“It doesn’t take time to meditate. All I did was stop and listen.”
In short: David Allen is the author of Getting Things Done (also on Audible) and creator of the GTD method. In this Success Secrets clip from his 2015 London Real interview with Brian Rose, he shares his daily habits, why sleep matters, how to run a weekly review and what he thinks leadership requires.
David practises what he teaches. He keeps his head empty by clearing his in-basket every day or two, checks the next day’s hard commitments the night before, and prefers to plan as little as he can get by with.
The clip also covers sleep and the brain, meditation, the toughest parts of running a company and why he believes control and focus are what people need from a leader.
Key takeaways
- Empty your head regularly. David clears his in-basket every 24 to 48 hours and does not let things lie fallow.
- Check the hard landscape the night before. He looks at his external commitments for tomorrow and asks what will die if he does not do it, so the rest of him can sleep.
- Protect your sleep. He gets seven to nine hours when he can, and cites research that most people need seven or eight hours for the brain to make associations while they rest.
- Do a weekly review. Every seven to ten days he steps back from day-to-day operations, cleans up his lists and defines the new projects that have crept in.
- Lists are orientation maps. A calendar, shopping list or strategic plan is a tool to locate yourself in space and time, and each needs reviewing at its own rhythm.
- Leadership means control and focus. David says people trust a leader who is appropriately in control and focused, and GTD manages those two things.
Habits that keep his head clear
David says he eats his own dog food. Two things he does every day: keep stuff out of his head by emptying his in-basket every 24 to 48 hours, and check the next day’s hard landscape the night before, meaning the commitments that would fail if he skipped them. That lets part of him frame the day and then sleep.
He loves sleep. The brain’s archiving function, which knits input into relationships and associations, apparently needs the last couple of hours of sleep in the REM state, he says, and shortening it costs you the mind’s ability to make connections. He adds that “sleeping on it” is a practical thing to do.
The weekly review and orientation maps
Roughly every seven to ten days, David says, he feels the world crawling up on him and backs off from the day-to-day to bring his lists current. If you use the method, things show up as lists, so the review is a matter of going through them and defining projects that have crept in, because “things ooze onto us in life” rather than arriving with a pink bow.
He describes agendas, shopping lists and even a strategic plan as orientation maps, tools that tell you where you are so you can optimise the context you are in. Each horizon, from today’s to-do list to your life purpose, has its own rhythm of review, and trying to do it all from your head is, in his words, “good luck.”
Meditation, challenges and leadership
Asked whether he meditates daily, David says he does it all the time: it only takes stopping and listening, and he has practised versions of it since 1968, with longer sessions of 30 to 60 minutes at times. He does not stay awake at night, though he calls himself a 30-year startup still working out how to scale his methodology while keeping a viable business. The toughest part is people issues, such as hiring the wrong person.
On leadership he says the key element is trust, which depends on control and focus. Anything that improves those two factors improves your ability to lead. He does not call himself a leader and jokes that one of his titles is Fool on the Hill.
Who is David Allen?
David Allen is the author of Getting Things Done, a book that has sold millions of copies, and the creator of the GTD productivity method. He runs a small company he describes as a 30-year startup. He appeared on London Real with Brian Rose in 2015.
Frequently asked questions
He empties his in-basket every 24 to 48 hours, reviews the next day's hard commitments the night before, sleeps seven to nine hours when he can and does a weekly review.
About every seven to ten days he steps back from daily operations, cleans up his lists, brings them current and defines any new projects that have appeared.
David Allen uses the term for tools such as calendars, lists and strategic plans that help you locate yourself in space and time and make decisions in your current context.
Yes. He says he does it all the time, because it only takes stopping and listening, and has practised versions of it since 1968.
He says leadership depends on trust, and that people trust leaders who are in control and focused, which are the two things GTD manages.
You can watch this David Allen clip free on this page, with the full transcript below the video.
