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#050:The Best GTD Strategies for

Optimal ProductivityJune 9, 2014

________________________________________________Introduction

●The 5 am Miracle - Episode #050: The Best GTD Strategies for Optimal Productivity

[Intro Song]●Good morning and welcome to the 50th

episode of The 5 AM Miracle.● I am Jeff Sanders and this is THE podcast

dedicated to dominating your day before breakfast.

●My goal is to help you bounce out of bed with enthusiasm, create powerful lifelong habits, and tackle your grandest goals with extraordinary energy.

● In this week’s episode I discuss a few of the most effective strategies for being incredibly productive, based off David Allen’s GTD (or Getting Things Done) system.

●These simple practices can be applied even if you don’t follow the GTD philosophy 100%, or

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even if you have never read his book.●You will be able to put these ideas into practice

right away.●But first, let’s begin with the Tip of the

Week!

[Fade Music Up and Out]

●There is no “Behind the Scenes Segment this week, as I am now on vacation.

●On June 9th, when this episode goes live, I will be in Glasgow, Scotland, which just happens to be where much of my Sanders family originated from hundreds of years ago.

●I don’t plan on finding any long lost uncles, but it just might happen!

●I will be posting my experience to Twitter, so follow along there at JeffSanders.com/twitter.

●Now, this week’s Tip is how to get to Inbox Zero for People Who Just Can't Respond to Every Message Every Day.

●Since I wrote about Inbox Zero a few months ago, I have received emails from people who just don’t have the time to read or reply to the messages they receive.

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●These people are either bombarded by a flood of email or their work day is just so busy, email is very low on the priority list, if it’s there at all.

●As I see it, there are 5 Stages that describe most people in regards to email management.

●Let’s break down what those are.

● Stage #1: Not Interested

●In this first stage you receive very few emails and you have plenty of time to reply to them all.

●But you simply don’t prioritize checking your inbox or responding to messages because it’s rare for you to ever receive anything other than junk mail.

●In this stage you may not be very tech-savvy or you simply have other means of communication that are more effective for you.

● Stage #2: Manageable●In Stage 2 you have a reasonable number of

messages to manage (on average this could range from 10-50 per day).

●You are not overwhelmed, but you definitely need to make time every day to take care of things.

●Most people that I have seen are operating day-to-day in stage 2.

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●The number one reason people don’t manage their email in this stage is because they don’t have a plan.

●Most people don’t plan to manage their inbox because they don’t value communication.

●I have ranted before about the value of integrity and communication, and you can read all about that at JeffSanders.com/integrity

● Stage #3: Living on the Edge

●At this point email has become a problem.●You are tired of the barrage of incoming

messages, but you know you have to manage it before it gets out of hand.

●Most people in this stage either make a plan to tackle the email, like batching it before and after work (and on the weekends), or they simply stop checking messages and let their inbox fill up faster and faster.

● Stage #4: Noah’s Ark●In this stage you are flooded with email so fast

and so often that the idea of reaching Inbox Zero is as mythical as riding a unicorn to the office -- it’s just not going to happen.

●At this point your inbox has filled up to thousands and even tens of thousands of messages.

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●I received a message from a podcast listener a few months ago who told me they had over 70,000 emails in their inbox, but she was working hard to tackle the problem.

●Now, there are three options to manage the email chaos in Stage 4:

○Option #1: Cancel every major work project until you are caught up with email. (Most people will never make this choice.)

○Option #2: Delegate the task of reading and replying to emails to an employee at your office, a virtual assistant, or your retired uncle who has nothing better to do.

○Option #3: enter stage 5.

● Stage #5: Email Bankruptcy

●This is your grand do-over.●Email Bankruptcy is what you think it would

mean, you archive every single email in your inbox without reading or replying to any of them.

●You don’t delete the messages, in case you need them later, but you will move every email to an archive folder, which you will likely never look at again.

●At this point you would need to create an auto-responder that tells people you have declared email bankruptcy and if they were expecting a

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response from you, they need to email you again.

●In all reality, if you have stopped checking your inbox, you have passively already declared bankruptcy, but this is your chance to formerly clean up house.

●You might even want to change your email address at this point, because that will clear out much of the junk mail you received in the past and give you a fresh start.

●I hope that 5 stages clarified for you where you are in the process and what you need to do to manage your email.

●For most people, the most logical solution is to schedule one or two times a day to check new messages and get to inbox zero.

●If you are flooded with email and on the brink of a Noah’s Ark scenario, definitely considering delegating or outsourcing your email as fast as you can.

●Communicating with other people in a quick and professional manner goes a long way to moving projects forward and improving your trust and reliability with everyone you talk to.

Now, let’s jump into this week’s feature segment.

[World Music

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Interlude]●I read David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done,

many years after I had already started implementing his strategies and using a GTD-based task management system for all of my tasks and projects.

●After I read his book, I fully understood the mentality behind his philosophies and how they work together so well.

●If you have not read his book, I highly recommend you do.

●Much of the content is targeted towards using a paper-based system with filing cabinets and folders, because they book was written a decade ago, but the same principles apply to a digital filing system like I use in Google Drive or Dropbox.

●Today, I want to share a few strategies that are crucial to squeezing more time out of your day and optimizing your productivity.

●I have discussed some of these strategies before on my podcast and blog, but these should serve as a great reminder even if you are already familiar with these ideas.

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GTD Strategy #1: The Famous 2-Minute Rule

●This might be the most well-known strategy from the GTD system.

●It’s the first one I heard about and it’s the easiest one to implement right away.

●Here’s what it is: if you run across a task that you know you can complete in under 2 minutes, do it right now.

●Don’t wait.●Don’t write it on your calendar or in your task

manager.●Just do it.●That might be replying to a text message or a

quick email.●It could include making a quick phone call or

writing down an idea for later.●Whatever it is, don’t wait if you know for sure

you can get it done very quickly.●However, if you start working on the quick task

and you realize it’s taking longer than expected, stop, write it down, and do it later.

GTD Strategy #2: Record

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Every Thought and Every Idea, Every Time

●The beauty of using a digital task manager or digital filing cabinet is that there is no limit to the amount of information you can dump into it.

●The key to optimizing GTD and being as productive as possible is having a clear mind to work on your current task.

●And, the only way to have a clear mind is to clean your head of every thought and idea that you want to remember later.

●I use Nozbe for my digital task manager, which I’ll discuss in most detail in just a minute.

●In Nozbe I am able to record every task that pops into my head and that clears my mind so I know that idea will not be lost in the future.

●When you take the time to do a brain dump, or a brainstorming session, or writing in your journal, you are freeing up mental space in your brain to do more creative and higher thinking later on.

●If you spend much of your day trying to remember what you planned to buy at the grocery store, it’s going to be harder to focus

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on your work until you’re done shopping.●On this same note, I use a task manager to

organize what I’m going to work on, but I also use Evernote for referencing all of my longer form notes, articles, and research.

●Using Evernote alongside a GTD-based task manager like Nozbe is really fantastic.

GTD Strategy #3: Know the Context of Every Task

●Context is something I never took seriously until I read the Getting Things Done book.

●I knew that my location was important, but I missed the connection between context and productivity.

●So, let me lay it out for you here:●Think of context as location.●It’s where you will be when a task will be

completed.●For example, the context of doing my laundry

is at home while the context of shopping for groceries is at the store.

●You could also set the context of writing your next book at the local coffee shop, or building your next project at the office.

●The reason why it’s important to be so

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intentional about context is because you are only ever in one location at a time.

●And, the best way to optimize your life is to make the most out of where you are in the moment.

●Now, it’s even smarter to plan out where you want to be beforehand, keeping your context and task priorities in mind, so you can be where you need to be in order for the most important tasks to be accomplished.

●As you can see, this can get a little complex, so let’s keep it simple.

●Here’s an example:●Let’s say you wake up in the morning and

spend 2 hours at home, drive for 1 hour to work, spend 9 hours at the office, commute for another hour, and spend 3 more hours at home in the evening.

●That’s a total of 16 hours, giving you 8 for sleep.

●Knowing this information, you can schedule tasks at home before or after work, errands during your commute, and work-related tasks at the office.

●This example seems obvious, but there is a trap.

●Many people work on the careers at home and

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plan their vacations at the office.●It’s common to make personal calls when you

should be emailing your boss, or to miss time with your family because you’re behind with work.

●My point is that context can help you do what matters most based on where you are.

●When you’re at home, be at home. ●Be present.●Spend time with your family.●When you’re at work -- work.●Focus on your tasks and get them done.●Keeping home and work separate will make

each of those experiences more enjoyable and effective.

●You will be more productive at the office and more available at home.

GTD Strategy #4: All Commitments Go on the Calendar

●If you strictly follow the GTD system, your calendar will only include tasks that you have committed to doing.

●In other words, you would NOT schedule ideas,

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or possible appointments, or things you’d like to work on.

●You would only schedule must-do tasks and events -- which are appointments that you cannot miss, no matter what.

●David Allen views the calendar as sacred space and believes that when you corrupt that space with tasks that are not 100% necessary, you erode the effectiveness of knowing the difference between what you have to do and what you want to do.

●Now, in practice, I don’t always follow this philosophy, but it’s pretty close.

●I fill my calendar with must-dos first, and then, if I have something I really want to work on, I might add it in as well.

●I also keep a list of tasks and ideas that are important but not urgent.

●This allows me to finish my must-dos for the day and then check on my list of what I really want to work on.

●I call this process Must-Dos and Quad IIs●Quad II is short for Quadrant II from Steven

Covey’s 4 Quadrants model.●In the model Quadrant II includes tasks that

important but not urgent.

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●In other words, it includes critical projects that don’t have a looming deadline.

●Everyone treats their calendars differently, and I don’t necessarily believe you have to follow the GTD model in a strict way when it comes to scheduling your time.

●But, it is very important that you decide upfront what the best use of your calendar is for you, and then stick to it.

●This is really more about intentionality than anything else.

GTD Strategy #5: Review Every Project and Every Task, Every Week

●The Weekly Review is my favorite GTD strategy.

●I have talked extensively about this concept on the podcast in episode #38, so I won’t go into a ton of detail here today.

●To summarize, the Weekly Review is a block of time on your calendar that you set aside every week for reviewing what happened last week and what you plan to do next week.

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●I used to think that a review process like this was unnecessary, until I followed a strict review process like I have now.

●My weekly process allows me to analyze every important aspect of my productivity and figure out what I need to focus on most in the next 7 days.

●One of the most important pieces of the review is reviewing every task, from every project, so I know exactly what my most important priorities are, and what I’m willing to postpone until later.

●Once again, if you want to go in more depth and learn about how you can implement your own weekly review, listen to Episode #38 and read my post at JeffSanders.com/weeklyreview

GTD Strategy #6: Get a Task Manager

●As I mentioned earlier, the Getting Things Done book is based on a paper-based system, but I think it’s most effective to use GTD in a digital task management system, like Nozbe.

●I began using Nozbe over a year ago and it is

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easily the best task manager I’ve ever used.●It’s not perfect, and it doesn't take a little time

to get used to.●But, if you trust the system and dump ALL of

your tasks and ideas into it, you will reap the reward of having your whole life organized effectively in one location.

●On a daily basis, I work out of Nozbe to keep me on track with my next actions.

●I know what my priorities are for today as well as what is coming up in the future.

●I can organize my projects and tasks with contexts, as well as label projects in groups and color-code just about everything.

●Prior to using Nozbe I worked out of Wunderlist, Apple’s Reminders app, and Evernote.

●All of those are great solutions, but none of them optimize task management based on the GTD system.

●My recommendation is to get the free version of Nozbe and try it out, but if you are ready to make the move to an all-in-one solution now, just pay for the annual subscription and dump your whole life into their database.

●Nozbe is not expensive.●It’s about $96 per year for an individual, which

is only about $8 a month.

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●In my view, it’s worth a lot more than that because I use Nozbe all day, every day.

GTD Strategy #7: When in Doubt, Do Less

●One of the keys to the GTD system is achieving a state of mental peace because you know everything that needs to get done will get, when the time is right, and that every idea and thought has been recorded and will eventually be analyzed and processed.

●Since I made the transition to following the GTD model, I have a much simpler outlook on getting things done.

●I actively work every day trying to make everything as simplistic as possible because life as a way of creating complexity out of nowhere.

●It could be distractions from social media, breaking news alerts on the TV, co-workers asking for you help, family members needing you immediate attention, or even your own creative ideas that sidetrack you from doing the work you know needs to get done.

●Keeping everything simple is the only way to ensure that you are always focused on what

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matters and not allowing anything to stand in your way.

●The GTD model is designed to bring you peace because everything is out of your head on paper, or digital paper.

●I can confidently say that more than a year after switching to Nozbe and reading the GTD book, I am more organized, more effective, and insanely more productive than I have ever been.

●Now, my overall productivity goes much further than GTD, especially when you consider that I have made radical changes to my diet, my career, my fitness, my sleep, and many other key areas that affect what I get done.

●So, my final recommendation to you is to read the book, Getting Things Done, and embrace the model that David Allen outlines because it really does work wonders.

●I have a link to the book in the show notes, along with all of the other links I mentioned today.

●If you get started with GTD or Nozbe and you have any questions along the way, feel free to email me: Jeff@JeffSanders.com

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[Fade In Music]Announcements

●Just 2 quick announcements here at the end of this episode.

●First, if you have not yet joined The 5 am Club, you can easily do so today for free.

●When you join the club you will get a free copy of The 5 AM Miracle eBook, which shows you exactly how to wake up each morning with vigor and make enormous progress on your biggest goals.

●To join The 5 AM Club AND jump start your morning - visit 5amMiracle.com.

●My 2nd announcement is that for my next podcast episode I will be interviewing Chandler Bolt, author of The Productive Person.

●Chandler and I will be discussing a few new personal development strategies and what it’s like to live inside a house full of entrepreneurs.

Final Thoughts● As always, I would be grateful if you would rate

my podcast in iTunes.● That helps tremendously with keeping my

podcast visible so that people who have never heard of it can discover it.

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●I created a quick 2-minute video that shows you how to rate and review any podcast, which you can watch at JeffSanders.com/review

● Or, just head on over to JeffSanders.com/itunes to leave your review right now.

●Also, if you would like to see all of the resources I mentioned in this show, please visit the show notes page at JeffSanders.com/50, as in Episode 50.

●Well, that's it for this episode of The 5 AM Miracle.

●Until next time remember, you have the power to change your life, and the fun begins bright and early.

[Fade Out Music]