With Getting Things Done, David Allen laid the foundations of modern personal organisation: centralising your inputs, turning them into next actions, keeping up maintenance rituals. I taught this system to hundreds of managers as a Master Trainer, and it remains a solid basis for running the day-to-day.
LeviMensa does not replace GTD. It shares the same foundation, so much so that equivalent GTD training counts as a prerequisite for the Supercycles level. It grew out of something else: a methodological compilation built on a synthesis of best practices, academic research in cognition (INSERM, Stanford) and more than ten years of field experience. Only what works for everyone, as confirmed by participants' experience, has been kept.
Its stance: pay as much attention to the system as to the person running it, and replace imposed discipline with chosen consistency.
Six building blocks specific to LeviMensa
1. Biological energy
A working day doesn't run at a constant pace: attention rises, dips and recharges. LeviMensa builds in chronotypes and working in “beats”, blocks of focus followed by a compulsory break. You choose your action according to your real biorhythm, not against it.
2. Mapping your roles
Before capturing a request, one question: does this fall within one of my roles? This is the “not my role, not my problem” filter. Mental load is reduced at the source, at the moment you decide whether to take something on.
3. Lists by mental state
Work today is almost entirely in the cloud: location matters less than it used to. LeviMensa organises concrete lists by available cognitive capacity (“focus” or “brain-dead” mode). You work with the state you're in.
4. A modular approach
No mandatory sequence. You put the building blocks in place in whatever order suits you, and a coherent system emerges naturally. The quick start module gets you up and running in a few hours. No perfect system to maintain, so no guilt about falling off it.
5. Active interruption protocols
Hyperconnectivity produces interruptions that processing your inboxes can't absorb. LeviMensa adds defensive tactics: the bookmark technique, which saves your mental state before you give in to a request, and the urgency scale, which sorts out what really deserves to interrupt.
6. 12-week Supercycles
This is the move from the Run to the Build. The Run keeps the system turning day to day. The Build moves the big issues forward: a vision by role, a 12-week plan with 1 to 3 goals at most, weekly tactics tracked by an execution score, non-negotiable strategic blocks in the calendar, and a week 13 for review and recharge.
Without a solid Run, strategic priorities drown in urgency. Without a Build, the system runs perfectly, but with no direction.
The six building blocks at a glance
| Dimension | What LeviMensa puts in place |
|---|---|
| Energy | Chronotypes and focus beats, at the heart of the system |
| Entry filter | Role mapping, immediate “not my role” filter |
| Contexts | Mental states and available cognitive capacity |
| Set-up | Modular, quick start in a few hours |
| Interruptions | Bookmark technique, urgency scale |
| Horizon | 12-week Supercycles, the Build alongside the Run |
“GTD taught me the discipline of the Run. LeviMensa grew out of ten years in the field, so that consistency is a choice and the quarterly course holds.”
Romain Bisseret
Founder of LeviMensa, former GTD Master Trainer
If you already practise GTD, your Run is solid and LeviMensa opens up the Build level. If you know neither, LeviMensa covers both, from the day-to-day to the quarter.