Episode 104 of the Getting Things Done® podcast. Listen above, or read the full transcript below.
Transcript
Automatically transcribed and lightly edited. Timestamps omitted for readability.
Morten: Hi and welcome to another episode of the Getting Things Done podcast from Virtual Learning. I am Morten Drevik and I am here as always with my super duper very good friend and colleague Lars Rothschild Henriksen. With.
Lars: Super duper great colleague friend Martin. Good to see you as always, and as always, good to be with our listeners and viewers out there. Quite a lot of viewers these days on, on YouTube, so hi to everyone out there. We always start off with a quick reminder of the purpose of this podcast, which is to help you learn GTD or become even better GTDers. We hope that today's episode supports you in that. If you are new to GTD, we recommend you go back and listen to the audio versions of episodes 1 through 6 to get an introduction to The Basics of GTD. That's where we cover the 5 steps. Today's episode number is 104, and today's topic is checklists. We wanted to get back to that, and before we dive into that, I just wanted to quickly mention the GTD Summer Camp that is coming up. We're seeing more and more people signing up for that. gtdsummercamp.com for more information. So great to see so many people from across the world signing up. And the reason I wanted to, to mention this just before we get started is that We are looking now to have a session with a test of a GTD board game. So just to show how cool GTDers are, one of the Danish trainers is actually working on a GTD board game and he will test it out at the GTD Summer Camp. So learning GTD and playing around with that sort of a Game of Life kind of thing and unexpected events. And it's just so cool. So I had to, I had to mention that right as we started now. Gtdsummercamp.com, June 15th to 16th, 2024, in Denmark. Going to be a lot of fun. I'm really looking forward to that and all the other fun stuff that we will be doing.
Morten: Me too, me too. It's always, you know, good fun and a lot of very nice people. GGGers are the nicest people. So everyone who goes there is, you know, they want the best for you. And for helping each other become better GTDers. So if you haven't done it yet, gtdsummercamp.com. Be there or be square or something.
Lars: As the hip kids say.
Morten: The hip kids said 20 years ago. I'm sure there's another something now. I feel like an old fart. Okay, and by the way, for those of you who are not listening to this but viewing, you will observe that there's something new with Lars today. So if you're listening, and we are not going to tell you what, what is new with Lars, but if you, um, you, you must go to, to my YouTube channel for see that. Search for Morten Røvik GTD and you will find my channel. You can look what's different with Lars. So, now two plugs done. Okay, good. Today's episode title, we dubbed Checklists. And this is something that we both have been dabbled with for some time. I don't know if I've been doing this the longest of us, but I shared at some point a checklist with you. That I created to some of my coaching clients. And we are going today to walk you through the best practices of a daily checklist. Why is it necessary and how does it work and what should be on it? So is that a good bird's-eye overview of the daily checklist, Lars?
Lars: Yeah, I think, I think so. I think, you know, overall we've talked about checklists a number of times. I did a quick search through the show notes and we've covered that in, in 6 different episodes. Over the years that we have done this podcast for Christmas checklists or any sort of packing checklist before your holiday or things that you do on a recurring basis. But specifically, the GTD sort of the daily checklists was something that we wanted to talk a bit more about. It's something that's come up quite a bit for me in the last, I would say, last 12 months that I have been sharing the list that I stole from, from you from, from way back in the day that you've shared with coaching clients. So I shared that with other GTDers and they thought, "Oh, well, that's really cool," and they hadn't really come across that. So I wanted to do a quick episode on that and share that with everyone out there. And hopefully that'll improve their GTD practice. I know at least for me, especially in the last 6 months, where I've been refining sort of my own checklist for this sort of a daily purpose checklist, it's been really, really, really helpful. So hopefully it will for you as well.
Morten: Hopefully. So I just want to take the trip on, you know, out on the outer rims. So why on earth would such a list be beneficial? And especially for, I would say, especially for new GTDers or GTDers who want to get the GTD routines to stick or establish the, you know, the habits you need to established to create a routine after a while. It is a very good tool for that, and it helps you as a daily checklist to, to both remind you that Getting Things Done exists and that you're committed to yourself to get good at it. And, and secondly, it creates an overview of the best practices so you don't forget that day, which that they actually, they exist at all. And so, so I don't know, should we just then try to look at the items that might want to stay on such a list?
Lars: Yeah, I think maybe your list would be a good, good starting point. Yeah.
Morten: Yeah. So I've created, this is just my, I'm going to, to share from orally what I've written down because it's in Norwegian, this list. So, but I will translate what, what it, how it could look. And remember, when you, if you take notes from this episode, make sure that you are thinking this thoughts, having this thought with you, is that I have to adapt this. Don't copy, just adapt it to your needs. So I've divided this into 3 headlines during, you know, weekday daily checklist is the first headline is when I arrive at work, and then second is when I have some available time at the office, home, or when traveling. That is, you know, do, execute. And before I leave the office or leave work, before I leave work. So the 3 headlines: when I arrive office— sorry, when I arrive work, when I have available time at work, home, or traveling, or when I leave work. So do you have anything to add to that? Do you have something you've discovered that is outside?
Lars: No, I think those are really the— I mean, the main starting point for me was as well the, the one that you wrote out back in the day, my own personal one. I think we can, can perhaps go on to that one afterwards because it's structured a bit differently.
Morten: Yeah, okay. So the thinking here is, if you go to the first headline, so when I arrive at work, the reason you should have a checklist, and I'm going to say something that might feel like heresy to some people, I would suggest that you make it on paper. You know, that white thing that comes out of a printer, and I'm going to do just a little, um, tell you why I think that is a good idea. And the reason, the first reason why is, um, I think that, uh, the, the such a checklist, if it is on paper, it becomes distraction-free. If you have it somewhere else on your computer and you're doing a physical activity and go into your computer and then suddenly see an email or something that distracts you, you fall out of the sequential process of a checklist. So making it to paper, printing it, and what I've suggested for quite a few clients who said, come back to me, said it was revolutionary for them. Yes, revolutionary. Was that they printed it and they take a clear transparent plastic cover that they then, you know, where you can, I don't know what you call that in English, where you You can put a piece of printed paper inside so it's, you know, both sides laminated, I guess. Uh, no, it's not laminated. Um, well, if you want to be really environmentally friendly, you can laminate it and then just write with, um, you know, a whiteboard marker and then clean it every day. But, but the idea is that you have a, you know, um, a few, maybe 3, 4, maybe for one week if you're going to be in the— at your workplace every day that week, to have 5 sheets of paper inside that plastic folder that you then tape to your desk. And then so it doesn't move. So every time, every day you come to the office, the first thing you will do is to take out one fresh piece of paper with your checklist and then put it on top of that plastic folder thingy on your desk. And the first thing is to, when I arrive office, the first checkmark is take out one fresh checklist. And that's, you can tick it off when you get it. This is, and this might be silly, but for some people, this really makes a difference. Because if you take it out and you can tick something off, it's like, I am doing stuff. I'm succeeding. I'm moving forward. So that would be the first thing I would suggest, making it on paper. But when you arrive at the office, one of the things I think we can then just discuss this in the, what would you suggest, what would be viable things that you put there? But the first thing I've, what we do when I coach people is that they will always get a what we call a red in folder, which is just a paper folder where you can put paper inside. That's called inbox, and this is your travel inbox. So if you traveled somewhere, this will live in your bag, and you will then put paper-based items inside there that you want to do something about later. And then you just— when you arrive at the office, the second thing you do after checking off, yes, I've taken a fresh one, out and put it on top. Instead, you put that in your inbox. What's inside that "In" folder in your physical in-tray. Secondly would be if you have a diary or some written notes somewhere, put it in the inbox. When I'm out traveling, I put my— I have a reMarkable tablet for taking notes. I put that in my inbox. That would be my second. Do you have anything else you would like to add?
Lars: No, I can just echo that, that really corresponds with what I would be doing. It really varies how much physical stuff shows up in my world, but I just did that yesterday when we, when I came back to the office. I'd done my reference system cleaning that I think we mentioned in an episode before Christmas, sort of a yearly habit for me and many other GTDers is to do this yearly clean out of your reference systems and A lot of stuff came out. I don't need that Lotus Notes setup guide anymore, I don't think. I doubt I will need it, so that, that was trashed. I moved some things from home to the work reference system. There was a, you know, a Surface Pen that I use for the Windows laptop that I have here, and that was at home. Made more sense for me to have that at work, so I put that in the In folder and then made its way to the office here. So that works, works really well for me as well. Don't do any sort of remarkable things, but I use the Notes app on Mac and an iPhone and all that. So that will be sort of my, I have a notes inbox that I would then go and check. So yeah, very much aligns with my own practice as well.
Morten: Good, good. And the idea behind starting with this is just start with something either physical or digital that makes quick wins are good. And then, you know, if you empty a red in or you put something physically somewhere, it's kind of like I'm doing something physically., and I can tick things off. So give yourself a lot of quick wins. That's a good idea. So the third or fourth thing on my list here would be look at my calendar this week, next week, or as many weeks in the future you think you should get an overview. The idea there is to look at the hard landscape. As the first thing you do in the morning. A lot of people that I know that I've been coaching, and I'm sure you can attest to this, Lars, have the first thing they open in the morning, or even maybe even the first thing they open after they open their eyes is the calendar. Sorry, it's the email.
Lars: Yeah, exactly.
Morten: Which is not the best practice. And I wanted, you know, we haven't, I don't think we have really addressed this, But to see email as the first thing you do in the morning or the first thing you do in your office is not productive. It is not. The reason being is that you will then be pulled into the latest and loudest instead of getting the overview you need to make good decisions. So if you start in the hard landscape like your calendar and then look at your lists, then email would be the third thing maybe. And then clarify and organize emails into your system. The reason why I'm being overly clear on this topic is because I know by personal experience that— I remember one time I was on my way to an early meeting with a client and I stupidly opened my email just before I got into my car And that whole car ride was full of that email where some client was not happy. It was not a reasonable client unhappy, but okay, he or she, to be neutral, was not happy with how we handled the situation. And that totally killed my meeting with that client because it was inside my head. I couldn't do anything about it. I couldn't resolve anything, but that feeling was in my brain. And it ruined my meeting. So don't do that. Don't read emails when you don't have to. Read emails when you can clarify and organize them. And I know, Lars, you have been email snacking before. Tell us how you got out of that. Tell me, tell us how you got out of that habit.
Lars: But I can recognize that exact story. And I've done that. It was many years ago, but that's when it occurred to me that, you know, in a break, I think in a seminar that I was delivering, you know, you see so many participants, they will bring out their phones and they will look at whatever Facebook, emails, whatever they might be looking at. And I did some of the same, I think, during a lunch break. And there was an email somewhat similar to what you described, I think. And it just stuck with me and it just distracted me from being present. And again, The whole point of doing GTD is trying to stay present with whatever you're doing. And yeah, that obviously did not support me in that. So that was a lesson learned back then. That one I have stuck with. Email snacking could perhaps sometimes still happen in a sort of a daily scenario where I don't have any meetings or anything coming up. But certainly in those, especially in coaching scenarios or in seminars or whatever, when I want to be extra sure that I'm not thrown off course with an email that I did not need to see at that time. I'm very, very aware of that.
Morten: Okay, so we do both agree and highly recommend you do not read emails when you don't have to read emails. And don't start the morning with reading emails. So when you are first in the office, look at the calendar this week, next week, maybe the week after if it feels good for you, and get an overview. And when you have that overview, you understand, well, everything is hunky-dory and I'm on route and I am on plan for doing what I wanted to do. Maybe you should then try and do the following, which is look over at your next actions list that are relevant. And with relevant, I mean, like, if you are in the office, you have an office list that's a relevant list.. If you have an at PC list where all your PC work or for work is, then look at that list and make sure that you are looking at this with the perspective that if I have some time today based on the calendar I have, what would I like to happen? So the way I used this is when I go through my my next actions on my, you know, my @office and @mac list. I look at what is relevant and then I either, I star it so that it's, and I don't star a lot of things, but just if I just do this thing today, it's a way to bring it to my attention. So when I, after, if I have a, after a meeting or coaching or something, then I have some time, I know that if I can, if I, this is the most important thing I can do after that or during the day. So just, just, just a way to bring the most important things to, so you don't have to make that decision when you're tired after a meeting, for example. That's, that's my idea. So anything to add to that?
Lars: No, that sounds very familiar. I don't really look that far in the calendar on a sort of morning basis, but that is indeed the first things on my checklist is to check. So what do I actually I actually have in the calendar for today, any, any day-specific actions or specific meetings that are coming up that I have not yet prepared for, so I can, can.
Morten: Focus on those first. The reason I'm saying that it might be this week, next week, is because a lot of people don't do the checklist every morning. They forget. So just a reminder that you should look into the future. Yes. So, so, but to have the The idea that is, you know, get an overview for as long-term overview you need to feel good about your work and life. So whatever makes you, you know, you feel calm and good inside, the good feeling of overview and control, then go as far into the future you need to get that. Okay, so then the last item here is on my, when I arrive worklist is clarify and organize email and all my inboxes to zero, which is, you know, sequential and hard work, but it is, you know, you will feel overview and control after. Well, a lot of the people that at least I know, I'm sure there is some few sequentials out there that really feel this is easy. But for the majority of my clients who are high associative, not highly sequential, this is a highly sequential thing to clarify and organize. And all of them, and I mean 100% of my coaching clients, do, even if they are on the sequential side, they need to spend time on getting good at clarifying and organizing. I had a coaching client today. This morning, and we went through his lists. And he's a very diligent coaching client. He's a really good student of getting things done, but he is still not there after 10 sessions to be good at clarifying and organizing. There are still some unclear things that are not clear next actions on this list. So just beware, clarifying and organizing is going to do really good things. Then when you go to your list and look at them, you will say, I can do that. And then take it off instead of going, huh, which is often something that happens. People look at their list and they go, what did I think here? This is not finished. The thinking here is not finished. So clarifying, organizing, thinking, finished for email inboxes.
Lars: Anything to add? Yes, no. So the one thing that I have tweaked on my list or my daily checklist was to list out the different inboxes that I want to maintain. I think that is actually where my checklist started because I had forgotten an inbox that I was using and suddenly there were quite a lot of things in there. It was my Memos app that I had removed. So I play around with my setup all the time and use the Memos app quite a bit. And sometimes, you know, when I'm driving a lot for seminars or coaching, then I would throw a lot of stuff in that Memos app. But then that sort of drifted off my radar and then I needed to have that list now. So I have my 5 inboxes that I will check off if I feel the need. So I think for me this is more of a— after I have checked the calendar, I have actually written out a question for myself. Do you want to deal with inboxes or do you want to go for the day-specific stuff that I have in my list manager? So, if I choose to go for the inboxes, then I have the Notes app, the Reminders app, the Memos app, Mail, and Physical Inbox. So, those are the 5 inboxes that I want to stay on top of. And then, I can check them off as I go through these. Yeah. And it's again, like you said, it's those simple wins. It looks really— this feels, ah, yeah. Even though it was empty when I started, yep, Notes is empty.
Morten: Reminders.
Lars: And I'll take that win every day. Every day, assuming there's nothing in there, of course. Otherwise, I would clarify and organize.
Morten: Yeah, yeah, me too. And so, so if you want to use Lars's idea, which I think is a good one, is that, you know, to list your different inboxes, it could be under the item clarify and organize, email inboxes to zero. You can make an indent and have the checkboxes for, for, for those, those inboxes, or whatever is relevant for you. So anything else to when I arrive.
Lars: At work? No, I think that's the starting point to revisit the, yeah, the list and the inboxes.
Morten: Yeah, I agree. Okay, so moving on, when I have some spare time or, you know, where I'm not in meetings, I want to work a little. So when I have some spare time at work, home, or when traveling. And we talk about executing, to do things. This is the 5th step of the methodology where you want to— you have 30 minutes, what do you do? And these are a checklist here. It's a little— you could use it for everything, every item you look at. But if you want to build the habit of getting things done, to choose what to do in the moment could be difficult if you haven't done that already. So if you haven't star marked something, if you haven't done something and you have your lists, how do you choose from them? So the way I've structured this is 4 points here, 4 tick boxes. Look at the, the, the list that I have. So my next actions list that I am where I am. So if I'm in my car traveling somewhere, I look at my phone list, for instance, or my errands list. If I'm in a hotel room and I'm on my PC and I have internet, which is, you know, often you have even though the hotel don't have, you are online, then I can look at my Mac list instead. I'm not at the office, so the Mac would be the proper list to look. Maybe at my phone list if I have something like that. So check the, the next action list that is relevant. And then when I look at that and I see, well, I can do these 3-4 things, then the next thing you need to do is assess how much time I have on my hand to do this. So if you have half an hour, what could fit into that time frame? So I have these things I can potentially do, how much time do I have at my disposal to do them? And then Clear off the things that you're not doing. And then thirdly, assess my mental energy level. Are you at high energy or low energy? Make sure that you, you, you don't try and do, you know, Einstein stuff when you're like more like a pudding. Your, your brain is mush, and don't choose something that requires high mental energy. And then lastly, what would give me max payoff to do right now? So, so of the things that is last, if you have 2, 3, 4, 5 things left, I don't know how many you will have, but then what, what after you considered where you are, what you're at, how much time you have, what's my mental energy level, and then ask yourself what's, what will give me max payoff to do now. And it is, it is the, the way to, to, to choose. It helps you choose. What you need to do. And please note, people who are not very well versed in getting things done, that the, the payoff is also priority. And priority actually comes after you assessed your mental energy level. It's a little— yeah, because a lot of people say, I have to do this really difficult thing, but I don't have my brain, so what am I doing here? Yes, I'm trying to solve a problem which I can't solve because I'm mush, and that's not very good. That's not very intelligent. Decision-making.
Lars: So yeah, but that always comes up and that, I'm sure it does in Norway and anywhere in the world. It's always an interesting perspective for people to apply the limiting criteria as opposed to what do I actually have to get done and how do we actually then figure out a way to do this in the most productive way.
Morten: Yeah, because this is the way out of latest and loudest. The way to choose and feel good about what you've chosen to do, you will consider the, you know, the priorities and what will give you maximum payoff to do right now. What's the priority here? But you will not do that by latest and loudest. You do it after you clarify and organize things into your lists so you get an overview of everything you could have done. Do now, but then you.
Lars: Picked one.
Morten: And you feel good about your decision and you will be able to do, to do, do the whole thing here. So, anything else to add to.
Lars: The execute-do? No, no, I think that, that, that pretty much covers it. And again, for those who, who are familiar with GTD, the limits and criteria is the starting point here. For me, I will have some day-specific reminders that I will also need to pay attention to and balance in all of this, both coming from the Reminders app and from our CRM system as well. And I think that was also one of the key reminders for me to go in there and check. I disconnected— there was a calendar integration. I disconnected that because it wasn't working well with my calendar. And then I forgot to go in there and check. So I had to put that on the list as well to make sure to go in there and deal with the day-specific reminders that I had scheduled for myself.
Morten: Yourself in there. Okay, good. So moving on to the third headline is Before I Leave Work. Um, I have two items there. I'm going to add one at each end of this before we leave this topic. Is that the first thing here is look, look, um, look at the calendar this week, next week, get an overview, make sure that you are doing the right things So you feel that, okay, I can leave the office, there is no meetings that is going to kill me. There is, you know, tomorrow and the day after or on the third day, maybe I feel comfortable. I don't have something that will mug me in my free time. So, and do clarify and organize emails and all my inboxes to zero, and then you can then just as you did with it in the Clarifying Organizers, to have that sublist of which inboxes you want to tick off. Yeah. Anything to add to this?
Lars: No, I think that, that makes sense. And I recognize as well, I don't, I don't explicitly have that on my own personal checklist, but I do recognize both with, you know, checking the calendar, what's coming up next in the coming days, and also with the date-specific reminders that I have in my Reminders application, what is coming up tomorrow, and not just looking at the number of things that are waiting for me, but just quickly scanning through what, what have I thought at some point was a good idea for me to do or consider doing in the next, next day. That's really helpful for me because sometimes I can look at that number and I will have many date-specific reminders, perhaps too, too many for some people, but I think for me it works well, but I do need to consider them and revisit them. And for example, today I had 13 reminders, and for some people that might be a lot, but they were gone in 20 minutes, I think, because they were just sort of quick things to check off, quick emails to ship out, and great way to start the day with 13 checkboxes already done. And yeah, now it's playtime.
Morten: Getting things done. Succeeding with life.
Lars: Work. Yeah, hopefully assuming that those were the right things on the list, but let's assume that.
Morten: But if you've done your horizons of focus, you know what your purpose of life is and what your values and your principles are. What is your vision for the optimum life you would like to live? And then use that to decide what goes into your system. What do I say yes to? What do I say no to? And then if you then review that before you go home, you can go home and feel, yes, I've done the things I should today, and I know that tomorrow will be a good day. And that is why we are doing getting things done, is to feel good about life and the universe and all the commitments we give to it, to ourselves and the others expect us to commit on. So the last part I would like to add, and I would like to add that at the end and at the beginning, we didn't do that when arriving at the office. I would suggest that you do a mind sweep. A mind sweep is the grab a pen or paper or open your inbox in your list tool and just see, have I missed something? Is there anything I can remember I've been thinking of that I didn't write down? And then suddenly, oh yeah, then oh, and this, and whoo, and all of these things that, you know, I got a message in the hallway between, you know, after lunch on the, on route for my office. Somebody asked me about something and I didn't write that down. Just write it down. And I remember suddenly the door handle on the car is a little loose. I need to do something about that door handle car. Just get it out of your head so that when you go home to be with your family, you will feel good about not doing what you're not doing at work. You feel, okay, I have nothing dragging on my attention. Doing that as the first thing you do in the morning, or as when I arrive at the office, I would suggest that you do that. Maybe not the first thing, but one of the first things after, just to do that. David Allen Company has some checklists you can buy if you go to gettingthingsdone.com and find the store. There's this PDF you can buy where you have, I don't know what, what's that called in English again? It's.
Lars: A look at the trigger list.
Morten: Yeah, trigger list. Yes. What has your attention personally and.
Lars: Professionally?
Morten: It's a, you know, half a letter size times 2, so it's one, one, one, one for professional, side for professional, one side for personal. It's just a way to remember what you have forgotten. It's a way to lure those things to the surface. So, and it has some headlines and some, some items there. It will help you. Both established the habit of capturing everything that has your attention, doing the mind sweep. But it is also a way to, you know, pull out all the details. Like, okay, I have systems. Do I have decorations? Oh, I've forgotten something about that. Or business cards. Do we still use that? Should I use a digital one? Oh, that's an idea I had, but it was was just in the back of my head, I didn't write it down. So just use that as a way to get everything out of your head. And the reason again why you would consider creating such a checklist and creating it, and I would suggest you have two options. Of course, one, you can keep it in your list manager or note manager, someplace where you want to tick them off. Or if you do them on paper, paper, that doesn't really matter, even though if paper is a lot more physical, tactical— it's not tactical, what do you call that? Tactile. Tactile, thank you. And it is physically something outside of your computer, outside of your digital world, that reminds you that you want to do this. I'm a big fan of that, at least for as a starter, so you can get to establish this I get into the office, I'm tired, I have a cup of coffee, I go, I plug my computer in and I see my checklist. Ah, I should not go emails now. Well, let me follow my checklist and I feel good. I can take things off as done.
Lars: Yeah. Yeah. And it really, I mean, for me, it comes back to exactly what you said, that it just, it helps me feel calm and trust that I'm working on the right things at the right time. That really what it helps me do. So I don't have to come up with all the ideas, what could I be doing, what should I be doing. Smart Lars made a list and I'm going to take that as my starting point and work.
Morten: From that. So Lars, your checklist is digital. Why is it like that and how does it look?
Lars: You wanted to— Yeah, so we have actually the physical version of the checklist is actually printed at home. My wife, wife got a hold of it and really appreciated it. So she printed it and put it next to the computer at home. So she uses that. For my checklist, like you said, it's digital. So I have set it up in Apple Notes. And the way I have made it easily accessible is to have a widget that simply just points to that note. So it's always visible to me. It's always just one click away to find that daily checklist. And it also helps me keep, you know, hold of that habit of actually using that checklist. So that is the digital equivalent of what you described and having that printed and then putting it on the desk. It's a widget for me, right in my, in my face here with just a few others. So I will naturally be drawn to that. Some people I've come across where they have made digital lists that they have, you know, could perhaps set it up as a template and have that sort of, that they create a new one every day. So they could sort of track their progress and how they use it. For me, I have not personally found that neat. But that's That's of course one way to do it as well, to just create a new one every day that you want to, to start using one. But for me, I just start off the day by unchecking everything and then checking it off if they're already done and getting that win that we spoke about.
Morten: And if you're doing this in Apple Notes, you can right-click or you can go in the menu and then uncheck everything. I don't know if you've seen that. That's a shortcut for if you have a long list. I'm using that for my, because I use Apple Notes as my weekly review checklist. So that's one of the features I use all the time.
Lars: I have not seen that. Yeah, it is right there. Yeah. And select everything. Well, I've completed most of my inbox already today. So I just want to double-check that memos app that we spoke about. So I won't do it right now, but perhaps tomorrow.
Morten: Okay, good. So the only thing I would like to, we talked about, you know, make sure that things is in your face, like checking your calendar. One of the things that I can add as a bonus tip here that I have, that I'm loving, I've been having this for maybe, you know, 2, maybe 3 years, is that I have a small little Mac utility, a small app that the only thing that it does, it takes my, the calendar that I choose to include and put it on my desktop background as a sidebar. And this side, I have a monitor that's big enough so that I can, I don't have to have, you know, anything, everything is not, you know, I don't have to cover everything there. And so I can see that, I can see it while we're recording. I can just look what I, what's the next thing that comes up for me so I don't forget things because I'm very easily distracted. I think we both are. So we really need Getting Things Done to make sure we get the things we want to.
Lars: Done. Done. Yeah. No, I've switched actually just to take that quick rabbit hole. I used to have that as a widget. I don't anymore because the latest version of iOS, when it's on there, it's hanging on my MagSafe. It switches to that where I see the time and I see the next calendar appointment. So that's where I have that now. Otherwise, I would have it as a.
Morten: Widget or part of the screen. Yeah. If you are on a Mac and would like to have a look at this, it's called WallCal, W-A-L-L-C-A-L. And it's part of the Setapp suite, but it's also, I think, a standalone app you can buy or subscribe to. And for me, that works well. Okay, I think we've exhausted our topic of the day. And as we always do, do we have anything to say? Yes, we have. And does it take time? Yes, it does. So we are now at, I think, 40 minutes or something. So are you happy with what we've covered? Do you have something we would like to— you would like to say to end?
Lars: I think we— I think we're ready to, to, to, to wrap up. Up. Just hopefully this was helpful. Again, this was personally really helpful for me to have a good daily checklist. And yeah, it takes time. It's the companionship, but it also takes time to run through all of this. A lot of tiny details that I'm sure the skilled GTDers out there will recognize and hopefully can tweak and make use of in their own GTD practice. So hopefully today's episode helped with that. And then And as the usual reminder, we always, we already talked about the GCD Summer Camp, but it does not hurt to mention it once again. GCD Summer Camp 2024, really excited about it. Still, you know, participants from Norway and Sweden just signed up yesterday. We have from different places in Europe, North America, South America, Asia too, as we already mentioned. Really hope to see you there, June 15th to 16th in Denmark. Once again, learn more at gcd.com.
Morten: Gttdsummercamp.com. And before we leave that topic, please note that we are doing this as a gift to the society of GTDers in the world. We do not make money on this. We are doing this at cost. And so it's just a way to hang out with people who think getting things done is a good idea and would like to get better at it.
Lars: So be there. Yeah, absolutely. And also, you know, go to gttdsummercamp.com, but also to vitallearning.eu. Because that is where you will find all of the cool things that we do on a day-to-day basis that involves GTD, but also the other offerings within Crucial Conversations for mastering dialogue, etc. Go over there, have a look, a lot of interesting things, really important skills to, to learn. You can find your way to the different country websites, learn more in your own native language. And as always, you can reach out to Morten and me if you have any, any questions at all. If you are outside the Nordics, head on over to cruciallearning.com to find your local partners.
Morten: And if you would like to be coached by Lars and me or get some education from us in any way and sort and form, and you are in the Nordic region, contact Lars or me directly, or you can just use podcast@whitelearning.dk and we will, we both read that email. If you're in the US or outside of the Nordic region, look at the gettingthingsdone.com page for the rest of the world. And if you're in the US and Canada, go to gtdfocus.com for coaching in that region. Okay. At the end again. Okay. And I didn't know Siri just woke up and said, thank you, Siri. I didn't talk to you. That's good. And as I do at the end of every show, I would like to remind you that you need to stay safe and stay productive. And until next time, bye-bye. Bye everyone. Take care.
