Stress-free productivity does exist

In 1982, General Motors closed its plant in Fremont, California. It was GM’s worst factory: absenteeism routinely exceeded 20%, there were more than 800 pending union complaints, and wildcat strikes were almost routine. The cars coming out of that plant were of the lowest quality in the system. Toyota reopened it two years later as NUMMI, rehiring almost all of the same workers, including the former strike leaders. It used the same machinery. It manufactured similar cars. And in less than a year, the plant went on to have the best quality in GM. Absenteeism dropped to 2%.

Hello everyone!

Within the Getting Things Done workflow, the Someday/Maybe list occupies a unique place. It’s not an action list, even though it includes “potential” actions. It’s something similar to what would be called a reserve warehouse in logistics: a space where you store things that have potential future value, but which, for the time being, don’t require any commitment on your part. In some places, it’s called the incubator.

If you’re a freelancer, a consultant, or run a business with external clients, at some point you’ve probably come across a question that Getting Things Done doesn’t explicitly address: Where do my clients fit into the GTD system?

1. The traditional separation: a cultural tradition more than half a century old