http://blackbeltproject.com How To Be A Black Belt At GTD And Master Your Life One Belt At A Time Mon, 02 Apr 2012 03:46:13 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 In the Dojo of life, YOU are the student. The success of YOU depends on your ability to master and define your own life instead of life mastering and defining you. The Black Belt Project podcast goal is to teach you how to study your life and be the best YOU that you can be. Be the master of your life and subscribe to the Black Belt Project podcast today! The Black Belt Project clean The Black Belt Project michael@blackbeltproject.com michael@blackbeltproject.com (The Black Belt Project) Copyright 2011 - Present. The Black Belt Project. All Rights Reserved. BlackBeltProject.com How To Master Your Life One Belt At A Time black belt project, blackbeltproject, gtd, productivity, excellence, mastery, self improvement http://blackbeltproject.com/wp-content/uploads/powerpress/blackbeltprojectrssart-new.png http://blackbeltproject.com TV-G Indianapolis Weekly http://blackbeltproject.com/698/gtd-weekly-review/ http://blackbeltproject.com/698/gtd-weekly-review/#comments Tue, 09 Aug 2011 05:11:49 +0000 The Virtual Sensei http://blackbeltproject.com/?p=698 http://blackbeltproject.com/698/gtd-weekly-review/feed/ 2 getting things done,gtd,reviewing Are you doing a GTD weekly review? If not, you are missing out on getting the clarity that you need on all the commitments you have made. Today, I wanted to talk about the evolution of my weekly review and share with you some ideas on how to get starte... Are you doing a GTD weekly review? If not, you are missing out on getting the clarity that you need on all the commitments you have made. Today, I wanted to talk about the evolution of my weekly review and share with you some ideas on how to get started doing your weekly review and some other ideas I have at mastering the process. As usual, you can probably guess that I suggest you get a checklist going. At first, I wouldn't make your own. Instead use the one that David Allen provides and later start getting your own spin on it by putting your own specific actions on your checklist. The first problem I encountered is that I didn't actually do a weekly review. I think that this is a natural progression. At first, I was busy working on getting everything collected and processed. I always suggest when you are first starting out to get all of the buckets set up. Then, make sure you are getting everything collected into the system. Once you feel comfortable getting all of that down, then move onto mastering processing your inboxes to zero. Eventually, you'll create the momentum you need to start making a project list to determine what all your next actions should be. And finally you'll move onto consistently doing them. I noticed, as I think several others have, that when you first start doing your weekly review, that it takes a long time. This is because you are busy collecting, processing, doing your two minute actions and organizing. By the time you get to the actual reviewing you are well over an hour easy and often you run out of time. If this is you, then I think that you'll find some good tips in what I recommend here. Step One: Commit to doing the review at the same time once a week The first step is to commit to doing the review. Get it on your calendar and make sure that you keep the appointment. I like to do my weekly review late on Sunday nights. This is because I am pretty relaxed from the weekend, it's quiet in my house and I have some private time to do it. Since I work for myself, I find this an easy time and place to do it. The other thing that I like about it, is that it provides me a running start to Monday as I have already thought out what I want to do for the week. This might not work for you. You might instead like to do it on a Friday afternoon. What's important is not so much when you fit it in your schedule, but that you do it consistently each week and I suggest at the same time to get your mind condition to getting in the habit of doing it. Step Two: Work on your review for at least one hour a week As I mentioned above, your reviews will probably go over an hour when you first start. You will probably feel overwhelmed. You might not even finish. Whatever you do, work on your system for at least an hour even if you only work on collection or processing. Just keep moving the system forward. What you are striving for is getting the system under control. This hour a week will help you do that. If you want to spend more time on it, do so, but at least spend an hour working on it. Step Three: Use your review time to get your system in shape before you worry about reviewing If you are new to GTD, you'll find that you have a lot of collecting to do. Focus first on getting everything collected until you feel like you have stuff fairly well collected. I know at first, I was buried in paper. I had paper everywhere. I didn't have a system set up. I didn't have an inbox. Spend your review time getting collection under control. Once you do, spend your review time getting your email to zero. Once you do that, spend time getting your paper inbox to zero. You'll find that slowly moving this improvement through your system will create a snowball effect and give you the mental strength to move onto and through the review. Don't be afraid to use the review time for this purpose. Step Four: Break the review over a three day time period When I first started doing my reviews, The Virtual Sensei clean 25:07 http://blackbeltproject.com/466/daily-review-1-setting-up-your-gtd-inboxes-and-developing-an-inbox-checklist/ http://blackbeltproject.com/466/daily-review-1-setting-up-your-gtd-inboxes-and-developing-an-inbox-checklist/#comments Thu, 05 May 2011 05:49:55 +0000 The Virtual Sensei http://blackbeltproject.com/?p=466 http://blackbeltproject.com/466/daily-review-1-setting-up-your-gtd-inboxes-and-developing-an-inbox-checklist/feed/ 3 http://blackbeltproject.com/462/weekly-review-1-how-to-become-a-black-belt-at-gtd-and-master-your-time/ http://blackbeltproject.com/462/weekly-review-1-how-to-become-a-black-belt-at-gtd-and-master-your-time/#comments Wed, 04 May 2011 05:00:10 +0000 The Virtual Sensei http://blackbeltproject.com/?p=462 http://blackbeltproject.com/462/weekly-review-1-how-to-become-a-black-belt-at-gtd-and-master-your-time/feed/ 2 getting things done,gtd,mastery,time management In today's weekly review podcast, I wanted to talk about how to become a black belt at GTD and master your time. I've been working with my GTD system since about 2006 and I have to tell you that no other system has had such a profound impact on my life... In today's weekly review podcast, I wanted to talk about how to become a black belt at GTD and master your time. I've been working with my GTD system since about 2006 and I have to tell you that no other system has had such a profound impact on my life than David Allen's Getting Things Done. It is a great system. I do have to tell you though that getting your GTD system to black belt is just the beginning of mastering your life and that is what this site is all about. GTD will provide the framework you need but reaching your potential and mastering your life requires a deeper commitment to consistency and sense of purpose that can't be reached unless you get a hold of all of the loose ends in your head. So, that is why I think your journey should start with a solid GTD setup. What I've decided to do here is to start constructing a living GTD setup that you can tap into and see exactly how I've set my system up and how I work it on a daily basis. Behind the scenes here on the site, I've put in place a membership site that will represent your training facility to work on your "game" so to speak. I will call this training area the Dojo. While I have the structure of the site in place, you'll notice that is has a while to go with regard to being the kind of resource you need to master all aspects of your life. Because of that, what I have done is establish what I call a "beta" version of the site. During this beta period, I encourage you to join the site by clicking the link above called "Become A Black Belt" and registering for membership. Currently, membership is free. If you join now, you'll be considered a founding member and when the day comes that the "Dojo" officially opens, you'll receive a 50% discount on the monthly membership fees charged for new members. In the meantime, you'll have free use of all of the content that I put up until then. During this founding member period, I would also like to extend an offer to each member that joins a free Skype consultation on exactly where you need help and exactly how the Black Belt Project can help you. Once you join, please email me that you want to take me up on this offer. My goal is to help you reach your potential. What's going to happen from here is that each week, I will do a weekly review podcast. This podcast will be free to all visitors to help give them a taste of how the site actually works and what they can expect. On a daily basis, I will also provide updates that complement the weekly review. These daily reviews will give you the complete picture of how the system is developed. Initially, I will start setting up my GTD system from scratch just like a beginner. I will do the best I can to walk you through each part as I set it up in complete detail - from collection, through processing, organizing, doing and finally reviewing. Once this setup is complete, I'll look to improve it's performance and move it to a black belt level. Once I reach that stage, that will mean that I have obtained my red belt. At that point, I'll look to move onto my next belt and so on. I hope you enjoy this week's review. Let me know how I can help. The Virtual Sensei clean 10:35 http://blackbeltproject.com/212/black-belt-project-podcast-1-introduction-to-black-belt-gtd/ http://blackbeltproject.com/212/black-belt-project-podcast-1-introduction-to-black-belt-gtd/#comments Thu, 24 Feb 2011 17:16:41 +0000 The Virtual Sensei http://blackbeltproject.com/?p=212 http://blackbeltproject.com/212/black-belt-project-podcast-1-introduction-to-black-belt-gtd/feed/ 2 getting things done,gtd In my first podcast episode, I spend some time talking about the strategy I would use to become a Black Belt GTD if I was just starting out. There's no fancy music and my voice has been known to put people to sleep but I thought that a podcast might be... In my first podcast episode, I spend some time talking about the strategy I would use to become a Black Belt GTD if I was just starting out. There's no fancy music and my voice has been known to put people to sleep but I thought that a podcast might be beneficial to some of my readers. I'm still learning the logistics of putting these together so if you have any feedback on the quality of the recording or things you'd like to hear about let me know. The Virtual Sensei clean 18:45 http://blackbeltproject.com/205/gtd-voicemail-the-best-place-to-start-working-on-your-system/ http://blackbeltproject.com/205/gtd-voicemail-the-best-place-to-start-working-on-your-system/#comments Tue, 22 Feb 2011 17:25:53 +0000 The Virtual Sensei http://blackbeltproject.com/?p=205 http://blackbeltproject.com/205/gtd-voicemail-the-best-place-to-start-working-on-your-system/feed/ 0 http://blackbeltproject.com/198/the-gtd-daily-review-checklist-%e2%80%93-how-to-design-the-perfect-day/ http://blackbeltproject.com/198/the-gtd-daily-review-checklist-%e2%80%93-how-to-design-the-perfect-day/#comments Fri, 18 Feb 2011 04:04:44 +0000 The Virtual Sensei http://blackbeltproject.com/?p=198 http://blackbeltproject.com/198/the-gtd-daily-review-checklist-%e2%80%93-how-to-design-the-perfect-day/feed/ 2 http://blackbeltproject.com/191/gtd-areas-of-focus-%e2%80%93-the-black-belt-levels/ http://blackbeltproject.com/191/gtd-areas-of-focus-%e2%80%93-the-black-belt-levels/#comments Tue, 15 Feb 2011 04:48:33 +0000 The Virtual Sensei http://blackbeltproject.com/?p=191 http://blackbeltproject.com/191/gtd-areas-of-focus-%e2%80%93-the-black-belt-levels/feed/ 2 http://blackbeltproject.com/187/the-basic-three-step-black-belt-training-program/ http://blackbeltproject.com/187/the-basic-three-step-black-belt-training-program/#comments Fri, 11 Feb 2011 04:29:11 +0000 The Virtual Sensei http://blackbeltproject.com/?p=187 http://blackbeltproject.com/187/the-basic-three-step-black-belt-training-program/feed/ 2 http://blackbeltproject.com/184/the-dojo-kun-of-the-black-belt-project/ http://blackbeltproject.com/184/the-dojo-kun-of-the-black-belt-project/#comments Thu, 10 Feb 2011 01:12:38 +0000 The Virtual Sensei http://blackbeltproject.com/?p=184 http://blackbeltproject.com/184/the-dojo-kun-of-the-black-belt-project/feed/ 8 http://blackbeltproject.com/180/what-is-the-black-belt-project-about/ http://blackbeltproject.com/180/what-is-the-black-belt-project-about/#comments Wed, 09 Feb 2011 02:25:40 +0000 The Virtual Sensei http://blackbeltproject.com/?p=180 http://blackbeltproject.com/180/what-is-the-black-belt-project-about/feed/ 0