The “Getting Things Done” productivity system is, by far, the best I’ve seen. It is a system that is easily integrated and highly effective. One of the keys to implementing the system is making the GTD workflow your “normal” way of working.

It is a simple process outlined as follows:

1. Collect
2. Process
3. Organize
4. Review
5. Do

The “collect” phase is the “ubiquitous capture” that I’ve talked about in other posts. It basically means that you “capture” any thing and everything that is on your mind. By capturing it in an external device like index cards (or whatever works best for you) you are able to get it off your mind. According to David Allen, the creator of GTD, once you have all these umpteenbillion things you’ve been thinking about out of your head on into an external capture device, you can then use your brain for what it does best – problem solving, creativity, productivity – instead of as a mental “to-do list.”

Whatever collection devices you use is your “in-box.” You will most likely have multiple in-boxes, though they should be consolidated and minimized as much as possible. You will have your email in-box, probably some manner of physical in-box on your desk, a basket on the cabinet at home, your PDA, whatever. The main point of the collection phase is to get everything out of your head on captured in a trusted system that will free up your mind from worrying about it.

After you get all the umpteenbillion things out of your head and on index cards, or in your PDA, you need to “process” them. The process phase is when you go through your in-box and decide what needs to be done about the stuff that has found its way in there. There is no “perfect” set time to do the processing of your in-boxes. It just depends on what works best for you. I like to go through my in-boxes close to the end of the work day. That way when I begin the following day I have a clear plan of what needs to be done from the previous days “processing.” I will also do a quick processing after finishing some big task to see if there is anything that needs to be dealt with right away.

The number one rule for processing is the 2-minute rule. If you pick something up out of your in-box that would take 2 minutes or less to complete then do it right then. It would take longer than that to put in on a list to review for later action, so go ahead and do it. You would be amazed at how much gets done just by implementing this simple rule.

If the 2-minute rule doesn’t apply then there are simple questions that move the processing phase along. For each item that comes up in your in-box, that would take longer than 2-minutes to deal with, you ask the following questions:

• The first, and most obvious, question is “What is it?”
  You have to know what it is before you can know what needs to be done about it.
• Next, “Is it actionable?”That is, does it require me to do anything about it? Not everything that gets collected in our in-boxes is “actionable.” Some stuff is just stuff.
  • If the answer is “no” then I need to determine what where to put it. It can’t just stay in my in-box, I’ve got to get it out of there. It needs to go in one of three places:
    • TrashIf its trash throw it away and move on.
    • Someday/Maybe ListIt may be an idea or goal that you don’t necessarily need to do anything on right now but that you might want to do something about sometime down the road. Keep these things in a list to be reviewed periodically. My most active someday/maybe list is my “Sermon Ideas” list. When I read or hear something that I think makes a good idea for a sermon I write it down on an index card and then when I process them I may think that it would make a good sermon but I don’t want to write it right now. It goes on the “Sermon Ideas” for future consideration.
    • Reference MaterialReference materials are things that find their way into your in-boxes that aren’t “to-do” items. They are pieces of information that you want to file and keep for future reference. David Allen has some excellent suggestions for maintaining a functional filing system in his three books detailing the GTD system. For those of us that dream of having a paperless office, I have not seen a better digital filing system than DEVONthink Pro Office 2.0. My one word description of it is “amazing.” You’ll, no doubt, be seeing my review of this organizational software very soon.
  • If the answer is “yes” then we figure out what it is that needs to be done about it. One of the most important questions in the GTD system is “What is the Next Action?” If the next action would complete the item with no further action required then put it on a list to do it when and where it can be done. However, if the most literal next action needed on that item would just move it along toward completion then it becomes a project. A project is anything that requires more than one action to complete. Put it on a project list with its necessary next action. When that next action is done you ask the question again, “OK, now what’s the next action?” What would be the next most literal thing that would have to be done to move that item forward toward completion. Again, the GTD books go into much more detail about why this works and how to do it. I highly recommend the books.There are three considerations under the “yes” answer:
    1. Do it.Remember the 2-minute rule! If it can be done in 2 minutes or less then just do it.
    2. Delegate it.We aren’t always the best one to handle everything that comes into our in-boxes. Pass it on to whoever is. Now its in their in-box and out of my life, nice.
    3. Defer it.Those things that take longer than 2 minutes, that you can’t get rid of, need to be deferred. It needs to go to a project or next-action list to be dealt with at the right time and in the right place.

Next, I’ll review the “Organize,” “Review,” and “Do” phases of the GTD system.

Hope this helps, let me know what you think.

15" MacBook Pro

I’m seeing more and more preachers switching to the Mac as they upgrade their computer equipment. I made my switch nearly two years ago now. When people ask me my opinion on switching from PC to Mac all I can say is that it would take some major persuading to get me to switch back to PC.

When I moved to Danville, VA I was doing a live TV program. The graphics for the program were controlled by my computer. I would go into the studio and plug my Acer notebook into their control board and run the backdrop with PowerPoint. I was in front of green screen but what the audience saw was me standing in front of my PowerPoint presentation. I had not been doing the program long when my Acer crashed in the middle of a live broadcast. The next day I went to Office Depot and bought a Toshiba notebook. I had used a Toshiba before and really liked it so I thought this would be the answer to my TV production needs. WRONG! It didn’t take long until the presentation, graphics and video demands of doing the TV program were crashing my Toshiba. I had been thinking of switching to Mac for a while so when the Toshiba crashed in the middle of a live broadcast I decided I was done with PCs and would give Macs a try. I ordered the 13″ MacBook White that I’m writing on right now.

From the time I started using it I have not thought of switching back even for a second. As long as I used it on the live TV program I never had the first bit of technical difficulty. To the contrary, I was able to enhance and improve the presentation quality of the program as result of switching.

As I have compared Apple based software with Windows based software, Apple wins every time. The only thing that I have retained from Windows is my Bible software and some eBook applications.

The biggest objection I hear, and the one that kept me from switching until I was so fed up with Windows that I didn’t care, is that you will have to start over with all new software. However, that really isn’t true. When you see the difference between the Apple and the Windows software you will probably want to start using the Apple stuff, but you don’t have to. As I mentioned above, I still use Windows XP on my Mac. My PC Study Bible probably works better on my Mac than it did on my PCs. And I get some eBooks from people that don’t offer a Mac version so I use Windows XP for those.

So, how am I able to do my presentations in Keynote (Apple’s version of PowerPoint) and still do my Scripture references with PC Bible Study? I use a virtual machine application to run Windows XP within Mac OS X. I can have my Windows apps open right along side of my Mac apps. So, there is absolutely no reason not to switch.

If you haven’t had the kind of nightmare stories with your PC that I have then you may not be as motivated to switch, you’re also an endangered species that thinks Windows is a good OS. For you the motivation would be in the quality of the software applications and how they will effect your work. When I got my Mac I thought that I would continue to use my MS Office software (PowerPoint, Word, etc.). However, when I got a taste of Keynote (Apple’s presentation software) and Pages (Apple’s word processor and publisher software) I dropped MS Office like a hot potato.

Then there are all the other really great apps that are available for Apple that have no equivalent Windows counterpart. Some of the stuff I use nearly every day – Bento (database), Toast (DVD production), Espresso (text editor), Final Cut Express (video editor), Front Row (media player), Rapid Weaver (web design), etc., etc. I absolutely love the Mac OS X operating system and all the great applications you can get for it.

If you’re still in school I want you to go get a Mac today and then download these applications as soon as you take it out of the box:

• NoteBook – by Circus Ponies.
• The Hit List – by Potion Factory.
• Bento – by FileMaker.
• Evernote
• Dropbox

These applications, in conjunction with Keynote and Pages that come with your new Mac, will make your student life much easier and your teachers will love you for it. When I think back on my time in preaching school and how much these applications would have helped me I almost want to go back and do it again just so I can use these applications in school.

If you’re on the fence about switching to Mac then I hope this little testimonial will help you make up your mind. If you’re a Mac user let us hear your thoughts about switching. I’m betting there won’t be any Mac users that regret their choice.

Most people spend a lot of time online these days. A great deal of our reading material comes from various web pages on any give subject. Many times we stumble across things that interest us and we would like to read but we don’t have time when we find it. We think to ourselves, “I would really like to read that but I don’t have time right now, I’ll come back later,” only to go away and forget about it to never see it again. I’ve solved this problem with Evernote! Here’s how:

1. I installed the Evernote plug-in for Safari (they also have them for IE and Firefox).
2. I created a @read_later tag in Evernote.
3. When I’m browsing and I see something that I want to read, but not right now, I just click the Evernote button in my browser to send it to my Evernote inbox.
4. Later, when I’m processing my inbox, I can either read these web snaps or save them with the @read_later tag.
5. If its good material for a sermon or article I can slap a “Sermon Thoughts” or “Article Ideas” tag on it too.
6. Since I have Evernote on my iPhone I can catch up on my @read_later stuff when I’m waiting on appointments or any other downtime.

Evernote is a great way to capture and catalog just about any kind of information. After I read the stuff in my @read_later folder I just delete the tag and replace it with where I want that material to live permanently. Since there are no restrictions on how much stuff you can have in your Evernote account, only on how much you can upload per month, you can keep everything and always have it for future reference.

Hope this helps. Let me know what you think.

RSS stands for “really simple syndication.” It is the technology used to syndicate online content to a list of subscribers. Once subscribed, the readers receive automatic updates of content posted to that web site.

Depending on how the content provider has the feed set up, the subscriber will get a summary of the newly posted content or the entire article in their RSS reader. This automatic notification makes RSS a great way to rapidly review content of interest.

For people who have to read a lot of material from various sources, like preachers, RSS subscriptions can be extremely helpful and time saving.

Many email applications and web browsers have build in RSS readers. For example, in Internet Explorer you can click on the RSS button to subscribe to feeds. New content will automatically be added to your feeds folder.

Check your email or web browser for an RSS icon. Odds are you’re already all set up to start receiving RSS Subscriptions.

Another option, and the one that I use, is the Google Reader. It is very easy to set up and can be accessed anywhere you can get online. It also has good mobile clients for most modern cells phones.

Here are some other RSS readers you might be interested in:

Bloglines (Online):

Almost all web sites, that post regular updates to their content, provide their readers with RSS feeds to keep up with new additions. Here are several advantages to using RSS feeds for your reading:

It greatly reduces the time you spend reading online.

You get all of your content in one place rather than scattered across several web sites. “Its like having an inbox for the Internet” – Google

Use a mobile reader, like your cell phone, to read your RSS feeds during down time (i.e., waiting in offices, airports, etc.) to be a more productive reader.

Try not to get carried away when subscribing to RSS feeds. If you notice after a while that your inbox is filling up with old unread content try cutting back on your subscriptions. If you’re skipping over certain providers then you’re probably not as interested in their content as you thought you would be. Unsubscribe from them. There’s nothing wrong with unsubscribing from older feeds as you add new ones, as long as they’re not mine.

Hope this helps. Let me know what you think.

As you know, I’m a fan of the Getting Things Done productivity system. With the popularity of this system it is no surprise that there are literally hundreds, maybe thousands, of tools designed to work specifically with GTD. I’ve experimented with many of them and have really enjoyed looking for that “perfect” GTD application.

One of the problems, though, is that I use different computers with different operating systems. Sometimes I’m using a PC and sometimes, most of the time, I’m using a Mac. And what about those times I’m not at a computer at all? The best GTD tools are those that don’t tie you down to one point of access to use them. That’s where I think Nozbe has the rest beat, hands down.

You can use Nozbe online when you’re at your computer, which means it is compatible with any operating system. When you’re away from your computer you can use Nozbe on your mobile phone. If you’re really “old school” you can even use Nozbe with pen and paper. It is the only GTD application I have found that is truly universal.

While I highly recommend the GTD books, if you want a quick overview of the GTD system, Nozbe has a 10-step Simply Get Things Done Video Course. It covers the core principles of the GTD system and shows you how to implement those principles using Nozbe.

Implementing Nozbe into the way you work is simplicity to the extreme. Within about 10 minutes after signing up for Nozbe I had it on my iGoogle home page, on my iPhone, connected with my Twitter account and set up to take email tasks.

This wide range of connectivity with your Nozbe makes it very easy to use as your catch-all inbox. I’ve written previously about the GTD principle of ubiquitous capture. That is, get it out of your head and captured into a trusted system. With Nozbe, I can capture ideas and tasks into my inbox from almost anywhere. I can send a direct message to Nozbe in Twitter and it will automatically appear in my inbox (a very fast and easy capture method). If there is an email that needs to be acted on I can just forward it to an email address, provided by my Nozbe account, to have it captured in my inbox for processing. If I’m away from my computer I can use my mobile phone to capture information into my Nozbe inbox.

***Here’s a realtime example: While writing this post I received an email with something that I needed to act on. I hit “alt+T” to open Tweetie (my Twitter app), then “shift+comm+N” to start a new direct message. Typed in the necessary next action and sent it off to Nozbe. In a matter of just a few seconds I had captured a task to my inbox that I can act on when I’m done with my current task of writing this post. I also got a text message about someone who needs to be visited. Again, just a few keystrokes and a few seconds and I now have a task, “Visit ***,” in my inbox. It couldn’t be easier and faster to capture to Nozbe! Now back to the regularly scheduled review.***

I signed up for a free trial of Nozbe but very quickly upgraded to a full account. It didn’t take long for me to see that this great web application would quickly become an integral part of my productive GTD workflow. Try it out and let me know what you think.

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I’ve been working to implement the GTD principles into my work habits for some time. It is a gradual process of getting rid of old bad habits and replacing them with new “best practices” habits. One of the principles of the GTD system that has had the greatest impact on the way I work is the “ubiquitous capture.” It means that you get everything, and that means everything, out of your head and recorded into some kind of capture device. The idea is, if you free up your mental energy from keeping track of all the loose ends in your life then you will have greater mental energy for creativity and productivity. David Allen calls it “mental RAM.” If you’re using up all your mental “RAM” to remember to do this or that, to keep up with all your random ideas, to keep track of your shopping list, to remember all the errands you need to do, to keep track of your appointments, etc., etc., etc., then you don’t have any free RAM to process the important things that you need to be focussing on right now. By capturing all of these “loose ends” somewhere other than in your head, you are “Ready For Anything,” that is, at any given time your processor (your brain) has nice clean RAM to utilize on the task at hand when it comes up.

Before I implemented this principle I was characterized by the phrase, “I forgot.” However, now that I’m not trying to keep track of everything in my head, when I don’t do something it’s because I didn’t want to do it, not because “I forgot.” I’ve found several tools that help me “capture everything.” Here are some of my favorites:

• EVERNOTE!!! – this is by far my favorite capture tool. It is something that I am able to use in several different formats that keeps whatever I capture in one synchronized location. I’ll have an example below of how I used this to capture some notes from a conversation at lunch with another preacher. I can capture snapshots for later use, notes of random thoughts, articles, web pages, etc. It really does a great job of being a “ubiquitous” capture device. This is a must get application and it’s FREE.
• Next to Evernote, my favorite capture tool is my “Hipster PDA.” This is the most functional and versatile PDA I have ever used! What I really love about it is that I built it myself. I found the instructions on 43Folders.com and thought, “hey, I can do that.” I capture more information on it than any other capture device I currently use, or have ever used. It even syncs with my Evernote account! I’ll show how below. Not only is it great for capturing everything but it also works very well as a means of sharing information with others. It’s so cheep and easy to build that you can just give it to whoever you want to share the information with.
• I use mind maps also. When I capture an idea in my Hipster PDA and/or my Evernote account, if it is something that needs to be developed, I will then put it on a mind map and let the creativity flow! The great thing about mind maps is that you’re not forced into a linear mindset. You don’t get stuck on “what should follow this?” You just have your main idea at the hub and connect any thoughts relating directly to it. If these branches spur more ideas, you add them as branches to that point. It is a very effective way of organizing your ideas that allows you to think in a more natural mindset to creativity. Below is an example of how I incorporated all three of these capture tools on a single idea.

Using the tools above, when I process the information I’ve captured, I’m not missing anything. I have everything captured and don’t have to rely on my memory to act on it. As I process through the information – usually first thing in the morning – I am able to plan my day and do some really productive work.

Here’s an example:

While at lunch with another preacher recently I was asked about the word “captivity” in Ephesians 4:8. Our conversation sparked an interest to do some further study on this word. So I immediately took out my Hipster and wrote it down (yes, the Hipster PDA is just a stack of index cards clipped together in my pocket).

Then, after lunch when I had some time to flip though the cards in my pocket (processing), I knew I would not be able to do anything about this card that said “Captivity word study” until I was back at my computer. So I took out my phone and snapped a picture of the card and sent it to Evernote. Then I could throw the card away and get it out of my pocket.

When I was at my computer again and saw the card in Evernote, I wanted to just quickly capture some ideas for developing this later when I had more time. I opened up my MindMeister account and plugged it in.

The card is filed under “Sermon Thoughts” in Evernote with a note to “see MindMeister.” When I’m ready to begin development on a new sermon I’ll open the “Sermon Thoughts” folder and see the card, it will point me to MindMeister where I’ve already started developing some ideas on it.

When its fully developed I’ll move the card to my “Ready To Preach” folder with links to MindMeister, presentations, notes, etc. Then, once I’ve preached it, I’ll move it to my “Sermons Preached” folder with a note of the place and date it was preached.

Hope this is helpful. Let me know what you think.

I just finished reading a great article on mind mapping over at one of my favorite productivity blogs, GTD Times.

If you’re not familiar with GTD, it refers to David Allen’s personal productivity system – Getting Things Done (GTD). I would highly recommend his books, “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity“ and “Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Work and Life.”

In his books he talks some about mind mapping, but the article linked above will give you a quick overview of its benefits for planning and brain storming. I’ve found that if I make my sermon presentations more like a mind map, instead of a linear outline, the audience retains it better.

There are several ways to do your mind mapping, either old school or hight tech. For example, I carry a stack of index cards in my pocket. If I’m not at my computer or don’t have access to the net when an idea hits me, I can just take out a card and map it out real quick and dirty. Then I can transfer it to a more permanent media when I’m back at my computer.

Let me recommend a free online app that’s good to start out with. Here’s a simple example I did with Mindomo.

Hope this is helpful information. Let me know what you think.