Chapter 13 of "Getting Things Done" by David Allen - Book Summary/Review

This post summarizes chapter 13 called The Power of Outcome Focusing as well as the subsequent brief Conclusion.

As you begin to use the principles and tools outlined in this book in your day-to-day life, your personal productivity can increase tremendously. They really work in the arena of the ordinary things we must deal with daily. Employing next-action decision-making results in clarity, productivity, accountability and empowerment. Exactly the same results happen when you hold yourself to the discipline of identifying the real results you want and, more specifically, the projects you need to define in order to produce them. At the core, there are only two problems in life:

1. You know what you want, and you don't know how to get it
2. You don't know what you want

If this is true, then there are only two solutions, i.e. (a) specifically define what you want and (b) make it happen. In this context, everything you experience as incomplete must have a reference point for "complete". Once you've decided that there is something to be changed, you ask yourself "How do I now make this happen?", "What is the next action?" and/or "What resources do I need to make this happen?".

What is unique about the practical focus of "Getting Things Done" is the combination of effectiveness and efficiency that these methods can bring to every level of your reality. The value of all this natural project planning is that it provides an integrated, flexible, aligned way to think through any situation. Being comfortable with challenging the purpose of anything you may be doing is healthy and mature. Being able to "make up" visions and images of success, before the methods are clear, is a phenomenal trait to strengthen. Being willing to have ideas, good or bad, and to express and capture all of them without judgments is critical for fully assessing creative intelligence. Honing multiple ideas and types of information into components, sequences, and priorities aimed toward a specific outcome is a necessary mental discipline. And deciding on and taking real next actions are the essence of productivity.

However, even when only portions of the model are inserted, tremendous benefits can ensue. Even the slightest increase in the use of natural planning can bring significant improvement. It all affirms that the way our minds naturally work is the way that we should focus to make anything happen in the physical world. The model is simply the basic principle of determining outcomes and actions for everything we consider to be our work.

In conclusion, "Getting Things Done" has probably validated much of what you already knew and had been doing to some degree before. Nevertheless, it might make it easier for you to apply that common sense more systematically in a world that seems to increasingly confound us with its intensity and complexity. It is a road map to achieve the positive, relaxed focus that characterizes your most productive state. I invite you to use it, like a road map, as a reference tool to get back to whenever you need to.

To consistently stay on course, you have to commit to building the following habits:

1. Keep everything out of your head
2. Decide next actions and outcomes when things first emerge on your radar, rather than later
3. Regularly review and update the complete inventory of open loops of your work and life

Don't be surprised though, if it takes a little while to make them automatic. Be patient and enjoy the process. :-)

Based on: David Allen (2001), Getting Things Done, Penguin Books, p.249-259.

Chapter 12 of "Getting Things Done" by David Allen - Book Summary/Review

This post summarizes chapter 12 called The Power of the Next-Action Decision.

We are all accountable to define what, if anything, we are committed to make happen as we engage with ourselves and others. And at some point, for any outcome that we have an internal commitment to complete, we must make the decision about the next physical actin required. There's a great difference, however, between making that decision when things show up and doing it when they blow up. When a culture adopts "What's the next action?" as a standard operating query, there's an automatic increase in energy, productivity, clarity, and focus. It never fails to greatly improve both the productivity and the peace of mind of the user to determine what the next physical action is that will move something forward.

How could something so simple be so powerful - "What's the next action?". To understand the answer think of all the items / open loops you wrote down as part of clearing your mind (revisit chapter 5) or just think of all the open loops / incomplete projects that are currently on your mind. You'll probably admit that yes, indeed, a few have been a little "stuck". If you haven't defined exactly what the next action step is, then it probably will never get done. What's ironic is it would likely require only about 10 seconds of thought time to figure out the next action for almost everything on your list.

Instead of having "tires" on your list, you need to e.g. write "Call three tire stores and obtain quotes". That person who needs new tires for her car probably had that on her radar for quite a while. He probably passed by the phone hundreds of times with enough energy to make these calls, but didn't. Why didn't she make it? Because in that state of mind, the last thing in the world she felt like doing was considering all his projects, including getting tires, and what their next actions where. In those moments he didn't feel like thinking at all. What he needed was to already have figured out all these next action steps beforehand. Then, we having a 15 minute time window before a meeting with energy at 5.7 out of 10, he can look at the list of things to do and be delighted to see "Call tire store for prices". He'll think "That's something I can do and complete successfully" and be motivated to make the call to experience the "win" of accomplishing something productive in his free time.

Often, even the most simple things are stuck because we haven't made a final decision about the next action. We waste tremendous amount of time and energy in that state. We glance at the project and some part of us thinks "I don't quite have all the pieces between here and there". We know something is missing, but we are not sure what it is exactly, so we quit.

It's usually the smartest, most creative, sensitive and intelligent people who procrastinate the most. This is because their sensitivity gives them the capability of producing in their minds lurid nightmare scenarios about what might be involved in doing the project, and all the negative consequences that might occur if it was done finished perfectly. The way out is to silence all that negative self-talk and uncomfortable visions of imminent failure. And this is best done by figuring the next actions for all your incomplete projects. Nothing will essentially change in the world. However, shifting your focus to something that your mind perceives as a doable task will create a real increase in positive energy, direction and motivation.

You are either attracted to or repelled by the things on your lists; there is no neutral territory. Either there is a positive draw to complete the action or reluctance to think about what it is and resistance to getting involved in it. And figuring out the next action is usually what makes the difference between these two extremes. Avoid at all costs to allow "amorphous stuff" on your lists like the following:

• Sarah's birthday
• Eastern Europe trip
• Presentation for xyz Conference in August
• Meeting with John Doe

Instead change these to clear next action steps.

Which do you think is the more efficient way to move through life - deciding next actions on your projects as soon as they appear on your radar screen and then efficiently grouping them into categories of actions, or avoiding thinking about what exactly needs to be done until it has to be done and then frantically engage in last-minute fire-fighting?

Perhaps the greatest benefit of adopting the next-action approach is the dramatic increase in your ability to make things happen with an accompanying rise in your self-esteem. Getting things done on your own accord, before you are forced to by external pressure and internal stress, builds a firm foundation of self-worth that will spread into every aspect of your life. Asking "What's the next action?" undermines the victim mentality. It presupposes that there is a possibility of change, and that there is something you can do to make it happen. 

If there is too much complaining in the culture around you, try asking "So, what's the next action?" People will only complain about something that they assume could be better than it currently is. The action question forces the issue. If it can be changed, there's some action that will change it. If it can't, it must be accepted as part of the landscape to be incorporated as a given element in your strategy and tactics.

Based on: David Allen (2001), Getting Things Done, Penguin Books, p.236-248.

Chapter 11 of "Getting Things Done" by David Allen - Book Summary/Review

This post summarizes chapter 11 called The Power of the Collection Habit

The techniques discussed in this book so far offer a systematic method to keep your mind distraction-free, ensuring a high level of efficiency and effectiveness in your work. That in itself would be sufficient reason to implement these practices.

However, there are even greater implications for your life in general and these will be discussed in chapters 11, 12 and 13. These longer-term results can have a significant impact on you as an individual, and they can positively affect larger organizational cultures as well. For example, when people with whom you interact notice that without fail you receive, process, and organise in an airtight manner the exchanges and agreements they have with you, they begin to trust you in a unique way. Such is the power of capturing placeholders for anything that is incomplete or unprocessed in your life. It noticeably enhances your mental well-being and improves the quality of your communications and relationships, both professionally and personally.

If you are like most people who go through the full collection process, you will probably feels some for of anxiety, being overwhelmed, panic, frustration of fatigue as well as guilt over not having completed all the things you wanted to accomplish. When you understand the source of your negative feelings about all your stuff, you'll discover the way to get rid of them. The source of these negative feelings is not having too much to do (because there is always more to do in life), but rather from not keeping agreements you have consciously or subconsciously made with yourself..

If the negative feelings come from broken agreements, you have three options for dealing with them and eliminating the negative consequences:

1. Don't make the agreement: It can feel very good to just throw away a bunch of old stuff, finally deciding not to deal with it. You lighten up if you just lower your standards in relevant areas of your life and operate more according to the 80/20 principle, while rejecting exaggerated perfectionism. Realising the huge price you pay for making and not keeping a large number of commitments can help with being more conscious about what you take on in the future. If you really capture and track everything that is on your mind using GTD, you will think twice about making commitments internally that you do not really want or need to make.
2. Complete the agreement: Another option is to finally complete the task. Actually, you love to do things, as long as you get the feeling that you have achieved something. The magic of the two minute rule (i.e. immediately complete all action, which require up to 2 minutes to complete) shows how life changing this can be in practice. 
3. Renegotiate the agreement: A renegotiated agreement is not a broken one. The fact that you can't remember an agreement you made with yourself does not mean that you are not holding yourself liable for it. As soon as you tell yourself that you should do something, there's a part of you that things you should be doing it all the time. For example, if you walked by your garage six years ago and told yourself that you should clean it, then every time you walk past the garage a little voice in your head that keeps complaining that you still haven't done it. If you want to shut that voice up, you have 3 options for dealing with this agreement with yourself:
• Lower your standards about your garage: "So I have a lousy garage... who honestly cares?"
• Keep the agreement - clean the garage
• At least put "clean garage" on your "someday/maybe" list. Then when you review this list weekly (or monthly) and you see this item, you can tell yourself, "not this week". The next time you walk by the garage, you won't hear a thing internally other than a "Ha! Not this week." :-)

So, every agreement must be made conscious. That means it must be captured, objectified, and reviewed regularly in full conscious awareness so that you can put it where it belongs in your self-management arena. If that doesn't happen, it will actually take up a lot more psychic energy than it deserves. 

If you wonder how much collecting you should do, then the answer is "Until nothing else shows up as a reminder in your mind". Use your mind to think about things, rather than think of them. Doing the GTD collection process as fully as you can, and then incorporating the behaviour of capturing all the new things as they emerge, will be empowering, productive and in many instances "life changing". In particular, it will naturally make you stand out in any organisation that you work for, i.e. your boss/colleagues can trust that you keep track of all your open loops, tasks, todos that are your responsibility.

In conclusion, organisations of all types should seek to creature a culture in which it is acceptable that everyone has more to do than she can do, and in which it is wise to renegotiate agreements what every is not doing. Unfortunately, you can't legislate personal organisation systems. Everyone needs to have her own way to deal with all outstanding todos. However, you can hold people accountable for outcomes, and for tracking and managing everything that comes their way.

Based on: David Allen (2001), Getting Things Done, Penguin Books, p.225-235.

Chapter 10 of "Getting Things Done" by David Allen - Book Summary/Review

This post summarizes chapter 10 called Getting Projects Under Control

Chapters 4 to 9 have given you all the tricks and methods you need to clear your head and make intuitive choices about what to do when. That's the horizontal level of productivity. In this chapter, we look more at the vertical level, the digging deep and high-level thinking that draws on your creative brainpower. All of us could do more planning, more informally and more often, about our projects and our lives. And if we did, it would relieve a lot of pressure on our psyches and produce an enormous amount of creative output with minimal effort.

If you feel out of control with your current actionable commitments, you'll resist focused planning. However, as you begin to apply the GTD methods in this book, you will find that they free up capacity for enormously creative and constructive thinking. You can put that energy towards thinking more about two types of projects that deserve more of your attention:

1. Projects that still have your attention even after you've determined their next actions: This type will need a more detailed approach than just identifying a next action. What is needed is a more specific application of one or more of the other four phases of the natural planning model: (a) purpose and principles, (b) vision/outcome, (c) brainstorming and/or (d) organising.
2. Projects about which potentially useful ideas and supportive detail just show up: This type needs to have an appropriate place into which these associated ideas can be captured. Then they can reside there for later use as needed.

There are probably a few projects you can think of right now that you would like to have more control over. If you haven't done it already, write down a 'next action' right now and put it on the appropriate list. Most of the other work to obtain more control over your projects usually falls into one of the following categories:

• Brainstorming: For example, note down "Draft ideas re X"
• Organising:  For example, note down "Organise Project X notes"
• Setting up meetings: Often, progress will be made on project thinking when you set up a meeting with the people you'd like to be involved in the brainstorming.
• Gathering information: Sometimes, the next task on project thinking is to gather more data, so note down e.g. "Call X re her thoughts on next week's meeting"

Don't lose any ideas about project that could potentially be useful. Many times, you'll think of something you don't want to forget when you are in a place that has nothing to do with the project. One useful tip is to then send yourself an email, record a voice note and email it to yourself or record the idea in another place/list that you know you will check regularly. You need to hold all these ideas until you later decide what to do with them.

Other useful tools for these purposes include tools that automatically synchronise across all your devices, such as:

• Google Documents
• Word documents (and others) stored in your Dropbox account. Use different heading in "Outline" view to organise your ideas very quickly and efficiently.
• Time Tree Calendar & Notes App
• Evernote

Keep good writing tools around all the time (e.g. pen and paper, whiteboards at home, smartphone on the go), so you never have any unconscious resistance to thinking due to not having anything to capture it with. It should also be very easy to create a new physical project folder or a new digital folder in your computer, so that there is as little resistance to creative planning as possible. The mere act of creating a file for a topic into which we can organise random notes and potentially relevant materials provides a tremendously increased sense of control and joy.

Based on: David Allen (2001), Getting Things Done, Penguin Books, p.211-222.

Chapter 9 of "Getting Things Done" by David Allen - Book Summary/Review

This post summarizes chapter 9 called Doing: Making the Best Action Choices

This chapter is all about how to decide, in a given moment, what to do exactly in the face of a multitude of different options. A lot of the answer comes down to trusting your intuition/heart/spirit.

A helpful tool in this context is the four-criteria model for choosing actions in the moment. It recommends making the choice based on four successive criteria:

1. Context: The first thing is to consider what actions are possible given your current location and tools at hand. Some tasks require an internet connection, you being at home or in the office. This is the first filter for your available options and the reason why it's important to organise your action lists by context, i.e. if you have a buch of things to do on one large list, but you can't actually do many of them in the same context, then you force yourself to continually keep reconsidering all of them.
2. Time Available: The second factor in choosing an action is how much time you have before you have to do something else. If your next meeting starts in ten minutes, you'll most likely select a different action to do right now than you would if the next few hours were free.
3. Energy Available: Some tasks require more mental energy than others. Hence, it's advisable to invest your most productive hours (for most people those are in the morning) into the most important tasks each day, while postponing all the small stuff (like responding to emails and phone calls) to a later time. (For more on this check this video from Julie Morgenstern on the topic of "Never Check Email in the Morning".) Therefore, it is good to always keep an inventory of things that need to be done to require little mental or creative energy. When you are in a low energy state, that's the perfect time to tackle them. Careful: It is vital to be organised, because if you're in low-energy state, but your reading material is disorganised, your filing system is chaotic, you tend to simply avoid doing anything at all and then you feel even worse.
4. Priority: Given your current context, available time, and energy you will have to select your next action item based on relative priority. Ask yourself for example "Out of all my remaining options, what is the most important thing for me to do?" At the end of the day, in order to feel good about what you didn't get done, you must have made some conscious decisions about your responsibilities, goals, and values.

Moreover, it is also useful to think of work as falling into three categories:

1. Doing predefined work
2. Doing work as it shows up
3. Defining your work

To be as productive as possible, you need to maintain a good balance between these three types. Many people fall into the trap of getting sucked into the second activity - dealing with things that show up spontaneously - much too easily, and let the other slide. Like many other authors, such as Steven Covey, have noted it is important not to let the (seemingly) urgent crowd out all the truly important tasks in your life. It's easy to get sucked into the "busy" and "urgent" mode, especially when you have a lot of unprocessed and relatively out-of-control work on your desk, in your email and on your mind. If you let yourself get caught up in the urgencies of the moment, without feeling comfortable about what you are not dealing with, the results will be anxiety and frustration.

However, if choosing to do work that just showed up instead of doing work you predefined is a conscious choice, based on your best call, then that is playing the productivity game as best as you can.

Another word of caution: Many people use the inevitability of an almost infinite stream of immediately evident things to do as a way to avoid the responsibilities of defining their work and managing their total inventory. It is way too easy to get seduced into non-quite-that-critical stuff that is right at hand, particularly if your in-basket and your personal organisation are out of control. To often "managing by wandering around" is an excuse for getting away from those amorphous piles of "stuff".

Your ability to deal with surprise is your competitive edge. However, at a certain point, if you are not catching up and getting things under control, staying busy with only the work at hand will undermine your effectiveness.

Based on: David Allen (2001), Getting Things Done, Penguin Books, p.191-210.

Chapter 8 of "Getting Things Done" by David Allen - Book Summary/Review

This post summarizes chapter 8 called Reviewing: Keeping Your System Functional

The purpose of this whole method of workflow management is not to let your brain become relaxed, but rather to enable it to move toward more elegant and productive activity. In order to earn that freedom, however, your brain must engage on some consistent basis with all your commitments and activities. You must be assured that you're doing what you need to be doing, and that it is okay to not do what you are currently not doing. That's why it is so crucial to regularly review and update your personal organisation system.

As a general rule, you should spend as much time reviewing your system as is necessary for you to feel comfortable about what you are doing. In the daily grind of work life, this will probably be an accumulation of two seconds here, and three seconds there. You will probably want to review in the following order:

1. Your most frequent review will be your daily calendar, particularly those time-specific appointments that have to occur at a particular point in time.
2. Check your calendar for all day-specific commitments that need to be completed by the end of the day.
3. If 1. and 2. are taken care of, check your next action list to pick a new item, which needs to be completed "as soon as you get to it". It is also okay to glance over this list from time to time, to reassure you that no item has aged so much that it now has become an urgent priority.

The real trick to ensuring the trustworthiness of the whole organisation system lies in regularly refreshing your psyche and your system from a more elevated perspective. The Weekly Review is the magic key to the sustainability of this process; it is whatever you need to do to get your head empty and your system up-to-date at least once a week until you can honestly say "I absolutely know right now everything I'm not doing but could be doing if I decided to."

Practically, your weekly review could e.g. include the following items:

• Process all notes, loose papers and record any attached action items on your 'next actions' list
• Reduce your email inbox down to empty. Flag relevant items for follow-up and/or record any associated action items on your 'next actions' list
• Check this week's calendar for any items you might have missed
• Check next week's calendar to get an overview over what's ahead and address any issues, e.g. commitments you've made that are no longer possible.
• Review all your next action list to keep them current
• Review all 'follow-up', 'FU' or 'Waiting For' items and follow-up with people as necessary
• If you have sufficient time, review your someday/maybe list. It is ok to skip this item and only review it every 1-2 months.

From experience, it is important to schedule a regular time once a week for this (e.g. an early Friday afternoon is ideal for many people). When the reminder pops up, make sure that it includes the checklist of all the items you need to review.

At regular larger intervals (e.g. every 3-6 months), you might also like to review your higher-level life direction, asking you questions, such as "What is my life purpose?", "What are my current high-level focus areas?", "Am I really living a life that is aligned to my core values?". Set a regular reminder in your calendar and ideally do this review with one or more trusted friends.

Based on: David Allen (2001), Getting Things Done, Penguin Books, p.181-190.

Chapter 7 of "Getting Things Done" by David Allen - Book Summary/Review

This post summarizes chapter 7 called Organizing: Setting Up the Right Buckets

Having a total and seamless system of organization in place gives you tremendous power because it allows your mind to let go of lower-level thinking and graduate to intuitive focusing, undistracted by matters that haven't been dealt with appropriately. But your physical organization system must be better than your mental one in order for that to happen. In this chapter, we'll study the organizing steps and tools that will be required as you process your in-basket.

There are seven primary types of things that you'll want to keep track of and manage from an organisational perspective:

• A "Projects" list (optional if, relative to many of David's CEO clients, you don't have THAT much to do.)
• Project support material
• Calendar actions and information
• "Next Actions" lists
• "Waiting For", "Follow-Up" or "FU" list
• Reference material
• "Someday/Maybe" list

It is critical that all of these categories be kept distinct from one another. Once you know what you need to keep track of (covered in the previous chapter on "Processing"), all you need is lists and folders for reference and support materials. You shouldn't bother to create some external structuring of the priorities on your lists that you'll then have to rearrange or re-write as things change. You'll be prioritising more intuitively as you see the whole list, against quite a number of shifting variables. The lists is just a way for you to keep track of the total inventory of active things to which you have made a commitment.

Calendar: There are two kinds of actions: those that must be done on a certain day and/or at a particular time, and those that just need to be done as soon as you can get to them. Your calendar should only show the "hard landscape" of the absolute essentials, around which you do the rest of your actions. What many people want to do, however, based on the old habit of writing daily to-do lists, is put actions on the calendar that they think they'd really like to get done next Monday, say, but that then actually might not and then need to be carried over (which is a significant psychological burden). Therefore, resist this impulse. You need to trust your calendar as sacred territory, reflecting the exact hard edges of your day's commitments, which should be noticeable at a glance while you're on the run.

Next action items should be organised by context reflecting the respective environment and/or tools that are required to complete the action. For example, you might like to consider the following possible headings/categories:

• "Calls"
• "At Computer"
• "Errands"
• "In Office"
• "At Home"
• "Agendas" (for people and meetings)
• "Waiting For", "Follow-Up" or "FU" (to track things you are waiting for to receive from other people)

This has huge practical benefits. While having a phone and a few minutes of free time, you can work through your"Calls" list or while having some spare time in the city after a meeting you might be able to complete your "Errands". You will also get a great feeling of relaxed control when you know that your "Waiting For" list is the complete inventory of everything you care about that other people are supposed to be doing.

Project support materials are not project actions and they are not project reminders. They are supposed to support your actions and thinking about projects. Therefore, do not use them for reminding, rather determine all "next actions" and record them in the appropriate lists so that your system offers a complete overview of everything you need to get done. Never leave action reminders just hidden in your project support materials. If you don't,then you'll actually go numb to the files and the piles because they don't prompt you to do anything and they simply create more anxiety.

Reference material is much of what comes across your desk and into your life in general. There is no action required, but it is information that you want to keep for a variety of reasons. The problem most people have psychologically with all their stuff is that it is still "stuff", i.e. they have not yet decided what is actionable and what is not. So, cultivate that habit of not leaving any items unprocessed.

Someday/maybe items are not throw-away items, but rather may be some of the most interesting and creative things you will ever get involved with. You may be surprised to find that some of the things you write on the list will actually come to pass, almost without your making any conscious effort to make them happen. If you acknowledge the power of the imagination to foster changes in perception and performance, it is easy to see how having a "Someday/Maybe" list out in front of your conscious mind could potentially add many wonderful adventures to your life and work. Ideally, you subdivide the list with a range of categories such as:

• Restaurant to try
• Clothing to buy
• Trips to make
• Skills to learn
• Hobbies to take up
• Books to read
• Movies to watch
• Party ideas
• Web sites to browse
• Ideas - Misc.

If you have an idea, which you like to review on a specific date, then putting it on your calendar as a day-specific action item is a great way of ensuring that you will do so on a particular day in the future. This will take the thing of the RAM in your mind and allow you to re-assess the idea when you need to. Go ahead and ask yourself: "Is there any major decision for which I should create a future trigger, so I can feel comfortable when I stop thinking about it now?" If yes, put some reminder in your calendar to re-visit the issue.

Similar to the someday/maybe list, you might also like to maintain a range of checklists for example in a convenient online location, such as Google Docs or Dropbox, so you can access them anytime anywhere:

• Personal Affirmations (i.e. personal value statements)
• Travel Checklist (everything to take on or do before a trip)
• Weekly Review (everything to review and/or update on a weekly basis)
• Focus Areas (key life roles and responsibilities)
• Key People in My Life/Work (relationships to assess regularly for completion and opportunity development)
• Buy New Clothing Checklist (noting down you current sizes for clothing items and any other important decision factors, such as questions to ask, when buying new clothing)

Based on: David Allen (2001), Getting Things Done, Penguin Books, p.138-180.

Chapter 6 of "Getting Things Done" by David Allen - Book Summary/Review

This post summarizes chapter 6 called Processing: Getting "In" to Empty

Assuming that you have collected everything that has your attention (discussed in chapter 5, please re-read if you are unsure), your job is now to actually get to the bottom of "in". When you have finished this processing, you will have

1. Thrown away items you don't need
2. Completed any less-than-two-minutes actions
3. Delegated to others what can/should be delegated
4. Included in your organizing system reminders of actions that require more than two minutes to complete
5. Identified any larger commitments (projects) you now have

The best way to learn this and apply the processing system/model (already discussed in chapter 2) is by doing:

• Process the top item first!
• Process one item at a time!
• Never put anything back into "in"!

Top item first: Everything gets processed equally, starting at the top. For each item you decide what it is and what action (if any) is required to complete it. "Emergency scanning" is fine and necessary sometimes, for example if you just returned from a longer retreat and need to determine whether there are any "land mines" in the in-basket that are about to explode. However, "emergency scanning" is not processing your in basket. Therefore, you need to get into the habit of starting at one end and working through it one item at a time. You're going to get to the bottom of the pile as soon as you can anyway, and you don't want to avoid dealing with anything in there.

Process one item at a time: You may find you have a tendency, while processing your in-basket, to pick something up, not know exactly what you want to do about it, and then let your eyes wander onto another item further down the stack and get engaged with it. That item may be more attractive to your psyche because you know right away what to do with it - and you don't feel like thinking about the preceding item, which is in your hand right now. This is dangerous territory! What is currently in your hand might end up on a "hmppphhh" stack on the side because you became distracted by something easier, more important, or more interesting below it. Therefore, focus on one item at a time and only then move onto the next. Otherwise all these unprocessed / half-processed items will eat away again at your mental energy since your subconsciousness feels the weight of this unfinished business / open loop.

Never put anything back into "in": It is essential to eliminate the bad habit of continually picking things up out of your inbox, not deciding what they mean or what you are going to do about them, and then just leaving them there. The first time you pick something up from the inbox, decide what to do about it and where it goes. Never put it back as the inbox is not a storage place.

The key processing question is always "What is the next action?".

It is likely that a portion of your inbox will contain items that do not require any action. Such items fall into three categories:

1. Rubbish / trash: Trust your intuition in what to throw away and be realistic about the space available to you.
2. Items to postpone until possible later use: For example, an idea you had about next year's meeting or an event invitation for in a few months time when you are not 100% sure yet that you will be in town. Such items will either go (a) in your calendar as a day-specific action or (b) on your someday/maybe list. Doing is vital to get these items off your mind right now.
3. Reference material: Manuals, receipts for warranty purposes and other materials/information which might be handy for later use. File this first in a general folder and if one of the sections grows too large, create a separate folder only for that section. You might also like to sort the general folder in alphabetical order from A to Z. A less-than-sixty-second, fun-to-use general-reference filing system within arm's reach of where you sit is a mission-critical component of full implementation of David Allen's GTD methodology. In the "battle zone" of real life, if it's not easy, fast, and fun to file, you'll stack instead of organizing. And then it will become much more difficult to keep things processed.

The next action step you define for the actionable items in your inbox should be the absolute next physical thing to do, i.e. it needs to be a description of physical behavior, e.g. "Call John", "Write down five ideas for next week's staff meeting" or "Talk to the clothing store assistant for advice on which style of suit pants to buy". If you haven't identified the next physical action required, there will be a psychological gap every time you think about it even vaguely.

Once you decided what the next action really is, you have three options:

1. Do it if it takes less than two minutes: If it takes less than two minutes, do it now even if it is not "high priority".  Two minutes is about the "efficiency cutoff" where it is more cumbersome to store and track the item, rather than to do it right now. And if the item is not important enough, then throw it away. Many people experience dramatic increases in their productivity simply from following this two-minute rule.
2. Delegate if you are not the most appropriate person to do it: Delegate the item to another person, specify a clear deadline and track the item on your "FU", "Follow Up" or "Waiting For" list
3. Defer/Postpone it until later: Include reminders of all these next actions on your "next actions" list or on a sub-list for a specific project.

In addition to your next actions list, you might also like to maintain/update a "Projects" list, which gives you a higher level overview over all your commitments that require more than one action step to complete. This is because, if the action step you identified will not complete the commitment, then you'll need some reminder that there is more to do until the project is completed.

Based on: David Allen (2001), Getting Things Done, Penguin Books, p.119-137.

Chapter 5 of "Getting Things Done" by David Allen - Book Summary/Review

This post summarizes chapter 5 called Collection: Corralling Your "Stuff"

This time we are advancing more into the second half of the book, which is probably the most useful, since David Allen's advice becomes increasingly practical.

Collection means going through every storage area in every location. Be assured that if you give yourself at least a couple of hours to tackle this part, you can grab the major portion of things outstanding. And you can even capture the rest by creating relevant placeholding notes, e.g. "deal with closet in the entrance hall" or "clean up basement area cupboard". In the real world, you probably won't be able to keep your stuff 100% collected all of the time. If you're like most people, you'll move too fast and be engaged in too many things during the course of a week to get all your ideas and commitments captured outside your head. But it should become and ideal standard that keeps you motivated to consistently "clean house" of all the things about your work and life that have your attention.

There are very practical reasons to gather everything before you start processing it:

1. it's helpful to have a sense of the volume of stuff you have to deal with;
2. it lets you know where the "end of the tunnel" is; and
3. when you're processing and organizing, you don't want to be distracted psychologically by an amorphous mass of stuff that might still be "somewhere". Once you have all the things that require your attention gathered in one place, you'll automatically be operating from a state of enhanced focus and control.

The first activity is to search your physical environment for anything that doesn't belong where it is, the way it is, permanently, and put it into your in-basket. You will come across many smaller and larger items that nag at you, but that you haven't decided either to deal with or to drop entirely from your list of open loops. If you cannot physically put something in the in-basket, then write a note on a piece of letter-size plain paper to represent it. For example, if you have a poster or other piece of artwork behind the door to your office, just write "artwork behind door" on a letter-size piece of paper and put the paper in the in-basket.

Once you feel that you've collected all the physical things in your environment that need processing, you'll want to collect anything else that may be residing in your psychic RAM. What has your attention that isn't represented by something already in your in-basket? This is where the stack of plain paper really comes into play. I recommend that you write out each thought, each idea, each project or thing that has your attention, on a separate sheet of paper. In this instance, it's much better to overdo this process in terms of quantity than to risk missing something important.

If your head is empty of everything, personally and professionally, then your in-basket is probably quite full, and likely spilling over. Then you are ready for the next step, processing, which we will discuss in the following chapter.

Based on: David Allen (2001), Getting Things Done, Penguin Books, p.104-118.

Chapter 4 of "Getting Things Done" by David Allen - Book Summary/Review

This post summarizes chapter 4 called Getting Started: Setting Up the Time, Space, and Tools

From this chapter onwards, we move into the nitty-gritty practical implementation of David Allen's personal productivity system. A lot of the value that people get from his material are good "tricks". Tricks are for the not-so-smart, not-so-conscious part of us. We trick ourselves into doing what we ought to be doing. For example, if I put on exercise gear, I'll start to feel exercising; if I don't, I'm very likely to feel like doing something else. Another example, is putting something e.g. in the front door or on your bag, which you always take with you to work: The smart part of you the night before knows that the not-so-smart part of you first thing in the morning may barely be conscious.

A crucial first step in setting up your productivity system is preparing a workstation with the appropriate space, furniture, and tools. The basics for a work space are just a writing surface and room for an in-basket. If I had to set up an emergency workstation in just a few minutes, I would take a door, put it on top of two/drawer filing cabinets (one at each end), place three stack-baskets on it, and add a legal pad and pen.

There needs to be zero resistance at the less-than-conscious level for us to use the systems we have. Note that good tools don't necessarily have to be expensive. Often, on the low-tech side, the more "executive" something looks, the more dysfunctional it really is. The basic processing tools of a desktop work space are:

• paper-holding trays
• a stack of plain paper
• a pen/pencil
• post-its
• paper clips
• binder/bulldog clips
• a stapler and staples
• scotch tape
• rubber bands
• an automatic labeler or blank sticky labels you can write on
• file folders
• a calendar
• recycling or rubbish bin

You will use plain paper for the initial collection process. Believe it or not, putting one thought on one full-size sheet of paper can have enormous value. Another important part is the calendar. As noted in earlier chapters, the calendar should be used not to hold action lists, but to track the "hard landscape" of things that have to get done on a specific day or a specific time. There are many reminders and some data that the calendar will be used for. However, the calendar will need to be integrated with a much more comprehensive system that will emerge as you apply this method. 

One of the best tricks for enhancing your personal productivity is having organizing tools that you love to use and require as little time as possible during their use. When considering whether to get and use an organizer, and if so, which one keep in mind that all you really need to do is manage lists. You've got to be able to create a list on the run and review it easily and as regularly as you need to. Once you know what to put on the lists, and how to use them, the medium really does not matter. Just go for simplicity, speed, and fun.

Based on: David Allen (2001), Getting Things Done, Penguin Books, p.85-103.

Chapter 3 of "Getting Things Done" by David Allen - Book Summary/Review

Today, we are looking at chapter 3 called "Getting Projects Creatively Under Way: The Five Phases of Project Planning". It is the last high-level chapter before the book dives into the nitty-gritty practical implementation of these very useful productivity principles.

The key ingredients of relaxed control are (1) clearly defined outcomes (projects) and the next actions required to move them toward closure, and (2) reminders placed in a trusted system that is reviewed regularly.

As general rule, you can be pretty creative with nothing more than an envelope and a pencil. And there is a a productive way to think about projects, situations, and topics that creates maximum value with minimal expenditure of time and effort. It happens to be the way we naturally think and plan, but not necessarily the way we normally plan. This natural planning cycle consists of the following five steps:

1. Defining purpose and principles: It never hurts to ask the "why" question. Almost anything you're currently doing can be enhanced by more scrutiny at the top level of focus. This is nothing more than common sense, but common sense that is not commonly practiced. Asking why regularly has enormous benefits, such as defining success, aligning resources, motivating, clarifying focus, and expanding options.
2. Outcome visioning: When you focus on something it will instantly create ideas and thought patterns you wouldn't have had otherwise. Even your physiology will respond to an image in your head as if it were reality. Something automatic and extraordinary happens in your mind and body when you create and focus on a clear picture of what you want. What will this project look like when it'd done? How will you and other people feel about it?
3. Brainstorming: Get as many ideas out of your head written down. Don't judge, challenge, evaluate, or criticize. Go for quantity, not quality. Put analysis and organization in the background. 
4. Organizing: If you've done a thorough job of emptying your head of all the things that came up in the brainstorming phase, you will notice a natural organization is emerging. The key steps here are: (a) identify the significant pieces, (b) sort by one or more components, sequences, or priorities, (c) detail to the required degree. 
5. Identifying next actions: The final stage is about clearly defining the next possible action step for all open loops and allocating physical resources to get the job done. This step is absolutely crucial: creating a list of what your real projects are and consistently managing your next action for each one will constitute 90% of what is generally thought of as project planning.

How much of this planning model do you really need to flesh out, and to what degree of detail? The simple answer is, as much as you need to get the project off your mind. In David's experience 80% of projects are quite simple (e.g. set-up a new printer at home): You will still be doing the full planning model on all of them, but only in your head, and just enough to figure out next actions and keep them going until they are complete. another 15% or so of project might require at least some external form of brainstorming, maybe a mind-map or a few notes in a Word file. That might be enough for planning meeting agendas or your next holiday. A final 5% of projects might require the deliberate and formal application of all five stages.

Based on: David Allen (2001), Getting Things Done, Penguin Books, p.54-81.

Chapter 2 of "Getting Things Done" by David Allen - Book Summary/Review

Summary of Chapter 2 “Getting Control of Your Life: The Five Stages of Mastering Workflow”

Today, we will look at the second chapter of the excellent book “Getting Things Done” by David Allen. If you like this summary, consider getting your own copy of the full book. :-)

To manage workflow, there are five stages: We (1) collect things that command our attention, we (2) process what they mean to and what to do about them, and (3) organize the results, which we (4) review as options for what we choose to (5) do. Most people have major leaks in their collection process and many have collected things but have not processed what action to take about them. Others lose the value of their system because they do not regularly review it.

One of the major reasons many people do not have a lot of success with “getting organized” is that they have tried to do all five phases at one time. Most, when they sit down to “make a list”, are trying to collect the “most important things” in some order that reflects priorities and sequences, without setting out many real actions to take. But if you don’t decide what needs to be done about the upcoming birthday of your best friend because it is “not that important” right now, that open loop will take up energy and prevent you from having a totally effective, clear focus on what is important.

Stage 1: Collect:  In order to eliminate “holes in the bucket”, you need to collect and gather together placeholders for or representations of all the things you consider incomplete in your world – that is, anything personal or professional, big or little, of urgent or minor importance. In order to manage this inventory of open loops appropriately, you need to capture it into “containers” that hold items until you have a few momenta to decide what they are and what, if anything, you’re going to do about them. Then you must empty these containers regularly to ensure that they remain viable collection tools.

There are three requirements to make the collection phase work effectively: (1) Every open loop must in your collection system and out of your head; (2) You must have as few collection buckets as you can get by with; and (3) You must empty them regularly. It is also very good practice to always have at least one collection device (e.g. a piece of paper and a pen) ready in any location you might find yourself. This is because your best ideas often come when you relax away from work. Be ready to capture these great ideas before you forget about them.

Stage 2: Process: This stage is all about getting those collection devices (e.g. in-trays and email inboxes) empty without necessarily having to do the work right now. David Allen teaches a neat step-by-step process that goes through the following questions:

Is this item I just took out the inbox actionable?

a.      If not, then there are three possibilities: (a) trash it / throw it away if no longer needed, (b) no action is needed right, but something might be required in the future, so add it to your “someday/maybe” list, and (c) you file it as useful reference material for the future.

b.     If yes, then you do the action directly if it takes less than two minutes (other authors say five minutes). Delegate it if there is a better person to do it. Or defer it to a later point of time, if you are the right person to get it done, but it will take more than 2-5 minutes.

Stage 3: Organize:

For nonactionable items, the possible categories are trash, incubation tools and reference storage. To manage actionable things, you will need a (1) list of projects, (2) files for project materials, (3) a calendar, (4) a list of reminders of next actions and (5) a follow-up list to track things that you are waiting for.

A project can be defined as any desired result that requires more than one action step to complete. If you don’t have a placeholder to remind you about a project, it will slip back into RAM. Your list of projects will be merely an indexed list, while all the details, plans and supporting information will be stored in separate paper folders, computer files and other storage media. Once you have organized your project support material by theme or topic, you will notice that it is almost identical to your reference material and could be kept in the same reference file system. The only difference is that in the case of active projects, support material might need to be reviewed on a more consistent basis to ensure that all the necessary action steps are identified.

Another key to managing complexity is to start a someday/maybe list in which you record everything that you might want to do at some point in the future, but not right now. This is the “parking lot” for projects that would be impossible to move on at present, but that you don’t want to forget about entirely. You would like to be reminded of the possibility at regular intervals. Eventually, you will probably have subcategories in that list called for example books to read, seminars to attend, weekend trips to make and many others.

Stage 4: Review:

It is one thing to write down that you need to buy toilet paper, but another to be at the store and remember it. You need to be able to review the whole picture of your life and work at appropriate intervals and appropriate levels. So at least once week you need to do a weekly review of your projects list, your calendar, your next actions list and the things you are waiting for from other people.

You could, for example, for each Friday afternoon at 4pm have a regular reminder popping up in your Outlook reminding you to do just that: That is,

• Get all your inboxes to zero by doing everything that takes less than 2 minutes straight away and adding everything else to your next actions list. No item should remain in the inbox afterwards.
• Review this week’s calendar to ensure that you did not forget everything.
• Check next week’s calendar to gain a general overview and verify that nothing needs urgent immediate action right now.
• Review all your next actions, follow-up items and someday/maybe list

The more complete the system is, the more you’ll trust it. And the more you trust it, the more complete you’ll be motivated to keep it. The Weekly Review is crucial for exactly that.

Last, but not least we need some criteria to decide what to do in a given moment. That is, if all time-specific and day-specific actions in your calendar have been completed, you need to check your list of next actions, but which specific one should you choose? This can be done via the following framework:

1. Context: Many action items require you e.g. to be at home or in the office. These are the first factors that limit your choice.
2. Time available: If you have meeting in 10 minutes, then this would limit your choices further.
3. Energy available: Some tasks require a fresh mind, others do not.
4. Priority: This is where you need to access your intuition and begin to rely on your judgment call in the moment.

Chapter 1 of "Getting Things Done" by David Allen - Book Summary/Review

Today, we will review/summarise the first chapter of "Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity" by David Allen. I read the book for the first time about ten years ago and integrated many of its principles into my daily life with very positive impacts on my productivity and stress levels. Time to read the book again to refresh some of the knowledge. If you like the book, you can order a copy e.g. here at Amazon.

Chapter 1 sets the scene for the subsequent chapters and introduces the book's main ideas in a general manner. The basic premise of the book is that it is possible for a person to have an overwhelming number of things to and still function productively with a clear head and a positive sense of relaxed control. The methods presented in the book are all based on two key objectives: (1) capturing all the things that need to get done into a logical and trusted system outside of your head and off your mind; and (2) disciplining yourself to make front-end decisions about all of the "inputs" you let into your life so that you will always have a plan for "next actions" that you can implement or renegotiate at any moment.

Most people these days have way too much to do and the boundaries of all our projects are often unclear in this era of "knowledge work". And we have not been well equipped to deal with this huge amount of information and tasks. Therefore, we need a system with a coherent set of behaviours and tools that functions effectively at the level at which work really happens. It must incorporate the results of big-picture thinking as well as the smallest of open details. It must manage multiple tiers of priorities. It must maintain control over hundreds of new inputs daily. It must save a lot more time and effort than are needed to maintain it.

Reflect for a moment on what it actually might be like if you were so organised that you could dedicate 100% of your attention to whatever was at hand, at your own choosing, with no distraction? It is possible to stay relaxed and in control despite having lots to do. You can experience what some martial artists refer to as a "mind like water" and top athletes as the "zone". In fact, you have probably already been in this state from time to time. It is a condition of working, doing, and being in which the mind is clear and constructive things are happening. Your mind then acts like water into which a stone is thrown, i.e. the water responds totally appropriately to the force and mass of the input and then it returns to calm. It does not overreact or underreact.

Be careful: Anything that causes to you overreact or underreact in your daily life can control you. Responding inappropriately to your e-mails, your staff, your projects, your unread books and magazines, your thoughts about what you need to do, your children, or your boss will waste your time and energy and achieve less effective results than you would like. Most people give either more or less attention to things than they deserve, simply because they do not operate with a "mind like water".

You've probably made many more agreements with yourself than you realise, and every single one of them - big or little - is being tracked by a less-than-conscious part of you. These are the "incompletes" or "open loops", which I define as anything pulling at your attention that does not belong where it is, the way it is. To manage your commitments well, you need to implement some basic activities and behaviours:

1. Fully trust your system outside your own head: First of all, if it's on your mind, your mind isn't clear. Anything you consider unfinished in any way must be captured in a trusted system outside your own head. It can also be called a "collection bucket", which you know you'll come back to regularly and sort through.
2. Clearly define your next action steps: You must clarify exactly what your commitment is and decide what you have to do, if anything, to make progress toward fulfilling it.
3. Regularly review the content of your system: Once you have decided on all the actions you need to take, you must keep reminders of them organised in a system you review regularly.

You can fool everyone, but you can't fool your own mind. It knows whether or not you've come to the conclusions you need to, and whether you've put the resulting outcomes and action reminders in a place that can be trusted to resurface appropriately within your conscious mind. So your mind keeps reminding you about all sorts of "stuff" that you haven't yet transformed into actionable to-dos. However, it is a waste of time and energy to keep thinking about something that you make no progress on. And it only adds to your anxieties about what you should be doing and aren't.

Before you can achieve a state of control, ease and productivity, you need to get into the habit of keeping nothing on your mind. Many people struggle with this and feel that their projects are overwhelming because you can't do a project. You can only do an action related to it. May actions require only a minute or two, in the appropriate context, to move a project forward. The big difference comes when you really capture and organise 100% of your "stuff" in and with objective tools at hand, and not on your mind. An that applies to everything - little or big, personal or professional, urgent or not. Everything.


Source: David Allen (2001), Getting Things Done, Penguin Books, p.3-23.

5 questions to ask your doctor before every (expensive) treatment

Just like financial advisors and real estate agents, medical doctors do not necessarily propose a solution that is in your best interest. Therefore, if you do not want to be taken advantage of, you need to educate yourself and be proactive in understanding more about what is proposed. The following are five simple questions you can ask your doctor if a treatment is expensive and/or otherwise suspicious:

1. Which advantage/success can I expect from this treatment?
2. What are the associated risks?
3. What evidence is there that the advantage/success will really materialise? For example, are there any reputable long-term studies on the subject?
4. What could happen if I take more time to think and we both observe the future development of my issues? Often, the "wait and see" option is a very reasonable and cheap alternative.
5. Would you also carry out this treatment on yourself or your family members? If your doctor cannot or does not want to answer this question with confidence, then you should probably go to somebody else.

Asking these five simple questions is definitely a step out of the comfort zone for most of us. However, it becomes much easier with practice and if we regularly remind ourselves that much is at stake here: Our health and our money! As a personal example, I used to blindly agree with whatever my dentist would say was needed for my teeth. Later, when I changed dentists due to a move in my workplace, it turned out that several of the tooth fillings I had received earlier were totally unnecessary and of poor quality. Moreover, be suspicious if a particular doctor is using very open marketing techniques e.g. by strongly recommending specific products of affiliated businesses without mentioning alternatives.

Source of the five questions: Eckart von Hirschhausen, http://www.hirschhausen.com/engagement/gute-fragen.php

Some tips for how to deal with financial advisors, real estate agents, and other similar "advisors"

Every day, a large number of people become victims of "advisors" (also called "financial advisors", "real estate agents", and many other names) e.g. when buying insurance, taking out a home loan, or buying financial products. To minimize this risk, consider doing the following:

• Never be afraid to ask: "So, if I go ahead with this, how much money would you earn with this?". An honest advisor will not be afraid to answer, nor dodge the question. If possible, also consider hiring an advisor that you pay by the hour, rather than somebody who earns a commission by selling specific products.
• No promise or assurance is worth anything, unless the advisor provides it in writing. Insist on adding a written sentence to the contract for anything that is vital to you. For example, "The parties agree that this insurance/home loan can be terminated by the customer after 5 years without any additional cost". After all, companies expect you to usually sign hundreds of legal clauses, so why should you not be allowed to insist on the things that are important to you? If an "advisor" refuses to accommodate your wishes, politely end the conversation and talk to somebody else.
• Take the time to read each clause in a contract. Cross out anything that you do not feel comfortable with.
• Always ask: "What is the full cost including all fees and levies?". Get it in writing.
• Avoid "advisors" that only sell products of one particular company. Contact at least 3 different advisors that each sell products of multiple companies. Openly communicate that you are "shopping around". For example, say "Thank you for your offer. I will think about it, compare it with other offers I received, and then select the one that suits me best." Thus, you can communicate in a polite way that you are not easily taken advantage of.

Overall, these tips might sound simple, but most people (including me at times) fail to do them in practice. It takes some time to get comfortable with using them. So, let's practice them as much as possible, so that we will not be the "sucker" again. :-)

Three important questions to ask before starting any project of personal development

Before you start a new project, it is a good idea to pause for a moment and ask yourself the following three questions:

1. Why am I doing this? It is easy to get lost in a lot of activity without being sufficiently clear about the purpose of your journey. Have you considered other ways of achieving the same goal? For example, many people work extremely hard and burn themselves out in the hope that at some uncertain point in the future they are going to travel, practice their hobbies, and enjoy life. However, there are ways to enjoy life in the here and now that do not require much money and come without the risk of burnout. Moreover, travelling and practicing hobbies might also be better done now rather than later, since in the future you might no longer be able or interested in doing so.
2. Who says that it is worthwhile pursuing? Is it really you who wants to undertake this project? Or is it a mere result of peer pressure / other people telling you what you should do? If your goal is in line with what everybody else is doing, you should at least be slightly suspicious :-)
3. What will I do once the goal is reached? It is a common phenomenon that people become discontent shortly after they reach a goal. They have to face reality and can no longer hang onto the idea that everything is going to be better once their goal is reached. So how are you going to handle this situation? For example, Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, found it very hard to adjust to normal life after returning to earth. Moreover, achieving goals often has decreasing marginal returns, i.e. you need to achieve higher and higher goals in order to keep achieving the same level of contentment. Additionally, once a goal is reached many people find that they get over the initial excitement pretty quickly, and face the pressure to keep working very hard just to maintain what they achieved.

For your next or current project, how are you going to answer these three questions?

Based on: Niazi-Shahabi (2014), Ich bleib so s... wie ich bin - Lockerlassen und mehr vom Leben haben, p.221-224

A very important life lessons to be learnt from the movie "About Time" (2013)

"About Time" is a beautiful movie about time travel and how to make the most out of life. A great key to happiness is the following:

"Live every day as if you had traveled back in time just to enjoy this very day!" :-)

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Reviews of the "About Time" (2013) movie can be found e.g. here: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/about_time/

How can we become more persuasive?

The ability to persuade others (via speaking or writing) is absolutely key to success in life. The good news is that we can all work to improve our persuasion skills. These skills are not rocket science and many might call them 'common sense'. However, the truth is that most people are not good at applying them in practice. So, what can we do?

The Greek philosopher Aristotle provided a great framework to categorize persuasion skills into three main areas:
(1) Logos: the rational logic content of your message
(2) Ethos: your credibility as the messenger
(3) Pathos: the feelings and attitude of your audience

For each of these areas, we can take practical steps to improve. Regularly practicing these steps will make us more persuasive. Here are a few examples:
Logos

• Ask: "What are the 1-3 key points that I would like my audience to remember?". Focus your message on these key points.
• What analogies and metaphors can I use to illustrate my points? Will these suit my audience?
• Draw two overlapping circles. In the first, write the topics you alone are interested in. In the second, write the exclusive interests of your audience. In the overlapping area, note topics that are interesting to both yourself and the audience. In your persuasive message, focus on talking about these common interests.
• Repeat your main points several times.
• Where possible, be specific without adding irrelevant information.
• Where possible, make comparison with facts that your audience already knows.

Ethos

• Practice to really listen to people. Sounds easy, but is one of the hardest things to do in life :-)
• Always answer the implicit question: "Why should my audience listen to me?"
• Use humor where appropriate, i.e. it suits your personality type and the respective audience.
• Think of things that you can afford to give away as a gift (material or immaterial). People usually feel like returning the favor.

Pathos

• Spend extensive time to know your audience. Who exactly is your audience? What is their background? What are they most interested in?
• Give examples of other people and organizations that are already doing what you are proposing.
• Actively engage your audience, e.g. by asking questions or practical exercises.

So, what are you going to do to regularly work on your persuasion skills? What is your time plan to achieve these goals?

The power of "power postures"

For those who have not seen it, I highly recommend watching Amy Cuddy's TED talk on power postures. Available, for example, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks-_Mh1QhMc

Here are some useful key take-aways we can apply in our personal lives:

1. Assuming a powerful, confident and relaxed posture, e.g. opening up your chest and arms, can significantly boost your level of confidence prior to crucial events, such as job interviews or presentations.
2. Pay attention to your posture during the day and correct whenever you notice a problem. For example, try sleeping in a power posture and enjoy the additional energy you will have the next morning :-)

How can you apply power postures in your life?

Some take-aways from the book "You don't have to be born brilliant"

Just finished this very good book by John McGrath and thought that there some very valuable insights that I would like to share with you.

1. Retrain your mind to habitually think thoughts that are useful. Being positive and solution-oriented is always the best choice. This does not mean to ignore pain or suffering, but rather to look for solutions wherever possible and to accept what is not changeable.
2. Most change comes slowly and requires hard work and persistence. Don't give up and you can improve your life in the areas that matter most.
3. Be disciplined and use systems to automate mundane areas of life, e.g. checklists, routines and information technology. Note: A brilliant example of this is described in David Allen's "Getting Things Done". This way, you free up your mind to do the really important things, e.g. doing creative thinking and working on your most important life projects.
4. Regularly update your personal goals (long and short-term) and discuss them with people holding you accountable. By clearly knowing the direction of your life every day, you are much more likely to make the right decisions and find new creative solutions to problems you encounter.