Here are two inescapable truths about the world for work.  First of all, our work is dependent and intertwined with that of our colleagues.  Whether you work in a large organization or as a freelancer we are constantly sending messages out to others that require a response in order to advance our projects.  The second inescapable truth is that a certain percentage of our colleagues will fail to respond to those messages.  Therefore, it is important to have a system in place to keep track of all the messages that are sent out so that they can be followed up on when needed.

The simplest way to do this is through a “Waiting For” folder.  A “Waiting For” folder is a depository for copies of any message which requires a response.  Most of the time, our colleagues respond quickly.  However, the “Waiting For” folder pays dividends for those times when a response is lagging.  A best practice is to check the “Waiting For” folder at least once a week.  While browsing through the contents make an executive decision on each message: Do you follow up to encourage action or let it lie fallow for another week?

The “Waiting For” folder is essential to ensure that important delegated tasks do not fall through the cracks.  Make one for paper workflow and one in your email and then see it deliver peace of mind.

Last Thursday in front of an energized crowd of over 300 conference attendees, I was honored to present my five minute Spark Talk called Five Minutes to Inbox Zero – Overcoming the E-mail Avalanche.  Here is how it started:

“Let’s go! I only have five minutes to tell you the five things you can do with an email. First of all in a show of hands, how many of you have completely emptied all your email inboxes at some point in the last 24 hours? I mean completely empty – everything – no read or unreads, absolutely zero messages inside. For those of you who have, go ahead and take a five minute nap. For the rest of you, pay close attention if you want to be an Efficient Librarian.”

Read the full text of the Spark Talk in the Articles section of this site.

This past year I have been studying the work of Tiago Forte, a San Francisco based productivity consultant.  Tiago has been building on the work of David Allen to find ways to enhance the ability of knowledge workers to manage projects and build productive workflows.

In an interview on the podcast, This is Product Management, Tiago presents key concepts such as the development of “meta-skills”, finding focus in any environment, and forming new habits.  From the podcast web site:

“Tiago’s approach builds on Allen’s system, applying the latest tools, and accounting for the challenges modern knowledge workers face. Tiago’s approach helps busy people use their brain for thinking instead of storage, break projects into actionable next steps, implement the right tools, and build habits to get work done.”

The interview runs for 35 minutes, but the web page with the podcast provides a handy highlights section if you want to jump to a specific topic.  It is well worth a listen.

Reading David Allen’s book Getting Things Done was a key professional development moment for me.  It transformed my understanding of knowledge work and allowed me to bring organization to my office for the first time.  I would not have achieved my current level of success without the principles outlined in the book.

So who is this man behind the GTD® logo?  The web site, Early To Rise, recently interviewed David Allen to learn more about his background, how he developed the core GTD® concepts and his current personal goals for this work.  Here is an excerpt from the interview where David is asked about how the Getting Things Done philosophy fit into professional training programs that were around twenty years ago.

What was your specialty exactly?

It really became how to create more space in the mind and get rid of distractions. That was just an informal approach, but an HR rep showed up to one of my workshops at one point and flat out said we need more of my methods in society. Not long after, I did a presentation for Lockheed with these methods and it hit a nerve. That’s when I knew I had something unique.

You can find the full interview on the Early To Rise web site.