Getting Things DONELeading beyond your own capacity

«GTD» DONE in time and rythm for an agile WORLD

Getting Things DONELeading beyond your own capacity

«GTD» DONE in time and rythm for an agile WORLD

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

<<GTD>> in the Context

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 :