Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with the GTD Virtual Study Group today. It was great having you on the call. One question, in this post you refer to the “days per” idea you got from Jim Collins. Can you point me to that info or say a bit more about what you mean by delivery mode? And how you came up with that limit?

Thanks again, dude, you rock!
Tara

I open about 20923482304 tabs a day of stuff from twitter that looks ‘interesting.’

I finish reading maybe 6 of them. Today I think it was fewer than that, and this was one of them.

Here’s why:

- it’s practical. The two main projects at a time is outstanding.

- you’re honest, e.g. how you describe your many new ideas as “all of them brilliant.” Isn’t that exactly how we feel in the moment? It sure is for me. And equally with the difficulty of saying “there are people we should not spend any time with.” Your honesty and good humor about yourself makes me feel closer to you and more compassion for myself. And with that compassion comes more freedom to do my Great Work.

- You talk about seeking wisdom and wanting meaning. Damn straight, and good on you for going to the heart of things. Sure we all want to make money, but that very quickly fades and we’re left with more important longings. Your pragmatic example of how many days work is enough, and how you’re getting more selective with what work you accept (a la Jim Collins) is inspiring.

I think I’m still only part of the way there on this one myself but I have been turning down some work that I know is just not My Work and it feels great. And one of my dream client organizations had their first call with me today, which they initiated after a little tweet that I sent many months back. If I had said yes to that tempting, well paying other junk, I wouldn’t be around to do my Great Work.

- the licking. That you talked about the list of things to do/see/hear/lick is why I’ll listen to productivity tips from you. Because you’re not what I call a Success Robot. You know those guys who want to optimize every freaking proton of life? That’s not for me. I’m more of a “lick your way to success” kind of guy. Your sense of fun keeps me listening and taking you seriously.

My additions/challenges are:

- The email thing. People, Michael, brothers and sisters, dearly beloved, can we please STOP with the auto-replies on email! I know that you’re “out of the office” because we’re both at the freaking conference together, or on vacation, or it doesn’t really matter. Don’t have your email emailing my email, or when I put MY auto-reply on it’ll be like….a weird robot orgy – and not in the good way.

Auto-replies telling the world how busy and optimized you are, are in my experience a unilateral and narcissistic solution to a shared problem. Email overload comes from either lists we subscribed to and aren’t using (unsubscribe), or human beings who shouldn’t be emailing. If it’s humans, TELL THEM. Auto-replies just create more junk. What do you think happens in the world of the person getting your auto-replies? Far better to turn off the auto-reply, tell overly-chatty people to boil it down and batch it, delete everything from vacation, and wait to see who emails again.

None of us have dozens of people who need or expect replies so urgent that they won’t just call if they need to. For most of us that number is more than 3 people and less than 10. They know how to reach us. Let’s not punish the other 20- or 40-odd with auto-replies polluting inboxes and minds. Tell people to stop emailing, give them a better (for everyone) way of interacting with you, or just delete it and trust that the right requests will get escalated.

Meetings -

Love love LOVE your idea of asking people at the start how to make the meeting awesome. I’m stealing that with full attribution. Also at the end of EVERY meeting take 5-10 mins to hear from people what was valuable from the meeting and what would have made it Even Better If (EBI). Note: never ask people for a list of “what didn’t work” or “what wasn’t helpful.” If you ask what would make the next meeting Even Better If we did it you’ll learn the same information but in an actionable form and with a lighter more energizing mood.

Oustanding post Mr. Bungay Stanier. Almost enough to make me jump on a plane and come up there.

A.J.

As for being bolder with my no … working on it. There’s one big no that I think I have saved up in me right now, waiting for me to be ready to use it.

I was sent a link to your post from my girlfriend, who preemptively told me to look at specific points in your post (funny, huh?).

I found this post insightful and a good collection of valuable tips. My only (minor) gripe is you could have probably broken the post up into several posts – there’s too much in it.

I thought the advice on projects (2 at a time plus 2 “subs”) is great advice, which I’ll test.

Cheers,

Tom

P.S. Eric Cantona is one profound thinker too.