Applying GTD for Airlines : Internal Comms

Yesterday I introduced to you a short eBook on applying Getting Things Done to airline workflow.
The interest was much more than I expected, so I decided to follow up.
I know of many people who swear by Getting Things Done. But let me be honest, I am not one of them. My view is that GTD should not be an addiction ( there’s nothing wrong with it though – you’ll just become a bit too workaholic ) but rather a tool to get things done.
There seems to be a common misinterpretation of the meaning of GTD.
GTD’s core goal is closing all open loops in your life. Because any open loop, takes away your attention. Examples for open loops might be the musical show tonight which you want to go watch with your wife, that project with the deadline as today, repairing your car and so on. Keeping these loops in open contradicts your attention, thus making you focus not just on your work, but also those open loops in the same time. This takes away the productivity. Hence, it is very important to close these loops, and focus on your work.

How to apply this for internal communications..

Many people believe that the open loops must be demolished, and as such, checking email should be reduced to a deep minimum. This is not true.

Being glued to your email screen all the day is un-productive. But it does not mean you should only check email once every two weeks. If you can have a scheduled period and do a mind-shift, you can make both your email and work very productive.

How to ?

Simple. Create a scheduled time of each hour or two for emails. For example, the last five minutes of every hour ( :55 to :00 ). Within this time, you will perform a complete mind-shift – a complete shift of your attention – to email. And all that will be in your mind during this time will be reading, and replying to these emails as productively and as efficiently as you can.

This helps you to manage both your work and internal communications without any distraction of focus – or without any open loops.

It works. Just try it.