Getting Things Done
I’ve written about Getting Things Done before, and highlighted my favorite aspects of it, so I won’t write all the same stuff again. It’s been several years, but the principles in GTD
In the years since the book came out, the David Allen’s company has come out with some complementary products that can really add to the GTD experience, and/or make the system easier to implement. I’d like to share these with you today.
GTD Implementation Guide
Available only through David Allen’s site (as far as I can tell), the GTD Implementation Guide does just what its title suggests – it helps you implement the GTD system. This is a huge help! The one complaint I’ve heard from people I’ve recommended GTD to is that they don’t understand what they’re supposed to do with the information after they read the book – it sounds good, but they aren’t sure how to implement it. (And I must confess, I had to read over a couple sections of the book a few times before it “clicked” for me, too. The GTD Implementation Guide pulls those action steps out and lays them out step-by-step. If you’re just getting started, I would highly recommend having this guide; it would make it much easier to get started. (This product is a PDF download.)
GTD System Guides
The GTD System Guides
In this one handy package are all of the charts and lists I like to have on hand: a summary of the workflow, an incompletion trigger list for doing “brain dumps,” the workflow chart, a reminder page for Weekly Reviews, an overview of the Natural Planning Model, a project planning trigger list, and descriptions/definitions of the Horizons of Focus.
If these sound like Greek to you – you really should read the book. It’s probably available at your library. (‘Though this is one of those books I have to own, because I marked it all up with my notes!)
Ready for Anything
If all of that isn’t enough for you, David Allen has written other books, as well. Although they expect that you are familiar with Getting Things Done, they aren’t directly tied to the system, and can be read and understood either in conjunction with GTD or apart from it. Ready for Anything
Because they’re more philosophical, there are some religious references that most Christians will disagree with. These are minor to the text, though, and can easily be (mentally) replaced with phrases that are more in keeping with our worldview; the principles still ring true. For instance, in chapter one we read that “if God is all, and you’re part of that, just relax.” It doesn’t take much to mentally adjust that to “if God is in control, just relax.” (Or, in other words, “Be still and know that I am God”!)
I enjoyed the book and gleaned some things from it, but it won’t be for everybody. If you enjoy reading about productivity, you should enjoy this. If that’s not really your “thing,” you might want to stick with the more practical content offered in Getting Things Done
Win It!
I am thrilled to be able to offer a reader the chance to win an autographed copy of Getting Things Done! To enter, please leave a relevant comment on this post.
For extra entries:
- Follow me on Facebook and/or Twitter. (1 entry each)
- Subscribe to my RSS feed.
- Follow GTD on Facebook and/or Twitter. (1 entry each)
Please leave a comment for each entry, to be sure they’re all counted! (And be sure I have a way to contact you.) This giveaway will close at midnight EST on January 14th. (or is that January 15th? – nighttime on the 14th!)
Congratulations, Laurie!
Disclosure: The David Allen Company provided the materials mentioned above to facilitate this post. As always, all opinions are entirely my own.
It’s good to hear that there is the supplemental book with the “how to implement” guides ready to use. Frequently, we read something to improve our lives and agree with what we’ve read but have more difficulty implementing and maintaining the new habit. Thanks for providing this giveaway.
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For implementing GTD you can use this this application:
http://www.Gtdagenda.com
You can use it to manage your goals, projects and tasks, set next actions and contexts, use checklists, and a calendar.
Syncs with Evernote and Google Calendar, and also comes with mobile version, and Android and iPhone apps.
I am very interested in this book and could really use the help.
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I subscribe to your Blog and I love it. You teach me so much. I’m with you in your Organizing Challenge. I would love to win any of David Allen’s books. Thanks for this Giveaway, and what a great start for a Happy new Year 2012!
I’m wondering if anyone uses this for homeschool planning/record keeping??
Not really…but sort of. I think you’re probably not picturing what sort of “thing” it is. GTD is a particular method for working one’s way through the process of Collecting, Processing, Organizing, Reviewing, and actually Doing the various tasks, projects, etc. that we all have on our plates. Since school planning is part of that, it ends up in my GTD “system.” But GTD, itself, is not a planner, notebook, or anything like that, that you would use to write things down in. (Which is actually kind of nice, because it’s adaptable to whatever you prefer to use. I have a tiny, spiral-bound Day-Timer. Others have standard 5.5×8.5″ or 8.5×11″ notebooks. Some use index cards. And so on.)
My favorite homeschool planning/record keeping tool is the planner my mom created when we were “in school.” It’s what I still use with my own kids: My Homeschool Planner
@Rachel – thanks for your response. I’m new to GTD, but have just started implementing it with Outlook and have a program to make it sync with my Android phone. My thought was that I could have each of my kids subject areas listed as a “project” with the scope and sequence listed in the notes. I would then pick out each “assignment’, list it as a task or “next action” for that project, and as it is checked off it would go into a completed file which would be an actual record of work done with dates completed. It sounds a bit labor intensive but I’m a quick typer and once the list is typed it would just be a matter of cutting and pasting a few a week. I wouldn’t do it with my younger kids’ work, but with my older ones as I’m tracking certain work and projects for high school credit I had some crazy idea that this would simplify things. Ha ha. Actually, the part that it would simplify would be to have it on my phone and have it with me at all times so that when I’m running errands I can see what I need to pick up for the next Biology experiment and when it is. Just thinking . . .
Gotcha! If you’re not doing the actual work, I don’t know that I would recommend putting all of them as tasks on your lists. It seems like that could really overwhelm the system (and you!). But I would definitely have things like, “buy frog” (or whatever it is you’re needing for experiments) on your NA lists. I can see me using the files similarly to what you’re suggesting, though, for recordkeeping purposes – making a list of assignments and sliding them over to a “finished” list as they’re completed.
Another option would be to start your high schoolers on the GTD system by putting the assignments on NA lists for them.