In yesterday’s post, I noted that this is an excellent time of year to do your GTD 50,000 foot review.
Today I realized it might be helpful for me to give you a tool to help you do such a review. Accordingly, I am making this 50,000 ft review document, with its list of “seed” questions, freely available. The document is in Microsoft Word format (saved with Office 2003).
The questions included in this document are intended to be “starter” questions for your 50,000 foot review (and 40,000 foot review, too). You will likely think of additional questions, and you will probably want to use multiple tools, and not just a Word document. (For example, you may want to use a mind map, and/or have brainstorming sessions with your partner.) Of course, you do not need to answer all of the questions to do a good 50,000 foot review. You can pick and choose among the questions, answering only the ones you want to, or tackle them all.
Note that these questions are hard. It will take you a lot of thoughtful time to answer them, but of course the value in doing so outweighs the cost of time.
Some of the questions in the linked document are taken from David Allen’s Making It All Work: Winning at the Game of Work and Business of Life
I am releasing this document under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License. If you are a web author, you are free to host this document on your own site. Of course I would expect a link back to this article (or this site’s front page) in return.
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Bruce – thanks for the excellent reminder to focus on the “big picture” and for the seed document. In the past, I updated my big picture every month on the first day of the month. It is an effort, but the result is clarity and focus. My experience is that the process flows with paper and a free flowing fountain pen. Somehow the physical act of writing engages my thoughts more easily than the keyboard. I’m not sure why – but it may just be the change of pace! Like all good habits, regular attention pays the rewards.
Happy New Year! I enjoy your blog throughout the year!
Del – thank you very much for the kind words, for the link to my article, and for your insights on staying on top of the big picture with a monthly working session on it. I am also fond of pen and paper for this sort of activity. For some reason, my brain makes a better connection to the question when I write it out, and it seems like I give more thoughtful answers when I write them out.
Thanks again, Del, and happy new year to you!