Tandem Coaching Blog

Getting Things Done isn't magic, and it's not complicated. At its core, it's five simple steps that solve a universal problem: our brains are terrible at remembering things at the right time. After 20 years, GTD might matter more than ever as we juggle 121 emails, 74 messages, and 11 meetings weekly. This modern guide strips away the mystique, shows you exactly what GTD is (and isn't), reveals why 68% of attempts fail, and provides a 7-day experiment to test if GTD works for your reality—no special apps required.

Getting Things Done isn't magic, and it's not complicated. At its core, it's five simple steps that solve a universal problem: our brains are terrible at remembering things at the right time. After 20 years, GTD might matter more than ever as we juggle 121 emails, 74 messages, and 11 meetings weekly. This modern guide strips away the mystique, shows you exactly what GTD is (and isn't), reveals why 68% of attempts fail, and provides a 7-day experiment to test if GTD works for your reality—no special apps required.

David Allen's Getting Things Done revolutionized personal productivity, yet 77% of executives abandon it within three months. The system isn't wrong—it's incomplete. Standard GTD treats a board presentation and an expense report with equal weight, assumes you're executing tasks rather than orchestrating outcomes, and ignores the reality that your productivity system affects hundreds of people. This guide reveals the five essential modifications that transform GTD from an individual productivity system into a leadership operating system, with proven frameworks used by executives managing 200+ people across multiple time zones.

The average executive spends only 23% of their time on activities they were actually hired to do. This 7-day productivity audit reveals where your time really goes, uncovers hidden productivity drains costing $490,000 annually, and establishes the baseline data needed for systematic improvement. Discover why traditional time tracking fails at leadership levels and how to capture the multi-dimensional reality of executive work.

Poor executive productivity costs organizations millions annually, yet 73% of leaders fail with standard productivity systems because they weren't designed for C-suite complexity. This comprehensive guide reveals the Productivity Stack Architecture™ that successful executives use to manage board obligations, team leadership, and strategic initiatives while maintaining sanity. Discover why single-system approaches fail at executive levels and how to engineer an integrated productivity ecosystem that actually works.