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- [00:00]
A
Foreign.
- [00:10]
B
Okay, folks, welcome again. Thank you for joining those of us who are just joining us. Whoa. Stephen from Australia. So what's that? Midnight or something like that, I guess, for you. So, in any event, I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to be joining John and all of you.
- [00:25]
A
And before Anna Marie goes further, I just want to say who she is, because some of you have heard her on webinars before. Some of you, she may be a new person to you. Anna Maria has several roles at the company, but the main one is that she is called the Super Master Trainer. That's. That might sound like overkill for.
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B
For that superhero from the.
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A
Superhero from the.
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B
Whatever they're called, from Marvel and one of the Marvel superheroes.
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A
She trains master trainers in countries around the world. If you're working with a partner in one of our other countries who has a master trainer training trainers, that master trainer was trained by Ana Maria. So she knows her stuff, and I'm happy to have her here.
- [01:13]
B
Thank you, John, and thank you for inviting me again to come join you. I think it's always more fun to have two of us, for you and for us. And also, as you probably all know, getting things done is one of those very interesting, let's call it methodologies for now, or intellectual properties, where there's a lot of, in a way, personalization, customization, tailoring. I mean, there's some basic principles that we don't violate that we all follow, but. But then it becomes very personalized. So it's always great to have more than one perspective. Talk about GTD or teach you about GTD or share about gtd, because maybe the way I say it doesn't ring a bell for you. And then the way John says that, it's like, oh, that's so clear. And I'm like, oh, God, you're killing me. I've been saying the same thing. But it happens. It happens to all of us. So I think it's great for the two of us to be here. I understand we have a group of experienced folks just joining us and somewhat experienced and perhaps some of you are more beginner or have recently joined GTD Connect. So I want to welcome you again and thank you for being part of this community and today's webinar that it's really meant to be a lab. That's why it was called Skills Lab, really, to help you and assist you more than testing your knowledge on GTD best practices. I want to say up your game or really look at how. How am I Doing in relationship to projects and next action. So that's gonna be, that's a big component of today's webinar. As we were, as John was sharing with me what he wanted it out of today and we were looking through the slides and the activities that we've created for you. Also we're gonna be having some polls, so quizzes is not so intimidating. But basically we're gonna be testing your knowledge or you are gonna be testing your, your knowledge for the purpose of course, deepening your understanding again, getting better at. And there's going to be lots of practices today. It's really meant to be an interactive webinar. We're going to have a few slides with a few, you know, number of items on each and every one of them and then you're going to be practicing and hopefully asking us lots of questions, lots of questions, whether through the chat box or raising your hand or however you want to do that or however you feel comfortable with. So not so much really a lecture, it's going to be more a working session. So with that in mind, let's start with our first question here. And I want to ask you what is a definition of a project? And of course you have four possible answers. And for that we're going to have you answer your question on a poll. So go ahead John, and you can pull up the poll and then we'll let you look at the slide, think of your answer and vote. You've pretty much all voted and yes, of course, very good on all of you. C is the correct answer. Because the definition of a project in getting things done is any multi step outcome that can be completed within one year. And we can do more discussion as we work through your projects list because purposely I want to highlight or underline the word within one year because it can actually be a little more or a little bit over a year or of course can just be a few months, three, four or five or six. It doesn't have to be exactly one year. To me, the greatest way for me to decide whether it goes on my projects list or not is do I need to look at it weekly? Because remember that your projects list is the driver of your weekly review. So this is the one list that you're weekly coming back to. And it's one of those does this outcome is one that I need to be looking at on a weekly basis and if the answer is yes, no matter if it's 14 or 15 months, it still qualifies as a project. All right, great. Let's Move on to the next slide here. And basically we're going to have you take a little self assessment. So on a scale of 1 to 10, please type on the chat box. How well are you managing your projects? Obviously, one being I don't even know what a project is, and 10 being you know, I have a complete project inventory that I calibrate every single week as part of my guided weekly review. Okay. So I see a lot of different numbers coming up. So, John, because you're so good at math, what's the average number?
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A
Right before you said that, the thought that went through my mind is, please don't ask me to add these up in my head as they're going by. So my rough count is we're averaging in the five to seven range. Yeah,
- [06:01]
B
yeah. Which means then obviously that there is room for improvement. And that's the whole purpose of today's webinar, that you identify those gaps and those places where you can improve. So let's move on, I think, to what we have prepared for you as our second poll. Or is this not a poll? John, I can. Our next question here, Don, if you want to put it up, is now, what is the definition of a next action, obviously, in getting things done? So we're going to pull up the poll and I'm going to give you 30 seconds to answer the poll. And once 30 seconds have gone by, we will close the poll.
- [06:39]
A
I can tell we're dealing with some experienced GTD practitioners here.
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B
And yes, very, very good, you all got the right answer. John, you made this too easy for this poll.
- [06:51]
A
Yes, next webinar is going to be harder questions if we can come up with any.
- [06:56]
B
But again, if you want to highlight here the answer on this slide, I want to underline a couple of key words in our definition because of course, it's the next physical visible activity that progresses something towards completion. Physical visible are keys, and you will understand a little more or a little better or further what, what I mean by that as we progress in today's webinar, because it's really important that you see yourself completing the action. So whenever you're thinking of next actions and you're thinking of choosing the verb that best defines that next action for you, keep that in mind that you always have to be able to see yourself doing it. So that's why we like to underline physical visible as well as next, because it's not the one after next or the one after after next, it's the one that it's next that it's all what a next action is. A lot of times it would not only be a next action that would bring, you know, the outcome to completion, it's a next action that will progress you towards or closer to completion. So it could be an either or. So go ahead, John.
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A
One of the things that I often see when somebody's saying, oh, I'm not really all that drawn to my lists, they just seem kind of vague and mushy, is that they'll have a mixture of next actions with sequential dependent actions, things they can't really do yet because they rely on something else to happen first. So that's the other thing with next actions is we could just call them actions, but they're very precise next actions so that your next actions lists don't get mixed with actions that may show up later in the future that you could do, but you can't do them now.
- [08:51]
B
Correct. So sometimes it's adding onto the next actions list the future actions, as John is saying. And many times it's in a innocent attempt or in a safe attempt of going, well, if it can be on my mind, isn't it supposed to go on a list? But maybe not yet. So then where does it go? And again, we'll talk a little more about that later today. But if it's not the next action yet, it does not go on your next action list. Neither does it go on your mind. It will go someplace else. And we'll talk about that in a moment. All right, great. So on a scale of 1 to 10, then how well are you managing your next actions and where do you see your gaps and you can think of this answer, Maybe not just the next action as in the next action itself, but maybe even the next actions lists, given what John and I were just talking about a moment ago. So is there room for improvement? Let's put it this way. Either in your next action thinking or your next action lists management. I think you have a second question on that slide.
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A
Yeah. Where are your gaps?
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And again, as I see you self assessing, I see there is room for improvement. So that's great. Well, David, you're good. You're an eight. Not pune future items on next actions list. That's right, Nicole. And we will help you today identify where then should you organize them. Not reviewing them regularly. Yep. And then they. I'm sure they go. They go outdated. You know, they get outdated crystal or, you know, they're no longer giving you the payoff they're designed to.
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A
David says collecting immediately is a gap.
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B
Kurt, what do you mean by that? David, you want to write something more on that, please?
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A
Now we're getting more gaps, putting things on the list. I'm not committed to moving on the next thing too quickly and not putting the next action in my system. Ana Maria, what do you think about that one?
- [10:44]
B
Moving on with the next. Which one was it, John? The one from just.
- [10:48]
A
Yes. Moving on with the next thing too quickly and not putting the next action in my system.
- [10:53]
B
Well, it depends. Just. I mean, sometimes that is not an error in approach, because if you are depending on what are you doing based on what you've decided, it's either defining work, doing predefined work, or doing work as it appears it may be appropriate. I mean, if you're on the flow of things and you end up one next action which then leads you to another one and then leads you to another one, because you have decided to basically do work as it appears, meaning as soon as I complete one, I identify the second one, and that is the right thing for me to be doing right here at this moment, I don't see an error in approach. But if, on the other hand, you are in the process of defining work, meaning getting your in to zero, or also known as your second step in mastering workflow, clarify, and you now start getting detours. Right. Of completing one thing and then moving to another and then doing the next thing and then doing the next thing instead of clarifying whatever the next item is. Then I would have to ask you, was that the best use of your time? Was that the top priority in that moment? Why did you choose to change from defining work to what we identify as, or what we've titled as doing work as it appears? So it's hard to say what is right and what is wrong because it's really based on what decision you're making in that moment.
- [12:22]
A
Yeah. Another one is somebody saying, it feels like I need to spend lots of time defining what my next action is. Next action feels like a planning activity, and I end up with large lists to define. So we have some help for that coming up in a couple more slides. But one of the things I can say about that is practice helps if you, or as David Allen would say, become like Teflon so that as a next action shows up, you are really good at quickly determining when you're in that clarify phase what the next action is and getting it on your list so that when it lands on your next actions list, it's already clarified enough that you don't have to define it any further.
- [13:09]
B
And also, Stephen, as I read what you wrote, when you say it feels like I need to spend lots of time defining what my next action is, sometimes for some folks, there's a lot of it depends inside of them when they're thinking of the next action. And then that sort of slows them down or kind of gets in their way of defining the next action, because there's a lot that they are kind of pondering inside. So one trick can be choose one and then if for whatever reason that was not the right one, change it. But as you practice and your mind goes into, well, it depends. It could be this, it could be that, but what about this or what about that? You want to start kind of training your mind so that it chooses one knowing that it can always change it. Because I have found in my years of coaching folks that sometimes that it depends in their minds can be what delays their next action identification or decision.
- [14:20]
A
This looks like. Yeah, Ariadne saying having next actions get stale or old on your lists. I don't have the link in front of me now, but if you go into GTD Connect and look on the homepage, there's a section GTD Perspectives. If you click on that, there's one in the last, just the last one or two of those, that the topic is, why are you still here? It's one of our trainers addressing his to do list and saying, I've got old, stale stuff. So I ask myself, why is that item still on my list? And he has some tips about how to work with things on your lists that are older, stale.
- [14:55]
B
Yeah. And also with that, and another one further down, I think, John, that he talks about some next actions don't get. Hold on. Something about current that I read Again, all of that, truthfully, at the risk of being obnoxious, it's resolved if you're doing your weekly review.
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A
Because I'm glad you got to be the. Be the bad guy to say that.
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B
The bad guy today.
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A
That's what I was going to say to Clayton as well. Because, yeah, it's okay that you complete a next action and don't immediately go to your project and develop the next action. Because you'll catch that during your weekly review.
- [15:32]
B
Correct. I have next actions sitting on my list. That they've been there for four months and I'm fine with it. Because every time I do my weekly review, I go, yeah, even when I get to be at that location and I get to have the time and I get to have the energy. Yes, I want to get that Action done. But until then, still, you know, it stays on the list. At some point, it's either completed, so stick off my list because I did it, or it lost its meaning, so I delete it. It doesn't really matter. If you're doing your weekly review and you're renegotiating with yourself week after week, that's fine.
- [16:10]
A
Yeah, let's see. A couple of. Couple of folks said one of their gaps is putting something on the Next Action list that they're not really committed to. Off the top of my head, my answer for that would be, again, the weekly review. When you see that, if you realize you're not really committed to it, you can move it to someday, maybe.
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B
Correct.
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A
Or delete it if it's no longer a commitment and you're sure you won't want to in the future.
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B
I see that from Masha, same as Kurt, putting ims on the list that I'm not committed to. Accomplish it. Then don't put it. If I was coaching, you and I would.
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A
We want you to feel good about your list, so why bother? Don't set up feeling guilty about something just because it's on your list and you're not doing it.
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B
And again, you know, Masha and sorry if I'm not pronouncing your name correctly. And Kurt, if you go, well, look, it's not a something, maybe. Well, why don't you create a list? A list titled things I'm not committed to yet, I don't know. And that could be your placeholder, right? Because if it's not a next action, don't put it on your list. Do yourself a favor and don't put it on a list. Because then that's how you start corrupting your Next Actions list. That's how they start to lose value. That's why you may end up feeling overwhelmed by them. That's why you may be feeling repelled by them. Because you have a bunch of stuff that doesn't belong there, but at the same time, you go, no, but it's not something. Maybe. I'm not joking. Create a list title Things I'm not Committed to yet, and just drop it there and see what happens on the next weekly review.
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A
Yeah, yeah. Here's one for you, Father Maria. Is your Next Action ever to get someone else to do something that's got. There's a lot going on with that question.
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B
No Next actions as well as projects. You want to think of anything and everything, that it's somehow under your control, that it's for you to get done. Yes, it may involve other people, et cetera, et cetera. But look, if it's hard enough for ourselves to change ourselves and get things done by ourselves, what do you think it's going to be like for others? So no, I would never have to get someone to do something. No, I will have waiting force, definitely that involve other people's right answers, completions, decisions. But I don't have a next action ever that says something next action. Get John to A, B, C. No,
- [18:47]
A
what's underneath that is Ana Maria and I, and I assume all of you with the people you work with and your families, you have some kind of level of implicit or explicit agreement that when you ask them to do something, they agree that that's theirs to do. So then you can put it on your waiting for list and check in with them regularly. If it shows up on your waiting for list and they're not doing it yet, and at that point you could say to them, you haven't done this yet, what's your timing on it? Do you still treat it as something you're committed to doing and getting back to me about? But that's going to come down to things like what's your company culture and who's allowed to delegate to whom. That was. Like I said, that question had a lot underneath it.
- [19:31]
B
Yeah, it has a lot. But I think it was a yes, no question. So my answer was no, right?
- [19:37]
A
It was.
- [19:39]
B
And Clayton, I see what you're saying here at the end. John, you may see what he's saying. You know, the reason my weekly review didn't identify the next action is because the project wasn't on my projects list. So I get what you're saying. So I, and I can't recall exactly your previous post, Clayton. I would have to scroll up, but sure, I mean when you're clarifying, guys, and you know that the clarify step is to step number two in mastering workflow. And it's meant to be the step where you actually do your mental gymnastics or where you apply the fundamental thought process. And the fundamental thought process is made of two questions. What's the desired outcome and what's the next action? Or inverse the order? It doesn't matter what's the next action? And if this action does not complete the outcome I'm after, then what's my desired outcome? In other words, what's the multi step outcome that I've committed to that will be done within one year or in GTD terms, also known as a project. So Clayton, when you're Clarifying, you just want to pause enough or slow down yourself enough so that you identify both ends of the spectrum if needed. Meaning if there's a project, make sure you capture, I'm sorry, you clarify and organize that project on your project list and then come up with the very next action, or if it's only a next action, or if you started with the next action, confirm that there is no project and if there is, put it on your project list as part of clarify so that indeed what you're referring to doesn't happen. If you are in the moment and somehow something shows up in your world that it's an input that you have now taken action on. But it was not part of clarifying, it was more part of doing work as it appears. As you get better and better, you will be training yourself and your brain will be faster at catching and saying, oh, that one thing I just did actually still has more to it. And there is a project that I'm going to have to add to my list that it's not there yet. So you could do it right there, right then and that way you're safe for your weekly review or if you were moving too fast, that didn't happen for whatever reason. I still think when you do your weekly review and you take the step of reviewing the week prior, that may trigger and you may kind of remember that, oh, I did that and I forgot to add that project. So. And look, if it goes one or two weeks, you know, out there in the atmosphere without you catching it, it's way better than never catching it. So you may have a week or two delay, that's fine, but I think you just keep on training and training yourself. All right, John, I think, I mean we can stay here forever, but I think,
- [22:31]
A
yeah, speaking of staying here forever, one of the things Ana Maria and I talked about doing and I think we'll schedule at least an experimental session like that in the very near future is something like more of an open office hours where you can hop on here and just talk with us about what's about your GTD practice. It could be very open ended and I've got some ideas on giving it some more structure than that. But look forward to scheduling that and I hope you'll enjoy it. So thanks Ana Maria, for being on here and having this be such an interactive discussion and thanks to all of you as well. You've been.
- [23:10]
B
Oh yeah, thank you. If you want to be interacting with us, this wouldn't be as much fun. So I really appreciate it. I love doing this, Jonas. You know, I like to put myself to service and be used in this way. So thank you. Thank you for giving me the opportunity and making it possible.