Fresh Focus...on Productivity!

GTD Mastery 100: Part XX – Reading, Writing, and Calling

2009-01-06T05:00:00Z

58. I have read Getting Things Done at least twice, and used it so much for reference it is dog-eared and has notes on almost every page.
I’ve read it once and listened to the audio once. I think, honestly, if you have time to read GTD so many times that it’s dog-eared that you have too time on your hands! Even being organized, I still do not have enough time on my hands to read anything more than once (really). I may refer to different sections from time to time for a brush-up, but I have not done an entire re-read of the entire book. That’s just not in my time schedule, or do I think that I would find great value in re-reading it all again.

59. I always return phone calls within 24 hours, usually within 2-12 hours, with none lost or forgotten.
Much of my work is done via email, so I don’t have calls very often. But when I do, I do return them in a very timely manner (usually one day or less) and I make them as quick as possible, unless it’s a client consultation call. I can’t say that I’ve lost or forgotten to make or return a call in a long time. Typically I call people right away if I do have need for a phone call.

60. I respond to all emails within 24 hours (usually much sooner), and none get lost or forgotten.
Responding to emails is something that I do reasonably quickly. If it is something I can respond to right away (and takes two minutes or less) then it get done immediately. If it takes research to respond to it, it gets scheduled as an action item so that I can deal with it in my own time frame. If it take research from someone else, then it goes into “Waiting” status. But as reminded by the article at GTD Times, be succinct and to the point in your email responses. No need for a lengthy diatribe.

What structure do you follow when processing “response required” tasks? Are you timely or do you have to be reminded? I’d love to know in the comments!

Why don't we start out the New Year right? Let's set up a consulting session so that you can go into the New Year being as productive and organized as you can be. Sounds like a great plan! Vist my GTD Product page, and click on Professional Coaching. Purchase a half hour or an hour session and we'll set up a time! I'd love to help you start your New Year right.

****

If you liked this article, you're sure to love these:
Group Productivity: Utterli offers Group Calling Utterli offers group Calling!...
Our Next Series - GTD Mastery 100 Inspiration for the next series of posts just struck me...
Part XIV – GTD Mastery 100 40. I reconnect with my higher altitudes at least...
Part XI - GTD Mastery 100 31. I consistently clear out my email inbox to 0...
Part XV – GTD Mastery 100 43. I am familiar with the major GTD online tools...

GTD: Falling Off the GTD Bandwagon and Jumping Right Back On

2009-01-05T05:00:00Z

I’ve seen quite a few posts recently stating that GTD is “really effing hard” and that “the amount of time and effort it takes to (according to the book) manage a list of tasks, a calendar and some filing shit has become prohibitively long”.

Hmmm.

I’ve always been a proponent of tailoring everything in your life to suit your needs and the way that you work. I’ve done this with GTD as well as my personal productivity and organization. Why would someone continue doing something that is not making them as happy and as productive as they can be? I guess it puzzles me.

If something that you are doing does not please you, change it. Review what you do and how you do it in order to tailor it to make yourself the most productive that you can. If you need to cut, sew and hem to make GTD fit you, then by all means do so. Nothing in this life is hard and fast. It all well and good to follow a methodology to assist you in being organized and productive, but if it’s a chore and frustrating you instead of helping you, then change it. Keep all the most important tidbits and fit in the fabric that will make the system work for you.

I might also mention that nothing in this life that helps you be productive and organized is easy. Anything worthwhile takes time and persistence. But know yourself and know what to tune and tweak in order to make the system work for you.

How have you tweaked your system to be more efficient and productive for you? Tell me in the comments.

____________________________________________________

Why don't we start out the New Year right? Let's set up a consulting session so that you can go into the New Year being as productive and organized as you can be. Sounds like a great plan! Vist my GTD Product page, and click on Professional Coaching. Purchase a half hour or an hour session and we'll set up a time! I'd love to help you start your New Year right.

____________________________________________________

If you liked this article, you're sure to love these:
GTD Productivity – Jumping on the GTD Bandwagon Do you think profitting from something that you love is...
Losing a foothold on the GTD bandwagon - what a week! Good Afternoon! Last week was one hectic week. As you...
How To Get Out Of The Gray Zone! Gray Zone? What in the heck is that? It’s that...
Why Did I Choose David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” Program? - Cheryl Antier Cheryl Antier is going to be a frequent author at...
Stephen Smith Asks - Working from Home: Challenges and Opportunities I am preparing a post for my blog about working...

Public Service Announcement: SOBCon 2009- Don’t Miss It!

2009-01-04T14:26:58Z

SOBCon, Biz School for Bloggers, is going to be happening on May 1-3 in Chicago! It’s an exciting conference with lots of helpful information for bloggers at all points in their careers! I have signed up to be an affiliate for SOBCon this year in hopes of being able to raise enough revenue to pay for my trip there. If you are interested in attending, please click on the banner here. Please read below for information taken from their website so that you will understand the massive value of SOBCon and the ROI of Relationships.

What is SOBCon?

To quote Tony D. Clark about SOBCon . . .

It’s fitting that a great blogging conference mimics a great blog…

Stays on topic, but remains flexible

Is informative, but friendly and welcoming

Is a conversation, rather than a lecture

Makes it hard to leave, but easy to want to come back

That was the beta edition of SOBCon. And like other exceptional online betas it set the path and standard for the SOBCons that followed.

Who Attends?

The attendees are just as impressive — the attendees ARE the conference. In the community of business bloggers and social media practitioners, this group of professionals is defining online business by the conversations and relationships they make every day.

May 1-3, 2009, 150 of the most deeply networked, conversational business bloggers and social media practitioners on the Internet will be defining how business works best there. If one evangelist can move a crowd, think of the influence in the single room that is SOBCon08.

The event includes a pre-conference “open mic” night with interactive storytelling. And a Sunday Meeting Time to seal the relationships and make plans for the future. Sponsors are planning interactive participation, including special events, woven seamlessly into the conference.

What Is An SOB?

Let’s answer the question . . . about the SOBs, how it got started and what it stands for.

The SOB program, which stands for Successful and Outstanding Bloggers, now boasts a directory of over 700 blogger and social media practitioners hand-picked by Liz Strauss, most of whom sport the SOB badge on their blog. The program has spawned imitators and caught the notice of Seth Godin.

Tuesday Open Comments Night At 7pm CST bloggers gather in the comment box to have a conversation at the rate of as many as 90 comments per minute. It’s been called live social media and been live blogged many times.

THE SESSIONS: Products and Practices

Friday, MAY 1st

Meet us at the Summit Executive Center!

10:00am Registration and Check-in
PRODUCTS AND PRACTICES
Single topic sessions built around how-tos important to online business and social media products and practices. Each session is 45 minutes — part presentation, part conversation with the presenters.

10:30am Opening! — Terry Starbucker & Liz Strauss
11:15am - Noon Chris Brogan and Julien Smith

Noon - 12:40pm Lunch — delicious, healthful hot and cold food served in the cafe

12:45pm - 1:30pm Brian Clark

1:45pm - 2:30pm Denise Wakeman and Chris Cree
1:45pm - 2:30pm Wendy Piersall and David Bullock

2:30pm - 2:50pm Break – generous spread of sweet and healthful snacks and beverages

3:00pm - 3:45pm Stephen Smith and Michael Martine
3:00pm - 3:45pm Lorelle VanFossen and Melissa Pierce

4:00pm - 4:45pm Saul Colt and Terry Starbucker
4:00pm - 4:45pm Glenda Watson Hyatt, Karen Putz, and Stephen Hopson

5:00pm - 5:30pm return to hotels

7:00pm - 10:00pm OFFICIAL SOBCon09 Opening Night Event
Hotel 71 Ballroom 39th floor
Hot and cold foods enough to be a meal.

THE WORKSHOPS: Models and Masterminds

Saturday, May 2nd 8:30am - 6pm

Meet us at the Summit Executive Center!

MODELS AND MASTERMINDS
Presenters discuss one aspect of the ROI of Relationships in Social Media Business. Each presenter offers a model or an actionable strategy. Attendees working in teams of five or six people immediately discuss and apply the model to their business.

7:45am - 8:30am Breakfast — delicious, healthful hot and cold food served in the cafe
8:30am - 9:00am Opening and Overview Terry Starbucker

9:00am - 9:45am Model 1 Talk: Relationships — Liz Strauss
Negotiating Relationships: New Clients, New Products, and Intellectual Property
9:45am - 10:30 Model 1 Interactive: Mastermind Teams work together on Relationship Strategies

Break (15 min) — generous spread of sweet and healthful snacks and beverages

10:45am - 11:30am Model 2 Talk: Communication — Brian Solis
Communication Networks and Competition in the SocialSphere
11:30am - 12:15pm Model 2 Interactive: Mastermind Teams work together Competition Strategies

12:15pm - Lunch — delicious, healthful hot and cold food served in the cafe

1:00pm - 1:40pm Model 3 Talk Being Seen, Heard, and Understood — Kali Evans-Raoul
Transparency and Visibility as Connectors in Business
1:40 - 2:15pm Model 3 Interactive: Mastermind Teams work together on Visibility Strategies

2:15pm - 3:00pm Model 4 Talk: ROI — KD Paine
The ROI of Relationships in Social Media
3:00pm - 3:45pm Model 4 Interactive: Mastermind Teams work together on ROI Measurements

Break (15 mins) — generous spread of sweet and healthful snacks and beverages

3:45pm - 4:30pm Model 5 Talk: Growth Partnerships — Geoff Nelson and Chris Aarons
The Art of Relationships with Corporate Partners and Sponsors
4:30pm - 5:15pm Model 5 Interactive: Mastermind Teams work together on Partnership Strategies

5:15 - 5:30 Wrap up — Liz Strauss

7:00pm - 10:00pm SOBCon Evening Event
To be announced.

Mastermind Social Media Presentations:

“SHOW THE SPONSORS” CHALLENGE

Sunday, May 3rd 8:30am - NOON

39th Floor Ballroom at Hotel 71

8:00am Breakfast begins — delicious, healthful hot and cold food on buffet

Here’s where attendees get the chance to “meet the challenge” and show corporate sponsors how social media can connect their product with their customers. Each sponsor will have 10 minutes to present a product they need to promote. Mastermind teams comprised of attendees will then have one hour to develop an initial idea and action plan using social media to build product awareness. Teams will then present their approach to the sponsor and the group for open discussion.

This is when the fun learning begins.

The “cut and thrust” of the open discussion will build on the initial idea presented so that everyone can contribute – and learn – how the spark of a social media idea can evolve to play an integral part of a real world product marketing solution.
__________________________
Again, please help me make my trip to SOBCon a reality by purchasing your event tickets through me. I’d love to see you there!

____________________________________________________

Why don't we start out the New Year right? Let's set up a consulting session so that you can go into the New Year being as productive and organized as you can be. Sounds like a great plan! Vist my GTD Product page, and click on Professional Coaching. Purchase a half hour or an hour session and we'll set up a time! I'd love to help you start your New Year right.

____________________________________________________

If you liked this article, you're sure to love these:
Wrike.com – No "Service" in "Customer Service" There……. Normally, I don’t put up a post on Sunday...
Special Guest Interview - Chris Brogan! I would like to welcome Chris Brogan to the Fresh...
Price!Pinx - cool new service sends automatic product price drop alerts via email New service makes it simple for you to set...
Social Media - Is It Productive For You? Truly awe-inspiring is the phenomena of todays’ social media. We’ve...
Fresh Focus Wednesday - WWW by Rick Mahn Hello there readers! Today is our first in a new...

Office Productivity: My 20 Steps to Improve Your Productivity: Chronicle Your Accomplishments and Improvements Every Week

2008-12-29T16:40:56Z

We’ve discussed before in posts related to the weekly review about charting your accomplishments. But for some of you, I’m sure that getting started on chronicling your accomplishments and improvements has and is a challenge. So let’s talk about what we can do to start! We can start a Completion Journal.

As we go through life, we complete many things in many different contexts and areas of our life. It’s impossible to remember all of what we’ve accomplished. But I think it’s really important to chronicle those things in life. And not just for ourselves, but for our relatives that come after us.

My grandmother came over from Poland when she was eight and had witnessed some of the Holocaust. Before she died, we had talked many times of what it was like for her early in her life, both in Poland and after she came via boat to the USA. But I really wish that I had something more detailed: I would have loved to have The Completion Journal of her life. And this would be easy to do: just watch how!

Using Gmail, GTDInbox, or your own preferred action item tracking tool it’s very easy to implement The Completion Journal. There is a tag in GTDInbox that is called “Finished” as I am sure that there is in whatever you use to track your action items. Obviously, everything that you finish gets labeled with this tag. Once weekly, pick one monumental thing that you’ve completed (even if you think it’s trivial, the people that will read your Completion Journal will not) and put it in a separate document. It can be handwritten, an office document on Google Docs or another way to chronicle that strikes your fancy. Using FireFox and gDocsBar, using Google Docs would be a cinch! Using Microsoft OneNote 2007, you can print the page and “Send to OneNote”. There are many different ways to do it.

At the end of a year, you will have 52 items that you have successfully completed, hand-picked by you to include because you were so proud of getting them accomplished. Can you imagine what a legacy this would leave for your family? Any family member would be honored and cherish a journal such as this.

This style of The Completion Journal is the grander scheme of things – but when doing this, you also get to see all the things that you’ve completed that you might consider “mundane”. No matter how mundane you think it to be, anything that has been completed is worthy of a pat on the back. Congratulate yourself for knowing what you need to do, doing it, and reveling in your accomplishments. Always praise yourself for a job well done: what you think and feel about yourself is the most important opinion of all!

____________________________________________________

Why don't we start out the New Year right? Let's set up a consulting session so that you can go into the New Year being as productive and organized as you can be. Sounds like a great plan! Vist my GTD Product page, and click on Professional Coaching. Purchase a half hour or an hour session and we'll set up a time! I'd love to help you start your New Year right.

____________________________________________________

If you liked this article, you're sure to love these:
Part Nine - Track Your Progress – The Completion Journal Well, we are nearing the end of our time management...
Office Productivity: My 20 Steps to Improve Your Productivity: Do the GTD Weekly Review Benefits of doing the GTD weekly review....
Office Productivity: My 20 Steps to Improve Your Productivity - Double Check Your task List Double check your task the next day to assure that...
Office Productivity: My 20 Steps to Improve Your Productivity: Keep a Task List Keeping a task list is a challenge, but necessary to...
Part Three - Processing Your Mind Dump - Tip & Tricks Whew! Don’t you feel better? You’ve got all the...

A New Years’ Present – Finished my best selling Template Set!

2009-01-02T17:13:16Z

I’ve FINALLY done it!

I finally finished my Swirly Q GTD Template set! This is the best selling template set that I currently have, and it is now complete with the following templates:

Notes

Graph Paper

Mind Map

Agenda

Expense Report

Phone Log

Project Planner

Personal Profile

To Do List

Weekly Template

Monthly Template

Yearly Template

My other set has been updated for 2009 as well, so you can purchase that update now that the New Year is upon us!

I’m happy to customize these any way that you need as well as do complete custom templates from the ground up. Just let me know what you need and it will be done!

____________________________________________________

Why don't we start out the New Year right? Let's set up a consulting session so that you can go into the New Year being as productive and organized as you can be. Sounds like a great plan! Vist my GTD Product page, and click on Professional Coaching. Purchase a half hour or an hour session and we'll set up a time! I'd love to help you start your New Year right.

____________________________________________________

If you liked this article, you're sure to love these:
It’s that time of year again – New Years’ Resolutions! Setting goals instead of New Years' Resolutions is a sure...
LIVE! Check the Products Page for the first themed GTD templates! Well, I toiled and asked for training, but we’ve gotten...
GTD Template - Java Weekly Planner Upon searching for templates to use in my Circa Notebook,...
GTD Templates - An Update! I finished the first themed set of GTD templates last...
Breaking News – Time Management E-book I’ve taken the leap and have finally come out...

Fresh Friday Link Love

2009-01-02T11:52:37Z

Dr. Sally Witt
I am a coach and hypnotherapist. I have a lot of services and products and work in person, by the phone, and by video conferencing. I do business coaching, social networking coaching, help people to stop smoking, be more successful in their life and business, clear fear, anxiety, phobias, OCD, ADD, and more….
http://www.drsallywitt.com

Anthony
The nations premier Rental home site. On this site you can Find A home to rent, or you can List your home for rent, as thousands of people search our site daily for great deals in their area. (909) 581-8289 God Bless
http://www.Homes4RentMag.com

**Due to quite a few links that I will not publish here (pornography, MLM and direct selling) our list is short this week. I’d rather have a short list than bring you those kind of links.**

____________________________________________________

Why don't we start out the New Year right? Let's set up a consulting session so that you can go into the New Year being as productive and organized as you can be. Sounds like a great plan! Vist my GTD Product page, and click on Professional Coaching. Purchase a half hour or an hour session and we'll set up a time! I'd love to help you start your New Year right.

____________________________________________________

If you liked this article, you're sure to love these:
Fresh Friday Link Love New and fresh hand-picked links for your enjoyment!...
Fresh Friday Link Love Get organized with clockingit.com. Great screencast demonstration of the dashboard...
Fresh Friday Link Love Alik Levin I am software performance field consultant - lone...
Fresh Friday Link Love Get organized with clockingit.com. Great screencast demonstration of the dashboard...
Fresh Friday Link Love Links to great trigger list plus how to use them...

Self-Help Productivity: Unconditional Love

2008-12-29T01:05:15Z

One of the hardest things that you (or anyone) will have to master in this lifetime is unconditional love. Only a few have succeeded: Mother Teresa, Gandhi…….those are indeed the heroes to emulate when trying to achieve unconditional love.

I saw commented a few posts back that it’s easier to unconditionally love someone that you don’t know versus someone that you do know. And it’s even harder to unconditionally love a family member.

Thinking upon this, I can see various reasons why it would be hard to unconditionally love a family member. You expect more out of your family, and you expect them to have the same (or better) standards and morals that you do. But you know what? They do not have to live up to your expectations. As I’ve said many times before, you were put here, at this exact time, on earth for a reason.

Whether it for you to be teacher or student, you are exactly where you are suppose to be.

There is no doubt about it. You have the people that surround you in your life to facilitate your learning or teaching. And unconditional love is a big lesson to learn. People come along through and in your life to help you learn lessons, no matter how frustrating they can be. They will try your patience time and time again. BUt it’s your call to decide how to react.

It is better to be the person that you strive to be by unconditionally loving someone in your life that is so hard to love. They are the ones that need it most. By enriching yourself, you also enrich them and show them that it is possible to unconditionally love anyone, no matter what. We all want to be unconditionally loved, so this is a case where “Pay It Forward” if the route of best action.

Holidays can be stressful and make it extremely difficult to practice unconditional love.

Who have you unconditionally loved today?

Let’s talk in the comments.

____________________________________________________

Why don't we start out the New Year right? Let's set up a consulting session so that you can go into the New Year being as productive and organized as you can be. Sounds like a great plan! Vist my GTD Product page, and click on Professional Coaching. Purchase a half hour or an hour session and we'll set up a time! I'd love to help you start your New Year right.

____________________________________________________

If you liked this article, you're sure to love these:
Office Productivity: My 20 Steps to Improve Your Productivity: Chronicle Your Accomplishments and Improvements Every Week Tracking completed action items and accomplishments....
GTD Productivity – Jumping on the GTD Bandwagon Do you think profitting from something that you love is...
Office Productivity: My 20 Steps to Improve Your Productivity – Ask for Help When You Need It How do you to expect to GTD if you don't...
Change – Facing the Inevitable Nothing endures but change. From Lives of the Philosophers by...
Carpe Diem - Seize the Day Today (and Every Day) in Your Business and Your Life! One of my favorite expressions (and as it happens, vineyards...

Take the David Allen GTD IQ test

2008-12-30T12:13:40Z

There is now a GTD IQ test available at davidco.com. It asks a few questions and gives you a rating based on the answers, with an explanation of why you received that score.

Take the IQ test and report back to let me know your score. I’m curious to know! Here’s mine!

____________________________________________________

Why don't we start out the New Year right? Let's set up a consulting session so that you can go into the New Year being as productive and organized as you can be. Sounds like a great plan! Vist my GTD Product page, and click on Professional Coaching. Purchase a half hour or an hour session and we'll set up a time! I'd love to help you start your New Year right.

____________________________________________________

If you liked this article, you're sure to love these:
GTD: David Allen Book due out Tomorrow! Making It All Work: Winning at the Game of Work...
Speed Test: Firefox 3 vs. IE 8 vs Opera 9.5 I have yet to do a comprehensive speed test on...
Hot Off the Presses: David Allen Launches New GTD Channel on YouTube GTD Times by owstarr features and article today about the...
43 Folders Podcasts with David Allen 43 Folders Podcasts with David Allen...
David Allen on Getting Email Under Control - Free PDF From Amit at Digital Inspriation David Allen, author of Getting...

Home Office Productivity – Get your Paper Here!

2008-12-30T05:00:00Z

Reading my feeds over the holiday weekend, I came across and article for a website that I had known about, but had pushed to the back of my mind.

printablepaper.net is a great website for finding all sorts of printable paper items. From college ruled filler paper, Yahtzee scorecards, and check registers to graph paper, both isometric and 3D. It has more different types of printable paper than you ever thought existed.

This is a great resources for places besides the home office: in the dorm when you’ve ran our of paper and have a handwritten thesis due in two hours, or at home when you quickly need to do a hand-drawn mind map and are out of graph paper. You did know that graph paper is great for creating mind maps, right?

The image above shows just a smattering of paper types. Click on over to their website to see all the different kinds. For Productivity & Organization experts, this site can and will make you drool! Printable Paper has been featured by LifeHacker, Kim Komando, Woman’s World magazine, and elsewhere.

Not only is this a frugal way of keeping yourself in paper (saves gas due to no trips to the sotre, plus it’s much cheaper to print yourself), it also helps in the time management because you don’t have to go anywhere to get your paper: just print and produce!

____________________________________________________

Why don't we start out the New Year right? Let's set up a consulting session so that you can go into the New Year being as productive and organized as you can be. Sounds like a great plan! Vist my GTD Product page, and click on Professional Coaching. Purchase a half hour or an hour session and we'll set up a time! I'd love to help you start your New Year right.

____________________________________________________

If you liked this article, you're sure to love these:
Office Organization – How I Organize My Office A cool, frugal storage option for your office!...
Office Productivity: My 20 Steps to Improve Your Productivity – Ask for Help When You Need It How do you to expect to GTD if you don't...
Mental Productivity & Piece of Mind – How Often To Use Your Trigger Lists What to do and expect when using a trigger list....
Personal Productivity: Social Media Poll – What do you do for Rejuvenation? Three readers tell us what they do to rejuvenate and...
Office Productivity: My 20 Steps to Improve Your Productivity: Chronicle Your Accomplishments and Improvements Every Week Tracking completed action items and accomplishments....

GTD: David Allen Book due out Tomorrow!

2008-12-29T19:29:27Z

Making It All Work: Winning at the Game of Work and Business of Life

This title will be released on December 30, 2008, but Amazon is allowing people to pre-order. I’m going to get a copy of it – don’t you want to? With our hectic lives this surely will help us and provide insight into “Making it All Work”. I can’t wait to read it!

Edited to add: I’ve heard that this has been seen in the wild and that the price will be in the upper $20 range. Pre-ordered with shipping I paid 21.12. That’s a good savings and comes right to your door, to boot!

____________________________________________________

Why don't we start out the New Year right? Let's set up a consulting session so that you can go into the New Year being as productive and organized as you can be. Sounds like a great plan! Vist my GTD Product page, and click on Professional Coaching. Purchase a half hour or an hour session and we'll set up a time! I'd love to help you start your New Year right.

____________________________________________________

If you liked this article, you're sure to love these:
Hot Off the Presses: David Allen Launches New GTD Channel on YouTube GTD Times by owstarr features and article today about the...
Take the David Allen GTD IQ test There is now a GTD IQ test available at davidco.com....
43 Folders Podcasts with David Allen 43 Folders Podcasts with David Allen...
David Allen on Getting Email Under Control - Free PDF From Amit at Digital Inspriation David Allen, author of Getting...
How To Get Out Of The Gray Zone! Gray Zone? What in the heck is that? It’s that...