Nanci Hardwick, CEO of Schultz-Creehan Holdings, Inc., shared her experience with Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen to Women in Leadership, a professional women's group in the New River Valley of Virginia.

1. Book by DavidAllen
Interpretation by Nanci Hardwick

2.  Why I read this book
 What this book says to do
 What I did
 How it worked
 What I think about it now

3. For the Hereafter
The preacher told me the other day I should be thinking about the Hereafter.
I told him, "I do, Father, all the time.
Every time I go from one room to the other, I have to ask myself…
'Now, what am I here after?'

4. THINGS WE JUST “REMEMBER”
 Can you go to the grocery
store without a list and not
forget anything?
 Do you ever remember the
call that needs to be made in
the shower? Or at night in
bed?
NO MEMORY REQUIRED
 Do you believe that you will
be in the right place at the
right time for your
appointments next week?
 What’s the difference?? Why
is the calendar so much
better, so trusted?
 Because it is ALL there. Every
detail. No memory required.

5. Most often, something you want to be different
than it is currently is on your mind because:
 you haven’t clarified exactly what the intended
outcome is
 you haven’t decided what the very next physical
action step is, or
 you haven’t put reminders of the outcome and the
action required in a system you trust.

6. The great cleanup and download

7.  Time – Initial Renovation and maintenance
 Space – Home and Office
 In basket
 Files
 Paper
 A space you want to be in!
 Tools
 Filing system
▪ “a giant stack” and a labeler
 Lists
 Calendar

8.  “The first activity is to search your physical
environment for anything that doesn’t belong
where it is, the way it is, permanently, and
put it in to your in basket.”
 BEWARE: don’t slip into
purging/organizing/acting on items found as
these are potential time sinks.

9.  NOW, sort through, to:
 Trash what you don’t need
 Complete any less than 2 minute actions
 Hand off anything you can delegate
 Add reminders into your system for greater than 2
minute actions
 Identify and add to your project list any larger
commitments

11.  A “Projects” list
 Project support material
 Calendared actions/info
 “Next Actions” lists
 A “Waiting For” list
 Reference material
 A “Someday/Maybe” list

12.  “The most common categories of action
reminders”:
 Calls
 At computer
 Errands
 At office
 At home
 Agendas (for people and meetings)
 Read/Review

13.  “You must be assured that you’re doing what
you need to be doing, and that it’s OK to be
not doing what you’re not doing.”
 If your list of calls no longer includes all the
calls you need to make, your brain no longer
trusts the list and goes back to trying to
remember.

14.  Choose actions based on these criteria:
 Context
 Time available
 Energy available
 Priority
 A low energy moment would be the time to read,
update contact files, back up, etc.

15.  Think of a looming project at work or home.
 Now visualize or define a successful outcome
for that project.
 What is the very next step that you would
need to take to make progress?

16. DavidAllen visits Nanci’s life

17.  I “collected” the entire surface of my desk
 And my projects drawer
▪ Other drawers, cabinets, and bookshelf are on standby
▪ But I cleaned out an entire drawer in my 4-drawer
cabinet at home!
 I sorted and trashed and made lists
 I felt the rush only those with a full trash can
experience
 I turned to my laptop, and faced my inbox…

18.  June 16: Process and Purge over 1,200 emails
 Except for the 250 I gave up on and moved to
another folder
 Wow! – ZERO EMAIL IN INBOX!
 Restructure my lists:
 Task list categories were subject themes: Sales,
Human Resources,Volunteer, etc
 Task list categories are now by action type: Calls,
@home, Projects,To Buy,Waiting on Others

19.  Added personal tasks to Outlook
 Used my inbox as an inbox rather than a staging area
 Threw away the stuff I’ll never read (and felt ok about it)
 Purged files and gave myself permission to delete email
 Now follow the two minute rule – especially with new things to
read. I skim and chuck or flag what should be read with care
 Empty my laptop bag every morning and evening
 Keep a notepad and pen in my car
 Unsubscribed from unwanted email rather than delete

20. We notice Nanci never mentioned adopting the filing system….

21.  I am master of my to-do list. I sleep well. I
shower well. I leave the grocery store well.
Most of the time.
 There is raw power in an empty in box and I
drink from the well every day.

22.  8/24: Kate emails to say, can you still talk to
everyone about managing email?
 I have 177 emails in my inbox, dating back to
7/20.
 Oh, how the mighty have fallen!
 I say “Yes, Kate!” and spend a better part of
the day, the whole night, and the next
morning getting back to zero.

23. Girl vs. Email … and tasks, and projects, and life

24.  Capturing it all
 Making “next action” decisions
 Reviewing lists
 My task lists – using dates and priority flags
 Reading while laptop boots up
 How it went awry
 Why it was worth getting back to zero

25.  Action-oriented check lists are very helpful.
 Defining next actions when I’m in that
moment really thinking about that project is
very helpful but harder than you would think.
 Inboxes should contain unread email or be
empty.
 Calendars can include “make decision about
X” items with relevant detail.
 Reviewing is still tricky.

26. Knowing tasks are captured allows creative thinking