W. Lloyd Williams

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Filtering by Tag: gtd

The Pocket RoadMap™

Get Organized with One Sheet of Paper

The Pocket RoadMap™ is a single sheet of paper folded into six small panels that puts you in control of your life and time. Download the PDF file and print the two pages back to back on one sheet of paper.

Whether you are using GTD or ZTD or any other productivity system the Pocket RoadMap will keep you focused on the most important items each week. Download it for free and give it to your friends. This is a tool your entire team can use.

Video showing how to use the Pocket RoadMap coming soon.

Is Your Inbox Overwhelming You

20081219worry Imagine a Zero Inbox. Below are the steps to create one.

1. Open a new email.

2. Ask yourself, “What is it?” and “Is it actionable?”

3. If it’s NOT Actionable, then delete it, store it in a Reference email folder, or incubate it on Someday/Maybe if you think you’ll have action with it in the future.

4. If it IS Actionable and will take you multiple steps to complete, ask yourself, “What’s my desired outcome?” Track that outcome on a Projects list.

5. Now ask yourself, “What’s my next action?” Then you’ve got 3 choices:

1. Do it now (if it will take less than 2 minutes) 2. Delegate it now (if someone else can do it, track on Waiting For if you need to) 3. Defer it to a Next Action list or folder (if it will take longer than 2 minutes and store that email in a place (other than “In”) you know you can easily get back to when you need to take action.)

If it’s got multiple next actions that can be done simultaneously, track each one of those. If you have “future actions” or dependencies, and this is a project, those can be stored with your project plans.

Source: www.gtdtimes.com

Simplified GTD

Getting Things Done (GTD) by David Allen revolutionized productivity, though many find it overly complicated. For those of us less inclined to be engineers or lacking follow through, we need a simpler solution. Thank you Leo Babauta for writing Zen to Done: The Ultimate Simple Productivity System.

ad-ztd1 This short book simplifies the entire GTD system down to very specific actions that are easily implemented into your current routine. No longer are you burdened with maintaining a large organization system. You can apply the concepts at you own pace and decide what is most important for your needs.

Leo writes a great blog at ZenHabits.net which is a valuable resource. Take a moment and read this short book, then apply one habit this week and add another when you master the first.

Two Books for the New Year

makingitallworkDavid Allen as just released his new book Making It All Work: Winning at the Game of Work and Business of Life, following the success of Getting Things Done and Ready for Anything. His new book Making It All Work pulls all his thoughts together in a very organized way. This book is much easier to read and implement and has many new tools. I recommend it highly.

enough John Bogle the founder of Vanguard Funds has written another important book. Enough: True Measures of Money, Business, and Life is a must read.

Mastery Level Habits: Establish a Cruise Speed

Extraordinary teams know their capacity for work. They respect team members’ energy levels and avoid burnout by establishing a cruise speed for the team. When necessary, they increase capacity during crisis, then quickly return to cruise speed. Most businesses run at 100 percent of capacity all the time and have no ability to deal with crisis. The team shuts down as everyone becomes exhausted and demotivated. The best practices value all members of the team and understand that the ability to deliver a consistent solution to clients depends upon the team’s energy and motivation.

Mastery Level Habits: The Art of Dissection

Your ability to handle stress inducing circumstances is directly proportional to your preparation. Those who master the art of business know the art of dissection. They follow a few simple steps to avoid repeating the same stress in the future.

1. Examine the root cause. We normally are dealing with the end result of a situation. Example: the tax crunch of April. What is the cause? The stress of incoming calls and rushing around is the effect. The cause is a transaction that occurred the previous year.

2. Identify a strategy that can change our response and be proactive. Back to our example. Instead of waiting for the crush of work during April we could collect the needed data when the transaction occurs and log it in the client file. Then at the first of the year we could proactively send the client the tax information.

3. Make a habit, procedure, or process so your response is different in the future. From our example: create a logging sheet and post as the transactions occur throughout the year, rather than compiling a years worth of transactions in a few weeks.

The right decision is made before the crisis. It is in the clear light of day that we make a decision and then we execute in the midst of the crisis.

Mastery Level Habits: Life Planning

Set aside a day to do Life Planning, not just business planning. Look at your entire life-to-date. By answering the following four quesitons you will have a better idea about what is most valuable to you going forward.

Four Questions to Ask and Answer

1. What have I accomplished in my life? List all the accomplishments in your life that make you proud. these are the raw material for your knowledge and experience and will be the foundation upon which you will meet and exceed your future dreams.
2. What have I not accomplished, but intended to? List now the dreams that were important in the past and have not yet been accomplished. Some of these will still be valid and desireable.
3. What are the challenges and problems I face today? Looking at your life now, what challenges do you face today? Because of your past experiences you are more capable in some areas of your life and less capable in others. I am wiser than I was when I was 20, but I can not physically do the same things I once could.
4. What are the opportunities that are available to me right now? List the opportunities, both personal and business, that are available to you.

You can now look at your Roadmap for Change and jump start your new year. For a blank Roadmap for Change form go to the Downloads page.

Getting Things Done: Recap

Act Two of the [Three Act Planning](http://lloydwilliamsinc.com/2006/11/28/planning-a-three-act-play-2/) process is [Getting Things Done](http://lloydwilliamsinc.com/2005/11/11/getting-things-done/) (GTD) by David Allen. He created the best way to deal with the stuff that fills our lives. Merlin Mann of 43folders starts the new year with a great [recap of the GTD posts](http://www.43folders.com/2007/01/04/gtd-recap-07/) on his site saying, >I’ve gotten several requests from readers for an updated primer for folks who are getting started (or re-started) with Getting Things Done. I’m happy to oblige with this updated collection of 43 Folders’ most popular, most visited, most-commented-on, and my personal favorite posts about David Allen’s GTD. There should be plenty here to get you rolling. And thanks so much to everyone who wrote to request this.

To see all the links the tools including 8-episode podcast with Merlin Mann and David Allen do not miss the [Recap Page](http://www.43folders.com/2007/01/04/gtd-recap-07/).

*Have you found a great GTD resource? If so, take a moment and share it in a comment with the rest of us.*