For those of you not familiar with GTD. It is an acronym for Getting Things Done.
A book by David Allen titled: Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
One of my favorite productivity tools which I have used for the last several years.

 
Our calendars are great places for many things, and others, well not so much.
It’s primary function is for time related actions. Here are the  three primary ways I use my calendar for Getting Things Done.

1: Time Specific Actions: Meetings, Appointments, Confrence calls, etc.

2: Day Specific Actions: Tasks that must be done on a specific day. This one is a little tricky. The key word here is MUST. Anything else will just move from day to day. Some examples are phone calls, bills to be paid, and expense reports.

3: Day Specific Information: These I usually put as all day items on my calendar. A few examples for this is Birthdays, Vacation, and Anniversary’s.

I would also like to caution you against dumping tasks you would like to do on your calendar.  These should be MUST do’s for that day only. This will only serve to create more stress at the end of the day when you need to move those items to the next day. Remember we are aiming at Stress Free Productivity.

Review is the key element that keeps me and my calendar on track.
Here is how often I am trying to review all of my commitments.
Runway – Daily Review  – Calendar and Next Actions
10,000 Feet – Weekly –  Projects
20,000 Feet – Monthly – Responsibilities
30,000 Feet – Quarterly – Goals
40,000 Feet – Yearly – Vision
50,000 Feet – Yearly – Purpose.

I will admit, I am doing a decent job of keeping up with my Runway and my 10,000 and 20,000 foot levels. 30,000 to 50,000 is a work in progress.

Share your Getting Things Done Calendar practices.
Together we can work toward Stress Free Productivity.