personal productivity, an introduction to the gtd method by george vrakas

Action ManagementMethodologies, Systems and Thoughts

An introduction to the Getting Things Done Method (GTD)

by George Vrakas 2014

Personal

Productivity:

Think and discuss Personal Productivity / Action Management

Introduction to different Productivity systems Learn some useful techniques Focus on increasing effectiveness while removing

stress

CHALLENGE By the end of the presentation increase your

productivity by 10% (at least)

AGENDA

Areas of Action Management

Systems of Action Management

Einstein’s Secret to organisation

GTD System

Quick Tips

SUMMARY OF CONTENT

CAVEAT

“All models are wrong, but some are useful”

...George Box

From his work Robustness in the Strategy of Scientific Model Building (May 1979) in Robustness in

Statistics: Proceedings of a Workshop (1979) edited by RL Launer and GN Wilkinson)

Action Management is the process of creating a system in your life that helps you stay on top of your tasks / projects / aims and maintain an excellent work effort.

◦ a) An Operational Management Method – WHY?

◦ b) A System – HOW?

◦ c) A Directory of Knowledge – WHAT?

The 3 Areas of Action Management:

There are a number of systems that can be used to plan out and organise your tasks.

Methods: - ABC

- 43 Folders

- ZTD(Zen to Done)

- GTD (Getting Things Done)

A System

Einstein’s Ultimate SecretWith Efficiency – Your focus is on getting things done… not keeping thingstidy.

SUCCESS, in short, is a matter of quickly finding and quickly doing ‘the one best way’.

And that is what efficiency allows – regardless of being ‘organised’ or not.Think about it…

Why should we go to any extra effort to accomplish something when there is an easier way.

There are two kinds of wisdom:1) Knowing everything2) Knowing where to find

everything

The 2 Secrets of this system

Capture your thoughts

Focus on the Next Action

Recommendation:Getting Things Done (David Allen)

GTD Workflow Diagram

GTD Altitude Mind Map

Quick Action Management Tips

Daily review tasks list (use a standardised list for repetitive tasks)

Inbox maintenance (NIL emails in Inbox, use email filters)

Choose the most important tasks for the day and DO them first!

Turn off the pop-up outlook alerts (see how to on last slide)! - By removing this disruption you become 10% more productive!

On Fridays, select the most important task for the following week and Do it!

Work on building trust with your colleagues and stakeholders (read the book or watch this video of The Speed of Trust by Stephen M.R. Covey).

Explore Effective email communication techniques (avoid repeat emails) – if things get too complicated, pick up the phone!!

More tips here

How to turn off email notifications in Outlook 2007

In the menu, click on Tools, then Options. On the preferences tab, in the E-mail section, click on the

“E-mail Options…” button Click on the “Advanced E-mail Options…” button Look for the “When new items arrive in my Inbox” area… Un-tick all the notifications you want to receive. Note that there are four notifications that Outlook can give

you when you receive an email in your Inbox From the Advanced E-mail Options window, you can control

each of these as you wish.  Now you won’t get distracted by email when you want to be productive.

Turn off pop-up alerts in Outlook