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My friend Dan has graciously allowed me to post the contents of his new newsletter that outlines the features of the terrific service GTDAgenda. (Disclosure: GTDAgenda is a paid service, and a sponsor of Productivity in Context - there are free plans, a $4.45/month plan and a $7.95/month plan)

You may have noticed the new Sponsor graphic that went up in the sidebar recently, as I have been using the GTDAgenda service for a few weeks now and give it my seal of approval. This online task and project manager is just what I have been looking for in a digital app. (And you know that I have been very critical of digital productivity tracking apps!) It is not too loaded-down with useless features, not is it just an Outlook or Lightning replacement. Take a look at my dashboard (I have edited it a bit for privacy reasons):

You can create lists of Goals, each containing the appropriate Projects and Tasks. Each Project gets assigned a list of Next Actions, with their own particular contexts and due dates. The context list on the right-hand side is particularly useful. It updates automatically and when I sit down at the computer to do some work I can look at this list and not have to flip through a handful of lists or scan thru one big list to find all of the NAs assigned a particular Context.

I have found this to be an excellent addition to my daily routine and a great place to list my NAs while I plot out my week during the Weekly Review. Great job Dan!

I do recommend that you check it out. Here is the newsletter:

UPCOMING FEATURE: In a couple of days, Gtdagenda will receive
another cool feature: Sharing of Projects and Contexts. You’ll
be able to invite people, share your lists and collaborate.
Stay tuned.

Why and How to set Goals

Successful people are goal oriented. They have written
specific goals and plans for their lives, careers and
businesses.They know exactly what they want to achieve and
when they will achieve it by, and they have clearly defined
the specific steps they will take to achieve these goals.

Having a clearly defined written goal will motivate and
energize you to go out and achieve anything that you want
in your life, career or business. You’ll be amazed at how
easy it will be for you to get whatever you want, once
you bother to figure out what it is.

This is why you need goals, and here are three reasons you
need them written down:

1) So you don’t forget

This sounds pretty simplistic, but you probably had an
idea - the kind of idea that’s so good, it interrupts
your work or wakes you out of sleep at 3 am. What do most
people do? They go back to sleep or continue their daily
activities, and a couple of hours later the idea is gone.
How about those people who wrote it down? They usually look
at the paper later, get real excited about the great idea,
and start working toward it.

2) The writing down of a goal is the first commitment to
actually going out and accomplishing it

The big goals, the really big ones, could take you 2, 3, 5
or 10 years of time, energy and effort to achieve. If you
are not willing to take 5 or 10 minutes to write it down,
what makes you think you’ll be willing to invest 5 or 10
years toward achieving it? It’s a lot easier to write it
down than to go out and get it. If you are not willing to
do the easy, what makes you think you’ll ever be willing
to do the hard?

3) The writing down of a goal makes you accountable to the
only person you can’t fool: you

You can fool anyone you want: your parents, kids, boss,
coworkers and every living person, but there’s one person
who always knows the honest truth: you. How are you going
to feel when you have to admit to yourself that you weren’t
willing to do everything it takes to achieve what you said
you wanted?

Before you begin to make your list of the most significant
things you want to achieve in the next five years, keep in
mind the three components of an effective written goal:

1) Be specific about your goals

Goals should be straightforward and emphasize what you want
to happen. Specifics help you to focus your efforts and
clearly define what you are going to do. Never use words
such as “some”, “a little bit”, or “more”. If you
want to lose eight kg, specify that number. If you want
to make $1 million, be exact.

2) Use time frames for your goals

When you write down each item you want to accomplish, also
write down the year you intend to accomplish it by. Remember,
a goals is a dream with a deadline. Do not use the word
“sometime”. “Sometime” is usually used when we don’t
want to do, or have no intentions of doing something.

3) Place no limits on your ability to achieve your goals

If it’s what you really want, write it down. Too many people
set their goals low, low enough so that there’s no way for
them to fail. You have to keep your focus on what you want
to succeed at, and not on what “not to fail” at.

So these are the components of an effective written goal.
As you are writing down these goals, visualize them; see
yourself successful. If you can see the goal in your mind,
it will make it much easier to be specific.

*** And if you want a tool to set your Goals, create a plan
for achieving them, and have them with you wherever you are,
Gtdagenda is always at your service at:

GTDAgenda.com

and

GTDAgenda.mobi

Some of my colleagues in the “Product-o-sphere” have taken a look at GTDAgenda also, you can see their reviews here:

Online GTD Application Review at eDragonU

The whole application is structured in 7 sections, namely Goals, Projects, Tasks, Contexts, Next Actions, Checklists and Schedules. Those sections are pretty much self-explanatory, and the GTD-savvy won’t have any difficulty to perform on this set up. Projects, Contexts, Tasks and Next Actions are easy to remember concepts from the David Allen’s book that we’ve all read.

Personal Development Blog

There are some really nice features which make this service universally pleasant - print and email options, for example. Printing allows you to print your projects, tasks or next action lists as a nice-looking list. I thing Next Actions are a great list to print - will help you stay on track even if you’re away from your browser, for example.

Using GTDAgenda with your mobile device

Black Belt Productivity is looking at GTDAgenda too.

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/6n7mqm. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen