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David Allen

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Simply GTD with Kelly: GTD & iPhoneToday

More and more people have been asking me lately about GTD & the iPhone. Since I recently switched from Palm to iPhone (I wrote up a case study on that on GTD Connect), I thought it might be useful to share some direction and tips for those of you looking for a GTD solution with the iPhone (or iTouch.)

Because iPhone was not built with any Tasks functionality, it has forced and given developers an opportunity to fill that void. You need to find both an application that runs on the iPhone AND a corresponding app to sync it to on a PC or Mac.

Frankly, I was shocked at how few GTD-friendly Tasks solutions there are in the App store. And, if I may be blunt, some of them claiming to be a "GTD" App seem to have no clue as to the best practices of GTD and what makes (and doesn't make) a useful GTD list-manager. So here's my take on that, given my 15+ years of working with this methodology and loads of software tools to manage workflow:

* It allows lists to be sorted by context/category
* It allows due date, but does not force it
* It does not force priority codes (really folks, this is GTD 101)
* It does not force or only allow tasks to be sorted by which day your going to do it
* It provides a note field for additional details about the project or action
* It does not force everything to be listed and assigned to a project (where would "get haircut" fit? Your "Main

Michael Dolan: Striking the balance between defining and doingDecember 4 2008

Today I had a tele-coaching call that reminded me of what David Allen calls the Threefold Nature of Work. My client recently worked with me for a day-and-a-half setting up his GTD system and practicing the moves of processing and organizing his work and life. In this follow-up call he revealed that one of his biggest difficulties was that, now that he had a trusted system up and running, he felt somewhat obsessed with constantly updating and tweaking the lists. He also felt a bit of a compulsion to instantly processing into the system any new idea, notes or paper he came across in his day, often at the expense of not working on higher priority work that needed to get done.

While this may seem like somewhat extreme behavior, I've seen shades of this syndrome occur with many clients. It's almost as if, now that they have this trusted place to manage their agreements, they need to be hyper vigilant about getting new agreements in and keeping the lists pristine. This can become debilitating and can result in a feeling of being a slave to ones list - always in it and never getting any of it done. I think that in some cases this happens at the early stages of taking on the GTD practices. With time, most people learn to self-regulate and recalibrate their practices so that they can have the proper balance between defining their work, doing predefined work, and allowing app

What's Up At DavidCo: Get a Life! with GTD in FortuneSeptember 2 2008

Get a Life! is the title of a feature in the current issue of Fortune Magazine. GTD goes toe-to-toe with other coaching methods, with predictably great results.

Business Week has also recently published a feature article about David Allen and GTD, entitled Getting Serious About Getting Things Done.

There's sure to be more GTD in the press as we approach the publication of David's new book, Making It All Work, in December, and the GTD Global Summit a few months from now.

- The David Allen Company Team

Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened, but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Coach's Corner: Know Someone Who's Applying to Colleges?The Natural Planning Model Can Help!March 19 2008

I recently presented a seminar where a participant brought up the project of getting her daughter into college. Since that was a current project for me as well, I wrote to her about how I applied the Natural Planning Model to this project. For those of you unfamiliar with the Natural Planning Model, it is David Allen's approach to getting projects creatively under control. The specific details of this five-phase approach can be found starting on page 54 of David Allen's book, Getting Things Done.

Here is the email I sent to this participant regarding her project:

Dear Sara,

I wanted to share with you what I did to help my son with his efforts to get into college. Like your daughter, my son is a senior looking at schools. The deadlines for college applications had been approaching, and he had not completed any applications. In response, I took him through the Natural Planning Model. Specifically, here's what I did with him:

1) Purpose

I asked him to tell me why he wanted to go to college. At first he started with reasons that seemed to belong to others, but I encouraged him to get real with it — why did he really want to go to college? Was it to learn a trade? Develop strong friendships? Have an adventure? Meet new people? Enhance his education by broadening it or giving it more depth?

2) Guiding Principles

I asked my son what was important to him as we went through this process. H

Podcast: Kelly Forrister - Organizing Playground InterviewMarch 7 2008

Kelly Forrister teaches seminars and provides individual coaching for clients worldwide. She teaches David Allen's "Getting Things Done", and has been working with his methodology for more than 15 years. Listen in as Kelly shares some of her passion... Click here to listen now or click here to download. (mp3, 55:08). For access to all previous podcasts, check out our complete podcast feed.