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Without further ado...

Key GTD Terms and Definitions -

This week we're taking a brief intermission from our series on the eProductivity Today View (Part 1 | Part 2).

Instead, we'd like to present a concise list of key GTD terms that appear inside eProductivity. David Allen's Getting Things Done® (GTD®) methodology is the foundation on which eProductivity is built. GTD is used everyday by millions of men and women around the world and empowers them to be more productive.

Having a strong grasp on the following GTD terms and concepts will assist you in using eProductivity to your greatest advantage.

Action: a single, physical, visible step to get something done. (e.g. call Fred/draft proposal/wash dog)

Project: Any outcome that requires more than one action step to complete

Sidebar: A key GTD best practice is to have clearly defined options when you are choosing what to do. With eProductivity, we support this by giving you the ability to distinguish between “Next Actions” (your next, physical, visible action steps that are project related or not) and “Actions” (for capturing project related future, sequential, or dependent actions that would follow the Next Actions.)

Context: The locations that work can be done in. Can be geographical (e.g. At Office) or it can be resource-based (e.g. At Phone)

Waiting For: Commitments you are tracking that are dependent on someone or something else

Tickler: A system for tracking date-specific actions in the future

Someday/Maybe: Items that you might want to do in the future, but have no current commitment to complete

Reference: Items that do not require your action, but have value as information to hold on to

Weekly Review: A weekly walk through of your commitments so that everything stays clear and current, freeing you to be creative

The GTD Workflow Diagram
The Workflow Diagram is another building block to working productively. It's worth studying closely:

The GTD Workflow diagram is available as a free download from the David Allen Company Store.

Editor note: This is a guest post from Amanda Bauman that was originally posted on the Lotus Technical Information and Education Community Blog. She regularly blogs there. Amanda first learned about eProductivity and GTD from the "Getting Things Done with Lotus Notes" webinar in April 2010. She is now a passionate fan and is working on sharing her story with others.

As you may know by now from my previous blog posts, I've been trying out David Allen's GTD methodology, and have also taken a keen interest in eProductivity, created by Eric Mack.

Lucky girl that I am, I got to take a much needed vacation with my family in Mexico for almost 2 weeks. In the past when I took any sizable chunks of time off, It was always with the dread knowledge that I would come back to hundreds of emails to wade through, many of which require me to do something, and many of which would fall through the cracks until somebody reminded me that I missed something. Not what you want to face when you're coming down from a sun-soaked, fun filled, stress-free couple of weeks with the family, right?

So it was with a little bit of pessimism that I started my day on Tuesday  -- my first day back at work.  I felt myself kind of wince a little bit as I launched Lotus Notes and synchronized my local replica mailbox. I had visions of a slot machine in Vegas with prize going up up up, finally stopping at the number displayed in my inbox, but without the euphoria. Let's just say that had my number of  unread emails equaled a Vegas jackpot, I might consider taking another (shorter) vacation ;).

Continue Reading: "No Post-Vacation Email Woes" »

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