Archive | GTD

15 February 2009 ~ Comments Off

Gentleness is a super-power

There is something that I want to say, somewhat out of the ordinary for this blog, please be patient while I find a way to say it.
I am a scarily cheerful person almost all of the time, particularly on diamond-bright blue-skied winter days like today. Things are actually pretty grim in the Netherlands, where I [...]

Continue Reading

Tags:

13 February 2009 ~ 2 Comments

Training e-mail

I recently ran a course for a group of colleagues on e-mail handling. Though this is one of the classic benefits of GTD,  getting to grips with e-mail, it is one I have slightly avoided teaching or coaching. For me the chief benefit of GTD is that it clarifies your thinking; as a result you [...]

Continue Reading

Tags: ,

19 November 2008 ~ Comments Off

My life as a dog

One of the things David Allen says about thinking and focus, is that “it’s not about whether the information is available, it’s about whether you are available to the information”.  Forget the nutty, mystical stuff where people think that imagining their dream life will cause it to appear. This is all about what you notice, [...]

Continue Reading

19 November 2008 ~ Comments Off

Time of change

I have not posted in my blog for quite a while, which is strange because I enjoy writing.  I did some thinking and realized that though I still use GTD and coach others about it, I have little need to blog about it: any more than I would blog about cleaning my teeth. I still [...]

Continue Reading

Tags:

18 April 2008 ~ Comments Off

Personal effectiveness does not mean you suck…

Now if you are going to disagree with someone to make a point, you need to pick someone who’s opinion is worth considering. So I am going to pick on the thoughtful and helpful Merlin Mann.
Now I have been gettingt lots of useful information about how to get yourself moving on things, how to handle forgetfulness and [...]

Continue Reading

05 April 2008 ~ Comments Off

The joy of…

As I have mentioned before I regularly get revelations in the form of a blinding flash of the extremely bloody obvious. I just realized yesterday something that I really, truly get out of GTD and having a grip in all my stuff but never mentioned here. I have…
Fun.
I have a blast. Everyone has high and [...]

Continue Reading

02 April 2008 ~ Comments Off

It’s all really Peter Drukker

Having read that Peter Drukker was a major influence for aspects of GTD and having come across more Drukker-isms in the work of Steven Covey I decided a while ago to read “The Effective Executive” for myself. It is now forty years old and not in the least bit out of date. His examples refer [...]

Continue Reading

28 March 2008 ~ Comments Off

Being inspired

Sometimes I write things on this blog that am almost ashamed to admit it took me years to realise. I find that the great revelations for me appear not as a flash of light but a slap on the forehead. The corollory of that is that I also hesitate to tell you guys what I [...]

Continue Reading

28 March 2008 ~ Comments Off

The purpose of meetings…

I was inspired by this post at 43 folders to start thinking about meetings. I seem to be at different meetings to most people, perhaps because I have the luxury of running many of the ones I attend. Many posters complained that meetings they were attending were boring or irrelevant. I may be a bit hard-assed here, but I feel that you should then be questioning  the purpose of the meeting. It [...]

Continue Reading

28 March 2008 ~ Comments Off

Ask the dumb question…

Every now and then something goes past in a meeting that I do not understand. When that happens I ask for an explanation, for help. I had to train myself to do that even when I was afraid of looking dumb. Please ask the question. I have had so very, very many experiences in which [...]

Continue Reading