Getting Things Done
The operational model is a hybrid system built on Holacracy's tactical methodology, David Allen's Getting Things Done, and using our own rules and agreements to make this come together in Asana. This section will provide you with all the information you need to navigate these systems.
Ultimately however it is the GTD Coach role to support everyone at OMALAB to get the most out of this system and to have it run smoothly.
There is a cost to learning these tools and methodologies but you should expect them to eventually and ultimately disappear into the background and become of great support to your work at LG and beyond. If this does not become the case eventually it is up to you to reach out for support.
Why this model?
We're using this hybrid for many reasons, here are some of the main ones:
Meetings can run in circles, where we speak passionately “about” topics but don't actually get to actionable outcomes.
Those who are heard in meetings are those who spoke the loudest and/or quickest. And quieter, slower thinkers are not heard from nearly as much.
Partners feel disempowered by the power structure.
Partners don’t feel enough autonomy, and needed to check in with a very large number of people to “cover their butt” and make sure its ok to do what they want to do.
Ideas and movement are bottlenecked by the managers, because most change and action have to go through them.
Work is overwhelming, and stress builds quickly as problems become more complicated
Our minds spend a lot of RAM on keeping up with our work and don't have enough space for creativity or our own personal well-being
GTD® in a Nutshell
Getting Things Done, commonly referred to as GTD, is an approach to productivity that was developed by David Allen. It was documented in the form of the Getting Things Done book which was first published in 2001.
The first thing you need to do is watch our GTD Overview Video
The key GTD concepts are as follows:
Keep things out of your head. The mind is a great place to have thoughts, but a lousy place to store them - especially in this modern day and age.
Decide actions and outcomes as things show up on your radar, not later. Said another way, deal with things when they show up, not when they blow up.
Regularly review and update the complete inventory of open loops in your life and work. If your psyche knows that you will review what you’ve externalized regularly, it can relax and will stop interrupting at inopportune times — for example when you’re trying to sleep.
“It’s possible for a person to have an overwhelming number of things to do and still function productively with a clear head and a positive sense of relaxed control.” — David Allen
What has your attention?
A good place to start is to notice what has your attention. As David Allen puts it:
“If you don't pay appropriate attention to what has your attention, it will take more of your attention than it deserves.” — David Allen
And conversely:
“There is usually an inverse proportion between the amount something is on your mind and the amount it is getting done.” — David Allen
A good place to start is to pay attention to what’s on your mind. Both, what’s front-most and what’s on the periphery of your thoughts. The fact that you’re having thoughts about something indicates that thing is not on “cruise control”, as David Allen puts it. In other words, it’s not clear what it means and what action, if any needs to be taken.
Maintaining and Regaining Control
David Allen identified five things that must be done regularly to maintain control, or to regain control:
Capture (Collect) — Collect everything that has your attention and isn’t already on cruise control. This includes gathering items into an inbox and making lists.
Clarify (Process) — Take items that you’ve collected and determine what significance they have, if any, and what action(s), if any, needs to be taken.
Organize — Organize the results in a form that you can easily access them when needed.
Reflect (Review) — It’s important to perform regular reviews to make sure nothing slips through the cracks.
Engage (Do) — Choose and engage in actions.
Capture Tools
It’s important to have convenient ways of collecting “stuff” that has come into your world that isn’t on cruise control. This stuff can include things like thoughts, pieces of paper and e-mails. It’s not necessary to make any decision about what this stuff means at this stage in the process, but if something obviously has no value (e.g. some junk mail that arrived in your inbox) then you might as well get rid of it right away. Some common collection tools include:
Physical In-basket — It is recommended that you have at least one physical inbox for each location (e.g. work and home) that is processed regularly.
Notebook — Sometimes it’s most convenient to capture things on paper. Unless you’re keeping a log or journal, opt for a notebook with tear off pages so that you can easily put what you’ve captured into your in-basket or scanner.
Computer —If you’re often in front of your computer, it will likely makes sense to capture some items directly into your computer.
iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry, etc. — Mobile devices can also provide a very convenient way to capture pretty much anything that has your attention.
Voice Recorder — People who are on the road a lot often find it useful to capture voice notes. These notes are later transcribed for processing.
Digital Camera — Taking a picture of something can be an efficient way to capture information.
Other “Inboxes”
There are numerous ways in which we collect information and, in this modern technological era, many ways in which stuff comes into our lives. It’s important to identify all of the sources of incoming information so that you can ensure that these sources are processed regularly. Typical examples include:
Backpack/Briefcase— Each of these is essentially an inbox. If it isn’t processed regularly then important opportunities could slip through the cracks. Especially if you’re a frequent traveller, it’s recommend that you carry a distinct folder that you deem your mobile inbox.
E-mail - — You likely have at least a couple of accounts and may receive a high volume of e- mail. Having a strategy to deal with e-mail is important and is a topic we’ll cover in the second part of the course.
Facebook, Twitter, etc. — Social media has given others a range of new ways to get in touch with us.
Mailbox —The volume of mail coming into physical mailboxes has diminished for many people in our technological era. But, it still important to have a strategy for dealing with incoming mail.
Text Message — Text messages can provide a convenient alternative to phone calls and e- mails in some situations. They key is to have a strategy to manage this source of information without it becoming an unnecessary distraction.
Wallet/Purse — You may accumulate important information (e.g. business cards) in your wallet or purse. Emptying these sources regularly will help ensure this input is dealt with in a timely manner.
Voicemail — Voicemails can accumulate and can easily be forgotten. It is recommended that you establish a workflow for capturing voicemails. This could be as simple as writing down the information from the voicemail on a piece of paper that is added to your inbox.
“Probably in the last 72 hours, you and I have gotten more change producing and project creating and priority shifting inputs than our parents got in a month, some of them in a year” — David Allen
Clarifying What You’ve Captured
Capturing is just the beginning. It’s important to regularly process all of the “stuff” that you’ve capture to determine what meaning it has (if any) and whether there is any action to be taken. Everything that you’ve captured into your various physical and electronic inboxes is generically referred to as “stuff”. The process for processing this stuff is essentially the same whether it’s in a physical or electronic form.
Is it Actionable?
Go through each inbox item by item. The first question to ask for each item is “is it actionable?”. In other words, does any action need to be taken in response to that item. If there’s no action to be taken you have three choices - you can trash (or recycle) the time, you can put it into a Someday/Maybe list or folder (indicating it may be actionable in the future) or you can file it away for future reference.
What’s the Next Action...and can it be done in 2 minutes or less?
In the event that there is an action to be taken, define the next physical action. If this action is going to take less than two minutes then do it right away. Keeping in mind that two minutes is a guideline. If you have relatively little time to process your inboxes, then you might only do actions that take a minute or less, whereas if you have an abundance of time available you might choose to take action on things that require five minutes or less.
What if it takes more than two minutes?
If it’s something that can’t be done right away, you essentially have two options. You can either do it at some point in the future or you can give it to someone else to do. If you choose to defer the task, place it on either your Calendar or your Next Actions/Project list. If you delegate it to someone else you’ll probably need to maintain a waiting list to keep track of what you’ve delegated.
This process can be summarized in the following diagram:
With some practice, this process becomes very natural and automatic and, in many cases, you’ll find that you can go through this sequence very quickly, taking as little as a second or two for some items. Here are a few general tips:
Go through each inbox in order, even though it may be tempting to dig through the list and only deal with “urgent” items. The intention is to be proactive rather than reactive and developing discipline around processing your inbox encourages a proactive approach.
Once you take something out of an inbox don’t put it back. Either discard it, keep it for future reference, act on or delegate it right away or put a plan in place to deal with it in the future.
Organizing: Actionable & Non Actionable Items
In order to apply GTD effectively it’s important to have an effective system in place. Before we delve into the organizational elements of this system it’s important to distinguish the two types of “stuff” that will be organized.
Actionable items items include meetings and appointments you’re committed to attending, active projects and tasks and things that you’re waiting for. Non-Actionable stuff may be trashed, stored in a “someday/maybe” or “tickler” list or folder or filed, either in paper form or electronically, for reference.
Actionable | Non-Actionable |
Calendar | Trash |
Projects | Someday/maybe |
Next Actions | File/Reference |
The Three Fold Nature of Work
When it comes to work, consider that that there are only three things that you could possibly be doing:
Doing Unplanned Work — This typically comes in the form of interruptions. You respond to a phone call or to an e-mail that arrives in your inbox. Sometimes responding to interruptions is completely appropriate and other times these interruptions inappropriately draw your attention away from what’s most important.
Doing Predefined Work — You might also be doing work based on planning — specifically work that resulted from processing the “stuff” that came into your life.
Defining Work — Lastly, it’s important to acknowledge that defining work is in itself work. The act of processing and organizing your projects and next actions falls into this category.
In our modern lives and work environments it’s easy to get into a pattern of being interrupt driven. The latest and loudest gets the attention, even if it’s not what is most important. In keeping with the theme of GTD, the practice is to notice these behaviors and to replace them with more productive habits.
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