If constant stress has you feeling disillusioned, helpless, and completely exhausted, you may be suffering from burnout. When you’re burned out from stress, problems seem insurmountable, everything looks bleak, and it’s difficult to muster up the energy to care—let alone do something about your situation. The unhappiness and detachment that burnout causes can threaten your job, your relationships, and your health. But burnout can be overcome. There are plenty of things you can do to regain your balance and start to feel hopeful and positive again.

1. UPrince: Less Stress, More Success
I Want My Life Back
FastTrack Kurt Vanhaesebrouck

2. UPrince: Less Stress, More Success
Project Manager, Sounds familiar?
• Constant Stress
• Feeling Helpless
• Complete Exhausted
• Hard to keep promises
• Always too late
• Procrastination
You may be suffering from burnout…

3. UPrince: Less Stress, More Success
I’ve tried everything in the past 25 years
• Lotus notes tasks
• Outlook tasks
• SharePoint team site
• Evernote / OneNote
• Excel

4. UPrince: Less Stress, More Success
The pre-holiday feeling, the whole year long
• Complete the Most important priorities
• The other to-do’s planned
• Everybody informed
What if I each day could:

5. UPrince: Less Stress, More Success
a fool with a tool still a fool
• First I’ve focussed on the right productivity technique by studying the GTD methodology from
David Allen
• Isolate the essential GTD idea’s and bring them into practise for more then 3 month.
• And then define what I was missing in my toolset

6. UPrince: Less Stress, More Success
What I was
missing was
1 TO DO List

7. UPrince: Less Stress, More Success
That is as easy as Excel, Outlook, OneNote ...
Managing Projects and Operations
DevOps, Scrum Masters
Business Unit Managers
Project Managers

8. UPrince: Less Stress, More Success
Which experiences shall I share…
• What you really need to know to succeed
• Start-2-GTD
• GTD live
• GTD for Business Managers
• GTD of Project Managers
• GTD Training and coaching

9. UPrince: Less Stress, More Success
What Project Managers really need to know…
It’s all about managing your mental energy…
• “Time flies when you are having fun”
• “Learn from the past, but don't live in the past.” (Steve Maraboli)
• “A bad plan is better then no plan!” (Emanuel Lasker)
• Get addicted on completing tasks (before starting a new one )
• "Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress.
Working together is success." (Henry Ford)
ENERGY BOOSTERS

10. UPrince: Less Stress, More Success
What Project Managers really need to know…
It’s all about managing your mental energy…
• Stress
• Being Out of control
• Too many (unfinished) things on your mind
• Continuous (unimportant ) conflicts / discussions
• Failure
• Burnout !
ENERGY ZAPPERS

11. UPrince: Less Stress, More Success
Which experiences shall I share…
• What you really need to know to succeed
• Start-2-GTD
• GTD live
• GTD for Business Managers
• GTD of Project Managers
• GTD Training and coaching

12. UPrince: Less Stress, More Success
Start-2-GTD
• Where to start (Identify)
• Let’s write down what’s on my mind (Mind dump)
• What have I done today (Daily review)
• After a week (Weekly review)
• Where can I optimise (Monthy review)
Start-2-GTD Identify Mind dump ...Daily review Weekly review
Monthly
review

13. UPrince: Less Stress, More Success
Watch the video if this doens’t sound familiar.

14. UPrince: Less Stress, More Success
Where to Start (Identify)
• Inboxes
◦ Where do I have, received and created stuff (things to consider).
◦ Examples:
◦ Private
◦ Post
◦ Electronic
◦ Professional
◦ Paper trays
◦ OneNote
◦ Office 365
◦ ...
Start-2-GTD Identify Mind dump ...Daily review Weekly review
Monthly
review

15. UPrince: Less Stress, More Success
Where to Start (Identify)
• Calendar
◦ Define one calendar system that is always available and covers your private and professional
appointements.
◦ Example: Outlook calendar
◦ includes private and professional appointments
◦ is available on smartphone, table and laptop.
◦ Prepare your agenda
◦ Check if your agenda includes all recurring activities
◦ Add 2h/day for unforeseen activities. It make you more agile & lean
◦ Analyse the previous weeks and book ‘forecasted’ activities
Start-2-GTD Identify Mind dump ...Daily review Weekly review
Monthly
review

16. UPrince: Less Stress, More Success
Where to Start (Identify)
• Contexts
◦ Key to Success
◦ The physical locations you visit on a regular base (Home, Parents, Office, Customer x, Production Plant y, ...)
◦ “On the move” is the productivity game changer
◦ Recurring Time focus windows
◦ Business Manager (Sales, Marketing, Finance, HR, ... )
◦ Project Manager (each individual active project or assignment)
Start-2-GTD Identify Mind dump ...Daily review Weekly review
Monthly
review

17. UPrince: Less Stress, More Success
Where to Start (Identify)
• Attic
◦ Where will you store information that could once be usefull to have .
◦ Golden rule : where you expect to find the information.
◦ Mail -> mailbox
◦ Electronic document -> probably file system or OneNote
◦ Paper -> if possible scan and store as an electronic document
Start-2-GTD Identify Mind dump ...Daily review Weekly review
Monthly
review

18. UPrince: Less Stress, More Success
Mind dump
• Start writing down anything that’s on your mind
• Really anything,
• Don’t think, just do it and
• Don’t narrow the scope, include the personal thoughts
• Feel the sensation
• You’ll enjoy the same feeling every time you note and completed some of that stuff.
Start-2-GTD Identify Mind dump ...Daily review Weekly review
Monthly
review

19. UPrince: Less Stress, More Success
Start-2-GTD Identify Mind dump ...Regular Day Weekly review
Monthly
review
A Regular Day of a Project Manager
12:00 AM 11:59 PM
Could be

20. UPrince: Less Stress, More Success
Start-2-GTD Identify Mind dump ...Regular Day Weekly review
Monthly
review
A Regular Day of a Project Manager
12:00 AM 11:59 PM
First thing
@Office
Before
Going UP
Before
Breakfast What's next
After
Lunchbreak EOB
Should be

21. UPrince: Less Stress, More Success
12:00 AM 11:59 PM
First thing
@Office
Before
Going UP
Before
Breakfast What's next
After
Lunchbreak EOB
 Breakfast  Lunch  Diner
Start-2-GTD Identify Mind dump ...Regular Day Weekly review
Monthly
review

22. UPrince: Less Stress, More Success
12:00 AM 11:59 PM
First thing
@Office
Before
Going UP
Before
Breakfast What's next
After
Lunchbreak EOB
 Planned Activities
Start-2-GTD Identify Mind dump ...Regular Day Weekly review
Monthly
review

23. UPrince: Less Stress, More Success
12:00 AM 11:59 PM
First thing
@Office
Before
Going UP
Before
Breakfast What's next
After
Lunchbreak EOB
 Process GTD inboxes
(mail, paper, …)
 What’s next
 Process GTD inboxes
(mail, paper, …)
 Daily review (-7)
 Process GTD inboxes
(mail, paper, …)
 What’s next
Start-2-GTD Identify Mind dump ...Regular Day Weekly review
Monthly
review

24. UPrince: Less Stress, More Success
12:00 AM 11:59 PM
First thing
@Office
Before
Going UP
Before
Breakfast What's next
After
Lunchbreak EOB
On the Move
• @Bike, @Car
 Phone calls
 Think / Reflect
• @Train, @Plane
 Mail
 Read
Start-2-GTD Identify Mind dump ...Regular Day Weekly review
Monthly
review

25. UPrince: Less Stress, More Success
12:00 AM 11:59 PM
First thing
@Office
Before
Going UP
Before
Breakfast What's next
After
Lunchbreak EOB
 Agenda today
 GTD today
 “Urgent” Mails
 Agenda tomorrow
 GTD tomorrow
 “Urgent” Mails
Start-2-GTD Identify Mind dump ...Regular Day Weekly review
Monthly
review

26. 12:00 AM 11:59 PM
First thing
@Office
Before
Going UP
Before
Breakfast What's next
After
Lunchbreak EOB
Start Process
Project
available?
Create Project
If multiple steps
Assign to project
Less then 2- 5'
Do it
End Process
No Yes
Yes
PlanNo
No
No
Delegate ?
Assign responsible
Status = “Waiting for”
Yes
Actionable?
process
Information
No
Set Target date
Start
Has value?Delete
Review inboxes
No
Process
Other stuff
in boxes?
End
No
Yes

27. Should I need the info
-> Find in another
system / person?
Delete
Relevant for ?
Status = Someday
Store in archiveAssign to project
Yes
No
Active projects
Future projects
Start Process
Information
End Process
Start Plan
Set Energy level
Set required time
Date relevant?
Hard deadline
Set target date
Status = Schedule
Status = Next action
Requires pre- and
post activities
Create pre & post
activities
Add to outlook
calendar
End
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
No
Start Process
Project
available?
Create Project
If multiple steps
Assign to project
Less then 2- 5'
Do it
End Process
No Yes
Yes
PlanNo
No
No
Delegate ?
Assign responsible
Status = “Waiting for”
Yes
Actionable?
process
Information
No
Set Target date

28. UPrince: Less Stress, More Success
Weekly Review
• Under construction
Start-2-GTD Identify Mind dump ...Daily review Weekly review
Monthly
review

29. UPrince: Less Stress, More Success
Monthly Review
• Under construction
Start-2-GTD Identify Mind dump ...Daily review Weekly review
Monthly
review

30. UPrince: Less Stress, More Success
Which experiences shall I share…
• What you really need to know to succeed
• Start-2-GTD
• GTD live
• GTD for Business Managers
• GTD of Project Managers
• GTD Training and coaching

31. UPrince: Less Stress, More Success
GTD for Business Managers
• Under construction

32. UPrince: Less Stress, More Success
Which experiences shall I share…
• What you really need to know to succeed
• Start-2-GTD
• GTD live
• GTD for Business Managers
• GTD of Project Managers
• GTD Training and coaching

33. UPrince: Less Stress, More Success
GTD for Project Manager
• Under construction

34. UPrince: Less Stress, More Success
Which experiences shall I share…
• What you really need to know to succeed
• Start-2-GTD
• GTD live
• GTD for Business Managers
• GTD of Project Managers
• GTD Training and coaching

35. UPrince: Less Stress, More Success
GTD Training and coaching
• Under construction

36. UPrince: Less Stress, More Success
Sharing is Caring
I want to thank following people for sharing their experience:
◦ Dirk Vercruysse (Quidnunc)
◦ Angelique Bouwman (Organiserum)
◦ Jan Buskens (GTD.Training)
◦ Johan Dhaeseleer (Extra Tijd)
It’s time for me to share my personal productivity best practises with you.
Currently, the info isn’t yet ready for general publication but if you are interested in
a draft version, please send an email to me.
kurt.vanhaesebrouck@uprince.com