Getting Things Done

Getting Things Done (GTD)
The MarketingSavant Group
www.marketingsavant.com
888.989.7771
dana@marketingsavant.com

Based on the book
“Getting Things Done”
by David Allen
The MarketingSavant Group 888.989.7771

WT* is GTD?
• GTD embodies an easy, step-by-step and highly efficient method for
achieving this relaxed , productive state. It includes:
– Capturing anything and everything that has your attention
– Defining actionable things discretely into outcomes and concrete next
steps
– Organizing reminders and information in the most streamlined way, in
appropriate categories, based on
how and when you need to access them
– Keeping current and “on your game” with appropriately frequent
reviews of the six horizons of your
commitments (purpose, vision, goals, areas of focus, projects, and
actions)
• Implementing GTD alleviates the feeling of overwhelm, instills
confidence, and releases a flood of creative energy. It provides
structure without constraint, managing details with maximum
flexibility.


This is Your Brain…


The Basic Concept
• Remembering everything
is…
– Difficult
– Cluttered and annoying
• Recording with GTD is…
– External to your brain
– Uncluttered (like your new
brain)
• You can now concentrate on:
– Performing tasks & next
actions
– Completing projects
– Getting Things Done!


What GTD is Not

• Won’t do things for you
• Idiot-proof
• An easy fix (you really have to read the book, no,
really, you really have to read it…)
• A cure for procrastination
• A motivator for your delegates (especially if they
don’t use GTD)
• Easygoing (if you’re really anal retentive, this is
just for you!)


The Objective: Mind Like Water and Balance

Mind Like Water
• Deal effectively with internal commits:
• How many incompletes or open loops are pulling your attention?
• There are many 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


The GTD System
“If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is
open to everything.”
Shunryu Suzuki


GTD Principles & Methods
The Five Phases of Mastering Workflow
-Learn the 5 key steps to workflow processing as taught by David Allen.

The Incompletion Trigger List
-Free up 'psychic RAM' by capturing any incompletions.

The Workflow Diagram
-Use the 'Rosetta Stone' of GTD to work smarter, not harder.

The Weekly Review
-Master the weekly review- the practice that keeps us 'sane and in control.'

The Natural Planning Model
-Manage and plan your projects with streamline precision

The Project Planning Trigger List
-Capture the key actions that make your projects flow from start to finish.

The Horizons of Focus
-Use vertical thinking to define and clarify everything from your next action step to your life's
purpose and vision.

The 5 Phases of
Mastering Workflow
1. Collect
2. Process
3. Organize
4. Review
5. Do


1. Collect
• Stress-free productivity starts with off-loading what needs
to get done from one's head, capturing everything that is
necessary to track, remember, or take action on, into what
Allen calls a bucket: a physical inbox, an email inbox, a tape
recorder, a notebook, a PDA, a desktop, etc.
• The idea is to get everything out of one's head and into a
collection device, ready for processing.
• All buckets should be emptied (processed) at least once per
week.
• Allen doesn't advocate any preferred collection method,
leaving the choice to the individual.
• He only insists upon the importance of emptying the
"buckets" regularly.


2. Process
When processing a bucket, a strict workflow is followed:
• Start at the top.
• Deal with one item at a time.
• Never put anything back into 'in'.
• If an item requires action:
– Do it (if it takes less than two minutes), OR
– Delegate it, OR
– Defer it.
• If an item does not require action:
– File it for reference, OR
– Throw it away, OR
– Incubate it for possible action later.

If it takes under two minutes to do something, it should be done
immediately. The two-minute rule is a guideline, encompassing roughly the
time it would take to formally defer the action.


3. Organize
The four key action categories are:
• Projects — Every open loop in one's life or work which requires
more than one physical action to achieve becomes a project.
• Calendar — Items that are to be done on a specific day or time
• Next actions — For every item requiring attention, decide what is
the next action that can be physically taken on that item. For
example, if the item is, "Write project report", the next action might
be, "Email Fred for meeting minutes", or, "Call Mary to ask about
report requirements". Though there may be many steps and actions
required to complete the item, there will always be something that
needs to be done first.
• Waiting for — When an action has been delegated to someone
else, or when one is waiting for some external event before a
project can be moved forward.


3.1 Organize
Organizing deferred tasks
• Organize according to scope
• Next actions - immediate single actions
• Projects - consist of multiple actions
• Waiting for - things delegated or pending
• Someday/maybe
Organize according to context (location)
• Home
• Work
• Phone
• Errands
• Online


4. Review

• Review calendar and action lists daily (or
whenever you could possible do any of them)
• Conduct a weekly review to clean up, update,
maintain and advance your systems (GTD is
adaptable…one size won’t fit you)
• Review the longer horizon list of goals, values,
visions and keep your project list updated


5. Do

• Make choices about your action based on
what you can do and in what context
• Stay flexible – maintain a “total life” action
reminder system
• Ensure the best choices by focusing on
priorities
• Revisit and recalibrate commitments regularly


The Workflow Diagram!


GTD Life Hacks: Exercise I

• The Mind Sweep
– Identify and write down the largest tasks that you
have facing you
– Write, in one sentence, your intended successful
outcome for that task
– Write down the very next physical action required
to move the objective closer.


Mastering GTD
“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not
simpler.”
Albert Einstein


The Weekly Review
• Loose Papers • Review "Next Actions" Lists
– business cards, receipts, etc. - put in in – Mark off completed actions & review
basket for processing for reminders of further action steps to
• Process Your Notes capture
• Previous Calendar Data • Review "Waiting For" List
– review for remaining action items, – Records appropriate actions for any
reference information, etc. needed follow-up & check off received
items
• Upcoming Calendar • Review Any Relevant Checklists
• Empty Your Head • Review "Someday/Maybe" List
– write down any new projects, action – Check for any projects that may have
items, etc. become active and transfer them to
• Review "Projects" (and Larger "Projects" & delete items no longer of
Outcome) Lists interest
– ensure that at least one kick-start action • Review "Pending" and Support Files
is in your system for each – Browse through all work-in-progress
support material to trigger new actions,
completions, and waiting-fors

“The primary success factor for managing the practical aspects of your life is a consistent revisiting
of the projects, actions, and checklists that represent anything you are responsible for.”
David Allen


Five Phases of Natural
Planning Techniques
1. Purpose / Guiding Principles (why are we doing this?)
2. Mission / Vision / Goals / Successful Outcome (what would wild
success look, sound, or feel like?)
3. Brainstorming (how would we accomplish it?)
– View the project from beyond the completion date
– Envision wild success (suspend "yeah, but. . .")
– Capture features, aspects, and qualities you imagine in place
4. Organizing
– Identify components, subcomponents, sequences, events, and/or
priorities; what must occur and in what order?
– When do we do these things?
5. Next Actions (where do we start?)

"If the project is off your mind, your planning is sufficient. If it's still
on your mind, keep applying the model until it's clear."

David Allen's "Horizons of Focus" model is essentially a
map of the six different types of agreements that you can

Horizons of Focus have with yourself. Clarifying what your agreements are at
these levels and reviewing them as often as you need to
will help you maintain a sense of perspective
• On the Runway [Daily Current Actions]
These are the agreements you have with yourself about the actual physical and visible next actions
you are committed to doing.
• 10,000 FT [Weekly & Current Projects]
What relatively near-term outcomes are you committed to for which you are taking many of the
next actions on the runway? The answers to this question essentially create your project list, or
10,000 ft.
• 20,000 FT [Monthly Current Responsibilities]
This level represents the agreements you have with yourself about your responsibilities, interests
and areas of focus. You can think of it as the job description for your life and work.
• 30,000 FT [1-2 Year Goals: Quarterly Review]
These are the specific and measurable medium-term goals and objectives to which you are
committed. I think about this level as the uber-projects. In other words, you're probably going to
need the completion of a whole bunch of smaller and shorter projects at 10,000 ft to actually get to
the goal at 30,000 ft
• 40,000 FT [3-5 Year Goals: Annual Review]
As you get higher in the altitude of your agreements, your longer-term aspirational agreements
start showing up. 40,000 ft is all about articulating your vision.
• 50,000 FT [Career, Purpose, Lifestyle : Annual Review]
50,000 ft represents your ultimate purpose and core values, either as an individual, or as a group.

GTD Tools
“Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the
noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life
consists in the elimination of non-essentials.”
Lyn Yutang (Chinese writer)


What tools do I need?
GTD is simple - A minimal setup would include a notebook, pen,
inbox, filing drawer, folders and labels. However, there are many
other tools you could use, including but not limited to:
• a mobile device such as a PDA for everything – capture,
lists, reminders
• an electronic labeler for neat labels
• a calendar or calendar program (highly recommended)
• computer software (off-line or online) to handle your lists
or your capture
• a tickler file, either using folders (see 43 Folders) or
software
• index cards for capture and lists


43 Folders
What is a tickler file or 43 folders, and do I need it?
A tickler file, as spelled out in the book, is a system of 43 folders:
12 folders labeled for each month, and 31 folders labeled for the
days of the month. So the way it works:
• If you have a piece of paper (or a concert ticket, etc.) that you
don’t need to think about until later this month, put it in one
of the daily folders (let’s say the folder labeled “20″ if we
want to look at it on the 20th of this month).
• If you don’t need to think about it until a later month, put it in
that month’s folder.
• Each day, you look in the folder with today’s date on it and
see what you need to think about today. If you want to
postpone it until later, simply put the paper in a later folder.
In this way, you could have a recurring reminder. Each day, the
folder with today’s date should be at the front of the pile —
rotate yesterday’s folder to the back of the pile.
• At the end of each month, rotate the past month’s folder to
the back of the month folders pile, and look in the next
month’s folder — take out the papers in it and redistribute
throughout the 31 day folders.

Hipster PDA

• Low-tech & cheap
• Foolproof
• 3 Steps:
1. Get a bunch of 3"x5"
ﬁle cards
2. Clip them together
with a binder clip
3. There is no step 3


Mind Mapping


GTD’s Dirty Little Secrets

• The best way to get things done is to do them.

• The best way to do them is to start doing them.

• GTD is of no help at all with making you want to
do things.

• Until you want to do them, though, GTD can be
just another way to put them off.


GTD Links List
• Zen Habits GTD FAQ
http://zenhabits.net/2007/06/the-getting-things-done-gtd-faq/
• Get the book…
• GTD Toolbox: 100+ Resources for Getting
Things Done
http://mashable.com/2009/01/29/getting-things-done/
• Introducing the Hipster PDA
http://www.43folders.com/2004/09/03/introducing-the-hipster-pda
• Wikisummaries: Getting Things Done
http://www.wikisummaries.org/Getting_Things_Done:_The_Art_of_Stress
-Free_Productivity
• Kitchen Sinks and Tickler Files
http://planetpooks.wordpress.com/2006/12/05/kitchen-sinks-and-tickler-files/

• Wikipedia on GTD
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done#GTD_Core
_Principles
• Horizon of Focus
http://www.davidco.com/blogs/michael/2008/03/horizons_o
f_focus_1.html
• David Allen Company
http://www.davidco.com/


GTD In Review
The Five Phases of Mastering Workflow
-Learn the 5 key steps to workflow processing as taught by David Allen.
The Incompletion Trigger List
-Free up 'psychic RAM' by capturing any incompletions.
The Workflow Diagram
-Use the 'Rosetta Stone' of GTD to work smarter, not harder.
The Weekly Review
-Master the weekly review- the practice that keeps us 'sane and in control.'
The Natural Planning Model
-Manage and plan your projects with streamline precision
The Project Planning Trigger List
-Capture the key actions that make your projects flow from start to finish.
The Horizons of Focus
-Use vertical thinking to define and clarify everything from your next action step to your life's
purpose and vision.


Getting Things Done
The MarketingSavant Group
888.989.7771
dana@marketingsavant.com

Based on the book
“Getting Things Done”
by David Allen

Photo Credits
The Hipster PDA Keychain
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kadavy/83534478/

Minimum Speed Limit
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thetruthabout/2727717062/

Thank You
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nj_dodge/187190601/

Buddha Dog
http://www.flickr.com/photos/superfantastic/50088733/


Getting Things Done

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