Getting Things DONE Leading beyond your own capacity «GTD» DONE in time and rythm for an agile WORLD
Aug 12, 2015
GTD is an Action Managment
Management Method:
We do not Manage Projects
or Tasks – we manage actions!
GTD is a Time Management System
GTD complements our inefficient “Mental Reminder System” by cleaning up all loose ends
GTD is about horizontal and vertical organization
Propel actions in a structured way
Wrong Perception!
‘Too much to handle’
‘Not the time to get it all done’
Root Causes are:• We take on too many commitments• Having too many ideas and not releasing them• Too much involvement• Changing jobs with ever changing KnowHow to grasp• Too many distractions – lack of focus• Too high values• Solemn focus on primary outcomes• Ineffective personal organizational systems
- creating huge subconscious resistance – loose ends
Why are we stressed?
Deal effectively with internal commits:
How many incompletes or open loops are pulling your attention?
There are much more than you think!
Basic requirements in Managing Commitments:
First: Clear your mind by emptying it! Anything you consider
unfinished in any way must be captured in a trusted system outside
your mind where you come back to regularly and sort through!
Second: Clarify exactly what your commitment is and decide what
you have to do, if anything, to make progress toward fulfilling it.
Third: Once you‘ve decided on all the actions you need to take, you
must keep reminders of them organized in a system you review
regularly
To become silent water
• Why is our mind not so smart? Do you have a flashlight somewhere with dead batteries in it? When does your mind tend to remind you that you need new batteries? When you notice the dead ones! That‘s not very smart.
• Why do you think of stuff you can‘t make progress on?Between the time you woke up today and now, did you think of anything you needed to do that you still haven‘t done? It‘s a waste of time and energyto keep thinking about somethingthat you make no progress on.
• Stuff are open loops Anything you have allowed intoyour psychological or physical world that doesn‘t belong where it is and for which no outcome and next action has been defined!
Stuff has to be transformed in actionable items in a wider system.
Some thoughts about the brain and the consequences of ‘loose ends’?
• The key to manage your “stuff” is managing your actions
• Horizontal and Vertical Action Management
• Horizontal control maintains coherence across all the activities in
which you are in involved.
• Vertical control, in contrast, manages thinking up and down the
track of individual topics and projects.
•The major change: Getting it all out of your head!
The short-term-memory part of your mind – the part that tends to hold
all of the incomplete, undecided, and unorganized “stuff” - is
overloaded with Stuff. Stuff works like myriads of little monitors
popping up arbitrarily and distracting your focus. Furthermore, if you
have loaded much stuff there will always be conflict as you only can
fulfill one task at a time.
• This produces ongoing stress – stress that is ubiquitous like gravity
Managing Action
(1) collect things that command our attention;
(2) process what they mean and what to do about them;
(3) organize the results, which we
(4) review as options for what we choose to
(5) do.
With (5) it is important to choose according to the following criteria:
What can I do?
What can I do in the time i have?
What do I have the energy to do?
5 Basic Steps to Master the workflow
Workflow diagram
• Collect things in the INBOX
• Process STUFF in INBOX: What is it?
• Is it Actionable?
If yes -> decide whether it consists of multiple
steps? Should it be a multistepper then
incubate it in your PROJECTS.
If the item is a distinct action, decide what the
next action is – you have four choices
1) If possible delegate it and put it on your
Waiting For Lists
2) Put it on your Next Actions Lists and
process the actions asap
3) In case it is terminated put it on your agenda
4) If you can fix it in less than 2 minutes – fix it
• If it is not Actionable put it either in the Trash,
move it into the Someday/Maybe List or file it
in the Reference Filing System.
Managing your own hot projects in the vertical dimension
• The horizontal focus is all you’ll need in most situations, most of the
time. Sometimes, however, you may need greater rigor and focus to
get a project under control, to identify a solution, or to ensure that all
the right steps have been determined. This is where vertical focus
comes in. Can be low tec (back of the envelope planning) natural planning
Define vision, purpose and principles (elevator pitch)
Outcome visioning (keep the end in mind)
Organizing: Identifying next actions -> put these actions into schedule,
next actions list
Level concept: Get inspiration by switching between the horizons of
focus
• Pure binary implementation – based on various applications• Everything has to be in electronic form
• Reference stuff has to be scanned
• No physical experience
• Mixed implementation – paper and electronic representation• Best of breed
• Some things don’t fit electronic (I like my notes)
• See examples here
• http://www.gginfo.com/Resources/GTDMobileSystem.htm
• http://www.gginfo.com/Resources/GTDReferenceFilingCabinet.htm
• More personal
• Haptical and sensual experience – see what you have achieved
Various ways of implementation
• There are alternative systems to GTD – the base principles somehow
pop up as well:
– Zen to Done is a simplified implementation to GTD: ztd
– Get everything done: GED
– More productive now (a GTD plagiate): moreproductivenow
• Be aware that the method does not solve your intrinsic problems it just
makes you more productive.
• To become silent water there is more to do be done than just getting
organized!
• Working in a team also requires additional measures with regards to
tracking, planning and continuous improvement.
Alternatives to Getting things done
Ways to continuously improve the team
Elaborate your own way of continuously improve your organization.As a starting point you can use an out of the box framework with minimal administrative overhead – combining Work the System and Kanban:http://www.gginfo.com/Resources/WorkYourCompanyAgile.htm
For an agile management approach consider Management 3.0: http://www.jurgenappelo.com/
Ways to become silent Water
• Human’s are complex. Start to understand what drives you.
• Who are you? Is it really what you want? Trust your intuition.
• It boils down to SELF realization. If you know the lick – it is really
easy, life is fun and soon you will be busting the average.
• Don’t think average – because you will end average.
• Don’t wish for a particular state or aim. Be it and manifest it. Let your
innate take action for you. It’s far grander than you think you are!
• It makes sense to be guided. Don’t hesitate to ask for help
• It’s not the plan that makes things happen but “pure intent*. Use the
plan to settle your mind. Become compassionate.
• Be happy with what is underneath in your subconcious – talk to it.
This engine is far greater than one would imagine.
• GTD Hompage: http://www.davidco.com/• Wikipedia: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done • Reference Filing Cabinet:
http://www.gginfo.com/Resources/GTDReferenceFilingCabinet.htm• GTD Mobile System:
http://www.gginfo.com/Resources/GTDMobileSystem.htm• Management 3.0: https://management30.com/• Stephen R Covey: https://www.stephencovey.com/ • Agile Continuous Improvement: http://
www.gginfo.com/Resources/WorkYourCompanyAgile.htm • Work the System: http://www.workthesystem.com/ • Crimson Circle: https://www.crimsoncircle.com/ • Lee Carrol: http://www.kryon.com/menuKryon/menuKryon.html • The Work: http://thework.com/ • Pictures – Various Sources from Internet – distribution on your
own risk!
References :