I was fortunate enough this past Friday to participate in the Making It All Work seminar instructed by Mr. GTD himself, David Allen. As many of you who read this blog know, GTD (Getting Things Done) is a productivity philosophy first explained in David Allen’s book Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress Free Productivity. The main goal of the process is to get ideas out of your head so that there’s room to think of more creative ideas and to live in the very zen-like state of “mind like water”. 
I’ve been studying GTD for about two years and seeing how I can integrate it into my life. While I’ve read books, participated in online forums and study groups, this seminar was great in filling in the gaps and bringing things together for me.
Here are some of the tidbits that I picked up in this session, and I can say that they are applicable to just about every area of one’s life:
- The optimal state is being in control, relaxed, and focused.
- Concentration minus distractions = Power
- Getting something off your mind frees up a lot of energy, so figure out where to put ideas so that you’ll find them again. That’s why we put the trash next to the door so we’ll remember to take it out in the morning.
- What frazzled us most is when we don’t know what to do with something, put it down, and pick it up again not knowing what to do with it.
- People blow fuses because they don’t know where to start.
- “Trust in Allah but tie up your camel.”
- Fear = Fantasized Experience Appearing Real
- We have a stasis with what we are comfortable. The only way to change is to make ourselves uncomfortable where we are. Until then, we won’t move.
While there were lots of other things I got out of the seminar, that’s all I can process now. If you’re interested in learning more about freeing up your mind, here are some resources I’ve found helpful.
- David Allen Company
- GTD Starter Kit
- GTD Virtual Study Group (A great podcast by Tara Rodden Robinson. You can also here the episode where I was a guest speaker talking about using GTD in your Career Development.)
- 45 minute presentation by David Allen on GTD at Google
- All of my blog posts relating to GTD
So, what are you doing to stop the voices in your head?
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For implementing GTD you can use this web application:
http://www.Gtdagenda.com
You can use it to manage your goals, projects and tasks, set next actions and contexts, use checklists, schedules and a calendar.
Syncs with Evernote, and also comes with mobile-web version, and Android and iPhone apps.
Hi Ken, very profound! I can see how you are enjoying your journey and appreciate all you do. I have heard your latest talk on VSG and also previously when you have shared. Thanks!!! I am curious to hear what from all this your current focus is Re: stress free productivity
Sam,
Thanks for your note. I would say that I’m trying to get what David Allen calls “Mind Like Water” and I’m calling “Vacation Mind” (blog post on that coming up!). I want to have things settled so that I can really move forward on some of the more creative things I want to do. Doing the Making It All Work Seminar was really great for me in that it allowed me to connect the patterns of my GTD system together more, so now I’m seeing the bigger picture. That was the key for me.
Thanks for reading and come back again. I love to get comments on here! Let’s me know that someone is reading what I have to say!
Ken
Good I look forward to hearing/reading that post. I practice mindfulness – Jon Kabat-Zinn and for me the meditation is like watching a movie…. I don’t seem to be going on any vacation except for Hollywood. Not sure what mind water is about… Will wait patiently to read.
I’m a huge GTD guy (as you can see by my posts here). I’m a big fan of OmniFocus, and it’s really helped me. I don’t know Appigo, but have a number of people recommend Toodledo. I’ve put too much into my OmniFocus system for now to change. I’m still getting that all together. I’ve got it on my laptop and iPhone, so I’m good everywhere!
Guess we’ve got a lot to talk about!
Omnifocus looks really nice too. Yes, lots to talk about. I’m happy we’ve connected.
Hi Ken, I’m stalking you today 🙂 I too love GTD, been a fan for years. Have you tried the ToDo apps by Appigo? After trying several planning systems including paper based Franklin planning (started using that over a decade ago), then moved to electronic planning with Toodledo, I finally found Appigo which has great syncing across devices, but more importantly a really elegant interface for organizing projects and prioritizing next actions. Good stuff!