Wake Up Eager Workforce 
Episode 127 Transcript

Episode Preview:

In this episode of the Wake Up Eager Workforce podcast, host Suzie Price explores the connection between relaxation and productivity, inspired by David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology. Discover how a calm, focused mindset leads to greater efficiency, engagement, and overall success in the workplace.

Through expert insights and practical tools, learn how to reduce stress, improve decision-making, and create a high-performance work environment. Whether you're a leader, hiring manager, or employee, this episode provides actionable strategies to stay organized, energized, and productive without burnout.

Tune in for key takeaways, including the Wake Up Eager Productivity Framework, and start transforming the way you work today!

Read the transcript for Episode 127 below to dive deeper into these insights and take your productivity to the next level.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Suzie Price: your ability to generate power is directly proportional to your ability to relax do you associate power with relaxation David Allen does he is the author of a book called Getting Things Done The Art of Stress Free Productivity and his quote and the system that he has created really ties to what we care about here at the Wake Up Eager Workforce podcast it ties into the wake up eager philosophy that productivity can come from a place of calm that we can be eager around the things that we have to get done and all the inputs and the things that we do every day we can provide a sense of calm we can create a sense of ease we can wake up eager and so today's episode is all about this productivity system called Getting Things Done also known as GTD and this isn't about just getting things done it's about stress free productivity and it's the art of that and it has completely changed how I work and how I live my personal life and my professional life and if you've ever felt overwhelmed by all the things on your plate if you've ever been distracted by unfinished tasks or exhausted from constantly trying to keep up with all the incoming things that are coming your way this episode is for you the system is for you and I can't wait to share it with you Michael hit it

[00:01:25] Intro: welcome to the wake up Eager Workforce podcast a show designed for leaders trainers and consultants who are responsible for employee selection and professional development each episode is packed full with insider tips best practices expert interviews and inspiration please welcome the host who is helping leaders trainers and consultants everywhere Suzie Price

[00:01:52] Suzie Price: welcome to the Wake up Eager Workforce podcast I'm Suzie Price and I'm your host and I'm here to provide you with tools resources encouragement and inspiration to help you create a wake up eager life and a high commitment low drama wake up eager workforce this episode is sponsored by my company Priceless Professional Development and today's episode is No. 1 27 and our title for today is The Art of Getting Things Done Immediately thoroughly and cheerfully are you getting things done immediately thoroughly and cheerfully let's talk about it so I mentioned at the opening about getting things done the show notes for today have that same name so you'll go to pricelessprofessional com forward slash getting things done we're going to have good links there to some workflow map of the GTD process the natural planning model links to our guests and a lot of other materials there so don't forget the show notes you can easily find it at Priceless professional.com forward slash getting things done here's what we're going to cover today we're going to review GTD when you talk about how and why it leads to stress free productivity you're going to hear from two top users of GTD who have graciously shared their time about their GTD journey as well as their top tips and insights I'm going to talk about two principles that I use that I tie to GTD segment intending prepaving and then also the idea of emotional well being so actually that's three 3 things but they all kind of fit together how all that ties into getting things done and lastly we're going to hear from our well being coach Douglas White he's the executive coach and CEO of Soul Integrated Athletics and he's back with Segment 4 of well being 2.0 aligning with your excellence we have a great episode for you today and I'm so happy that you're joining us I hope that you will like and subscribe to the episode and to the podcast and that you will share this if this is if this is meaningful to you share it and or leave us a recommendation or a review that would be wonderful what is GTD it's first it stands for Getting Things Done it's productivity methodology the author of GTD's David Allen's core idea is your mind is for having ideas not holding them think about that is it all running around in your mind do you have somewhere to put it so you can find it so his system captures this idea of freeing up mental space by having everything in this system so that you can find it and he talks a lot about the psychology of this you have to read the book to kind of get all the insights and to go into more detail but you'll have a good overview from today between me and our guest but when you capture everything in this system and you know what's next you free up that space and you reduce stress and you trust that you can get to what needs to be done when it needs to get done and it increases your ability to focus and be present helps us relax it helps us be productive and so that's why I shared that quote from David you know our ability to generate power is proportional to our ability to relax so how relaxed are you we have more power when we're not stressed we think more clearly we enjoy life more and that ease can become a way of life and so this book is played a big part of that for me and you know there are books in our lives I can say that there are few that when there was me before I read the book and there was me after I read the book and this is one of those books those books that become touchstones and turning points in our life um I remember I'll give you a couple examples Stephen Covey's book 7 habits I actually found that out of college and it changed my life there was a Susie before I read that book and a Susie after and these are books I've read multiple times another book I found in 2018 Greg Mcuhuan's essentialism the Discipline Pursuit of less same thing I was Susie before became Susie after change it changed me changed how I think and then GTD it came to me at a perfect time I was five years into the creation of priceless professional development and I was trying to figure out how to do all that I needed to do I didn't have a clear mind I was completely stressed out I wasn't getting things done immediately thoroughly and cheerfully and I don't know if I was completely stressed out but I was definitely moving faster having some success but I was not handling it that well and I needed to up my game and I remember you know we always have those moments I remember when I found that Stevie Covey book 7 habits I remember being on a plane and listening into essentialism I think about how many books we read but those moments that are pivotal I remember getting that book GTD from the bookstore and I went to a restaurant on Barrett Parkway in Marietta Georgia and started reading it because I kind of felt like I have got to get some help and as I was reading it I felt hope because I knew it held the answers and that was my start and as you know anything good that changes how we think we have to come continuously revisit it and if it changes how a lot of the world works we continually revisit it so I by no means a master in this book but in this process but it really really helped me and when I found it you know as I mentioned my business was gaining momentum and the old processes that I was doing weren't working anymore there was a lot more incoming so that it's a motivating thought that David Allen talks about with another quote he says with more success we must up our game and he says the better you get so if your business is growing or more things are coming at you and you're having more success the better you get the better you better get so in other words we had to up our game we got to have more ways to do what we do and do it better I want to now introduce our two high performing yes today who also have been touched by GTD they've got a lot of experience in it and they are very talented and very high performing professional they've agreed to take some time to share their experiences with GTD you're gonna meet John first and then Greg Goluski um they're gonna introduce themselves share a little bit about their background and how they found GTD um and you'll just this will be a start of what they share so let's listen to them now

[00:08:26] John Oman: Hi Suzie, first of all, thanks for inviting me. For the sake of your listeners, my name is John Oman, and I own and run a business in technology consultancy called Dog on Good Technology. We're located in the mountains of northern Georgia, and our focus is on small to medium-sized businesses. I started this business in 2010 when I was in the latter years of my corporate career in healthcare. In that environment, I both saw and, frankly, was frustrated by the inefficiencies of even very large companies. Once you got down to where the real work was being done—roughly meaning the department or the team level—it was true then and unfortunately persists today in many businesses of all types and sizes. A classic example might be when the definition of collaborative work is something that involves chains of reply-all emails flying back and forth that contain multiple versions of document or spreadsheet file attachments, where seemingly no one knows what the most current version is. While the scale may be smaller, very similar situations continue to exist in the SMB space, and that's our mission—to educate and improve both business processes and supporting systems, usually but not always technology-based, but designed to improve business outcomes, whether that be business volume, profits, or sometimes just reducing owner workload and stress. Regarding my discovery of GTD, it's probably a little different than most. I've always been somewhat of a personal productivity junkie, as well as a pretty structured individual—you know the type, someone who thinks, even brainstorms, in outline form. Very early on, I latched onto a book and a system by a fellow named Hiram Smith. He wrote a classic book called The 10 Natural Laws of Time and Life Management, and this was, in essence, a classic top-down driven system where you first define your personal core values, which determine your goals and progress through project plans and daily tasks. Success daily was measured by your ability to accomplish tasks that provided results against the very goals that were determined by your core values. So you can see how that would appeal to the structured or ordered individual. Now, Smith was the founder of a company called Franklin Quest, and his system was what became the wildly popular Franklin Planner. Ultimately, as you know, they merged with Stephen Covey’s company to become Franklin Covey, where largely the philosophies and systems persisted. As to my actual introduction to GTD, after starting my career in academia and clinical practice, I subsequently was recruited to corporate healthcare, and pretty early on, about 1989 or so, I had the opportunity to take part in a company-sponsored time management training course. The training vendor was a company called Time Design, which produced a paper planner that was a European-based competitor to Franklin Quest. Interestingly, the instructor for this live training course actually was a rather affable young man named David Allen. Now, this was over a decade before he wrote and originally published Getting Things Done in 2001, but clearly there were aspects of this training that foreshadowed GTD, and it appeared to me to be almost diametrically opposed to the top-down systems I was used to. At the same time, he exposed the trials and tribulations of the modern work environment, where frequent change could—and, in fact, frequent change could and did—cause an ever-changing, potentially chaotic environment, one that could easily disrupt your best-laid-out plan for the day. So what made me look seriously at this sort of reverse methodology, at least in my mind, what made my adaptation of GTD attractive, was that it provided a step-by-step algorithm—something that structured folks like myself are inherently attracted to—but a step-by-step algorithm on dealing with incoming things, whether it be phone calls, emails, letters, what have you. This GTD workflow is both concise and orderly, and as long as you periodically review your system, things just don't fall through the cracks. If something gets lost in the shuffle or appears to fall through the cracks, it's either because you consciously chose to kick that can down the road, or you didn't review your system. Now, for me personally, folks who use top-down systems can fall victim to over-planning and under-doing. It can become too easy to just push today's undone tasks to tomorrow. GTD has certainly helped me avoid that. Both the two-minute rule and the focus on available time and energy as a determinant of what to do next have been key for me. Now, I do find the bigger picture aspects of GTD a little too loose and fuzzy for my liking, but for those who can adopt the idea that to achieve higher levels of fulfillment against what's important to you, you first have to clear up all the things constantly nagging at your psyche and subsequently release your creative self—if you believe that, then GTD can accomplish both the ground-level and the higher-level things in your life. I continue to use it. For me personally, I find the need to have a more structured approach to the big-picture things and the values that support them, so I retain some aspects of top-down systems. My mantra about this whole apparent conflict in system types is, I quote, "Plan top-down and execute bottom-up." So the remnants of the Franklin Quest system that my values drive my goals and projects, while GTD drives my ways of actually getting things accomplished. It's not just folks like myself who can benefit from GTD. I don't think it's that narrow. I think anyone subject to losing productivity when their environment becomes crowded, confusing, and conflicting is a candidate for GTD. Multitasking is not the answer to the chaos. An approach that gets things in a system that can ensure and direct you how to effectively deal with the chaos—a system like GTD—will be helpful. The biggest thing for me has been the peace of mind of knowing that things aren't falling through the cracks and will someday suddenly come back to haunt me at some unexpected moment. This means I don't have any psychic baggage that's distracting me from being fully present in my work. Making decisions not to deal with them right now doesn't mean failure—it means I've made a conscious decision that something else is more important and productive right now.

[00:16:42] Grzegorz Godlewski: Hey, it's Grzegorz Godlewski speaking, but you can call me Greg to make things easier. I'm joining you from Poland. Privately, I'm a husband, a father of two, a dog daddy to an ever-barking Welsh Corgi, and an amateur triathlete. Professionally, I come from an IT engineering background and have worked with several software and service companies over the years. I started as a freelance programmer about 20 years ago and have been building software and products ever since because that's what I love to do. For the last 10 years, I've been leading software development projects and teams as a technical leader, analyst, architect, or product owner, often switching roles interchangeably. Then, just last year in December 2024, I stopped working on customer projects entirely and decided to use my personal and professional experience differently by becoming an entrepreneur and fully committing to building my own product, SimplyDo, which is designed for GTD practitioners. I attempted to implement GTD twice in my life. The first attempt was around 2010 or 2011 when I was a 23-year-old student at Vrije Universiteit van Technologie, working as a freelance web developer at the same time. That attempt was unsuccessful. The second was in 2016, by which time I had corporate experience and worked in senior technical or leadership roles. It might seem like I had to either mature or slow down a bit, but this time, I successfully integrated GTD into my professional life step by step, introducing concepts gradually and moving forward only when I felt comfortable. My first attempt in 2011 coincided with my final year of full-time studies while working freelance, which later turned into full-time employment alongside my studies. That period was intense—full of tasks, missed deadlines, broken promises, and sleepless nights. It was clear that such a pace wasn’t sustainable, so I turned to self-management and self-development literature for guidance. I can’t recall exactly how I first discovered Getting Things Done by David Allen, but it was likely mentioned by another author or recommended by a publisher. The title alone seemed like the solution to my problem, so I picked it up. As I read the book, I learned about key concepts like actions, projects, lists, waiting-for items, someday/maybe lists, and levels of focus. I read stories about corporate managers attending David’s training, but I struggled to relate to their experiences. My own life and challenges felt completely different, even though I, too, had a constant mental overload. I became discouraged by the perceived complexity, the lack of shortcuts, and the difficulty in directly applying the system to my situation. Ultimately, I shelved the book. By 2016, after working at multiple companies, I was operating in corporate environments and had started my leadership journey. Life felt less chaotic and more structured, or at least I was able to see things more clearly, name them, and understand them better. Perhaps this shift in perspective came from my exposure to corporate structures, or maybe I had finally grasped the idea of "controlled chaos" described in agile methodologies. At that point, I needed a framework I could trust to bring order to the chaos, which led me back to GTD. This time, however, I took a completely different approach. Instead of returning to the book, I found the official GTD Workflow Map—a single printable page that visually depicted the entire system. As a visual learner, this immediately clicked for me. The map became my roadmap, allowing me to cherry-pick concepts like inboxes, actions, projects, and folders, which I gradually incorporated into my productivity system. I referred back to the book or other materials from David Allen’s company only when I wanted to deepen my understanding of specific ideas. Eventually, I built a complete productivity system without implementing every concept from the book or even the full GTD Workflow Map. Now, I don’t keep everything in my head—my system is structured, up to date, and always ready for me to engage with when needed. As Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said, "Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." That philosophy guides me—I take as much as I need, but no more. To sum it up, I was drawn to GTD because it promised salvation from the chaos. I continue to use it because it allows me to feel in control while still acknowledging that I operate in a constantly changing and volatile environment. I’ve accepted that reality, and GTD provides me with the tools to navigate it effectively.

[00:22:40] Suzie price: I love how John emphasized how this system leads to peace of mind, so it's not just me saying it—he's experienced it as well. That he doesn't feel haunted, which are great words. I mean, I can't tell you how many people I talk to who are. They might not use the words haunted. If you get to know them really well, they might tell you, "I'm a little bit haunted." And sometimes it shows up as anxiety. They're unable to sleep. They're stressed out when they wake up. He doesn't feel haunted by what's not done, and he has no psychic baggage. That is great language to how we often feel about all the things that we need to do and whether we're on top of them or not. And I agreed with Greg on so many things, and he shares some more great things as we go forward. They both do. But the title of the book Getting Things Done—when he saw it, it seemed to be a solution to his problem. And I felt the same way, kind of fell off the shelf. It's like, okay, I gotta read this book. And he also shared how it's been a journey in integrating the process over time. And so for me, it was incremental as well. There were things that I did initially that helped, and little by little, I put it down and then I come back to it. And so it's still refining my process today. So it's one of those things that's always helpful, but usually added into our life a little bit by little bit. Or maybe we jump all in, but it's definitely a process. So as I mentioned, you'll hear more from John and Greg as we move forward.

Here's another great quote from David Allen: "You can do anything but not everything." And this aligns well with the idea of remembering that we must prioritize and make sure that when we do prioritize, that we're focusing on the most important tasks rather than trying to tackle everything at once. You know, that's that psychic baggage. That's that feeling haunted. You know, "Oh my God, everything's important, haha!" And so we can't—we can do anything, but not everything, as he reminds us. So we're gonna go into—I'm gonna talk about the GTD system, but I wanna share two principles that I use that have helped me bring a sense of calm and focus to all the actions that I take. And they tie in really well with exactly what GTD is helping us do. And the first principle is segment intending, and the second is pre-paving. They're a little bit similar, but segment intending is the idea that each action is a new segment. If I make a call to my mom, that's a new segment. If I'm eating my lunch, that's a new segment. If I'm recording this podcast episode, that's a new segment. If I'm walking my dogs, meeting with my assistant, talking to my husband—so segment intending is recognizing that we're walking into something new many times throughout the day. So it's the practice of consciously pausing, and sometimes I don't pause, but I'm so intentional about each segment. You know, so I'm pausing, or I'm being intentional about each segment of my day, and setting a positive intention for what I want to experience. So overall, I want to wake up eager. I want to have great relationships. So instead of picking up the phone to call my mom—she's elderly, and it can be challenging to talk to her—maybe I don't call her when I'm totally stressed out and I can't have a calm and easy mindset. Something that helps her and makes me feel better when I can be that way. Or maybe I make sure that I'm really prepared for this podcast episode, and I'm ready for it before I do it and then I'm rested. So segment intending is understanding that there are new segments and understanding that how I feel in that segment matters. That's a big part of this, and GTD is helping me be better, more intentional in all these segments in our life. We can always clarify the desired outcome, literally or just throughout the day, knowing that there are new segments, and it just becomes a way of who you are. "This is a new segment—I'm going to go walk the dogs now. So maybe I want to put on my favorite speaker and listen to that or have some music and make sure my puppies are comfortable." I mean, every moment being intentional, because all those moments make up our day. And if we lose track and we're not intentional about those segments, we lose track of creating our wake-up eager days and being in the middle of being conscious of what we're doing and how we're doing it, what we're thinking and how we're feeling. So it doesn't mean you ignore how you feel—you pay attention to how you feel and maybe rearrange things when things aren't quite right. Like I said about my mom, you know, don't call her right yet because I'm not aligned, I'm not ready to be there for her. And the other concept I want to mention is pre-paving, and it's a related concept. So pre-paving is, again, setting intentions, but it's for the future. You're laying the groundwork so that vibrationally, energetically, mentally, emotionally, you are planning—setting out in front of you what you want to happen. So it's about envisioning success. It's thinking about positive outcomes so that we energetically attract those experiences. So pre-paving, segment intending—they tie into Getting Things Done methodology because GTD is all about reducing mental clutter and increasing clarity and effectiveness and ease. So they go together.

So I'm going to go through the five steps of GTD, and then I'm going to mention segment intending and pre-paving, and then we'll hear from our guests. There are five steps in GTD, and they are: capture, clarify, organize, reflect, and engage. And in his book, he goes into great detail. There are tons of episodes, or podcasts, or videos on YouTube that talk about the different steps. They have a podcast themselves, which I have linked to. So if you go to the show notes at pricelessprofessional.com/gettingthingsdone, you will see a link to their podcast, a link to the book, and also a workflow map image that I have in a folder. And when I was first learning how to do this and making decisions, that workflow was very helpful. So I've got a link to that. Again, all of that's at pricelessprofessional.com/gettingthingsdone, and that's always one word, lowercase. Okay, let's quickly—I'm going to touch on the five steps. You're going to need to read the book and find out more, but I'm just going to give you a flavor of it. The first step is capturing all your inputs, and he goes into great detail in the book and gives some really good examples. But your inputs are notes that are in your purse, in your pocket, in your inbox—your physical inbox in your office, voice memos. Inputs that I use—an app where I've listed things in my inbox there, things in my inbox in my email, everything that is sitting around you that needs to be done. And he really makes a good case in the book about this—you just have to do this. The first time you do it, it's harder, but once you are caught up and you start doing it, it's not hard at all. And the sense of relief of capturing everything—so it's what's in LinkedIn, somebody you need to follow up with, Slack, your Slack channel. I've enjoyed using Slack lately with my assistants. Physical inboxes in home, social media channels—everything, all the inputs. Once you’ve captured all of that, you clarify. So that’s step two. And this is—what are you going to do with each item? Is it actionable? And you define the next action—that is a big thing. So instead of it being a nebulous thing, it has to happen. The way to ground yourself when you're worried about a project is you just start with, "Okay, here's the project, what's the next thing I need to do?" And then, "What's the next thing?" And, "What's the next thing?" And if you've got a next action—or if you don't have a next action—then do I need to delete this thing or throw it away? Send an email? If I don't have a next action, let me get it out of my inbox. Or do I need to throw it away in the trash if it's a physical thing? Or do I need to store it?

And he talks about reference—having a reference place. And so I have a place for that here in my office, right behind my desk. Things I don't need every day, but I need to get my hands on. And also, you might create systems that will help you do this.Something I need to focus on someday or later… a someday maybe list… so I don’t need to take immediate action, but I need to focus on it in the future.So that—he has this great two-minute rule. So if an— and I want you to listen to this, ’cause this is how I started, and this really helped me, ’cause my inbox—everywhere, all my inboxes, but especially my email at that time—was out of control.But if an action in your inbox comes across to you, and it takes less than two minutes to complete it, do it immediately.So track yourselves—count two minutes—don’t get caught up in, “Oh, it took 15 minutes.” If you’re trying to just clean it out, you’re—you’re—you’re gonna use the two-minute rule. You’re gonna do it. If it takes longer, you’re going to delegate it or defer it. So if—if you know that it’s something you need to keep, you’re going to delegate it to somebody or defer it and put it on a list—so some way you can get to it later. And this simple habit is a game changer. As I mentioned, it’s a first—it’s how I first got started with GTD, and it provided immediate relief by clearing up small tasks quickly and efficiently. I always go through my inbox, and there’s things that I know only take two minutes, and instead of filing them or leaving them there, I just do it. And it’s amazing how much you can get done and move off your plate—respond to somebody, and you don’t—you don’t have to read it again. The idea is you don’t handle paper twice, or you don’t handle that email twice. You do something with it. Huge. Huge start to the process. So we have gathered all the inputs. Now we’ve clarified what we’re gonna do with them. Then we organize them. And that’s what we talk to. We create these lists and projects that we can track. We put appointments on our calendar. We put things in the reference materials. We do that, and then we reflect. And so, reflecting is—after we’ve organized everything, we conduct regular reviews of our system to stay on track. So if we have a system that’s wonky and we haven’t visited it in a while, we won’t go back to it. We’ll just stay away from it. It doesn’t help us anymore. So—they have a weekly review process, and this is the glue that holds everything together and makes it a useful system. It helps you think about—and I do this every week on Sundays—I go through what’s coming up the following week, what’s in my inbox that I need to file or I need to do something with it.Just clean and get caught up. Cause—the idea is to get clear, to get current, to get creative, and to commit to what’s on your list and what’s coming up. That is powerful. And then the last is engage. And this is just—executing the task by working from your list and working from your system. So, there’s five steps that I’ve just talked about: capture, clarify, organize, reflect, and engage. Very simple—kind of—reminders there. I didn’t tell you enough about it for you to totally get it, but once you start doing it, it will change everything. And you know, when I look at—when I talk about segment intending and pre-paving—clarifying and organizing steps become mirrors to segment intending, because they both involve—thinking about what you have on your plate, pausing before diving into action, setting an intention, determining the next best step—rather than reacting impulsively. So—it really does tie in well with segment intending and the pre-paving. So you’re thinking ahead. You’re doing things intentionally. They have you create these lists—calls, errands, at computer—you know, things that you could do in your downtime. And it allows you to—when you have some downtime, or you have, say, I have five minutes, I’m in between a call—I can go look at those lists and say, “Oh, you know, that’s something I need to do. I can do that right now.” So—you’re constantly switching between work and personal and professional. And it’s a form of, “Okay, what can I do right now that would feel good with this time?” as opposed to, “I have five minutes—I’m doom-scrolling through social media.” You know— Or—I could go look at something that I need to do—and do it. And I can only find that if I have those lists through this system. And I like what David Allen says: "Much of the stress that people feel doesn’t come from having too much to do—it comes from not finishing what they’ve started." That is the case, you know. I’ve started this project, or I had this idea—you know, I wanted to do this podcast on this, I wanted to connect with somebody. We’ve all had all these things—we have ideas for, or things we’ve started, but we’ve not finished them, or we don’t have a way to track them easily. These steps—these five steps in this process—along with segment intending and pre-paving help us get clarity and completion, which bring relief and reinforce the importance of each of the next actions and help us close loops, as opposed to all that baggage—the psychic baggage that John mentioned. You know, all that—that’s hanging out in our brain—it goes away, and it’s sitting in this system so we can go find it when we can get to it. And that’s what creates calm and creates—you know—commitment. And you know—I talked about the Weekly Review. The Weekly Review is pre-paving in action, because it’s the structured process where you’re—you’re—you’re taking, you’re looking at your system, you’re seeing what’s undone, loose ends, you’re planning for what’s coming up. You’re pre-paving. You’re setting up your system in mind for success for the week ahead. And it’s—you’re in the act of doing that—is having you be in charge of what’s next, what you’re doing. It’s—it’s the act of visualizing a positive experience before it happens. And so—the Weekly Review—and you know me—I set up every week, I know what I’m doing each day, I know what’s most important, I know what the priorities are. It helps me look ahead through the month, and it allows me to mentally and practically pre-pave. I am approaching each day with confidence and clarity. So—I do my Weekly Reviews, but usually, the night before, I leave—I look for what’s the next day. What are the six things that I’m—I’m gonna do the next day? I tend to use six. I might have 20 things on the list, but what are the things that have to happen? And I’ve talked about that a lot—a lot—the list of six. But all of that fits together really nicely with GTD. So GTD, segment intending, pre-paving—that helps shift the focus from reacting to life to deliberately creating our life, to increasing alignment and well-being. And it is fantastic—so fun to share it with you. Hey—let’s listen to Greg—he’s gonna talk about how the GTD system has benefited him, and let’s hear what he has to share. [00:37:21] Grzegorz Godlewski: And how did GTD help me? Well, in personal life, I was able to build up a second brain, actually, where all important stuff is kept and reviewed on a regular basis. I quite quickly realized that I’m not good at remembering dates or even people’s names—sorry—and I tend to hyper-focus on something for many days. Like, when I get into a zone, I’m sitting there for multiple days, forgetting about the outside world, actually. And GTD gave me a regular review and a reminder framework so I don’t lose touch with reality and my other obligations or, you know, important events. So, it allowed me to become more present for the ones closest to me. And that’s, like, super important, especially if you’re kind of like an achiever—like me—a person who has a lot of endurance in doing what they do. And sometimes, we tend to forget ourselves too much. On professional grounds, I think that GTD helped me a lot in my career. It’s easier to get promoted when you have a reputation as a person who gets things done efficiently. And GTD definitely helps with that. Although, in the professional sphere, it has to be assisted by skills like assertiveness or negotiations—because having the system on its own isn’t going to do the job for you. It’s actually you doing the job—not the system. Then, you need to defend that system in many ways, on different occasions. And I think the third big area where GTD helped me was getting back on track and achieving some sort of alignment when it was necessary. And I think that the bottom-up and top-down analysis, combined with GTD’s altitudes of focus, is super powerful. These two techniques have helped me many times over the years. And just to give you an example—so, some time ago, I got really flooded with different types of to-dos. Like—everything is to be done, right? That’s—that’s how this usually starts. And this quickly became hard to manage. So, what I did is, I listed them all on a list that I called my temporary inbox. And then, I did the zero-inbox technique—so, I clarified what each of those items is. Is it an action? Is it a project? Is it a someday-maybe? Then, I moved one level up to the areas of focus, and I tried to group each and every one of those actions, projects, and someday-maybes into organizational roles. Like, you know—marketing, development, project management, people management. And this helped me to understand that I’m actually doing someone else’s work. Because some of those activities don’t fall under my responsibility. So, once I listed them down, I kind of put some colors on them, and then I saw—what’s mine and what’s not mine. And I managed the situation by moving the work to the right people. It’s just—at some point, we’re too busy to recollect or reflect on what’s going on. And this is the point where we have to stop, list it all down, and do a check-up. And I think that, in GTD terms—clarifying and mapping these two areas of focus, bottom-up, is very helpful. This way, you can identify areas that really shouldn’t be handled by you—but perhaps you should hire somebody to take care of them instead. And having done it this way also gives you a nice reference material for talking with your managers—on how to improve the process, how to improve things around your position. So, you’re actually meaningfully contributing to the organization—which, most of the time, is highly appreciated. But that was on the professional ground. And on personal ground, I think the natural planning model from GTD is quite great. It allowed me to design my life, really. So, once I identified my purpose in life, core values, and principles, I was able to lay out a vision and define long-term goals and objectives to make that vision happen. And, you know, when you know what you want from life, it’s so much easier to say no to things that would prevent you from getting that life. And it also helps to let go of opportunities that, frequently, are really problems in disguise.

[00:42:16] Suzie price: I like that Greg says it very simply and it's very true, and it's been my experience. It helps us deal with the reality of chaos—haha—so that's a really nice acknowledgement. You know, it's a reality—chaos—things are happening around us, but we don't have to be chaotic. And I love that he also talks about starting small and adding on. As I mentioned earlier, the 2-minute rule was the first thing that I applied. Greg also mentioned the Natural Planning Model, and I want to mention this—it ties very nicely with the five steps that we just talked about for the GTD framework. It's the GTD method for projects, and it's amazing that we don't all do this all the time because it's so logical and intuitive. When you hear it, you'll be like, "Well yeah, that makes complete sense." But how often are we doing it? I love this GTD method for projects—the Natural Planning Model—because it helps us think through projects in a logical and intuitive way. It encourages defining outcomes and brainstorming steps before jumping into execution. And those of us who have personality styles where we move pretty fast, we can jump into execution too quickly. That's why I'm always talking to you about, when we're talking about hiring, "Have you created a dashboard?" That's the strategic template for success in the role. The dashboard is the three to five priorities in the job, and that is this. This is the Natural Planning Model. So let me define it for you. I actually have a link to some notes on this in the show notes at PricelessProfessional.com/GettingThingsDone so you can reference it. But it's going to make complete sense to you.

There are five steps: The first is the why—why are we doing this? Define the purpose and principles. Why are we doing this project? Why are we doing this podcast? Why are we doing anything that we're doing? You can create projects when you're using the GTD method. What's the "why" of this project? The second is the what—what's success? What's success in the role? What's the outcome? You can visualize it, you can list it—these are the things that we want to happen. The third is the how, and the first part is brainstorming—just crazy ideas. The rule of brainstorming is that all ideas are on the table, so you just put all the ideas down and have everybody share. The next part is organizing—you then organize the ideas, bucket them together, and prioritize. Finally, you identify what’s next—what are our next actions?

Very simple—but apply it. Try this the next time you're going to start something: Why am I doing this? What’s the outcome that I want? Brainstorm how we're going to do it—have your group or team help brainstorm. Bucket the brainstormed items, organize them, and prioritize. Then identify, "Okay, what's next? What are our next actions?" This model follows phases that occur naturally anytime we need to work through a process if we're thinking about it logically. But most people, as I mentioned, don’t always plan this way—I certainly haven’t always done it. And when we don’t do these things, we don’t know why we’re doing them. We don’t know what success looks like. It’s like when you’re hiring—if you don’t know why this role exists and what success looks like, it’s going to be really hard to pick the attributes, hire the right person, and have people on the same page. So that’s a project. This is a game-changer for leaders. This Natural Planning Model—if you’re not doing it, you’re not getting things done on purpose, and you’re not getting things done immediately, thoroughly, and cheerfully.

They all go together: Immediately says, "Okay, it needs to get done. I'm going to work on it, and I'm going to do it immediately." Thoroughly means understanding why we're doing it, what’s involved, visualizing success, brainstorming, and organizing ideas. Cheerfully happens because we’re clear on what we’re doing, we’ve thought it through, and we’re all on the same page. There are lots of benefits to this. It helps you define your purpose and principles. You can do it very quickly. You can put your ideas into stages, sequences, and priorities. It makes a project active. It really ties into what I care about when I think about those principles I talked about with pre-paving and segment intending. Because you're thinking ahead, you’re visualizing. Rather than hoping things will go well, you’re proactively designing how you want the projects to unfold. There’s a lot of power there. Don’t forget—we’ve got show notes that have a link to the Natural Planning Model handout. It'll give you tips and insights. You can find it at PricelessProfessional.com/GettingThingsDone. Let’s hear from John now—he’s going to share more about the tools he uses and provide tips for use. Take it away, John.

[00:47:03] John Oman: Now you may wonder why is it that I in particular chose Nirvana as the application that I used to implement my sort of adaptation of GTD. And I started my experience with digital productivity with a task management system known as Toodledo because it satisfied my perceived need to be able to slice and dice, filter and view all of my projects and tasks in a seemingly endless manner. But the actual user interface was a little clunky. I mean, this was back in the early 2000s that I started this, and both the direction and the logistics of the product changed when the company was taken over from the original developer by a new group. So I was on the hunt for a new tool.

I landed on Nirvana largely because it was built from the ground up for GTD, it had elements that supported top-down planning as well as the GTD methodology itself, and in actual day-to-day use, its workflow was fast and frictionless. Not only was it built specifically for GTD, for example, it has built-in status lists for next actions, including Next, Later, Waiting, Scheduled, or Someday. The tagging system is outstanding in that there are three types of tags: Areas, Labels, and Contacts. I personally use Areas for my core values, and any projects I create that support one of those values can be tagged as such, so I can see at any time how much effort I'm devoting to each core value. The label tags can be used for whatever you like, and the context tags can be used to either reference or assign a project or a task to an individual or type of individual. There's a terrific focus capability that allows you to narrow your view of projects and tasks to those that are due or any other criteria you may choose. An individual task can also have properties of how much energy they will take and how long they will take to accomplish. There's even a separate section for reference lists and items in those lists. In short, it's darn near perfect for implementing both GTD in its pure form and variations of GTD. So it's no wonder that the productivity YouTube channel Tool Finders has once again named Nirvana as the best app for GTD users.

I became an advocate of Nirvana because the tagline for my business, Dog On Good Technology, is "Simple solutions, significant results," and we often invoke the Albert Einstein quote: "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." I believe that Nirvana fits this bill perfectly. In the seemingly never-ending world of productivity apps, there are some that are simpler, and there are certainly those with many more features, but I just haven't found one that fits in the right spot on the simple-to-complex spectrum and is just plain easy to work with. So you might wonder, as I've developed my own personal productivity system, are there other tools that I've invoked because they seem to support or work well alongside GTD? And actually, we've developed our own approach to personal productivity, which at this point we loosely—loosely meaning we don't promote or train it as a product or service—we loosely call it Six-Pack Productivity. That refers to the idea that there are six distinct types of items you deal with, and you need a system or technology that accommodates each of those six. Based on individual preference, these six types of items can be dealt with using either a different location for each or a multi-purpose app that can effectively handle multiple types of items. A full description is beyond the scope of this discussion, clearly, but it does produce a few tools that I've found helpful for various aspects of enhancing productivity. In particular, everyone needs a calendar—I use Google Calendar. Everyone needs a place to store files—I use Google Drive. I also use Google Keep for a couple of narrow things. It's not a really robust note-taking application, but it's very quick and very easy to use, so I use it first of all for reusable checklists, and I will say checklists are unbelievably helpful. I highly recommend reading a book called The Checklist Manifesto, a book by Atul Gawande. I also use Google Keep for simple reference items and information that you may need to retrieve either quickly or often. Obviously, I use Nirvana for projects and tasks. I use Google Contacts for an address book. And most recently, I've been really pleased with using a product called Recall at Recall Wiki for personal knowledge management, or sometimes referred to as your second brain. Those who are familiar with the concept of your second brain know how valuable it can be. Optionally, people often use specialty apps for unique, narrow purposes, such as shopping lists, a diary, or habit tracking. If you're just getting started with GTD, my recommendation—and people will dispute this—but despite the idea that David Allen recommends up to two full days dedicated to nothing but jump-starting your GTD setup, I just don't know too many folks who can afford either that amount of consecutive time or tolerate the constant focus needed to do that over a couple of days. I suggest taking one or two aspects of your current situation and GTD-ing them. For example, I took my projects and tasks first, but I delayed my reference items and filing system till later. I did the same with my physical space. But delay doesn't mean ignore. Rather, it means you've got another active project with next actions to get on your list. So getting your filing system—that's a project, and maybe a big project. And maybe your physical space is a project—again, another big project. And for experienced GTD users who sometimes get away from it, I find most often folks are struggling with weekly reviews. I have two possible suggestions there.

The first relates to your inevitable level of increasing anxiety as your time between weekly reviews expands. I suggest each time you're considering delaying your weekly review, you stop, take a couple of deep breaths, and ask yourself honestly: How comfortable am I feeling that there's nothing that's going to slip through the cracks between now and when I think I might get my next system review done? If just asking that question provokes a level of anxiety, you probably need to prioritize your review. Depending on the actual list of items you review, both quantitatively and qualitatively, you may be able to construct an abbreviated review process to tide you over. But if you do, I would be very vigilant about this not becoming your new normal for reviews. For experienced GTD-ers who may get into a work session or a workflow where they find themselves bouncing from one quick item to the next—or, frankly, from one irrelevant but easy item to the next—and not getting too much meaningfully accomplished, I find that a few rounds or a half-day or so of using the Pomodoro Technique gets me back on track. I honestly find it a little too constrictive to use all the time, but it does help me when I'm floundering and I really need to bring myself back into a better workflow. And so I guess, let me summarize everything I've tried to say. First of all, GTD is a great system. I wouldn't have thought so many years ago, coming from the top-down sort of Franklin Quest/Franklin Covey type of planning and execution. Those systems suffer some when the workflow—the incoming—comes at you fast and furious, and there's nothing that I know that's better than GTD for handling that, which is why I now adopted the plan-from-the-top-but-execute-from-the-bottom type of strategy. When you're going to do GTD, as David Allen says, the system matters—the tool doesn't matter. It can be paper, it can be any number of applications. I'm particularly fond of Nirvana because it hits my sweet spot along the complexity versus simple continuum. And actually, I think not only was it built specifically for GTD, I think it actually enhances GTD with some of the capabilities it has. And so, if you find discussions like this useful or you want to learn or explore all things Nirvana-related, please feel free to join our public Facebook group. It's entitled Nirvana for Practical Productivity. So, Susie, once again, thanks for inviting me, and I hope everyone has a great day.

[00:57:19] Suzie price: You can see that we are great fans of the GTD process, and many of us have been using it for years. Why does it work? It frees up our mental space so we can think clearly. It reduces stress by eliminating the mental clutter of unfinished tasks. For me, it's a place where I can put all my ideas. I must have an idea a minute, and without a place to store them, I’d drive myself crazy. I love that this model helps me keep all those ideas in one place, making them available for reference or eventually deleting them. The good ideas are easy to find. It helps me prioritize every day. You can do a lot of things, but you can't do everything all at once. Staying focused is key, and if you know that what you're focusing on is based on well-thought-out priorities, you gain a sense of calm. You don’t feel like you're missing what’s important. GTD is a structured system that allows you to handle incoming tasks efficiently, making you feel less overwhelmed. I still have moments of overwhelm, but I always pay attention to how I feel. I don’t ignore it. Instead, I ask myself what I need—maybe I need rest, or maybe I need to do my weekly review and work my system. Whatever the right next action is, GTD helps ensure success. When John was sharing, I thought about how I met him through a Facebook group he runs about the productivity app Nirvana. It’s something he does freely, and it’s based on GTD principles. I was searching for an app that truly supports GTD, and Nirvana stood out. There aren’t many good apps for this, but Nirvana is a strong option. It’s on my phone, iPad, and desktop, all syncing seamlessly so I can capture, clarify, organize, reflect, and engage—all core GTD steps. I think John or Greg mentioned it being a second brain, and for me, it really is. Actually, it’s my better brain because everything is there, helping to clarify my thinking every time I look at it. I have all my projects and next actions available at any moment. If you're looking for an app to support your GTD system, Nirvana is worth considering—it keeps everything at your fingertips. I do my GTD weekly review in different places—sometimes on the couch, sometimes in my office. It really helps. Now, we're going to hear from Greg. He’s going to talk about his use of GTD, who can benefit from it, and share some great insights. He’s also working on a tool called Simply Do, and I’m eager to check that out. Links for that and other resources, including books Greg recommends, are available in the show notes at PricelessProfessional.com/gettingthingsdone.

Let’s listen to Greg from Poland now.

[01:00:25] Grzegorz Godlewski: I continue to use GTD because it became an integral part of my productive lifestyle. I think we are creatures of habit and if certain things work for us we don't see the need to change it especially if you see that it's not only you getting the benefits of living that productive life this spreads to your surroundings your family your friends co workers in the company you name it and who have I seen benefit from GTD I could go with many examples I'll just pick a few. So first of all when I was acting as a mentor as part of a mentoring program at one of the companies I was working with two of my mentees who I've introduced to the basic principles of GTD and since we are not working together anymore but I do have some contacts with them and I can see how much of a fulfilled life those guys live one of them is also building his own products along the way the other one is you know like traveling and working so that's also super cool. And when I was participating in the official GTD training back in December I also had a possibility to see people from other fields than IT one of them was working as an insurance agent and the second was parade worker working around like payments payroll stuff and each and every of them came with a different set of problems all of them were solved by GTD during the training and I recall the thoughts that they shared at the end of the training which were somewhere around the lines of whoa this is way much more easier now like I I kind of feel in control of what's going on that's a manifestation of you know like getting the benefit right people saying it out loud. What are some of the ways that GTD has reduced stress and contributed to my wake up eager life I like the reference to the wake up so I'm just going to stick to that and since I don't keep anything in my head I go to sleep with a mind at peace nothing is haunting me when I'm trying to get to sleep and a good sleep is essential for priority identification and GTD in general right so most importantly it's good for your health. Secondly I'm aware about the existence of my 25 inboxes yes I'm having around 25 actively used inboxes in my life and I know that the things are popping there all the time when I even when I sleep and since I know that I will reduce them back to zero again after the kids are in the kindergarten and I switch to GTD mode also gives me peace whatever it is it's there it will be decided upon tomorrow around 9 a m that's it. And running my daily and weekly reviews ensures that I don't miss anything about the past present and near future and I think that that you know like the fear of missing out effect known from social media and news is also present in the personal productivity space under the term fear to forget something a mind boggling thing wrecking your productivity really and thanks to these two practices the Daily Review and the Weekly Review from GTD I wake up knowing that I have already bought the birthday presents ahead of time and I can focus on my priority of the day pretty much without worrying about anything else. So that's my recipe for building up a wake up eager life. Why simply do I'm creating simply do because as a GTD practitioner I couldn't find an app that would really match my GTD workflow ma'am I felt that I will have to bend it somehow to the tool chain and I need the tool to support me and not force new things on me and naturally there are GTD oriented apps available out there I tried most of them I guess but I didn't stick to any of them in the end different reasons in case of different apps. Okay but people may ask well why does the world need another GTD productivity app and I think this is where the core ideas and values behind simply do come to the stage cause I think that leading a fulfilled productive lifestyle isn't only about a user friendly interface that allows you to store your tasks reaching that state requires a proper mindset set of habits and the tooling and all of them are equally important so you can imagine simply do as a all in one productivity suite for individuals who want to become and most importantly stay productive. I plan to achieve that by building an educational path and necessary GTD based tooling and motivational features that would help in reinforcing the good habits so when we are talking about GTD and simply do I want to lower down the entry barrier of GTD for newcomers provide a natural environment for the existing practitioners and keep everyone using it by adding good habit fostering elements right because too many times we started to use productivity solutions to ditch them after some time and this is for various reasons. So depending on when you're listening to the podcast simply do can be still in the early access program mode or it can be already out live I warmly invite you to give it a try and check it out. What are the few other good tools that can support or work alongside with GTD I'm just going to stick with a mind tools so the tools that your mind can use and that's because GTD helps you to build up physical and a digital system where you can offload things that reach you but this system is susceptible to erosion if you don't protect it and by erosion I mean at least two things. First of all you keep no longer relevant actions or projects in it and it starts to become rusty which leads you to stop paying using it and second of all you have too many inputs in your life that are constantly flooding your inboxes and you are just fighting for survival of yourself and your GTD system so you're just getting overloaded at the entry point and that's going to pose a big problem. In both cases I would highly recommend expanding your understanding of productivity beyond GTD read both the essentialist and the effortless by Greg McCain and the one thing by Gary Keller and J Papasan each of them will uniquely contribute to your life and support your GTD system because it's going to provide you with some mind tools some principles and guidance which can prevent what I've mentioned earlier so you will be able to identify what's really important and what's not and this leads to trashing more things directly from the inbox and swiping out irrelevant stuff from your system on a weekly basis if you do those weekly reviews with the principles mentioned in in the books which I've mentioned above you will be looking for better ways of doing things so that you get things done with less effort and that's a key to high effectiveness so doing the right things instead of the things. That were just simply written down and you will build a focused mindset that will again help you to trash more things from the inbox and improve maintenance speed of your system because if you switch to working on one aspect of your life or one project within a quarter nothing else then is as important as that single project that you've chose and then you can freely discard the rest out of your system and this might sound extreme especially if you are type of a person who struggles to let things go or to say no to things but trust me once you learn how to do it you will never want to go back where you came from. What kind of tips do I have for new GTD students or users looking at Greg from 2011 I want to say if you find yourself in a hole stop digging I think I was too busy to improve at that time and this might be the case for many people who seek help from GTD I know it's hard when you're in your 20s and you feel indestructible but it's essential for you to create a dedicated space where you can grow that new thing go for a weekend retreat somewhere where you can focus on learning and getting inspired without disruption magic happens outside of the environment filled with you know like things which are which look at you and they scream for your attention so you have to run away from that mess for a day or two immerse in the new thing immerse into GTD let it sink in without any disruption that's very important. Second tip would be that when introducing new concepts to your life such as GTD I would highly recommend following the learn apply repeat cycle and I think that you know like self development books are not reading for the plot I mean you can lose it halfway through so instead read a chapter stop for a moment reach respect on what you've just learned try to fit this in your life come back in a day or two I would recommend checking a short video about GTD on the internet first and then moving to the GTD workflow map to plan your discovery path like in my case right so I was using that map as a road map and then I was coming back to the book but I think that the learn apply repeat cycle learn try it out apply repeat cycle is very important because we learn by doing not by trying to ingest all of the knowledge from the book it doesn't work that way I mean it doesn't work for me patience is definitely not one of my strengths so this might be part of the issue but if you're like me you would like to take it slow you would like to take it bit by bit because I find it difficult things are difficult you have to have a different approach. And the third one following above I would say that introducing methodology like GTD means habit and behavioral changes and these types of changes are super challenging because you will have to do a good portion of unlearning as part of their process so you will identify habits that stop you from making GTD work for you and you have to work against them and here I would recommend The Atomic Habits by James Clear a great book on habits reinforcement and building up your habits this helps this helps really really a lot. And what kind of tips I would have for experienced GTD students everybody says it so I'm just going to repeat do your weekly review weekly if you don't do it you won't fully free your mind from the open loops so the things which constantly are returning to your mind after you kick them out reserve one hour in your calendar each week to meet the most important person yourself so if you are really about to be your own boss you'll need to have this time and I think everybody has that possibility that's one hour in a week everybody can do it whatever you say I would treat as an excuse sorry. And the second recommendation would be to keep at a checklist of in boxes so the places where things pile up and what I've liked about the GTD training back in December and we were supposed to identify those inboxes but that list was prefilled bullet point number one said the first flat surface after entering the apartment which actually raised a smile because everybody has that flat surface after entering the apartment where things are dropped off yeah that's an inbox these are unfinished things you have to decide about them as well as I've mentioned earlier like my list consists of around 25 in boxes and most of them is reviewed each and every day and this spans from missed phone calls unread SMS messages WhatsApp messages Messenger LinkedIn messaging notifications my inbox in simply do to things like physical mailboxes or even the staircase in my home because that's also a flat surface where things pile up we just have this bad habit of putting everything on the staircase if we don't know what to do with it and yeah that's an inbox and having this list is also you know like relaxing because you are aware about the places where things are so this gives you that notion of okay I'm in control of things because I know where to look at to check if there's anything that I would have missed it is so simple yet so beneficial. And the last tip would be do not stop only on GTD a GTD system which you've built requires protection requires maintenance you need a set of values and principles which will allow you to stay productive and keep the system running and keep the system clean so once you're done with building up the system make sure that you improve on the other skills so that you are able to protect that system from corruption from erosion. Thank you Susie for inviting me to the wake up Eager Workforce podcast I really hope that what I've shared during the episode is going to be beneficial for each and every of you guys and I must say that it was really a pleasure to contribute to the episode so thank you once again for that wonderful opportunity.

[01:15:24] Suzie price: Greg shared about one of his favorite books essentialism with Greg Mchughan we did an episode about that book and the processes that's one of those books that's on my list about Susie before and Susie after essentialism the discipline pursuit of less I did an episode with Catherine Foster who is our brand manager and social media expert just an overall wonderful person she's so bright and so I've got a link to that episode if that interest you can learn more about the book but that was a book that's on my game changer change my life books you're one of those that you know fall into your hands and you think oh my gosh how what did I do before I knew this kind of like with GTD so as we kind of come to a close here today how can you get started with ETD get the book capture everything in your mind tasks ideas commitments into a paper digital tool like Nirvana or visit simply do when it's up he's got his website I'm not sure when it's actually going live but just start off with the book I've read the book and then I've listened to it by audible you can also look on YouTube there's lots of videos where people talk about it and then my starting point was the two minute rule if a task takes two minutes or less do it now and then another easy start is if you have something that you need to do and you're having anxiety brain shut down about it release some of that shut down by by maybe doing the natural planning model but if you can't get to that think about what's the next action I need to take the absolute just next action not everything but what do I need to do next and go do that that will release some of your tension so I'm so excited to share this with you I want to share a couple more things in this process this is a thinking process but it also is life is not just thinking and it's not just our mind it's feeling and feeling is actually something we all do all day every day and sometimes we're not the greatest or as comfortable with talking about feelings and what to do about them and so that's why I kind of like the segment intending in the pre paving cause like how do I feel going into this segment and and am I paying today attention to that as opposed to just putting the task before the person putting the task before my own well being and so it's one thing to get things done it's another thing to do them cheerfully and so that's why we have those descriptors getting things done immediately thoroughly and cheerfully so we do it right with appropriate speed but we're also happy about it and all of that comes together to create this wake up eager life so I'm going to now turn it over to what we've been doing for the last four episodes which is hearing from Douglas White it's the well being 2.0 segment aligning with your excellence and it's Douglas is the CEO and executive coach for Soul Integrated Athletics this is segment 4 in his series and he's talking about non having non judgment about our emotions so accepting our emotions and if we do that we'll actually move through them more quickly you know the bad ones that we kind of don't want to feel that we want to push away we'll move through those more quickly and it helps us expand the energy and the vibe and the happiness and the goodness we bring to what we're doing so he's gonna talk about how contrast and adversity serve us let's listen to Douglas now

[01:18:49] Douglas white:  Hello everybody this is Douglas White back again very excited segment number four for emotional well being 2.0 aligning with your excellence okay so here we go we talked about observation in segment 1 we talked about emotions in segment 2 and we talked about beliefs in segment three okay so now I'm trying to do this in a way where there's some order to it right which is not very easy in the way of speaking about all the things that are happening to us for us with us in our lives but I'm gonna do the best I can with it so I still am we're still talking about foundational stuff right so we talked about observation as a way of creating awareness we talked about our emotions obviously that's the purest of the pure in in foundational work our beliefs definitely wanna be aware of those and in relationship to those right but here's something else we want to know about a foundation of life these three things emotions duality and contrast so we already talked about the first one emotions understanding that our emotions are guidance it's a navigation it's an interpretation it's information and our ability to allow ourselves to feel each and every emotion and be okay with it non judgment in regards to that that is only gonna assist us in our lives and we'll keep talking about emotions as we get going here but the next one is duality duality is pretty interesting because sometimes we fight with feeling certain ways and so this is one of those deals like hey no need to fight anymore about this this is always gonna exist in our universe we are always gonna have duality which means if you have the access to big time love then you also have the access to big time pain if you have the access to big time hate or anger you have the access to big time compassion and so oh and and caring and so the duality is there for our expansion for our good it's something that we definitely want to have and here's the thing most people shut down in life meaning I don't want to feel this pain this hate this anger and so I just shut it down but the funny thing about it is if you really want to have that access to love and to that self empowerment and knowledge and freedom you gotta be okay with the duality in this world and you gotta be okay with sometimes going through some of those tougher emotions because again it's all for our own guidance it's amazing thing and so now let's get into the contrast contrast is never not gonna be contrast meaning let's say adversity let's say a negative experience that you might be living contrast is something so good for you because it helps you find tune what do you now want you know what you don't want what do you now want contrast helps helps you find tune whoa that was my relationship with that this time these are the actions I took these are the decisions I made hmm I might wanna go this route the next time and so we have our emotions we know about duality it's never gonna go away we know about contrast it's never gonna go away we just wanna let it go surrender to those parts of the universe understanding that when we're living here on earth those things we can't ever let go of emotions duality and contrast I hope that gives you guys some more foundation some more clarity it's definitely going to help as we continue to move forward with these segments love you guys so much see you the next time

[01:23:04] Suzie price: If this is the first time you've heard this segment and you want to check out the other segments that Douglas is sharing with us, you can see them. We have them listed at pricelessprofessional.com/wellbeing. We also have a link to how to contact him if you would like to reach out to him. And just thank you, Douglas, for being on the show and sharing your goodness and your perspective with us. As we come to a conclusion here today, I want to share a little bit about some templates on how we can use segment intending and prepaving with GTD. So during our GTD Weekly Review, that's where you're looking through everything that you've got on your plate and what's coming next week, and you're organizing what the priorities are. You're doing the five steps. I want you to always know what your key priorities are for the week. So do you know that? Do that now. That's prepping for the week. Do you know how you wanna feel as you handle different projects? If your idea is, "I wanna be calm, confident, and productive," and you know that you don't feel that way as you're thinking about—so say, for example, I'm teaching my Deeper Dive Trimetrics training, and I feel like I need to organize it or I need to revisit it—well, I'm gonna put that on my list because I'm paying attention to how I feel about that project that's coming up on Friday. And so I'm going to put some time on my calendar, I'm going to prioritize that, and then, you know, thinking ahead allows us to pay attention and make sure we're aligned, that we're caught up, we're ready, and we're eager for the week. So we're going to prepay for the week, you know, by using the GTD system and remembering that prepaving is about setting your intentions. And then we're going to do segment intending for every day. And so I do this in the evenings before I leave. I go look, or I may do it after I leave my office, but, you know, before I go to bed, and think about what is most important for the next day, 'cause I had a plan, but things might have changed. And so I always do what I call a list of six, which I mentioned earlier, and I think I've done episodes around that. We could probably find that and put it on the show notes. But what tasks or meetings are ahead? What's changed? What are the six things that have to happen tomorrow? I might do 25 things, but there are six things that have to happen the next day. You know, our well-being, our wake-up eager days, and our wake-up eager life are created by how we interact and how we feel throughout our entire day. And so planning what you're going to do the next day so that you have a great day the next day helps you create this virtuous cycle. You know, so how do you want to show up for each of the things that you're doing, that you've committed to, that are your priorities? What's your outcome? Be thinking of all of that. You're taking it to the next level. We're thinking about every week, whether we're thinking about every day, and then we're thinking about each task or each meeting again, doing this segment intending and using a little bit of that natural planning model. What's the purpose of this? What am I trying to achieve? What do they need to achieve? What do they want from me? How do I want to feel? What kind of energy do I want to bring? Am I ready for it? What's the best possible outcome? There is so much to tie together, you know, with this and with the natural planning model. And then I guess I would say that a bonus is, at the end of every day, I close out each day with appreciation. And I like appreciation even better than the word gratitude. Gratitude is—I don't know, appreciation just ties to love. You know, "Here's what I loved about today. Here's what felt good about today." And that sounds hokey, but I'm telling you, what went well? You will be surprised if you start typing that out in the evenings. It takes five minutes, and you'll like it so much you'll do it longer. But you will be surprised at how many good things you did. I think we don't give ourselves enough credit. We're hard on ourselves. Most everybody is thinking about—if you give yourself credit for how you felt, how you showed up, what happened, how you achieved, and you give yourself—you know, "I was patient with my mom. I walked my dogs." I mean, just all that list is very aligning, and it's a great way to recognize for yourself—to not need feedback from others about what you're doing well. Feedback from others is good, but people aren't always very focused on us and what we're doing as much as we'd like them to be. Sometimes they're just not. So we have to be our own internal guidance system that says, "You know what? This is what you're doing well." And so, what went well today? Do that at the end of the day. And I use my Day 1 app. I mentioned that before. It's on my iPad. It's just easy. And I've just really gotten into a rhythm about it. I start each day with it as well. Where did you stay aligned? What's something that you appreciate? What's something you did really well? And you'll be surprised at how much good you did, and that starts to add up. And then the more your tank is full on your well-being and who you are and the value you bring, the more you can be there for other people. It's not arrogant to do this. Fill your tank, and then you will be able to help others more effectively and be present.

So just a recap: Use the weekly review prompts every Sunday or Monday. If you start using GTD, go get the book. Read about it. Do quick segment intending before your workday and before key meetings. How do I want this to go? Why does this matter to me? You know, how am I feeling? Am I bringing my best self here? Use prepaving prompts for major projects. And reflect at the end of each day to reinforce your alignment and your goodness, 'cause you've got all kinds of goodness. All of these practices are going to help you move through your day with clarity, ease, and flow, and it's going to make GTD, segment intending, and prepaving a powerful combination for a wake-up eager life. As a reminder, GTD is so much more—and I hope you realize that now—so much more than just a time management tool. It's a way to create a life with less stress and more clarity so that you can focus on what truly matters. So if you struggle with feeling overwhelmed or distracted, I encourage you to give GTD a try. Check out our show notes for all the links at pricelessprofessional.com/gettingthingsdone. I'd love to hear how GTD works for you. Maybe we'll do additional episodes around this because it's a key part of things—that system that helps me. I'm thankful for it. Every day when I'm doing my list of appreciation, I'm thankful for this system and how much clarity it brings to me. So connect with me on social media or email me with your thoughts. We spend a lot of time on social media, on LinkedIn, so check us out there. You can find Susie Price, and then you can also find Priceless Professional Development and Wake Up Eager Workforce Podcast there as well. Thanks for tuning in to the Wake Up Eager Workforce Podcast. Until next time, stay clear, stay focused, decide that you're going to get things done immediately, thoroughly, and cheerfully, and wake up eager every day. All the best.

[01:30:14] outro: This episode of the wake up Eager Workforce podcast was brought to you by Priceless Professional Development. Thank you for tuning in. If you enjoyed today's show, head over to Priceless professional.com to gain access to more professional development resources.