Another chat between David Allen and Dave Edwards

John Forrister

GTD Connect
Staff member
Dave Edwards had another opportunity to ask David Allen about a variety of GTD topics. They begin with the Someday/Maybe list, and how to leverage that to improve your flow of creative ideas. Dave asks about prioritizing. David says it comes down to trusting your choices, and that's only possible when you have an externalized system for tracking your commitments. David also mentions that implementing GTD requires us to train cognitive muscles in ways that we were not taught in school. After they have officially closed the interview, David shows Dave his new reMarkable paper tablet, so of course we included that as a coda.

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mksilk2

Registered
Great interview. It actually gave me a nudge in the right direction around someday/maybe lists for my work. I realised half way through the interview that I was hearing good ideas from my team but not capturing them. I think I was thinking in my head - ‘great idea let’s revisit when we have time’ and then the idea left the room.
Plus I have a reMarkable2 tablet so i was intrigued to hear what David had to say about the device.
 

John Forrister

GTD Connect
Staff member
Great interview. It actually gave me a nudge in the right direction around someday/maybe lists for my work. I realised half way through the interview that I was hearing good ideas from my team but not capturing them. I think I was thinking in my head - ‘great idea let’s revisit when we have time’ and then the idea left the room.
Plus I have a reMarkable2 tablet so i was intrigued to hear what David had to say about the device.
Your team is lucky that you are a GTD practitioner who is looking for better ways to use their talents.

I bet you will hear a lot of people saying, "Oh yeah, I know that one," about the fantasy of revisiting when we have time. It's so quick and easy to capture the idea in the moment — with no action commitment — and not so easy to get the idea back in the room after we've said, "No time for you now." Even in virtual meetings, I keep a hopper or parking lot to capture stuff that may not be directly on the agenda, which we may want to explore at another time. At the very least, the person who had the idea knows that she/he was heard and that ideas are welcome.

After losing lots of ideas I've gotten to where I carry a capture tool, even when it seems inconvenient, like on a jog in nature.

We almost left that reMarkable part off, because it came after the official close. But we all like to talk about software and hardware, and how it helps or hinders our productivity.
 

Falkenberg

Registered
Really great interview, and (for me) especially that last bit about the reMarkable: I ordered mine in March 2020 and finally got in in October, after they had some issues with their supply chain. But I absolutely love that thing! I am actually only using it for my job and it holds most of my (work) GTD system. It really was a game changer.
 

John Forrister

GTD Connect
Staff member
Really great interview, and (for me) especially that last bit about the reMarkable: I ordered mine in March 2020 and finally got in in October, after they had some issues with their supply chain. But I absolutely love that thing! I am actually only using it for my job and it holds most of my (work) GTD system. It really was a game changer.
How cool! If you would like to share any details about how you use reMarkable, we welcome that.
 

Falkenberg

Registered
Well: I actually got the GTD Organizer 2021 and downloaded it to the reMarkable. I went for the segmented version because otherwise the file size was too large and it was all a bit slow. I only wish that it was easier to switch between documents and not always having to go back to the main folder overview. But maybe they will improve the firmware over time and also implement more functions.

Overall it works pretty well for me and it allowed me to be almost paperless in the office. And the battery life is truly amazing. It is the first device for me in a very long time for which I actually don't have to worry about that. I think I may charge it like once a week or so...
 

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mksilk2

Registered
Well: I actually got the GTD Organizer 2021 and downloaded it to the reMarkable. I went for the segmented version because otherwise the file size was too large and it was all a bit slow. I only wish that it was easier to switch between documents and not always having to go back to the main folder overview. But maybe they will improve the firmware over time and also implement more functions.

Overall it works pretty well for me and it allowed me to be almost paperless in the office. And the battery life is truly amazing. It is the first device for me in a very long time for which I actually don't have to worry about that. I think I may charge it like once a week or so...
Can I ask what you mean by the segmented version? I looked online and only saw one version with 350 pages. I really like the Remarkable and use it every day for meeting notes and journaling. My issue with it is not being able to book mark inside a notebook. So I had not bought the 2021 organiser as I thought I would be forever turning pages trying to get to each section. But your comment about ‘segmented’ intrigued me.
 

Falkenberg

Registered
Sure. And I know exactly what you mean because I was also hesitating for a while. But I decided to give it a try and I was positively surprised by what you actually get as a download in a .zip file (I am attaching two screenshots to the post).
There is a version which has everything in one file, but there are also sub folders with all the individual segments in separate pdf files.
Ah, and by the way, I went for the Letter size and not A4.
 

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mksilk2

Registered
Sure. And I know exactly what you mean because I was also hesitating for a while. But I decided to give it a try and I was positively surprised by what you actually get as a download in a .zip file (I am attaching two screenshots to the post).
There is a version which has everything in one file, but there are also sub folders with all the individual segments in separate pdf files.
Ah, and by the way, I went for the Letter size and not A4.
Thanks for that. I think I will try the same.
 
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