressed, or driving to work. All of these can be thought of tasks but we just go ahead and plan them without any thought whatsoever. We utilize the planning aspects of our brain that are conditioned for this natural type of planning.

You mind goes through five steps to accomplish virtually any task. These five steps are:

1. Defining purpose and principles
2. Outcome visioning
3. Brainstorming
4. Organizing
5. Identifying next actions

Let’s take an example and work through these five steps. The example I am going to use is the booking of a family holiday.

The first step in the model is to define purpose and principles. Think about the last time you booked a family holiday. There is always a purpose for the holiday. This could be to take a well earned break from work, to relax and spend quality time with your spouse and children, or simply to go and see a specific tourist attraction whilst on your holiday. Whatever the reason, there will have been purpose and principles for your trip. You don’t just get up one day and goon holiday, you implement stage one of the natural planning model and this is to have a purpose for the trip.

The second step is outcome visioning. Once you had defined a purpose and the principle for your holiday, the next thing you will have done is to have a vision of the outcome, in other words, where do you want to go, when, and who with? This is classed as aoutcome visioning as you are thinking about the outcome of your holiday and making mental notes about what you want the outcome to be.

The third step is brainstorming. This brainstorming is normally done within your mind, and also other people are usually included when the project or decision impacts upon them. For example, lets say you think about the Maldives for your holiday, but you are going in June. The brainstorming aspect will look at this and probably decide that as June is the rainy season in the Maldives, it may not be the best time to visit. This is a naturally creative aspect of your brain that helps narrow down the vision of the outcome into a definite decision. I say other people are included because for projects such as planning a holiday, you also have to take other peoples viewpoints into consideration. I am sure your spouse would have something to say if you booked the holiday with consulting, and brainstorming their viewpoints on the suitability of the trip and destination choice.

The next, and fourth step is organizing. Once you have generated your ideas about the project, or holiday in this case, you start to organize these ideas. For example, you may have thought about the travel agent to use for the booking, or whether to book direct, if the in-laws would like to come on the vacation also to double as baby sitters etc. Your mind normally sorts and organizes these thoughts automatically.

The last, and fifth step is to identify and set the next actions. The GTD methodology covers that the best way to get a task done, is to decide and set the next actions. We do not do tasks, we do next actions. So the best way to get your holiday booked is to decide what the next actions are. These normally would be items such as, look up the resort on the Internet, check online travel comparison sites for cheap flights and accommodation, call in and see a travel agent for their price and recommendation within the resort. Again, I would be surprised if any of you would take the time and effort to write these next actions down, but also, I would be surprised if any of you forgot these next actions. it is funny how our mind has a great way of remembering projects assigned and planning using the Natural Planning Method.

So, that covers the Natural Planning Model. You can see that this method is pretty much what we are already doing in our day to day lives. We just have to learn how to implement this for our work related tasks.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we planned all our projects using the Natural Planning Model?, well what we actually use is the more aptly named Un-Natural Planning Model. This model is very common and normally starts with a project planning meeting, where “good ideas” are shared. Maybe we jump straight into the brainstorming step of the model without any consideration to what the outcome of the actual project should be! I have lost count of how many brainstorming project initiation meetings I have been in where egos and politics run rife and this extinguishes all of the creativity that is required in the early stages of the project planning. This method normally produces a list of tasks, not next actions, that do not really reflect the need of the project. It is funny how most people relate to the Un-Natural Planning Method as what they consider as planning.

The Reactive Planning Model normally follows the Un-Natural Planning Model. This is when the Un-Natural Planning model either fails, or was not performed in the first place. This is the planning we do on Christmas Eve, when we have forgot the present for a relative, or the planning we do when we realize our car insurance runs out in 5 hours. The Reactive Planning Model is causes stress, and people do not perform their best under stress. It sure is not conducive to a creative outcome. The funny thing is that the Reactive Planning Model will normally end up with people trying to identify the purpose and principles of the project, kind of like the Natural Planning Model in reverse!

Well, I hope you have enjoyed this review of the GTD Planning Models and be sure to practice the Natural Planning Model. Again, this is just my review and my thoughts on the Getting Things Done Methodology and I urge you, if you have not already to BUY THE BOOK and read it for yourself.

This Post is from: Getting Things Done GTD with Personal Development and Motivation for Success

The Planning Models – Natural Planning with GTD

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Chapter 3 starts by explaining what David refers to as Horizontal and Vertical focus. The theory behind these is quite easy. We all have things to do in our lives. These can all be classed as projects. Some projects are small, such as remembering to buy a card for your wifes birthday or remembering to pay the milk bill, whilst others can be significant. Significant projects can include tasks such as planning a holiday, wedding, or other engagement through to launching a new product at your workplace.


So, how does this relate to Horizontal and Vertical focus? well, most of the time Horizontal focus is all you need to manage your smaller projects. With Horizontal focus, you look across your projects using an Horizontal plane. The size of these projects allow you to take this approach just to ensure that they are in check. Horizontal focus in the book is defined as:

Horizontal focus can be broke into the key ingredients of clearly defined outcomes (projects) and the next actions required to move them towards closure, and reminders placed in a trusted system that are reviewed regularly.

However, larger projects require a more Vertical focus. After explaining Horizontal focus, I hope that what is required for Vertical focus is pretty self explanatory. Vertical focus is where you need to apply greater planning to the project due to its complexity and importance of outcome. It is with this planning that the rest of chapter 3 places its focus.

It is at this point where we are introduced to the three planning models. These are:

1. The Natural Planning Model
2. The Un-Natural Planning Model
3. The Reactive Planning Model

We will look at the three models in the next blog post…

This Post is from: Getting Things Done GTD with Personal Development and Motivation for Success

Chapter 3 – Getting Projects Creatively Under Way

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Well, I am now through with Chapter 2, entitled Getting Control of Your Life: The Five Stages Of Mastering Workflow. This chapter covers the five-stage method for managing workflow. These five stages are:

Collect
Process
Organize
Review
Do

1. 1. The Four-Criteria Model for Choosing Actions in the Moment
   2. The Threefold Model for Evaluating Daily Work
   3. The Six-Level Model for Reviewing Your Own Work

Lets take a look at each of these five stages.
Chapter 2 also introduces the GTD workflow diagram for the first time. This diagram is pretty fundamental to the whole GTD process and it is good to see it introduced at such an early stage in the book. From my reading, Chapter 2 seems to pretty much act as a feeder chapter, introducing the GTD methodology with later chapters expanding on the topic and theme of each of the 5 stages for managing workflow.

A full size version of this workflow can be found HERE.The first stage is Collect. This stage is concerned with how to collect what is termed as your “stuff”. Your stuff can be business and personal to do’s and tasks. This section really did interest me as it immediately became apparent that the whole GTD methodology is not about enforcing strict systematic controls onto you about how you do things, but more by guiding you into what you need to do, using whichever systems works for yourself. For example, there are multiple ways that people collect their “stuff”.

I have been an avid user of Microsoft Outlook for years and I have also used PlanPlus from FranklinCovey (I will cover this in a future post). Since moving to my beloved Mac, I have also started using Entourage on the Mac as my mail client, although I may move away from this after I finish the GTD book and start playing with some other GTD tools.I still use Outlook that runs my business email on a Parallels Virtual machine with Windows XP, as well as Entourage for personal tasks. Tasks in two places, great!. I am gadget crazy and have had PDA’s ever since they first emerged. I have also tried MDA’s from T-Mobile having the MDA2, MDA3, and MDA Pro.

I am quite strict about recording my tasks as they come into my head. I am quite a thinker and ideas guy and I can tell you that ideas and tasks pop into my head all the time, I am fortunate to be plagued with them!. Anyway, there is always the time when you do not have the PDA, or the PDA is dead and you end up with and open loop.The Collect part of Chapter 2 is about ensuring you have the adequate collection tools. Note the plural use of tools, rather than the singular tool. This is because the book tells you to use as many tools as it takes.Over the past few weeks, I have really converted to the HipsterPDA. This is a great GTD tool devised by Merlin Mann of 43Folders.com.

The version I am using is made from the fantastic PagePacker application. So now, I carry around a little A6 sized PDA with me. I also bought the Fisher Space Pen Bullet, as recommended by Merlin Mann. This PDA and pen goes with me wherever I go, and boy has it come in useful. I never thought I would see the day where I actually use a pen and paper to track tasks. I am not really focusing on my usage of the GTD methodology as that will come later, when I am through with the book.


The second stage is Process. It is the Process stage where you decide what to do with the tasks you have collected. I will not delve too much into this as I am sure there will be a lot to write about this after reading the next few chapters and Chapter 2 does only briefly cover the process ideas. The main idea is that you decide on the next action for the collected stuff. The main decision is whether the task is actionable or not.

The third stage is to Organize the stuff. When it has been processed, where are you going to record the next steps? Are you going to send the stuff to the trash, or are you going to defer it to a later date? these are all decisions that have to be made at the organize step.

The fourth stage is Review. This takes the form in the chapter of a weekly review where you look at the items you have collected and the next steps associated with them. Dave Allen states

For most people, the magic of workflow management is realized in the consistent use of the review stage.

The last stage is Do. This stage is about choosing when to do the actions you have set yourself. You are introduced to three models for making action choices. These are:

Each of these will be covered in some depth as they are quite complex and I will enjoy writing about these.

Well, off to make a start on Chapter 3. I will be back soon!

This Post is from: Getting Things Done GTD with Personal Development and Motivation for Success

Chapter 2 – Introducing the GTD Methodology

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