It is an accident of history that my planning year goes from June 1 to May 31.

I was doing GTD for a year or two before I read a book that does for higher-level goal-setting what GTD did for runway-level items. Jinny Ditzler's Your Best Year Yet is so simple it borders on simplistic. As I read it I thought that I was way too smart to need help that is so very simple. But I did.

I had written down long-term goals before but I never had a systematic plan for tracking them and following them through, until I followed Ditzler's system. The similarities with GTD are marked. I had kept to-do lists for years. But I never tracked them and followed through with them systematically, until I followed David Allen's GTD system.

David stresses that you must get your runway cleared before you can do a good job at higher levels. I am in total agreement with him on this. Conceptually, it would seem to make sense to start with your higher-altitude goals and then work your way down to NAs. But--at least for me and, I know, for many others--it just doesn't work that way.

I strongly recommend that people get at least a year of GTD under their belts first. If you are already happy with the way your higher-level planning is going, then there's no need to change. If you feel you still need something more, check out Your Best Year Yet. I found it to be the perfect complement to GTD.

Quick summary: Ditzler has you write down 10 goals for the following year. I review these goals every week at the beginning of my Weekly Review. (I keep the list of these goals, along with a mindmap of my 5-year goals in my Tickler File, to be removed the day I do my Weekly Review.)