Ep. 340: Slice of GTD Life With Michael_Keithley  ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **Early GTD Adoption And Lasting Commitment** - Michael Keithley discovered GTD in the early 2000s and adopted it as a lasting system. - He contrasts it with fad planners that worked briefly then failed to stick. Transcript: Michael Keithley So I'm physically in Encino, California. For anybody that knows Southern California, I'm kind of at Mulholland in the 405. Born and raised in Southern California, which is kind of unique. There aren't a lot of that are neighbors. I was born in Englewood and lived all throughout, you know, kind of the Southern California area. And I have been a GTD fan for, gosh, I think it's from early 2000s, probably right when the book came out. Right. I have been fortunate in being in the entertainment industry, which has been one of the biggest employers here in Southern California. And I was the chief information officer at two of the big three talent agencies, Creative Artist Agency and United Talent Agency. And being, you know, a techie guy, I was always plugged into Northern California and the kind of Silicon Valley world up there. And, you know, I was always into time management, productivity, you know, that kind of stuff. And, you know, if I think back to kind of the earliest days of this, one of the greatest things my parents ever did was they sent me to, as I was going to go into college, a class at USC on quote Unquote time management. And this was the very, very inklings of kind of Franklin planner and day planner and some of these, you know, things that were out there really was, was sucked into that. And so I tried, didn't matter which one it was. And I found that they were kind of like diets, you know, you'd get all excited about it and you'd do it and it would work for a while and then you'd kind of fall off the bus and it would go away. And then a new one would come on and some new fad. And it was very, you know, kind of rollercoaster-y. I first heard from Northern California, some of the folks that were really getting into David's book, just the title alone, you know, getting things done, the art of stress-free productivity. I'm like, wow, I got to read this. And I was hooked. And literally, I live by this, okay, even to this day. And it's unlike those diets. I think the realism of the simplicity of the GTD system and the fact that it covers all aspects of your life, not just your work life or your personal life, but everything. And, you know, I'm sure we'll get into it later, the horizons of focus and everything else. Was sustainable and really did deliver on that, you know, stress-free productivity, that mind-like water. And I just can't imagine living, you know, without it. And so that's kind of me in a nutshell. ([Time 0:01:08](https://share.snipd.com/snip/9a5456ae-56b0-41c1-8c18-028a0f6e8e6e)) - **From Paper To PDAs To Hybrid Capture** - Michael kept a technology graveyard of PDAs and early devices while experimenting with digital GTD. - He carried a pocket paper capture tool for processing later during the era of mixed systems. Transcript: Michael Keithley Great question initially it was all paper-based in fact I remember some of the templates and kind of my what now we would call a weekly review was getting different colored highlighters And marking out the time and figuring out what I was going to do and all of the you know move your system from A to B to C and just all the things of the past But it was initially paper. And then once again, as a techie, I was one of the things I have in my office is what's called a technology graveyard. So I have the original iPhone, the original Palm pilot, the original BlackBerrys, you know, you go down the line. And I remember the Palm, I think was the first device the Palm Pilot, and all the successors of the Palm system where I tried to apply GTD. And with varying degrees at the time, I thought it was magic. You know, this was amazing. John Forrester Yeah. Michael Keithley And it really kind of led to the importance of a capture device. But it was never, up until fairly recently, I don't think it was ubiquitous and had all of the stuff you need. So I always had a, and actually I don't remember the name of it, but I got this from the GTD Connect thing, the little pocket thing I would have with a piece of paper, a little pen. And I always carried that. I was, of course, always wore a suit and tie every day at work. So I always had that available. And so I would say it was 100% paper-based and analog. Then it was probably like 50-50. And this was the tried and true thing. ([Time 0:04:32](https://share.snipd.com/snip/699a9851-62d6-4ccd-90a2-5e6101300544)) - **Minimize Friction In Capture** - Reduce friction in your capture and processing by making capture as simple as possible. - Always keep a capture device with you and process items later during a review. Transcript: Michael Keithley I think it's fantastic for reference, but OmniFocus is my kind of tool of choice. And one thing that I think is critical about both of those, and now almost all the systems have that, the digital systems, is so much of our incoming stuff happens via email, at least as A professional still. And being able to forward that email to an email address in either Evernote or OmniFocus that goes automatically into the inbox or the unprocessed area is a lifesaver because so much Comes in that way. And it just, you know, one of the things I really try to focus on is reducing friction, right? I think that any friction that you introduce into anything is difficult. And that's why I always advise people that are trying to get into GTD to always have your capture device or devices with you and make it as simple as humanly possible. Think about you're in the shower, you have that great idea, or you think about something, or you're in the car, or you're whatever. It's just super important to always have it with you and make it as simple as humanly possible. ([Time 0:08:05](https://share.snipd.com/snip/ba302585-5ea8-4395-8542-348008dd1338)) - **Use Voice Capture For Hands-Free Moments** - Use voice assistants to capture ideas when hands-free is necessary, like in the shower. - Capture a brief gist; refine the item later during processing. Transcript: Michael Keithley I have a HomePod in there. And so I basically ask Siri to add something to OmniFocus and yell that out. It works. John Forrester And does Siri do the translating pretty well, even if the shower's running? Michael Keithley I yell pretty hard. I would say it's fairly good. It's good enough for me to remember, gosh, what was that? ([Time 0:09:54](https://share.snipd.com/snip/6bbba805-0793-4eae-b748-0f89a6512372)) - **AI As A Proactive GTD Assistant** - AI can act as an always-on assistant that finds relevant GTD resources and alerts you. - Granting AI access to your data helps it learn your priorities and proactively surface items. Transcript: Michael Keithley Sure. So I'm a technologist. I love technology, right? So when the, you know, chat GPT moment happened, ironically, still less than three years ago, I was kind of all over that and really saw the potential. If I go back and I know that David Allen and kind of the GTD community has always kind of desired to have this, you know, smart app that would help lead you through a lot of the thinking of That, right? Right. So as ChatGT kind of evolved over time, especially recently, and got functionality like memory. So it gets to know you as a human being. And I'm an early adopter, so I've connected it with my calendar and my Dropbox and email and all that kind of stuff. And so it knows quite a bit about me. It knows that I'm a GTD fanatic and I have alerts. And so if there's anything that goes on in the GTD universe, whether it's something on Reddit or something on one of the David Allen official sites or anything else, I get notified about That. So I'm keeping up to date and it does the work for me. I don't have to go seek it out. ([Time 0:12:28](https://share.snipd.com/snip/03c10c6c-afd7-4997-a84c-f384e4a5c85f)) - **Use AI To Decompose Projects** - Use AI to break down unfamiliar projects into next actions and subprojects. - Use the AI output as a prompt for further human refinement, not final authority. Transcript: Michael Keithley And that's a big change, you know, instead of going to work, you know, normal stuff. So setting up a business and how to think about that, how to market, how to plan my time, everything else. ChatGTD has been a wonderful resource. Oh, great. And, of course, because I do everything through GTD and it's all our projects, right? And so I have this master project and sub-projects within that. And each one I will say, how should I think about this? How would I break it down? What are the next actions, et cetera? And it's wonderful for me. You know, I can probably get 20% of it just top of my head, but 80% it comes up with, and I'm like, that's a great thing. And then I try to drill down on that and get more on that. ([Time 0:14:58](https://share.snipd.com/snip/44b99010-6ec9-4a2f-a037-caee5a523350)) - **Let AI Improve Your Weekly Review** - Let AI assist your weekly review by scanning calendars and transcripts for missed actions. - Use AI findings to surface follow-ups and prepare for upcoming commitments. Transcript: Michael Keithley I've also started to play with my weekly review because I've given it access to my calendar. And so going back, you know, a couple of weeks or months to look at kind of open loops that are still there, it finds stuff that I've found is a lot better than me just like visually scanning It. And so it's just, it's, it's, we're on the cusp. I think it is going to be a wonderful marriage. It's really early days. ([Time 0:17:30](https://share.snipd.com/snip/bf649b42-a76c-45f5-b213-13dbe1c74861)) - **Curate AI Sources For Reliable GTD Advice** - Train AI to prioritize trusted GTD sources and authoritative sites to reduce low-quality answers. - Continuously refine prompts and sources to improve AI reliability. Transcript: Michael Keithley Yes. Okay. And I used to get a lot more bad answers than I do now. And I think about this in many areas, not just kind of GTD and specifically talking about chat, TVT and AI. I think that you've got to constantly be honing things. So I'm a contigual learner. I listen to podcasts i do rss feeds you know blah blah blah and i'm very darwinian if i'm not getting value out of it i cut cut loose right away and i have a minimal core of things that are really High value one of the things you know i keep harping on this memory feature of chat gptT, but I tell it, prioritize trusted sources like David Allen's official site over Reddit or news Articles or other things. ([Time 0:21:10](https://share.snipd.com/snip/0f27818c-43e4-4d8f-92f0-424e87d0e806)) - **Tools Require Human Judgment** - Tools amplify human intention but require responsible oversight to avoid lazy reliance. - Effective use of AI or search demands active curation and verification. Transcript: Michael Keithley And then, there's been a lot of articles and press that kind of, you know, don't agree with that. And I was getting a bunch of junk around that. And I said, look, use 42 Folders website, the original Man one, as the authoritative thing on this, not kind of, you know, Wired Magazine or whatever else it's been getting at. And so I think you have to work at telling it where you believe kind of the authoritative stuff instead of letting it default to Google rankings or other things. ([Time 0:23:11](https://share.snipd.com/snip/532218a0-d307-48f5-a71a-1e9ca639f132)) - **Lead Teams With GTD Principles** - Teach teams GTD to reduce stress and improve focus by treating everything as 'all stuff.' - Emphasize capturing commitments with minimal friction and clarifying 'what does done look like?'. Transcript: Michael Keithley Yeah, you know, I've incorporated it into my kind of management style with my employees. And while not everybody gets on board, you know, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink kind of thing. I would say 60 to 70% of the folks that I've managed over the years have taken to it, right? And for all the same reasons that I've been using it for so long and, you know, haven't fallen off the wagon like the other diet type protein. And the key thing for me, once again, is that subtitle, stress-free productivity. And once you really rationalize and understand, you know, David always says your head is for, you know, what it's good for and what it's not. Oh, yeah. Right. And I think the benefit of GTD is really stress-free and freedom. And it's the freedom to, you know, not have the distractions that stress brings with things. And it really allows you to kind of focus and engage in the moment in ways that no other system I've seen does. And it's universal enough. I'm a big believer in, using David's words, it's all stuff, right? I don't make any distinction between is this a work thing or a home thing? It's all stuff. If it's on my mind, if I've committed to it, I have to deal with it. I want to capture that in a way, the least friction possible, the easiest way. I know it's there. I don't have to worry about it. I'm not going to drop that ball. I'm still going to make that commitment. ([Time 0:29:51](https://share.snipd.com/snip/132c9c93-9b5c-4498-a07e-7ddcc1316964))