I know most of my audience is not from the Netherlands but it doesn't hurt to mention that there will be a Dutch GTD evening on april 12th. Organized by GTD-coach Taco Oosterkamp from meereffect.nl ("More effect") and held at Rhinofly in Utrecht from 19.30 - 22.00 hrs (the company where I work). You can read all the (dutch) details on this website and you can apply if you want to attend. Everybody is free to come, we will keep a tip-jar to cover the cost for some drinks and little snacks (beer and pizza...)
The evening is loosely organized, kind of like a barcamp. There are no official speakers, we are just there to meet each other, swap some tips and tricks and learn from each other. It doesn't matter if you just read the backflap of the book or if you are blackbelt, everyone is invited. So if you are from The Netherlands, or you are in the neighbourhood on april 12th (you never know) let us know and perhaps we will meet at Rhinofly on that evening.
Used tags: barcamp, gtdnl, meereffect, rhinofly, taco_oosterkamp
28 02 07 - 20:38 - Permanent link -
Steve Rubel, writer on the infamous Micropersuasion-blog, has written an interesting piece on some of the excellent hacks you can apply on Gmail. He talks about
- How to turn Gmail into a massive personal database (Gmail + the Google Toolbar)
- How to get real-time news updates in Gmail (Gmail+ Google Talk + Twitter)
- How to automatically store your bookmarks in Gmail (Gmail + del.icio.us + Yahoo Alerts)
- How to manage Calendar and To-Dos in Gmail (Gmail + Backpack + GCal + GTalk + iMified)
- How to blog from Gmail (Gmail + Wordpress/TypePad/Blogger + IMified)
I will for sure try some of the hacks he describes. Especially Imified looks interesting. I recently received an email about this website and it is on my list of new services to try out. Interesting to see it come back here. If you know more hacks for Gmail, share it with the rest of the GTD community in our comments!
Used tags: backpack, delicious, email, gmail, hack, im, lifehacks, steve_rubel, twitter
26 02 07 - 08:47 - Permanent link -
BNet runs a multi-article feature this week on personal productivity and ofcourse GTD. Very interesting articles and a new interview with David Allen. The main article "
How to get started with GTD" is a very nice and thorough overview of the system and it gives you some tips and pitfalls on the various stages in the system. There is also
an interview with The Dave where he talks about the myth of timemanagement and the first steps into GTD. Third you will find
three senior managers who have integrated GTD into their professional life. The three articles are tied together by
an intro into GTD and David Allen. Where I read a little piece on The Dave I read on
another blog as well this week. He is also a minister in an organization called the
Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness. Now I don't mind someone being a minister of an organization of any kind and I don't think that GTD is some big scheme to attract followers for MSIA. But I do understand David's comment on
my CNN article better where he says: "It’s been part of my vision for many years to be able to play with a global group of radical non-joiners who could find each other and “not-join” with each other to share best practices and a like direction and energy". It's funny that this little piece of information is also included in the article on BNet, since it is not of any direct relevance. All in all a very well-written feature on GTD and worth looking into!
Used tags: article, bnet, david_allen, how_to, interview, tips
25 02 07 - 20:55 - Permanent link -
I am asked to explain GTD and personal productivity to my co-workers this week in 30 minutes. Coming friday I will present a bullet-less Powerpoint (maybe in Pecha Kucha style?) to share some knowledge to the people around me what GTD is and why it could matter. I can do this by myself but I would like to ask my valued readers: "What would you think is important enough in GTD to keep it in the 30-minute mark?"
I already have the following subjects in mind
- 5 Phases (ofcourse)
- Mind like water (maybe...)
- From runway to 50,000 ft.
- The two most important questions: What is the successfull outcome and what is the next action?
- Some talk about high/mid/low tech organizing gear
- How to do a Weekly Review
What are your thoughts? I already feel that 30 minutes might be a bit short so I have to make choices. Perhaps just focus on the 5 phases and runway-50,000 ft.? Or go in-depth on one of the phases? Let me know in the comments!
Used tags: beyond_bulletpoints, gtd, pecha_kucha, presentation
25 02 07 - 11:00 - Permanent link -
This is just too weird. I love movietrailers. Especially the ones where you can actually see the complete movie in the trailer. Mostly it's a bad movie, so it's good to see it in the trailer. Or the classic trailers like the one for Seinfeld's movie. Then came the gametrailers. I always thought those were kind of weird. I mean, a trailer, a lineair piece of entertainment for something as non-lineair as a game?
But tonight, my amazement has reached new heights. I just saw the trailer for the betaversion of a new piece of webbased GTD-software....Yes. iCommit is in version 2 right now byt version 3 is in the making. And it comes with it's own movietrailer, complete with dramatic music. It's so much fun to see. Download it from their own website as a mov-file, or check Juggling Sheep for a in-page version. What's next? Trailers for websites? Hmmm....
Used tags: beta, demo, software, webbased
22 02 07 - 21:50 - Permanent link -
I am very pleased to announce that the Cranking Widgets Blog (love that name) has done an emailinterview with yours truly about...GTD. That's a surprise :-) But seriously, in the interview I talk about how I got into GTD, what the biggest pitfall is for starters and I give some good Zenlike advice. And yes, I talk about Mr. Miyagi. You know...the dude from Karate Kid.
Check it out and let me know what you think. Do you feel that you're a GTD Master? Make sure you let Brett from Cranking Widgets know and perhaps you're up next in his series!
Used tags: blog, gtd, interview, miyagi
19 02 07 - 05:27 - Permanent link -
When I start up my browser I have 4 tabs opened with different pages and statistics. That's great in the morning to start and get things going, but wouldn't it be nice to configure how you'd want to start up your browser? So for instance the first startup in the morning gives me the 4 tabs, but after that I only want to see my Gmail tab when I open my browser. But after 18.00 I would like to see the 4 pages again.
I don't leave my browser open all the time, so something like a Firefox addin for this would be great. Any thoughts on this? Is this usefull?
16 02 07 - 13:06 - Permanent link -
I bet most of you also buy stuff at Ikea. It's cheap, easy and very customizable. Check out this twist on lifehacking called
Ikeahacking where you learn how to use the furniture you buy at the Swedish giant in another way! Very interesting and worth trying out!
Used tags: diy, humor, lifehacks
15 02 07 - 14:34 - Permanent link -
I don't know who wrote it, but this is very funny. A list of 100 points/levels you must reach to get into GTD Mastery. A checklist for greatness. Excellent! I am somewhere dangling between 51 and 70...
(via Cynicalgrl's del.icio.us GTD-page...)
Used tags: gtd, humor, list, mastery, relax, zen
11 02 07 - 18:41 - Permanent link -
I am not sure, but I do think this site lists the majority of GTD blogs and websites on one page. I am really getting into this thing of Single Page Aggregators (what?). I recently had dinner with one of the creators of OriginalSignal.com, a very popular website to check the best blogs at a glance. I use their service more and more for a very simple reason. I can’t keep up with all the news and all the webfeeds. Just give me the topnotch feeds and articles and that’s fine. I keep my weekends for some mindless browsing and wandering off to other sites, but most of the time, I keep my Netvibes with some topfeeds from Techmeme, Socialmedia, OriginalSignal.com and that’s it.
The Ultimate GTD Index also does this. It gives you a quick overview of all the published content in the GTD-o-sphere. I am loving this. Another tab on my startpage in Firefox :-) But they really have to do something about the lay-out of the page. I understand the Adwords, but perhaps the use of colors or some diferent font or layout could help in quicker identifying content and ads. And what about an aggregated webfeed from all those sites? Or perhaps Yahoo Pipes can help us with that...I feel another project coming on...
(photo courtesy of chelseagirl)
Used tags: empty_mind, gtd, information_overload, online_app, rss
11 02 07 - 11:57 - Permanent link -
It's getting crowdier each month with new GTD applications. Both online and offline developers are creating different ways to get your projects done in a less stressful way. Nozbe is one of those new applications. As the developer told me "It's a web-based GTD system I just launched in beta stage. It would
remind you a little about Backpack, but with a strong GTD twist to it.
I liked Backpack but it lacked the GTD things I needed so I developed
Nozbe to combine the two worlds - ease of use of Backpack + GTD stuff
like: next actions and contexts."
I checked out the producttour and some videos on the blog and it really has that web 2.0 Backpack feel to it but yes, with the contexts and the Next Action lists. Definitely worth checking out if you are looking for a new online system. And since it's free to sign up, what's your next action? Go! Sign up!
Make sure you also check out Marc Orchand's post on Nozbe. He gives a more detailed look on the new service. And he's enthusiast as well
Used tags: backpack, gtd, nozbe, online_app, productivity
10 02 07 - 20:04 - Permanent link -
A couple of days ago I was approached by an editor of CNN for an email interview about my weblog. It would be used in an article about GTD and David Allen. I just got a message that the article is
online. From the whole interview, only a couple of lines are used. It's a nice article, but to give you the whole picture, here is the complete emailinterview with David Williams from CNN.
More >>
Used tags: cnn, gtd, interview, lifehacks, productivity
09 02 07 - 19:05 - Permanent link -
He's already a month forward in his business but I still want to congratulate Matthew Cornell on taking the leap. A while ago he emailed me saying...
I wanted to let you know that I've left my University job of 12 years to do workflow consulting. I read David Allen's book "Getting Things Done," which made a huge improvement in my life and lead to a crash-course studying modern productivity techniques. I then created my own seminars and started doing one-on-one consultations, with great feedback. So far I've been working in the Northeast with people from mid- to large-sized organizations, including senior staff and faculty at UMass, and the results have been exciting. I'm now getting requests from around the US, so it looks like it's time to expand.
He describes it on his own blog as "Taking the big leap", I would like to name it "Take the red pill" and see how The Matrix is. In his blogpost the reason why he's doing this is very clear
In my case, it's simply that I'm driven to do this - I feel I have no choice.
This is what happens when you get your mind clear. When you get the daily list of to do's out of your head and into a trusted system. Your mind gets free to think creatively. You don't have to worry about getting catfood, talking to Robert about the planning or calling Jim on those new bookshelves. You can decide to not think about those things and get your mind in other places. Like about what is really important to you, your family, your career, your life. It takes time to see that and appreciate that. I know. I sometimes have my moments when I just can relax and not worry too much about stuff going on in my life. But to see it all from a distance, as a whole, and look at it and see the pearls. See the rotten apples. See the points that need some clearification. This may sound like a very simple excercise but try it without wondering of to other commitments and projects screaming in your head to get done. It has a lot of subtleties to really see those important things. Now I know this sounds like Californian Naanaa-Noonoo stuff (blatantly stolen joke from The Dave) but trust me, once you get your stuff organized, not done! Organized, you will find a new freedom. Make sure you recognize and make the right decision. Just as Matt did.
Matt, all the way from the Netherlands, the best of luck with your new business as a workflow consultant and we will talk some more in the very near future!
Used tags: career, consulting, diy, empty_mind, gtd, planning, productivity, relaxing, someday_maybe
05 02 07 - 21:38 - Permanent link -
Last Comments
Matthew Cornell (New mindmapping s…): Interesting! Though he does lay it o…Ken (5 GTD systems I s…): I use Jello dashboard at home’s outl…
Matthew Cornell (Doin' it, delegat…): Cute. Check this out: Gtd Bingo [R…
Craig M (Accomplice, is it…): I’ve been using Accomplice for a mon…
Frank Meeuwsen (The voice of a ge…): Thanks for the comments. @Jason I ne…
Jason (The voice of a ge…): Yeah, man. Kerouac’s a great inspir…
jim (The voice of a ge…): Denizens of the Darkness Jack Keroua…
Dan (The voice of a ge…): Thanks for honoring such a great ame…
Kaj (Get the Most Out …): There is also a GTD firefox addon fo…
Wyatt (Accomplice, is it…): I installed Accomplice on my U3 usin…