Tips how to deal with interruptions

Here are few tricks and thoughts about dealing with numerous daily interruptions by David Allen - how fire department deals with that and short video, what to do, when the interruption happens to you.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: David Allen <do-not-reply@davidco.com>
Date: 8 September 2011 19:19
Subject: Productive Living: GTD tips for dealing with interruptions

	Hi Folks, One of the reasons you won't find ABC/123 priority coding in the GTD system is that most people's lives change too quickly for it to ever be an accurate reflection of what's true in this moment. Not to say clarifying priorities shouldn't be a priority, but I bet you can think of a time when you thought your day looked one way at 9:00a.m., and an exciting or challenging or annoying interruption or surprise happened at 9:05a.m. that blew all of that out of the water. How quickly could you shift and change to adapt to that—while bookmarking what you were working on to easily get back to it? Your ability to deal with surprise, elegantly and proactively, is your personal and organizational competitive edge. All the best, DAVID'S FOOD FOR THOUGHT Your competitive edge There is one organization that never has fires and crises—the fire department. Think about it. They are constantly being interrupted from getting their work done. They have to clean, polish, maintain, train, fill out forms, hire, communicate, order toilet paper, cook lunch, feed the dog, give speeches, and maintain a happy face. Suddenly a bell rings and everything gets overturned. And the vast majority of these interruptions are false alarms! They accept and organize for this. I was in Los Angeles many years ago when a large part of the city was on fire. On the news I didn't see one fire company just throwing the hoses willy-nilly back on the truck to get to the next one. It's just a neat, methodical procedure, implemented with consistency and integrity, taking into account the realities of the situation and the resources at hand. Is there a lesson here? How long are people going to complain about continual surprises and interruptions, especially the ones that are inherently natural to the business and value we are trying to add? And, if there were never any surprises, most of us would be bored stupid in a few days; and the competition would have probably eaten our lunch already with purely bureaucratic efficiency. Your ability to deal with surprise, elegantly and proactively, is your personal and organizational competitive edge. You just need to ensure that your systems can keep things under control from any angle, with appropriate distinctions between what's movable and what's not. Then turning on a dime is an effortless spin instead of a clumsy crash and burn. QUOTABLES "To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else." —Emily Dickinson "True stability results when presumed order and presumed disorder are balanced. A truly stable system expects the unexpected, is prepared to be disrupted, waits to be transformed." —Tom Robbins PODCAST WITH DAVID Watch a 4-minute video with David Allen on dealing with interruptions, including a simple trick you can start using right away.
	PUBLIC GTD SEMINARS We encourage you to register early, as they often sell out New public seminar cities and dates have been announced! Register with code SEP2011 to receive 10% off any upcoming public seminar*. For a list of upcoming events, please visit www.davidco.com/seminars. Atlanta, GA  September 16—Sold out! Chicago, IL  October 4 New York, NY  October 6 Boston, MA  October 28 Washington, DC  November 17 For an inspiring and exciting day, led by David Allen, attend GTD Making It All Work! Coming to: Munich, Germany  September 13—Sold out! London, UK  September 16 Calling GTD public seminar graduates! Join us at the upcoming GTD Managing Projects & Priorities seminars this Fall. Newport Beach, CA  September 27 Chicago, IL  December 7 * Register before September 15, 2011. Code may not be combined with other discounts or applied retroactively.
	UPCOMING WEBINARS ON GTD CONNECT Looking for support in getting your productivity to the next level? Take the 14-day Challenge with two senior coaches. September 22 and October 6th. Includes two webinars and a game plan to make the GTD best practices a habit. Free for all GTD Connect members. Login to GTD Connect to pre-register.
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