Ep. 364: GTD Office Hour With David Allen  🔗 **Source:** [Ep. 364: GTD Office Hour With David Allen](https://share.snipd.com/episode/fc5f7af8-a96b-4b2b-9afa-a86af31a96bd) ## Highlights - **Use Email As The Reminder Not The Workspace** - Use your email as the reminder by moving actionable messages into an action folder instead of working from the inbox. - David Allen and participants describe putting emails into an action folder or list and processing them there to avoid always working out of the inbox. Transcript: John Forrester Email that way. One is to put them in an action folder and use the email itself as the reminder. The other is to have a list and use the list as your reminder. They both have pluses and minuses. Some people like one and find one or the other fits better. So I take it you've found that this new method works better for you, at least so far. ([Time 0:03:56](https://share.snipd.com/snip/fcb6594f-0b7c-487e-a2cf-4e4cfb24c03a)) - **Two Email Handling Models And Their Tradeoffs** - Two methods exist: keep the email as the reminder or extract tasks into a separate list; each has tradeoffs. - People choose based on preference; one keeps context in the message, the other centralizes tasks for overview. Transcript: John Forrester They both have pluses and minuses. Some people like one and find one or the other fits better. So I take it you've found that this new method works better for you, at least so far. Speaker 5 Yeah, I can just see. It's going to be better in every possible way. For the one thing, I'll actually be getting things done. ([Time 0:04:08](https://share.snipd.com/snip/cc3937ab-314b-4c53-9b1f-f8eb2d773e2a)) - **Clarify Emails One At A Time** - Clarify one email at a time without doing the work during that pass to stay in clarifying mode. - Work with an assistant or pretend you have one to force focused clarifying and prevent skipping around. Transcript: Speaker 1 And I'm looking for a tip around that. Incidentally, after a couple of years of experiments, I've gotten a really solid way of working with my executive assistants on GTD generally and having somebody else work my system. And it's incredible. And one thing she does is when we are working in my inbox on clarifying and organizing, we make sure I'm not working the work. And also she's really, really good at the tip that I reread of Meg's, which is, you know, don't skip around. So you must do something with each email, specifically clarifying and not working it before you go to the next one. And when I do that with her, so we're in the room working my email box together, it feels incredible. And when I'm alone, I know that I need to do that. And I still skip around. I just get this tension and I am not comfortable and I want the reward. And I tell myself that what I'm doing is just two minute rule work and I skip all over the place and don't do much clarifying. I just work my box. ([Time 0:06:40](https://share.snipd.com/snip/e4921687-6a0d-4261-a875-2f6eecfad722)) - **Triage Then Move To Action Support** - Triage emails into folders during clarifying, then create a task or reminder in your task manager and move the message to an action-support folder. - Clayton describes triaging first, then documenting tasks and using action-support as staging. Transcript: Speaker 4 Triage first. I go through and is it actionable? Do I think it's actionable or do I need more time to decide if it's actionable? And I put it in an at clarify context, which is just folder in email. And when I get finished clarifying those items, I put a task, I put a reminder in my list manager and I move it to action support. So all the, all the, all the emails that I have that are, that I've acted on are in action support, at least for a period of time. ([Time 0:10:29](https://share.snipd.com/snip/f342ee0d-8419-4b19-a146-ea1c97c36b13)) - **Apply A Two Minute Rule During Triaging** - Use a rough two-minute rule while triaging: do quick replies/forwards and move remaining actionable items into an action folder. - The participant reports this reduces inbox overload and lets longer tasks sit ready for processing later. Transcript: Speaker 5 And I'm either addressing them immediately, forwarding to somebody else and putting it in and waiting for, and what's left over goes into my action folder. So I'm not saying, I'm not really clarifying exactly what's to happen with that email that I have to take action on later, but it's in the right place where when I look at it, I can decide What to do, do it. And it just takes me 20 minutes instead of two. Speaker 1 So once it goes into the folder and it's time to act on it, you find that you can act on it right there without doing some clarifying and noting somewhere else what that is. Yes. Speaker 5 And I feel like I find that that's what I have to do just due to the volume on any of the ones where the action is that I have to ask somebody something or clarify something, then I've taken The action to actually ask the person and put it in the waiting floor. Because we, in the company we work at, we basically communicate via email. So I can just send the email with a very crystal, I'll summarize exactly what's below and say, this is what I need to know. And then it's waiting for it. ([Time 0:12:11](https://share.snipd.com/snip/18b00346-cead-4c9b-9488-f75ea20be7b1)) - **David Allen's 80th And 25th Anniversary Celebration** - David Allen held a combined celebration in Amsterdam for his 80th birthday and the 25th anniversary of Getting Things Done with ~80 attendees. - He invited international GTD contacts and his original editor Janet Goldstein, with jazz music and hotel catering. Transcript: David Allen Well, we're just, Catherine and I are just about recouping from that. You know, we could have invited about 300 people to it. It turned out that we had to draw the line somewhere. We had about 80-plus people show up in an elegant hotel in Amsterdam. And it was wonderful. We had a great internationally known jazz pianist who provided background music, Mike Delferro, the bass player next to him and uh fabulous food from the hotel and uh and all kinds of People that just wanted to meet each other just we had we had a lot of it was kind of a combination of the neighbors we've had for the 12 years we've been here in Amsterdam that were just so Lovely. And the rest were mostly people from our GTD network connections. Nice. And Estonia and Slovenia and UK and Denmark and France. ([Time 0:18:28](https://share.snipd.com/snip/058ea0c1-0077-4d3c-8218-e9f3d6a8c056)) - **Limit Capture Channels And Use Quick Capture App** - Ignore proliferating chat channels if they distract; rely on a limited capture path like email or a quick capture app. - David uses Brain Toss to send quick voice/text/photo captures into his email inbox for later processing. Transcript: Speaker 5 Depends. David Allen Depends on what it is. I mean, I still have my trusted high-tech tool, you know, right here, which is always there when I'm on any call like this or anything, because oftentimes things show up and I just make A little note here. And that usually doesn't stay very long. By the end of the day, it'll get torn off and processed, et cetera. So it depends. Interruption. Well, I don't get a lot of interruptions these days other than a little dog. Yeah. Speaker 5 I was liking the example into Teams or Slack messages, and you've got the virtual distractions. David Allen I go screw all that stuff to begin with yeah it's like i don't need any more channels you know email is sufficient always has been and will be forever anybody who thinks all those channels Are going to get rid of email and needs to grow up yeah you know so and you whatever, you know, and I have a great little piece of software on my iPad and my iPhone called Brain Toss 2GTD or ZDM. If I happen to be later at night when I'm sitting with my iPad doing either playing games or reading stuff or doing whatever I do on my iPad at night and something comes in or an idea comes In, I just click brain toss and I can do voice. I can do text. I can do camera, whatever on it. ([Time 0:23:14](https://share.snipd.com/snip/635a2ac7-a2de-4bbf-aefa-8fedde140738)) - **Let Life Cue Some Small Tasks** - Not every minor household cue needs a list; life often provides adequate triggers like a squeaking garage door. - David suggests avoiding lists for things you'll notice naturally to prevent unnecessary guilt from undone ticklers. Transcript: David Allen Not confused about any of that i let the squeaking garage door tell me ah i don't have it on a list with like dishes in the sink i don't have you know wash dishes i just go hey dishes in the sink So that's a sufficient trigger So, you know, I don't need lists for all the kind of stuff that I'll assume life will let me know, you know, in some appropriate way. There's nothing wrong with having it on a particular file if you want to. It's just it creates guilt if you don't do it. ([Time 0:26:59](https://share.snipd.com/snip/995628c9-ae3e-4dd9-9f61-10155690104d))