A call to GTD practitioners: An invitation to share your top questions, tips, and insights

Over the last year or so I've had the pleasure of receiving email and phone inquiries from people having various challenges implementing David Allen's Getting Things Done methodology [1]. Along the way I've been collecting the frequent questions, tips, and insights that have come up, with the goal of continuing to share them [2] with others adopting the system.

This collection seems to be reaching a tipping point, and as part of a new project I'm soliciting your favorite "aha," insight, or question that most dogged you before you made the system click. I'll be sharing the results (with surprises and answers, of course!) in a future work, and I'd be very grateful for your input.

So how about it? What information wasn't clear from reading the book, but helped you the most? Was it dealing with too many next actions? A tool or gadget that you found crucial? Maybe blocking time for the "heavy lifting?" Or was there something that just didn't make sense to you?

I'd love to hear what you have to say. Please leave a comment below or send your wisdom to gtdtips@matthewcornell.org, and stay tuned for the results. Cheers!


References

• [1] I am not associated with The David Allen Company in any way, and I don't use copyrighted materials in my business. Additionally, all my knowledge has been gained the hard way - reading, studying many competing systems, applying it to different domains, teaching, and collaborating. The overall strategy: Pour ideas into head, try out, wait for synthesis to create something new. Then share!
  
• [2] Some GTD-related articles you might find useful:
  • Are daily to-do lists and GTD compatible?
    
  • Best practices for GTD and administrative assistants
    
  • Dealing with Meeting Notes - GTD to the Rescue!
    
  • Dealing with multiple/dependent next actions in GTD
    
  • Depressurize your email with a 24 hour response time
    
  • Four Planner Hacks for Paper-Based Productivity | D*I*Y Planner
    
  • GTD Workflow Assessment/Tips Checklist
    
  • Organizing Electronic Documents GTD-Style?
    
  • Reading Books The GTD Way
    
  • Some GTD warning signs
    
  • Some answers to "Should I keep it?" when filing
    
  • Some common GTD questions, with answers
    
  • What are the essential habits of GTD?
    
  • What's in a name - GTD project naming conventions
    
  • What's your maximum response time?
    
  • When inputs exceed your workflow system's capacity
    
  • Why every problem should be a GTD project
    
  • Plus a few fun ones: A GTD WorkFlow tool: The five stages on a business card cube and Personal Productivity Playing Cards!
    
  
  

Comments

[Frank]

Matt, your articles and especially your links always give me fruit for thought on future articles and references. This is another one. I look forward to the outcome. I think my biggest moment was at work when I really allocated a morning for every week to do a weekly review. It was hard, it was though, it was confronting. But it made soooo much sense to me after a few weeks. I am currently looking for the time I need for my weekly review, since I work less hours a week but still have tons of stuff to do. I miss my weekly review now. It's like that feeling you get when you forget to brush your teeth. You know you can have a better feeling because you have "been there"...

[Matthew Cornell]

Thanks for the kind words, Frank, and for your insight.