Getting Things Done

Masters of scale

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Today I talk to business owner, author, and public speaker Rory Vaden about his two books, Take the Stairs and Procrastinate on Purpose. Rory and I talk about the principles that will help instill self-discipline in you and how you can be more effective with your time to leave a lasting legacy. Get out your pen and notebook. You'll want to take notes during this episode. Lots of great takeaways you can apply today.  

#124: Self-Discipline & Personal Effectiveness With Rory Vaden

What's different now? Over the 15 years since David Allen first published Getting Things Done, the ability to achieve  "stress-free productivity" with GTD® grows more important than ever.  David joins us in an all-new interview where we discuss the changing times, why people get trapped in unproductive thinking, and how to instantly gain more clear space.

Ep: 1 - David Allen talks about the New Edition of Getting Things Done

What if you had an objective list of everything that currently holds your attention? Get out your note-taking devices as David Allen guides us through a sample coaching "Mind Sweep" session (one of the first steps to practicing GTD®). We bet that you'll have at least one valuable "Oh, yeah! That reminds me..." thought during this episode!

Ep: 3 - David Allen guides you through a GTD Mind Sweep

HOTR London Lighthouse

Dealing with Your Dry Places - Pastor Paul Adefarasin - Sun 23 Apr 2017

Forming a well crafted communications strategy is part action, and part reaction. It’s about developing and telling your brand story in a deliberate way, while at the same time understanding the macro media landscape and thoughtfully responding to the narratives about your industry. Aaron Zamost, the Head of Communications at Square who led comms through the company’s IPO, has done an amazing job at synthesizing how the tech press works in his blog posts including “What’s Your Hour in ‘Silicon Valley Time’?” and “The Invisible Force That Warps What You Read in the News.” 

In this podcast, Greylock Marketing Partner Elisa Schreiber sits down with Aaron to talk how a tech startup should think about communications from the early days all the way up to IPO.

Master Class in Communications with Square’s Aaron Zamost | Greymatter

Engaging with customers is one of the most difficult challenges for most companies. With the growing number of ways consumers interact with brands — from phone calls, to texting, to social media messaging — it’s becoming increasingly hard for companies to aggregate interactions into useful information. Even today, customer service products focus on individual communication channels and treat customers as case numbers or tickets. The founders of Gladly think this standard needs to change. They are reimagining the business/consumer relationship by centralizing all communications and making the atomic unit of their product what it should be: the customer. 

Gladly CEO Joseph Ansanelli and VP of Engineering Michael Wolfe have a deep history of successful ventures together. The two first worked with each other at Kana, an early customer service software company that helped managed email and web based communications. The pair later founded Vontu, a data loss prevention software that was later acquired by Symantec. In 2015, they got the band back together and incubated Gladly at Greylock with mission to change how large enterprises interact with their many customers.
 
In the latest episode of Greymatter, Joseph and Michael sit down with Greylock partner and Gladly board member, Jerry Chen. The founders share their vision for reinventing customer service, identifying spaces ripe for disruption, and what it takes to become the industry standard. Below are a few key takeaways from the discussion.

Reinventing Customer Service with Gladly Co-Founders Joseph Ansanelli and Michael Wolfe | Greymatter

Today, we're excited to offer you a rare glimpse at a presentation David gave on the case for capturing.&nbsp; In it, David and the audience&nbsp;explore&nbsp;the concepts of psychic RAM, society’s move into knowledge work, as well as the freedom we feel as we begin to implement the GTD methodology. &nbsp;

Ep: 35 - The Case for Capturing

Today's episode features a rare segment by David where he outlines the sources of procrastination, a few fun examples of the dynamics at work, and the steps we can take to overcome it. &nbsp;

Ep: 36 - Overcoming Procrastination

The new year is always a great excuse to zoom out and recalibrate how your system is running, and a year-end review is an excellent way to do exactly that. &nbsp;In this conversation that first showed up on GTD Connect, David &amp; Kelly give us some quick, practical tips for successfully performing a year-end review. &nbsp;

Ep: 37 - Tips for a Year-End Review

David explores the power of outcome thinking in front of a live audience. &nbsp;This talk will reveal just how much the thoughts we hold in our head have the potential to affect the types and qualities of action we take.&nbsp; From athletic performance to prepping for that next big meeting, what we think about *while* we act can affect *how* we act.

Ep: 38 - The Power of Outcome Thinking

This episode of Greymatter comes from Stanford University's Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Series podcast. Greylock Partner Josh McFarland shared with students his presentation The First Derivative of Startup Life. In this lecture at Stanford, Josh charts the ups and downs of entrepreneurship through his personal story with TellApart. He opens up about the lessons he learned as a founder and CEO, offers fundraising advice for startups, and shares the untold story of TellApart's acquisition by Twitter, which was the largest acquisition in Twitter history. 

Greymatter is produced by Greylock Partners and offers perspectives and lessons from some of the world's top technology entrepreneurs and business leaders.

Lessons Learned From Scaling TellApart with Greylock Partner Josh McFarland | Greymatter

Today we hear a wide-ranging conversation between David Allen and the founder of HolacracyOne, Brian Robertson. Just as GTD is a systematic approach to maintaining perspective and control in your life, Holacracy is a systematic approach (or operating system) to running an organization. You'll hear a lot of interesting similarities between the two models, as well as their shared history and purpose.

Ep: 39 - GTD and Holacracy

"Your only job is to continue to grow, learn and evolve as fast as you possibly can," says Molly Graham. And, she knows hypergrowth. Molly has helped scale several leading technology companies as an early employee at Facebook, COO at Quip (which was acquired by Salesforce for $750M) and most recently the VP of Operations at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. In this episode of Greymatter, Molly and Greylock Partner John Lilly share how to define company culture, what to look for in a new hire and advice for dealing with constant change. 
 
At Facebook, she created Facebook's external "hacker" brand and built programs to strengthen the Facebook culture as it grew from 500 to 1,500 employees as well as a stint leading some of Facebook's long term mobile initiatives. After Facebook, Molly joined Quip three months before it launched in 2013 and was tasked with building out the business. She sold the first customers, ran sales and marketing, and ultimately hired key team members to help Quip scale. Prior to Greylock, John was CEO of Mozilla, the organization behind Firefox, the open source Web browser used by more than 450 million people. John also co-founded Reactivity, an enterprise security infrastructure company acquired by Cisco in 2007.
 
Both Molly and John share stories of their past experience scaling organizations at different levels of growth and lessons learned along the way. A few key takeaways are below.

Scaling Organizations with Molly Graham and Greylock's John Lilly | Greymatter

Today we hear David Allen interviewing General Randal Fullhart. &nbsp;Graduating from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1979, Randy has commanded at the squadron, group and wing levels. He shares insights and tips about his own journey with GTD in his very real and responsible world.

Ep: 41 - David Allen Talks with General Randal Fullhart

Today, David Allen, Mark Wallace and Mike Williams will be discussing the brand new Getting Things Done for teens book: what's different, what's the same, and some of the wisdom they've garnered in writing the book together. &nbsp;You can find out more at gtdforteens.com.

Ep: 42 - GTD® for Teens

Look out folks, it's another YouTube rainstorm headed your way. I recently spent time hunkered under mossy logs in fern-covered forests in Washington State, recording super soothing rain sounds. Everywhere I looked was breathtaking. This is definitely the place to visit to find tranquility. I hope you find listening to the rain as calming as I did while I was there making the recording.

You may enjoy this sound for helping you sleep, study, focus or to temporarily relieve the symptoms of tinnitus.

10 hour version on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t9yMs-LkXA
purchase mp3: https://relaxingwhitenoise.com/products/forest-rain-sounds-for-sleeping-or-studying-mp3

Check out our Rain Sounds Playlist for more rain ambiances: 
soundcloud.com/relaxing-white-noise/sets/rain

DISCLAIMER: Remember that loud sounds can potentially damage your hearing. When playing one of our videos, if you cannot have a conversation over the sound without raising your voice, the sound may be too loud for your ears. Please do not place speakers right next to a baby’s ears. If you have difficulty hearing or hear ringing in your ears, please immediately discontinue listening to the white noise sounds and consult an audiologist or your physician. The sounds provided by this Youtube channel are for entertainment purposes only and are not a treatment for sleep disorders or tinnitus. If you have significant difficulty sleeping on a regular basis, experience fitful/restless sleep, or feel tired during the day, please consult your physician.

© Relaxing White Noise LLC, 2016. All rights reserved. Any reproduction or republication of all or part of this text/visual/audio is prohibited.

Forest Rain Sounds for Sleeping or Studying (75 Minutes)

Today, we offer a glimpse at a rare presentation David Allen gave on the weekly review. &nbsp;In this talk, David shares his thoughts on what a good review is and isn't - as well as some random tips and tricks from his years in the trenches.

Ep: 43 - The Power of the Weekly Review

Musician Evan Taubenfeld and entertainment lawyer Danny Passman join David Allen and Coach Kelly Forrister in an inspiring conversation about GTD for creative people. Lots of wonderful nuggets in this episode about finding the creative spark within the structure of a GTD system. &nbsp;This episode is an unofficial&nbsp;continuation of Episode 6, GTD® and Creativity.

Ep: 44 - GTD® and Creativity, Part 2

Do you ever struggle with managing competing priorities and don't know how you'll get it all done? &nbsp;Join David Allen for a conversation that's packed with practical GTD coaching advice on how to deal with competing priorities--from getting a higher perspective on your life and work, down to trusting your moment-to-moment action choices.

Ep: 45 - Dealing with Competing Priorities

Our GTD podcasts are here to support you at every stage of your GTD practice. You will hear interviews with people from all walks of life about their journey with GTD, from beginners to those who have been at it for years. The podcasts include personal and professional stories, as well as practical tips about GTD systems for desktop and mobile, using apps and paper. Start listening now and you'll be well on your way to stress-free productivity.