GTD Summit: Day 2 – Live Blog

7:30 AM: Another great breakfast, but no bacon!

8:45 AM: David Allen preaches the principles of Making It All Work and tells us we all have more GTD homework to do if we have the same thought twice!

9:13 AM: We’re walking through the aspects of Control & Perspective. David is hilarious. Haven’t seen him live? Make a point to see him!

9:25 AM: The Basics of GTD Mind Map

10:05 AM: Great chat about the challenges of technology evangelism with Jeff Widman from Venturebeat and Steve Bell from the Pulse of Tech.

10:15 AM: Ron Kaufman gave a passionate (coffee-induced?) presentation on creating a culture of GTD! Ron is author of the #1 bestselling book, "UP Your Service! Strategies and Action Steps to Delight Your Customers NOW!"

10:21 AM: Now up, Dave Logan. Dave asks Ron, "Is there an organ in your body that produces coffee?" Dave’s now talking about tribes & creating shared values. Dave discussed the tribe cultures and GTD. Love all the enthusiasm here at the Summit. Dave closed with a passionate call to action that it’s up to us to…"save the economy & give our kids something to look forward to!" He later added, "we’re in a recession and it’s a terrible thing to waste!"

10:35 AM: Sanjiv Mirchandani, president for Personal Investing Products and Marketing for Fidelity Investments, explains how by not only having ‘values’ but by living by these ‘values’ are the keys to Fidelity’s success.

10:47 AM: Neil Mendelson, Mindjet’s VP of Products is at our booth today talking with customers and prospects. If you’re here, say hi to Neil.

10:48 AM: Michael Winston throws away his speech and ad-hoc delivers his presentation. Focus: Speed of change! "Now, your best customer can become your biggest competitor." It has become a disorienting time. Michael quoted hockey great Wayne Gretsky, "I don’t skate to where the puck is, I skate to where I KNOW it will be!" But, with change happening so fast, how do we know which direction to go in? "Now that you know what the rules are, there are no rules!"

11:15 AM: Panel Q&A. This was a great session! Winding down, heading for lunch & the Mindjet booth. More sessions in the afternoon, including "Best Practices to Good Habits: Can I Make It Stick", "GTD and Sales, Customers & Relationships"…

Pre-lunch Updated Summit Map (scroll down for final map)

12:50 PM: Danny Bader kicks off "Best Practices to Good Habits:  Can I Make GTD Stick" by leading a song! Vocalists on this panel include: Coach Meg Edwards, Chief Innovator at NetCentrics Dean Hering, co-head of CRA’s Internal Communication Consulting practice, Alan Nelson, and Jim Whitton is a Regional Director for The Hunger Project (THP). Jim, give me a call – let’s talk about how mind mapping can help the Project!

1:02 PM: How do you keep GTD going? Alan Nelson: We have behavioral issues (e.g. we’re overweight. we can exercise, change diet and/or lifestyle). 9:1 odds against us changing our behavior! Well, let’s switch to some more positive thoughts. Here’s a great set of tips from the panelists:

1. Bundle the 2 minute rule; otherwise you’re dealing with email all day
2. Try not looking at your email if you already know what you’re going to do in the AM
3. Eliminate distractions – Turn off your email notifications, instant messenger!
4. Scan with purpose
5. Iterate more
6. Break weekly reviews into chunks over 3 days if you’re having trouble doing it weekly
7. Date your next actions - if you haven’t done it in months, maybe it’s not worth doing, defer it, someday / maybe
8. Use timers! Try a kitchen timer; you know the old fashioned kind where you hear the noise! That’ll get you moving.
9. Make productivity fun!
10. Throwing things out counts as being productive
11. Try hiding the stuff in a closeable inbox! REDUCE your stress to INCREASE your productivity.
12. Open your system immediately to your CALENDAR, not your email
13. Make sure you have VERBS in your project lists otherwise how will you know what done looks like? e.g. "finalize taxes" instead of "taxes"
14. Ask "Why does your project exist" and answer in a single sentence.
15. What are the
16. Define for yourself, what does wild success look like?
17. Eliminate drag in your system (how long does it take your PC to start up?)
18. Control what you can control. Let go of what you can’t.
19. Use your labeler!
20. Eliminate choices when possible. (read Paradox of Choice)
21. Consider calling weekly review your "WEEKLY REFLECTION", Ask what it all means?
22. Do it the way it works best for you!
23. Take the liberty to review whenever you have time to review
24. Don’t be in a position where you can’t find something quickly
25. Be results religious but process agnostic
26. Want others to GTD? Model the behavior.
27. Keep Lists: Books to read, wines to try, etc…
28. Working with staff that aren’t GTDers? Have them create a list for stuff that they’re waiting for from you (waiting for list), a list of what they’re working on (project list), and a list of their important relationships (e.g. client status). Don’t force the terminology, but enforce the behavior!

Wow, great power tips on making GTD work for you!

Updated: GTD Summit Map (scroll down for final map)

Next up, today I’ll make it: Getting Email to Zero. This next session’s being led by my neighbor, GTD Coach Michael Dolan and Coach Chris McIntyer.

2:45 PM: Just snapped a photo with the CEO from The Brain and Wendy & Amy Mack, the two daughters of eProductivity’s founder, Eric Mack. The Macks grew up with GTD and each uses different software for their school work. Wendy is a Mindjet MindManager user while her twin Amy uses The Brain. Will post the picture when I get a copy emailed to me.

2:52 PM: Getting Email to Zero. Only a handful of people sitting in the coach’s corner as Michael and Chris educate us on how to go from 1000s of emails to ZERO! Then, how to keep it at zero. Behind us, about 100 people checking out the exhibit tables.

Some e-mail management tips (see map for more):

• Turn off the ‘rings and dings’
• Remember to categorize your emails that become tasks with contexts
• If you ‘right-click’ drag and drop emails to tasks, you can bring attachments with them!

Updated: GTD Summit Map (scroll down for final map)

3:42 PM: The Next Niche in Job Sites:

GTDers for Hire

Companies Hiring GTDers

5:00 PM: Final Session with David is about to start…cue theme music, video is playing!

Wow, what a conference! Here’s what the participants had to say:

Updated: Final Summit Map

Amazing conference. Thanks to everyone who I met, all the tweets and great conversations! Let’s keep connecting and getting it all done together!

For more GTD maps, info about GTD partner add-ins, podcasts and webinars, check out this GTD post.

About the Author: Michael Deutch is Mindjet’s Chief Evangelist, content contributor for the Mindjet Blog and the Mindjet Connections newsletter. Get more from Michael on Twitter.