How would you like to hear a succinct, yet detailed overview of the whole Getting Things Done methodology as told by the man himself, David Allen?

In a recent two part podcast on the Getting Things Done web site you can listen to David give a keynote address.  As the podcast advertises:

“David Allen shares an in-depth, sweeping overview of GTD® to an audience in Milan, Italy.  Learn best practices, as well as what you can expect to have happen in your life once you start applying them.”

Part one is available here: http://gettingthingsdone.com/2017/05/episode-29-david-allen-gtd-keynote-in-milan-part-one/

Part two is available here: http://gettingthingsdone.com/2017/05/episode-30-david-allen-gtd-keynote-in-milan-part-two/

Given how much time we spend at work every week, it is natural to dream about our next vacation.  However, vacations can quickly turn into a work week experienced outside the office if not careful.  On the Getting Things Done blog, a person recently submitted the following question:

QUESTION: While on vacation, how do you juggle work and play? How much time should you allot each day of your vacation to reading business email, checking up on projects, etc.? What’s the best balance of work and play? When is the best time of the day to spend on work? What organizational tools should you always bring along on your vacation?

Read David Allen’s answer at: http://gettingthingsdone.com/2017/05/managing-work-on-a-vacation/

Are you new to productivity and efficiency work and need help getting started?  Or perhaps you have worked at this process in the past, but need new inspiration to keep going?  The Getting Things Done blog recently posted ten great tips for success with their methodology.

1. Start Small

There is a lot that makes up the Getting Things Done methodology. But that doesn’t mean you need to learn or master it all, all at once. Start with the master moves, like:

• Write down everything that grabs your attention when it shows up (supporting the idea that your mind is better used to have ideas, not hold them).
• Try the Two-Minute Rule, which would mean handling things that take less than two minutes to finish when they show up.
• Make sure you really understand the 5 steps to mastering workflow—those are the keys to how everything gets done in your life and are the backbone to GTD.

Read the other nine at: http://gettingthingsdone.com/2017/04/10-tips-for-success-with-gtd/

Many time management systems instruct people to set up priorities.  The catch is that our top priorities may take longer than the small spaces of time that open up to us during the day.  In his most recent blog post, David Allen discusses how to most effectively use the weird windows of opportunity we have every day to get things done.

“Most everyone I come across in my clients’ organizations are up to their eyeballs in work, and feel overwhelmed. Strategy and triage are indeed required to address that, but at least as important is the requirement for people to set up their lives to get a lot more efficient about getting a lot more done in a day.

To steal from a Motorola strategy from many years ago, we need to “mine the bandwidth.” They developed technology utilizing the more discreet areas “between the lines” in the radio frequencies already in place. Similarly we need to be ready for, and take advantage of, the weird uneven time and energy spaces we find ourselves in.”

Read the rest of David Allen’s post on the Getting Things Done web site.

In his seminars, David Allen often uses his experience with the martial arts as an analogy for GTD.  In his latest blog post, David develops on this theme to show how important it is to stay loose at work.

“A tense muscle is a slow one. This is a physiological and demonstrable fact in the martial arts. Could this be true in other aspects of our lives?

In karate, the power that can be generated by a punch is primarily due to speed, not muscle. It is the snap at the end of the whip. That is why petite people can learn to break boards and bricks with their hands—it’s not really about callouses, it’s more about the ability to generate that pop at the end of the thrust.

But a tense muscle is a slow one. So the high levels of training in the martial arts are about relaxation and balance, because that allows the flexibility and response-ability required to mobilize maximum resources at maximum speed for maximum results.”

Read the rest of his blog post at the Getting Things Done web site.