GTD for Planning and Execution [HD BizBlog 1.2]
“…thinking in more effective ways about projects and situations can make things happen sooner, better, and more successfully.”
David Allen, Getting Things Done p.62
I have been working on a long-term project involving planning resources for some time now, a project that deals with real life time management and planning processes. As a very visually-oriented person, I learn better through written aids, such as worksheets, checklists, and especially the GTD Workflow diagram. I have created a few tools for my own use, and shared some of them with my readers.
One of the Best Productivity Ideas
The latest project has to do with the Natural Planning process that David Allen discusses in Chapter Three of Getting Things Done. I believe that this is one of the most useful productivity ideas to turn up in a long time. I wish that many of the facilitators of countless planning sessions that I have had to endure had heard of it!
What I like most about using this process is that no special equipment or expensive training is required. Merely following a sequence of steps can make project planning a joy rather than a modern form of torture. The irony of my own project is that the first time I read Getting Things Done I glossed over the section on planning as I did not think that I had any projects that were “serious” enough to warrant this kind of effort. I did not realize that this planning process is not at all cumbersome. On the contrary - it is straightforward and simple to follow and to implement. It can be used for large-scale, team-driven projects as well as something as mundane as a blog post.
In learning how to use the natural planning process for projects large and small I have learned to simplify my own project tracking and improve the completion rate. One of the most exciting consequences has been to move some of my Long-term Goals into shorter-termed Contexts.
Vertical thinking, really contemplating the issue at hand and how it will get from point A to point B is essential to the success of a project, and the natural planning method is a vertical thinking tool.
The Essential Phases of Natural Planning
There are five basic steps in this planning model, each of which will be examined in turn:
- Define the Purpose of the project and the Principles to be followed
- Outcome Visioning
- Brainstorming
- Organizing
- Identify the Next Actions
Following these steps, in this order, may seem like common sense. Yet how many of you have been trapped in “planning sessions” where common sense had apparently been tossed out a window? Where no actual planning got done? Where you left the meeting feeling defeated and demoralized, with less of an idea of what you were supposed to accomplish than when you went in?
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Original post here: Stephen
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