Word: allen
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...When your schedule is packed with meetings and tasks, it's easy to lose sight of your broader goals and responsibilities. Break away once a week and take stock of the projects you're working on and your long-term objectives, Allen advises. That will ensure that important items on the distant horizon don't fall by the wayside. In Allen's Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology, the "weekly review" is the most important element, according to devotees. It's easy to avoid and hard to commit to, but Allen says building it into your routine helps systemize effective planning...
...your system might be comfortable, it should get a tune-up from time to time. "I thought I was a productive, well-organized person," says Kim Hagerty, CEO of The Hagerty Group Management Group, a specialty insurance company, describing how surprised she felt after a consultation session on David Allen's system. She realized there were many things she had forgotten to plan for, mostly because they hadn't required her immediate attention. The advantage of the GTD system, or others like it, Allen says, is that once you've written everything down and gotten it off your brain, your...
...Keep tabs on your working space just as you manage your mental space. "The things that belong are supplies, reference material, decoration and equipment," Allen says. "Everything else is in process." In other words, if random chotchkes are gradually taking over your desk despite being neither functional nor sentimental, neither useful nor amusing, observe that and do something about it. Set your own standards, Allen says, but once you've recognized that something is out of place, do something about it to improve your peace of mind...
...some point, your tasks and projects have to draw on some larger goal, Allen says. Even if you don't yet know what that is, set aside time to think about it once in a while. So where does he stand on that? Now that he's gotten organization down pat, what's next for the master of productivity? Allen would rather dream than draw up a business plan. "I'm a reluctant entrepreneur," he says. The productivity guru likes to think of himself as a "researcher, educator and an evangelist," who helps people weave order into their complex lives...
That's the title of productivity guru David Allen's pithy 2001 treatise on working efficiently, which continues to resonate in this decade's overworked, overwhelmed, overteched workplace. Allen hasn't just sold 500,000 copies of his book. He has preached his message of focus, discipline and creativity everywhere from Sony and Novartis to the World Bank and the U.S. Air Force. He counsels swamped chief executives on coping with information overload. He ministers to some clients with an intensive, two-day, $6,000 private session in which he and his team organize their lives from top to bottom...