Ep. 324: Slice of GTD Life With Pascal Reischl  ## Metadata - Author: [[Getting Things Done]] - Full Title: Ep. 324: Slice of GTD Life With Pascal Reischl - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/dde3e80b-bc27-44aa-a38c-32007aed9288 ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **Becoming Austria’s First GTD Trainer** - Pascal Reischl moved back to Vienna and became the first GTD trainer in Austria, valuing local presence for meeting clients. - He describes the advantage of having a trainer in the same city to build relationships and expand GTD locally. Transcript: Pascal Reischl Hi, John. Nice to meet you finally. John Forrester Good too. We've got so many emails. It's finally good to sort of meet you in person. Pascal Reischl So, um, right now I'm in Vienna. I live in Vienna and finally it's getting sunny slowly and a little bit warmer because it was freezing up till like a week ago. And I'm so much looking forward to getting a little bit of sun. Yeah. How do I start? John Forrester Well, are you the only GTD trainer in Austria at this point? Yes. Pascal Reischl At this point, I'm the only GTD trainer in Austria. So we'll soon talk about that. But I've lived a few years in Germany. And I've always wanted to become a getting things done trainer. And then it turned out that there's nobody in Austria for whatever reason. Seems to be the only country around the world. And since I wanted to move back anyway, that was the perfect match. John Forrester Well, our Next Action Partners, which is based in Germany and in Berlin, I believe, also covers Austria and Switzerland. But until you came along, I don't think they had a trainer based in Austria. So it's true. Pascal Reischl Great expansion of the territory. And it is a difference, you know, even though like Germany and Austria, we speak the totally same language. But there is a difference, you know, if you have a trainer in the same city where you are. I can i can just basically meet every customer and um it's just great to to meet a lot of people here oh ([Time 0:00:28](https://share.snipd.com/snip/199966b2-1163-4f8b-87ad-fcccbe26749d)) - **Tech Roots Led To IT Leadership** - Pascal grew up fascinated by technology and started working with computers as a child in a neighbor's shop. - He transitioned from running small tech businesses to becoming an IT manager and later a global IT head at a US company. Transcript: Pascal Reischl Exactly. So what do I do or what did I do for living all my life? So basically, I'm into technologies. So all my life I'm into technologies. I remember when I was like five or six years, I always got to choose one TV show I'm allowed to show or to watch before I go to bed. And every single day it was Star Trek. And the thing that really attracted me was the technology. And the things that technology enables, like the kind of communication, new processes, new ideas. And that's what really, really attracted me in technology. And back then I was very lucky because our neighbor had one of the first computer shops in Vienna. So every day after school, I went to his shop, you know, and it was tightening screws, playing around. So I was on the internet long before it was called internet and then when I went to school my higher schools I was hired at the same school while I was still a student giving computer classes To first till the 10th grade and yeah then basically I went to found the first job in technologies at a shoe shoe company back then and I didn't take long I think like six or seven months To become like the technical leads in Europe and was responsible for network expansions throughout ([Time 0:02:24](https://share.snipd.com/snip/17140b81-87b8-4b9f-ae72-0358dc57635e)) - **Dark Ages: Being Physically Present, Mentally Away** - While holding IT and facilities roles, Pascal felt overwhelmed and often mentally absent with his family. - He remembers sitting with his kids but not being present, which motivated him to seek a better system. Transcript: Pascal Reischl Our HR manager back then, he retired. So there was this offering available for becoming a facility manager on top of that. So I decided that must be a great idea in order to become a facility manager on top of that. And so I became responsible on top of my IT duties for relocations, for worker safety, for fire safety, for everything you can imagine. So at that point, I think I had like 180 employees plus minus. And I had two very good assistants who kept telling me where I have to be when and what I have to do all day long and I'm sort of like your external brain at that time they absolutely and this Is actually the parts also that I like to tell in my getting feast on seminars because this is the reason how I started to become interested in getting things done. Because those were my personal, what I call dark ages. When I think back of these times, you know, it feels like I've been on drugs all the time. I remember so many hours, you know, sitting with my kids. I had two small kids at the time. I mean, I still have two kids. Sitting with them in their room, you know, we were playing something, building Lego houses. But I simply, you know, I have not been there. I remember me like putting sticks on sticks and sticks and producing something with my kids, but I haven't been there. And even worse, I remember so many conversations at our dinner table at night where the whole family was talking about several topics. And it so often happened that somebody turned around and said, hey, Dad, what do you think about that? And I really had no clue what they were talking about. That's really, really bad, you know. I was always drafting emails, working on projects, project reviews, product reviews, you know. I was preparing in my head for difficult conversations I had to have. ([Time 0:05:18](https://share.snipd.com/snip/38c65c32-6e17-4741-95cc-5a13383d037c)) - **GTD Redefined Productivity For Him** - Reading David Allen's book shifted Pascal's view of productivity from a buzzword to life-changing structure. - He says GTD created freedom to choose and space for family and important priorities. Transcript: Pascal Reischl And this was the first time I got in touch with In zero. And it was the first time that I saw that there obviously is another way of managing your day to day. And this is when I became very attracted by productivity because I just simply wanted to see what's more, what's there more to learn. So I just started reading every book I could find. I was browsing the internet. I was talking to everyone I could meet. And I remember a conversation in the kitchen at my company, and the other guy was saying, yeah, yeah, I know. I like David Allen, too. And I was only like nodding my head, but I was thinking, who the heck is David Allen? So I went back to my office and I googled David Allen, found his book, ordered it. And obviously, since we have this conversation, it changed my life. I mean, at that time, just the word productivity got a total different and a total new meaning to me. Up till then, it was a buzzword that we all put into presentations, you know, productivity is something you want to show. It enabled me so much. It enabled me to gain control of my daily life, especially my work life. But, and this is one of the things that David says somewhere, you know, the secret of getting things done is, it's not about getting things done. Yeah, it's really much more about giving you the space that you need for your family, for the things you want to do. The freedom to make choices. This is something that getting things done gave me right from the beginning. It took me like a year, of course. I did everything wrong that you possibly can do wrong when you start with a book. So that's why I always say it's one of the best books in the world, but you shouldn't start getting things done with reading a book. ([Time 0:07:51](https://share.snipd.com/snip/712307ef-3491-458c-b106-8732de69dd78)) - **Take A Seminar Before Implementing GTD** - Don't start learning GTD by only reading the book; attend a professional seminar for practical setup. - Pascal warns newcomers often make avoidable implementation mistakes when they self-teach from the book. Transcript: Pascal Reischl I did everything wrong that you possibly can do wrong when you start with a book. So that's why I always say it's one of the best books in the world, but you shouldn't start getting things done with reading a book. Please, please, please take a professional seminar. So I did everything that everybody does. I had like two systems, a private system, a business system. I was, I don't know, I was doing everything wrong. But by learning, I learned so much more. ([Time 0:09:54](https://share.snipd.com/snip/35e6c259-5a12-4fd7-a309-afa8a2755403)) - **Weekly Review Creates Mental Space** - The weekly review is a transformative habit that clarifies priorities and separates work from private life. - Pascal can't imagine managing life without his current weekly review practice. Transcript: Pascal Reischl You know, I was, first of all, I learned, it just gave me the freedom to, first of all, clearly separate business from private time. It's just, I have no idea how I did it before then. This is also what I tell people in my seminars in, for example, a weekly review. I never went through a weekly review like I do now every single week. And I have no idea how I managed my life. I have no idea how it worked back then. I mean, this is like more than 10 years ago. But how did it work? I have no idea. John Forrester Maybe the two assistants were doing enough reviewing that they could sort of keep you on track that way. Pascal Reischl Absolutely. John Forrester You're a great example of what happens after somebody gets into the habit of doing the weekly review. You can go, how did I get along without this before? Pascal Reischl That's the point. Getting things done is not tips and tricks and things, how you manage your time and your day to day. It's much more about habits that you simply have to build. As everybody says, this is knowledge that we all should have learned back in school, but we didn't. It's about habits that you have to build and that you have to have in life to keep everything up and running. John Forrester Yeah. ([Time 0:10:37](https://share.snipd.com/snip/8b4c30d5-a372-47a2-be6c-c233763a166a)) - **Kids Using GTD During Homeschooling** - Pascal taught his children GTD habits and involved them in family projects and safety planning. - Their familiarity with lists made homeschooling orderly while other families experienced chaos. Transcript: Pascal Reischl Yeah. So, I mean, I've gone with GTD very far. You know, I'm like doing yearly reviews. And every single project I do, I know why I do and why I picked it. And so, of course, my kids noticed a big difference. And because they see me doing this stuff like a yearly review um i'm thinking a lot about my projects especially in the private side i involve my family you know i tell them like why i have Those ideas and why i would like to work all together as a family on this project simple things like i don't know home safety would be a great example you know home safety is not about booked Smoke detectors up there. It's telling my kids what a smoke detector is. What do we do when it rings? Things like that. It's much, much more. And because of that, my kids got more and more interested in what I do and hey, dad, all your lists. How can we use them for school? And so my kids are getting things done more or less. I would say the kid version of getting things done for around two years so my youngest son is 11 and the older one is 30 so they're you're teaching them what you mentioned a few minutes ago John Forrester You wish you had learned when you were there yes absolutely and I can see a huge huge huge i cannot mention huge often enough difference right now with all the homeschooling because um Pascal Reischl We have so much contact you know with other parents and um you know our teachers also didn't learn how to like do online training on online schooling so they are very diverse in how they Work. Some, some teachers send all their home lessons in the morning. Some sent them throughout the day, some sent them the day before. And most of the kids in the classes from the classmates from my, from my kids, they run in total chaos mode and their parents are complaining about the schools day long, like how they manage Homegirls and stuff like that. We never noticed that because my kids, you know, they're scanning their email inboxes like in the morning and at lunchtime and in the evening. And they simply write everything into their to-do list and they work off their list. And I wasn't even aware of that. But now this makes clear why there is so a huge difference between what we experience in homeschooling, because actually we like it, my kids love it, and what we hear from other parents, Where they think this is totally chaotic and nobody can learn like that. ([Time 0:14:00](https://share.snipd.com/snip/8ebfd6f0-1503-47ff-a16f-4d51855af0af)) - **Teach A Single Clear Inbox Approach** - Show people one clear system to handle multiple inboxes instead of leaving them to figure it out. - Teach simple practices for email, Slack, and Teams to empower decision-making and reduce chaos. Transcript: Pascal Reischl Nobody shows them like how to do it. How do you work with your email inbox and your Slack inbox and your Teams inbox? There's so many inboxes. How the heck do you work with them? John Forrester Yes. Pascal Reischl It's the same with the kids. Just show them the system and it really, really helps. ([Time 0:17:27](https://share.snipd.com/snip/d044a048-2be7-4a21-b0ce-7ddd72d9e1c2)) - **From Tool-Hopper To Hybrid System** - As an IT person Pascal tried many GTD tools over the years, switching systems frequently and experimenting widely. - He now uses a hybrid: Apple Reminders for next actions and Trello/Evernote/files for projects and references. Transcript: Pascal Reischl Well, so as you can imagine, yes, coming from IT, coming from technology, as everybody that starts with the book, this is one of the differences. I tried to find the best GTD application out there, of course. So for many, many years, I was switching my system at least three times a year. And I've become really, really good at that. So if you ever need help in switching your system, let me know. I can automate everything. And so I have had getting my GTD system everywhere. From Lotus Nodes, Office 365, I mean give me any application. Things, OmniFocus, I've had it on paper, I've had it in OneNote, I've had it in Evernote, Notions, I've played quite a lot of it. Every single tool you can imagine I've been using. And the good thing is, now that being a trainer, I can talk to everybody about the system, I can help everybody out. John Forrester That's because you know if you're in a group of people virtual or in person and somebody says how would you implement that in this absolutely or can you do that on the iphone as well as on Pascal Reischl The pc over the years i've even started um creating notes on every single system because every time i was thinking about going to things again, I needed to look up why I actually switched Away from that. Yeah. So this is why right now, you know, I've ended up with a different strategy, you know. But this is my personal assistant. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I just like different applications for different purposes. ([Time 0:25:27](https://share.snipd.com/snip/a7fb512b-898d-49af-b8bb-29549a8cdec3)) - **Use Tools For Purpose And Link With Tags** - Use each tool for a clear purpose and connect them with consistent short project tags to sync files and notes. - Keep next actions in a fast, reliable synced app and store project detail in Trello, Evernote, or file storage. Transcript: Pascal Reischl So I usually use a very simple list manager, and I only have one requirement. The syncing has to work flawlessly, full stop. So right now I'm using Apple products. I'm using Apple reminders for my system. But this is only for my next action list. My projects, for example, which can be totally separated because I only access them during the weekly review. They live in Trello because Trello gives me a very inspiring system with nice wallpapers. I can line it up in buckets with my focus horizons. John Forrester Everything goes into the tool for the purpose so make sure i understand correctly so the during the week you're working off apple reminders which has all of your next actions presumably In different contexts and that sort of thing and the projects list and supporting materials notes and things like that for the projects all live in Trello, and you're looking at those At least once a week during the weekly review. Does that sound like what you have set up? Pascal Reischl Yeah. So that's true. So all my next actions and context lists live in Apple Reminder. If I would be on Windows, I would instantly switch to Microsoft 2, which is the system the only has to be simple quick and very reliable when it comes to sync this is all I need yeah my project Descriptions and brief informations live in Trello okay as soon as a project is more than just three or four steps, so I have a free level of projects where I say something needs a natural Planning model, then I also go to Evernote and or my file system and what I do is, so I tend to have lengthy project titles because I need my projects to be goals that inspire me when I see Them. So I have lengthy project titles like, I don't know, I have many examples. But those lengthy project titles don't help you when it comes to file structure. So every project has like hashtag something, short version. And this short version of the project name I use in all the systems to create the connection. So I have a folder called Active Projects. And in that Active Projects folder, you will find the folder exactly having the same name as the project controller and this is how i interconnect various systems and i only use the systems That are best for my needs if i have a lot of nodes um for a project i use evernote if i have files for a project i use like my storage. ([Time 0:27:12](https://share.snipd.com/snip/ce1242bc-09db-44ee-9f52-89f1738e6307))