Aligning Actions with Higher Horizons

Hi everyone. Welcome to our GTD Connect webinar on how to choose what to do I'm here with Anna Maria Gonzallez. Hi Anna Maria Hey done Good to see you And in addition to helping out regularly with these GTD Connect webinars. Anna Maria's main role at the company is that she's called the Is it super or senior master trainer I think Super sounds more fun. Yes, okay, Super. She's the super master trainer And that means that she's very good at it, of course, but it also means super as in above, above She's the one who trains the trainers who train the trainers. Im She's handling training and certification for trainers who train trainers around the world Okay again, thank you for joining for attending. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. In addition to John loving to say that I'm the supermaster trainer, I like to think of myself as a strong GTD practitioner So I would not only be sharing with you from From my role as supermaster trainer, GTD coach, GTD trainer, but also and as important as a GTD practitioner whichich levels Lvels us all together because you're all practitioners. so I always like to think of these webinars as a Sure, of course, we have the job of giving you the information. But we don't necessarily know at all or have the last answer. It's a wonderful opportunity to collaborate and discuss and ask questions and U you know, clarified doubts, et ccetera. Every time I have to have an opportunity to interact with someone regarding DTD I always like to think of how can we dissect? this methodology in such a way that that we continue to to gain a deeper understanding and we continue to Strengthen our competencies in our GTD behaviors. So please know that I come strongly from that place too. So we're all equal in that way and interrupt me as many times as you want or need to Whether that's because you raise your hand and Dohn, you know, kind of John is watching all of you in the tack box because I can do all of that at the same time So feel free to raise your hand on Zoom or feel free to open your mic and say you have a question or feel free to type a question in the chat box I think you're all professionals at this moment with Zoom, right, Don. We're all good in terms of. Yes. I think by now everybody is pretty good at navigating needeting software, including Zoom Exactly. And we're recording, right? We're ready to go. We are recording Yeah. Okay. So today's topic, we have an hour or a little less than an hour at this point to Be done But certainly, the purpose for choosing this topic, it's in a way when I was getting preparing this with John regarding how how do you choose what to do? It's really think of We're going to magnify time, our understanding our practice pretty much on the engaged step because that's really when in GTD, we have an opportunity to actually decide what to do, as well as decide what not to do. So even though the step five it's known as engage, it doesn't necessarily translate to doing Engage can also be As in Well It's well known when we talk about getting things done and when we say getting things done, it's not about getting things done, but about being appropriately engaged Engage can also be taking a nap Engage can also be stopping for a moment, Egage can also be looking out the window I mean, there's so much science these days that confirms the need for u quiet time The need for reflection, the need for being bored, you could even argue. So let's let's broaden be on perhaps the definition that we may have about engage so that it includes And choosing perhaps not doing anything which he's doing, by the way But but For the eye of the outsider, it may look like you're doing nothing. And yes, you are doing nothing. So it includes doing. So It's often I would say perhaps for some people, a challenge when they're learning GTD and when we're helping them install their GTD system as in, well, but how do I decide what to do? And how do I prioritize? And this system is not going to tell me you know what to do instead of. and you know now I have so many calls, but I also have the computer things. And I also have this it's like and it can get a little confusing. I understand. It's a change of paradigm that we're proposing, but we're not We proposing a change of paradigm because we're being arbitrary about it. We're proposing it because it's based on being practical and based on When actually David through all these years has observed and was very intelligent, in my opinion, to put together into a methodology that it's very practical, it's very hands on, and we can start applying it immediately So when we think of engage and we consider the threefold nature of work which you may be familiar with We're really the engaged step, if you think about it, it's really a step When we're talking about the different criteras for deciding what to do, is when you are actually lookingoo at doing pefined work, which is the first circle here to the left. So the threefold nature of work basically describes Um 's pretty much what you can do on any given moment, on any given day throughout your day. given the nature of work. You cannot either be doing predefined work which is What we're focusing on today when we talk about engage and deciding and choosing what to do and that A lot of words to say that's when you're working off your list or that's when you're working off your calendar. So you can pretty much U you know, summarize it down to predefineed work is is working off my list or working off my calendar And if I want to be even more specific, I should say working off your next actions list and working off your calendar because your lists obviously also include projects and someday maybe at the very minimum, if you haven't personalized it yet to include other lists, but we're not going to go there today. Quickly, just always remember doing predefined work is working off my next actions list or working off my calendar Where your calendar obviously takes priority. Your calendar it's going to dominate over your next actions space, meaning if there's something on your calendar that you're required to do at this moment in time, i. e. Thursday at eleven thirty AM, that's what you are to be doing. You should not be considering any of your other options as in the ones on your next actions list If on the other hand, you have an open calendar, which is rare these days But if you happen to have that luck Then that's your opportunity to work off your next actions lists. And I now talk about another a couple of other frameworks in regards to Well then what list of my next actions list should I be working from, right? Because that's the next level of dilemma or discussion But the truth is that on any given day, at eleven thirty AM, if there's nothing on your calendar Perhaps you're now gonna decide to do something off your next actions list You may be challenged by the fact that the phone rings or you may be challenged by the fact that a message arrives on Sack. orr you may be challenged by the fact that someone pokes their head into your office or, you know, whatever interruption, let's say, or unplanned work better term. shows up That's why we have unplanned work here as well. So in that moment in time at eleven thirty AM, it's like, o my God, do I keep working on my next actions list? Or do I respondack to the slack message from my boss Yeah. You have a choice right now, right And u We kind of all know what the answer is to that Because it really depends. It depends on who you're getting the message from. Given everything else that you have on your plate, it's really a priority to stop U What you were about to do to allow for that unplanned work, that answer You only have No one else has But it's a challenge. We're all challenged by it every single day. and in addition, let uside, you creating unplanned work for you, A e going on Instagram Yay, let's go check what's happening on Instagram or let's be a little more professional. LinkedIn, right? We don't go on Instagram and work. We go to LinkedIn or tweiter or whatever or X or whatever sounds more professional. But often we are the ones that enngage with unplanned work, even though we have plenty of prettyine work. And most of the time, when we ask people what they spend more time on than they want to, they say, I spend more time on unplanned work, work that just shows up And I think I should be spending more time doing pefined work, and I'm also lacking in how much time I spend on defining my work. It tends to be that people get off balance mostly according to what they tell us by doing unplanned work more than they think they should be or spending more time on that or being more distracted by that than they should be. Correct And at eleven thirty AM You get a message on slackgh, you're going to ignore it But you realize that you haven't emptty your inbox for the last three days So now you have another variable to consider, which is defineing work What's the best use of your time then at eleven thirty AM to go into your're in because you have, you know the bandwidth to do it. you're rested, you have the energy, you have the time. there's no meaning coming right after You have a couple of hours you know, etceter. So what's the best use of your time?h shouldhould you then deffine work, which means empty your're in Your ends, remember are all your capture tools They can be digital, they can be on paper, they can be physical And they can even be mental, which obviously we discourage because we teach your mind is for having ideas, not for holding them So At that moment, you have all these choices And you may say, the best use of my time, given that I have two hours and given that I haven't emptty my in is to actually empty my in. Because my predefined work is incomplete Remember that what feeds your inventory of predefined work? or what feeds your lists as the workd that you've defined It's everything that comes through your intay. So often it's a much betterter use of your time to empty your end than to work off your predefined work because your mind is very quick and your mind knows that that list is incomplete. Therefore it is not going to trust your choice And the whole purpose of this webinar is to talk about how Tout Do you choose what to do So it's not one simple answer And this is why I wanted to start with this slide so that you can see the complexity already just dececiding between any one of these three. Well, obviously, in a perfect world we would love to have everything frozen at eleven thirty AM and only give us the options to work off pretty fun work. But it doesn't work that way So when we're talking about engage and when we're talking about prioritizing, I'm going to use that term instead of that long, how do you choose what to do? And when we talk about prioritizing, we're really looking at pefined work. So to consider then or to help with What list to work from, right? Because now okay, I have the time, I've already made my decision, I'm going to work on my predefined work. Well, what list do I work on Well, you're probably familiar with our limiting criteria model which is, in my opinion, a very effective And I'm going call that foundational instead of using the word basic because sometimes basic, it's translated as non important. Oh, well, that's a basic move and I'm advanced kind of thing. Not really. It's basic because this is really what you're limited by. you got no choice unless you change your ecosystem or you change Hm where you're at Why I'm saying this is because when it comes to deciding what to do off your predefined work, your first limiting criteria is always going to be context And this goes a little beyond whether we like it or not. It is what it is. It's not good or bad. That's the brilliance of David. He really put something very complex into very practical terms that are immediately applicable Because context refers to where's my body You know, A I at the office? Am I at home? Am I in the car? Am I at Beach House? Am I at the store? Am I at and about? Am I at the computer? A I The grocery store, A I at the bakery? Where are you? So that's context It's whereere's my body You know, am I a Joh? meaning are John Forrester and I meeting in this moment? It's like, where is my body? Because based on that, based on that reality, one should say, then your options regarding what lists to work from or not may expand or shrink. Because if let's say you happen to be traveling a whole lot of your options are not going to be an option. Home will not be an option. groceries will not be an option. Eerrands will not be an option. offffice will not be an option You know, one could argue anywhere would be an option and one could argue computer would be an option because you have it right there in front of you So Understanding that m makes our decision making, it simplifies our decision maker, It simplifies our prioritizing So think of context as where's my body And when we talk about organizing work under context based lists That's what we're referring Call your list The name that makes sense to you. Yes, I know we have A handful of names for list, titles for lists that we suggest And if you don't know, start there. But later on, you can takeange it. You can, you know, you can call it beach hiles or you can call it grocer or you can call it at the at the mountain when hiking, I mean, I don't know whatever the right context is for you So now that I've Let's assume shrunk my options given where my body is, My next consideration always is going to be time Again, whether I liked it or not So using the previous example, it's eleven thirty AM and a half two hours. Wow Now that I have two hours and now that I have two lists to work from, how many can I Sts, right O The truth is that I only have five minutes. You know, I would have loved to have hours but it's eleven thirty AM in five minutes I have a conference call N M probably. Your best option there not is to not do much Unless you have very small short little actions that you can Get done. So time, it's always going to come second. It's always going to then be the next option to either deceide to do one versus the other in terms of your available options Without forgetting, If you're fresh or if you're toast, that's what resources mean. It means how are you Where are you with your focus? Where are you with your concentration? Where are you with your energy? And I know we all know how to push ourselves really hard. And I know we can take three cups of coffees and push it through or whatever Tricks we use, right? But is that sustainable? You know, maybe yes, maybe y all depends how young you are or not So I was able to push myself pretty hard or much harder than I can do that now just Because I've aged And because I've learned better, don't don I don't want to do that to myself anymore. So resources, it's you How are you Am I in my best state of mind? to actually choose to write That proposal that even though in I am in the right place and I have the right amount of time, it's complex It's you know, I have to be politically correct. I need to take into account lots of variables. Do I really have the bandwidth right now to do that or not So resources, it's always another criteria that you're limited by that it's that it's pretty much going to then allow you to prioritize. So prioritizing happens automatically as a result of Considering These three These three need to be considered at all times. So many people when they first come to GTD say, well, how do I prioritize? Because they think that's where they need to start And that's understandable Prioritizing used to be the way that if you look at any paper planner from years ago, it would say, let's mark this as priority one, two or three as if as if that would tell you what to do when But The challenge is you may have something that's your highest priority, number one in bright colors and bold letters But if you're not at a place where you can actually work on that, then it doesn't matter what that priority is on that item. You can only do from the list of things that You can do at the place you're at Now the other thing is place these days could mean anything. We often hear from people that I can do anything on my phone. so Conttexts don't matter anymore I would challenge that. I'd get into asking you some specifics about what kind of work you're doing? And just because I can do anything on my phone doesn't mean I should do anything on my phone. And I'll just give you a wild example. I was working on a big spreadsheet yesterday. Lots of rows, lots of columns, complex formulas, pivot tables, all this other stuff The thought of working on that on my phone, just because I can open it on my phone, I would drive myself crazy and it would be in entirely ineffective for me to be trying to work on that item on my phone It's you could think of the phone as a place justust because my phone is here in my office with me The phone is not the place for me to work on that task. I need the biggest screen I can manage if I could have a whole the whole wall behind me a screen that could be useful. So Think about that when you're looking at What you can do as far as naming your contexts Don't just say, well, I can do anything anywhere. Maybe you can do anything anywhere, but is that the best place for you to do that? Is that the best tool to be using Back to Ana Maria Yeah, and I think these days we may be seeing more U just one next actions list. Um, given given the the you know, the possibility for all of us to pretty much get work done from anywhere So that could be one solution to just have a next actions list And then you make sure that you Um Start every one of your next actions reminder with the verb They clearly describes to Jo to Jons to John's point, right? Maybe, you know Nxt U workor off Excel sheet regarding blah blah blah. like I'm making that up, right? And then callall so and so and then email so and so or serve web or slack someone. Always start with that verb because then what happens, obviously all digital solutions are going to alphabetize it. so it's easy for your eyes to go to that grouping And then that in itself is going to give you the possibility it's equal to having more than one list But but for some people these days because they find themselves Being able to do work from anywhere, right U Just the next actions with the beginning verb that groups them. solves their conflict becausecause I'm getting pushed by it these days as well, but but computer I can' get from anywhere. My phone can get from anywhere. I can do this where everything is anywhere. Agreed. but But then how are you going to be able to do exactly what John was describing if you just have it all lumped together and with no kind of easy way to differentiate. And that can just be the verb that very quickly tells you or big screen, you know, you start with big screen or whatever Con denominator you need to quickly let you makeake that decision. We like to say that we don't set priorities. We have them U Because often the question is how do I set priorities, right? And based on what we've seen so far U you will know what to do or not do from just from applying this limering criteria, it would very quickly give you the answer if you just keep on using this obviously, remembering knowing that we're talking about doing predefined work. We're not talking about doing work as it appears or we're not talking about defining work. Those are two other different Those two have different approaches. This is the approach for doing peinine work. And why I say that we don't set priorities and I say that we have them is because you all know exactly Who to answer the phone to? just from seeing the name on your phone because very quickly You identify If that is a call that it's valuable to you, that it's of priority to you based on who's calling. So, you know, let's say you're at work and you're in the middle of about to do something very, you know, very of top priority However, the phone rings and it's a call from your son's school or from your daughter's school I bet you that you're not going to think it twice and you're going to answer the call In other words, you prioritize doing work as it appears. versus doing peined work. And that's not good or bad It's given your priorities becausecause it's a top priority for you, obviously your children. And if they're calling from school and they never do, something must have happened. So the mind very quickly goes up and down the horizons I always like to say, which is very true that Ten, fifteen, twenty years ago, but let's use ten or even five, ten. five it doesn't apply. My parents would call and I would ignore their call. be honest I'll be like, Ohh my God, my mom calling again. Oh my dad calling again. Like it was not a priority, honestly, It was a disturbance Um, Now the phone rings and it's either one of them and I don't think twice I picked that call. Obviously they've aged, they're in a more fragile moment of their life. I've aged, I've mature, I have a different appreciation. So I don't have to look at any model to tell me if I answer the call or not It has changed for me. L I've now given it the The value that I was not given it when I was younger So that's one example. to show you that you don't set priorities, you have them This is why if you see a child running running down the street, that you see they can be they're about to be runan by a car, whether you know this child or not, you run to save their life So these are just examples of we have priorities. We don't set them So when you think about this model and you go, okay, Gaden, how is that going to help me without going so extreme, you know, saving someone's life or my agy parents calling or someone or school calling How do I decide what to do off my list? It's still eleven thirty AM. I have two lists to choose from. I have time, I have energy whichich one do I do Thank you for asking The first the first place that's going to help you decide it's the ground level which is what we're talking about, right? deciding which action to work from Yeah The weekly review continue to help willll continue to inform your decisions on the day to day. because the weeklyview is when we go higher on the horizons and we actually take the time to review each and every one of our projects. And each and every one of our projects are actually influencing our decisions you know, on the calendar or the actions list. So you're doing your weekly review weekly. will guarantee that you have no Dilemma let's say, in deciding what to do or not do because you're familiar with your system. You have the actions that are required to move all these projects forward. You just reviewed a week ago and you're about to review again So that keeps the ba flow Then obviously your next horizon areas of focus and accountability, which are pretty much your roles What What your job is, right? What's important to you at a personal level. So health, family, relationship, social work, environment, pets You name it, finances, etcet. and then work whatever it applies Having that inventory complete it's very useful again to inform your decisions on your day to day basis How do I How do I do that? You know, like do I have to each time I have to choose the next action? do I need to make sure it's in alignment to any one of my areas of focus and accountability No, that would be crazy making. But we certainly recommend that you review your horizon to once a month And again, it's that reviewing, it's that keeping your system current, complete, consistent The keyys on giving you the trust of deciding what to do or not do. So this is not This is not hard, but it doesn't come free either. You gott to do the work. You got to do the work of populating it and you gott to do the work of reviewing it. And then same will be true with goals and objective, which horizon three any kind of outcome that you've committed to U two three years from now And we suggest you review quarterly Because again, that's going to inform your system, that's going to influence your decisions because most likely any one of those goals is going to turn into a project. And most likely any one of those projects is going to turn into either a calendar reminder or an next action reminder So that's how they all are interacting with each other. Once in a while when we talk when I'm talking to somebody about these these they go It would take me forever to review my list of choices if for every single one of them, I said, all right, what are my purposes and principles in life What are my visions? I dont think de value It doesn't take that long. This stuff happens in a millisecond for you once you're already somewhat familiar with your levels horizons five, four, three and two. Once you already know that, then This stuff happens instantly. You don't have to rethink it and go reevaluate whether your next action or this item on your calendar is in alignment with your life purpose. You already know that. I just wanted to reassure any of you who are new you won't have to go through this B, four, three, two, one, every time you look at every item on every list Yes, you do No, you don't