What is GTD?
Getting Things Done (GTD) is two things:
- A best-selling book written by David Allen.
- A productivity framework for organizing tasks and information.
The book isn’t for everybody. It’s relatively long (~300 pages) and not exactly a fun page-turner.
But the framework is the gold standard of personal productivity.
Which is why I wrote this guide — to give you a faster way to learn the fundamentals of GTD.
Contents
- Introduction to Getting Things Done (3 min)
- Step 1: Capture everything that has your attention (4 min)
- Step 2: Clarify what needs to be done (7 min)
- Step 3: Organize information so that you can find it later (12 min)
- Step 4: Reflect and prioritize your work (5 min)
- Step 5: Engage in the right activities (6 min)
Benefits of Getting Things Done
Getting Things Done is like having your own personal operating system. Everything you do improves when GTD is running in the background.
Reliability
In a speech delivered to the graduating class of Harvard in 1986, Charlie Munger suggested that those who wished to live a life of misery need only to build a reputation for being unreliable.
Unreliable people forget appointments. They don’t show up on time. They make promises that they can’t keep.
As you get busier with more responsibilities, it becomes more challenging to be reliable. But having a system like Getting Things Done helps.
When you learn GTD, you stop trying to juggle everything in your head and instead rely on tools and habits to keep track of important information.
Focus
Focus sometimes feels like a superpower that some people just have and others don’t. That may be true to some degree. But overall, I believe that focus is a learned skill that anyone can improve.
Getting Things Done gives you the tools to become a more focused person. Instead of feeling overwhelmed, GTD helps you organize and prioritize your tasks so that you can feel good about tackling one at a time.
Creativity
My favorite perk of GTD is the noticeable increase in creativity.
Once I started Getting Things Done, I got much better at saving and organizing things that inspired me. This in turn gave me more material to draw from whenever I sat down to write.
But you don’t have to be a writer to benefit from being more creative. The combination of new insights is what leads to new business opportunities, better strategy, and higher quality output no matter what field you work in.
What you’re about to learn
This article is my ultimate guide to Getting Things Done. My goal is to teach you the GTD methodology by showing you exactly how I do it.
These are the five steps of GTD that I will cover in each chapter.
- Capture everything that has your attention
- Clarify what needs to be done
- Organize information so that you can find it later
- Reflect and prioritize your work
- Engage in the right activities
In 30 minutes, this guide will help you lay the foundation of a personal operating system that will make you remarkably more productive.
Don’t have 30 minutes right now?
Signup for my free weekly newsletter below and I’ll send you a PDF of this guide that you can save and read later.
Who should read this?
This guide is for:
- Overwhelmed knowledge workers who feel like they have too much on their plate. Getting Things Done will help you get back into a state of relaxed control.
- Young professionals who want to get ahead and stand out. Learning the effective habits of GTD now will set you up for future success.
I’ve personally benefited greatly since first learning GTD in 2016. In addition to increased reliability, focus, and creativity, Getting things Done has helped me be more intentional about how I spend my time.
But don’t take my word for it. The fact is, Getting Things Done is widely regarded as the de-facto operating system for people who want to be a top performer.
In his book The Great CEO Within, author Matt Mochary attests, “The majority of successful CEOs that I know use the system outlined in the book Getting Things Done.”
And as of this writing, David Allen’s consulting firm claims to have helped over two million people around the world “discover the power of clearing their mind, sharpen their focus, and accomplish more with ease and elegance.”
So keep reading if you want to learn what the fuss is all about.
Who’s Tyler DeVries?
I write articles that teach young professionals the fundamentals of effective work.
For each guide like this one, I spend hundreds of hours researching the best advice. Then I combine what I’ve learned with my own experiences to write an article that is both insightful and practical.
You can learn more about me here.
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Step 1: Capture
…everything that has your attention
Our minds are phenomenal at coming up with new ideas.
But not so good at remembering them.
The biggest shift for people new to Getting Things Done is admitting that they rely too much on their brain to do something that it isn’t designed to do.
Step one of GTD is learning how to capture everything that has your attention in a system that exists outside of your head.
In this chapter, I’ll show you how to do just that.
Write down everything
Everything? Well, maybe not everything.
But for people new to Getting Things Done, it’ll probably feel that way.
The trick is to pause anytime you catch yourself thinking I need to, ought to, or should. These phrases signal that there’s something on your mind — an open loop — that you need to write down.
If these thoughts aren’t captured in a trusted external system, open loops quickly become a source of mental stress and distraction.
Your mind wasn’t designed for remembering a long list of to-dos. Nor is it very good at reminding you of your appointments.
Your mind is a creative problem solving machine. It’s the best tool in the world for critical thinking and brainstorming. To make the most of it, you need a system for getting open loops out of your head.
Because when you write things down in a trusted location, you give your mind permission to forget about it for now so you can focus all of your creative mental energy on the task at hand.
Set up your inboxes
Throughout this guide, an inbox will refer to any predefined location where you collect stuff until you have time to process it.
Email is obviously one of them. But you’ll need at least three other inboxes to get started.
1. A paper tray
Search the supply closet at work and you’re almost guaranteed to find one of these things lying around.
The humble paper tray has served the purpose of collecting loose-leaf papers in offices for decades.
Find one, dust it off, and place it prominently on the corner of your desk.
From now on, every sticky note, internal memo, lunch receipt, business card, or flash drive that makes it’s way onto your desk will have a new temporary home.
It might seem old-fashioned and unnecessary to have a paper tray occupy valuable real estate on your desk, especially when so much of our work today is done online.
But just give it a try. I think you’ll be surprised, as I was, by how much you’ll find yourself using it once you have it.
2. A personal notebook
Even though it may be technically possible to work paper-free, it’s still not entirely practical.
I love using technology, but in my opinion, there will never be a perfect substitute for pen and paper.
A notebook is the perfect tool for jotting down random ideas, brainstorming, planning your day, taking notes in a meeting, and so much more.
So here’s my advice: Get yourself a nice notebook, something that feels good to write on, and start carrying it around everywhere you go.
3. Your favorite note-taking apps
Take your pick in this category.
Evernote, Notion, Google Keep, OneNote, Apple Notes… the list goes on.
They all have their pros and cons. Some are simple and lightweight. Others come fully loaded with every feature you can imagine. But what you decide to use is completely up to you.
I’m not going to recommend one over the other because I don’t have to. Successful implementation of Getting Things Done has nothing to do with what tools you use, but everything to do with how you use them.
I happen to use Evernote, Google Keep, and Notion. And I’ll go into more detail about how exactly they fit into my GTD system in Step 3.
The big difference between what I do and what others do is that I capture and organize 100 percent of my stuff with objective tools at hand, not in my mind.
David Allen
Step 2: Clarify
…what needs to be done
Now it’s time to process your inbox and clarify what you’ve captured.
David Allen calls this “getting IN to EMPTY.”
This chapter will teach you how to empty your inbox efficiently.
The trick is to move things out of your inbox without necessarily having to do the work right away.
How to process your inbox
There are a series of questions you must ask yourself when processing an inbox.
- Question #1: Is it actionable?
If the answer is “No,” you either get rid of it or save it somewhere for later.
But if the answer is “Yes,” you need to follow up with two more questions.
- Question #2: What’s the next action?
- Question #3: Will it take less than two minutes?
Use these three questions to clarify everything in your inbox and move it into the appropriate long-term storage location.
Non-Actionable Items
A lot of what you will capture throughout the day is just information. In which case, there’s nothing that you need to do about it but possibly hang onto it for later.
Here are a few examples of non-actionable information that I might capture during a typical week:
- An interesting quote from an article.
- A Netflix show recommendation from a friend.
- An email from a client with information I needed for a project.
All non-actionable items like these fall into one of four categories:
- Trash
- Someday/Maybe
- Reminders
- Reference Material
Trash
Trash is self explanatory. If you don’t need it, throw it out.
Archive emails that you don’t need. Recycle old stacks of paper on your desk. Delete outdated files on your computer.
In short, get rid of the things that are no longer any use to you. When you purge your space of the extra clutter, you make room to focus on the things that really matter.
A side note on digital hygiene
I find it much easier to make a decision to discard something physical, like a piece of paper on my desk, than it is to drag a file on my computer into the recycle bin. Why is that?
I think the mental barrier exists partly because I’m limited by how many papers I can jam into my filing cabinet, whereas no such physical constraints exist online.
Unlimited capacity for digital storage makes it exceedingly hard for some people to permanently delete anything on their computer. They think, “Why delete it if I don’t have to?”
But indiscriminate digital filing, no matter how well organized, can become a problem. It can grow so large and cumbersome that we become numb to the volume and confused about where things are. It’s very easy to create an online reference system of constant input but no utilization.
Don’t let this happen to you.
Remember that results are rewarded by what you produce, not by what you accumulate. So don’t be afraid of the digital recycle bin. Eliminating excess information creates the margin you need to do your best work.
Someday/Maybe and Reminders
Some items in your inbox won’t require action right now, but there might be something you need to do with it later on.
Examples might include:
- An email invite to attend a live leadership webinar two weeks from now. You would like to attend, but not if something more important comes up between now and then.
- An idea you had for your wife’s birthday next month. Your friend recommended a new restaurant in town. You plan on making a reservation, but they don’t accept reservations more than a week in advance.
- A software application that you’d like to try. But you don’t have time to download it right now.
You have two options when you come across items like these in your inbox:
- Write them on a Someday/Maybe list
- Put a reminder on your calendar
We’ll talk more about how to use these storage locations in Step 3.
Reference Material
Finally, many non-actionable items in your inbox will represent potentially useful information that you simply want to hang onto.
You’ll need a filing system setup to organize these things. Again, we’ll revisit how to create such a filing system in the next chapter.
For now, let’s turn our attention to things in your inbox that you do need to act upon.
Action Items
When something in your inbox prompts you to take action, pause to ask yourself two additional clarifying questions:
- Question #2: What’s the next action?
- Question #3: Will it take less than two minutes?
The answer to Question #2 helps you create to-do lists that are actually doable. And the answer to Question #3 gives you three options for moving forward:
- Do it
- Delegate it
- Defer it
How to make to-do lists that are actually doable
Many to-do lists look like this:
- Do my taxes
- Have meeting with team
- Finish report
But notice that you can’t actually do anything on that list.
For me to “do” my taxes, I first need to email my tax documents to my tax preparer. Before I can “have” a meeting with my team, I need to draft an agenda. And in order to “finish” that report, I may need to schedule time to analyze the results of the study.
A Getting Things Done to-do list is always actionable. Every item should start with a verb that describes the very next physical action.
By clarifying the next action, you can create doable to-do lists like this:
- Email tax documents to Mike
- Draft team meeting agenda
- Schedule 1 hours to analyze study results
What happens when the very next action is a decision?
But what if you say to yourself, “The next thing I need to do is decide what to do about this?”
In this case, take it one step further and define what will help you make your decision.
Do you need to gather more information? Call on a friend for advice? Draft a list of pros/cons?
There’s always some physical activity that will help you move the decision forward.
Do it (if it’s less than two minutes)
Do it now if the task will take less than two minutes to complete.
- Get a new calendar invite? Check for scheduling conflicts and RSVP.
- Need to follow up with a quick phone call? Make it now.
- Email require a short response? Write your reply.
When you’re in the middle of processing your inbox, use the two-minute rule to decide what’s things are appropriate to do right away.
Common sense will tell you that some things are more efficiently dealt with right now while it’s in front of you than it is to store, track, and follow-up with at another time.
It doesn’t matter if the two-minute task is high priority or not. If you’re going to do anything about it at all, it’s usually best to just do it now.
Delegate it (if you’re not the best person for the job)
A lot of the work we do today is collaborative. Information and tasks are constantly passed up and down the chain of command. There will be plenty of action items that land in your inbox that need to be re-routed.
If you’re not the best person for the job, decide who is and how you intend to pass on the information.
Do you need to email that person? Call them? Bring it up at your next staff meeting?
This becomes your next action for delegation.
Defer it (into your organization system to do later)
Lastly, the bulk of your actions will likely fall into this category. These are the things that you need to do — just not right now.
This could include emails that require a bit more time to draft a thoughtful response. Or a conversation that you need to have with your friend to plan next week’s camping trip.
As you process your inbox and define the next action, you’ll need to write these to-dos on a list somewhere.
This is the topic of our next chapter.
It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires a great deal of strength to decide what to do.
Elbert Hubbard
Step 3: Organize
…information so you can find it later
Everything in your inbox at this point has been processed.
You’ve sorted the actionable from the non-actionable, the reference files from the trash, and the tasks that you need to do from the tasks you need to delegate.
Now the big question is: Where does it all go?
In this chapter, I’ll describe the organization system for GTD and the specific tools that I use to keep my workflow under control.
All you need are lists and folders
Lists are for reminding you of all the things that you need to do. Folders are for storing information to reference later.
What you use for your lists and folders is completely up to you.
The beauty of Getting Things Done is that the methodology can be applied to almost any set of tools. This flexibility is one reason why GTD works for so many different people.
I primarily use Google Drive, Google Keep, Evernote, and Notion.
The 7 core categories of GTD organization
The things you capture today are not going to be the same things that you capture tomorrow. So a total and seamless system of organization needs to grow and evolve over time.
But the organization framework for Getting Things Done has seven core categories that never change:
- Next Actions Lists
- Project Lists
- Calendar
- Waiting For List
- Someday/Maybe Lists
- Reference Material
- Project Support Material
Regardless of what tools you use to implement GTD, it will only work if these categories are kept distinct from one another.
Each category represents a specific type of agreement that you make with yourself — to be reminded at a specific time and in a specific way. If you let these categories blend together, you risk losing much of the value of your organization system.
Next Action Lists
Next Action lists keep track of everything you need to do. They’re your to-do lists for things that do not need to be done at a specific time, or on a particular day — just as soon as possible.
Organize your lists by context
In his book, David Allen advises organizing your lists by context. This means creating multiple to-do lists based on where you are or what you need to do.
There are three types of Next Action lists that work for me:
- Things to do at work
- Things to do at home
- Agendas
Agendas are separate lists for recurring meetings or people that I interact with often.
I think these three types of Next Action lists are are a good place to start for most people. Then you can always add more as you see fit.
Google Keep
It doesn’t really matter how many Next Action lists you have, just as long as they’re all kept in the same location.
I use Google Keep for all of my Next Action lists. I like it because it’s a fast and lightweight. All I need are simple checklists. Plus, it syncs across all of my devices so I always have it available when I need it.
There’s even a handy Google Keep widget built in to my Gmail inbox. This makes it really easy to jot down tasks as I process my inbox.
Project Lists
A “project” is any desired outcome that requires more than one step to complete.
Sometimes tasks on your Next Action list are just one small part of a bigger project. Once you complete it, you still need something to remind you that there’s more work to be done.
When you add something to your Project list, you’re putting a stake in the ground. Until the final result is achieved, the things on this list give you visibility and a sense of control over everything that you are responsible for.
Use one master Project list
Unlike Next Action lists, it’s best to consolidate all of your projects onto one master list if possible.
The purpose of your Project list is to give you a sense of control over your inventory of ongoing responsibilities. Organization in this case isn’t as important as completeness.
Notion
I currently use Notion to keep track of all my projects.
I prefer Notion over Google Keep and Evernote because of its board view. It offers me a little more power and flexibility than a simple checklist.
My Notion board has three columns: On Hold, In Progress, and Completed.
- On Hold: These projects are currently on hold but need to be completed sometime within the next twelve months.
- In Progress: I move projects into this category if I’ve decided to focus on them this week.
- Completed: This is an archive of things I’ve done. I’ve found that this is a great list to have handy when updating my resume, preparing for a performance review, or assessing how I’m prioritizing my time.
Another advantage of using Notion is its database properties. If I want, I can tag each project card with other useful information, such as a due date or priority level.
Calendar
There are two basic kinds of actions:
- Things that must be done on a certain day and/or at a particular time.
- Things that just need to be done as soon as possible.
Use your calendar for time specific (#1) tasks only.
Your calendar is sacred territory. It’s meant to keep track of daily commitments that you do not intend to miss.
Things like your staff meeting, a scheduled phone call with a new client, or your daughter’s soccer game. These are the non-negotiables — the hard edges around which you plan the rest of your day.
When you’re on the run, you need to trust that your calendar only has the things that are truly time sensitive. This frees you to plan and act effectively when new opportunities and commitments pop up.
What can happen when you don't use your calendar properly
Problem #1: Incomplete tasks pile up
Most workdays have a peculiar habit of not always going to plan. Urgent problems, unexpected meetings, or any other host of things that you didn’t foresee often supersede those things that you had really hoped to get done.
If you’re using your calendar as your general to-do list, you’ll lose sight of unfinished tasks unless you roll them over into the next day’s schedule.
That’s not a sustainable system. Day after day, incomplete tasks will keep piling up.
What’s more, you can quickly lose sight of your priorities. Instead of picking and choosing what to work on based on your strategic goals, you fall into the trap of just working on whatever you didn’t get done the day prior.
Problem #2: You lose track of what is truly time sensitive
When you mix general to-do’s with time sensitive appointments on your calendar, you lose track of which is which.
Forgetting to attend a meeting on your calendar or do something at a specific time should have consequences. If not, you’ll go numb to what really matters on your calendar and what things you can let slide.
Your calendar must provide you with your hard landscape for the day. You should be able to quickly look at it and be able to make decisions about what to do based on how much free time you have available.
This is only possible if you respect the boundaries of your calendar.
Problem #3: You become difficult to work with
Have you ever tried to schedule a meeting with someone in your organization whose calendar looked something like this?
Either that person truly has a tough week ahead of them, or they’ve let their calendar become their to-do list.
The latter happens all of the time, and it’s an ineffective way to collaborate with your team.
Waiting For Lists
Waiting For lists keep track of all the things that you’re waiting to get back from other people.
For example:
- An expected refund from an online purchase that you returned.
- The answer to a critical question that you emailed to a colleague.
- Analysis of test results from the lab.
The Waiting For list has been a game changer for me. It gives me line of sight to what other people owe me. This helps me keep my team accountable and prevents projects that I’m responsible for from stalling or falling behind schedule.
Gmail
My most used Waiting For list resides in Gmail.
Much of my daily workflow is contingent on colleagues and clients answering my emails. So I often mark important requests with a “Waiting For” label. This way I can review the things that I’m waiting for once a week and follow up as needed.
Google Keep
I also have a Waiting For list in Google Keep.
Notice that I jot down the date of the request. This way, I know how long I’ve been waiting, which can come in handy when I really need to persuade someone to get something done.
Someday/Maybe Lists
A Someday/Maybe list is where you organize the things that you want to reassess sometime in the future.
Some of my current Someday/Maybe lists include:
- Books to read
- Movies to watch
- Things to buy/gift
- Online courses to take
- Things to do in Grand Rapids
Evernote
I keep all of my Someday/Maybe lists in Evernote.
I use my book list most often. Ever since I started keeping a list of book recommendations, I’ve been much more motivated to read. It’s fun to always have another book waiting on the docket.
Reference Material
Reference material is stuff that’s interesting or possibly valuable, but doesn’t represent something that you need to act upon.
Common reference material that I save during any given week include:
- Quotes from a book
- Notes from a church service
- Articles that I read online
- Interesting Twitter threads
Make it easy to find what you use most often
There’s no silver bullet for the perfect reference filing system. Every person has to figure out what works best for them. This will take some time and a fair amount of trial and error.
But I think it helps to ask yourself, “What information do I need to reference most often?”
If you can make those things fast and easy to find, you’ll have created a useful filing system.
Evernote
Most of the general reference material that I capture throughout the day is saved in Evernote. I use the web clipper to capture screen shots and sometimes entire web pages of things that I find interesting.
I use folders to organize these notes by what they are or where I found them.
- Saved articles go into my “Articles to Read” folder.
- Notes from a book I’m reading go into my “Book Notes” folder.
- Useful Twitter threads go into my “Twitter” folder.
Then I add tags to each note with relevant keywords. Each tag works like the index in the back of a book. It helps me cross reference notes found in different folders that all relate to the same topic.
Here’s an example of a quote from Henry Ford that I recently saved.
Notice that I saved it into my “Quotes” folder and added the tags “success” and “listening.”
Project Support Material
Project support material is information that relates to a project that you’re working on.
This could be an email that has the agenda for an offsite meeting you’re in charge of planning. Or, like in the case of writing this article, my original outline along with all my book notes on Getting Things Done.
Organize all potentially meaningful information you have about a project in one place. And keep it separate from the rest of your general reference files so that you can find it quickly and conveniently.
When you have a well organized system for project support material, you’ll be free to capture every “back of the envelope” project idea knowing that you have a dedicated place to save it for when you need it most.
Google Drive
The vast majority of my project reference files (mostly word documents and spreadsheets) are organized in Google Drive.
My Google Drive has two top-level folders: Active Projects and Filing Cabinet.
Inside of Active Projects are the folders for each project that I’m currently working on. Everything else in my Google Drive is organized in the Filing Cabinet folder.
This way I can always quickly find what I need to support the work that I do most often.
Gmail
I use the exact same organization system in Gmail.
Most of my emails are read, acted upon, and then archived. But sometimes, an email has important information that I know I’ll want to reference again. In this case, I’ll tag it with an appropriate label.
If it’s information that I need for a current project, I nest that label under “Active Projects.”
For example, a flight confirmation email for an upcoming vacation that I’m planning would be organized this way.
Other times I save emails just because they contain something interesting.
For instance, I have one label called “Copywriting Examples” which is where I save emails that I think have excellent sales copy that I might want to imitate someday.
These labels that don’t relate to an ongoing project are nested under “Filing Cabinet.”
Does it take more work to label and organize your saved emails this way? Sure it does.
But don’t underestimate how useful it is to work with a well organized email filing system.
So much of our daily workflow is conducted through email. Taking the time to setup an organized filing system within your inbox can dramatically improve your productivity and sense of control over the deluge of information that arrives each day.
Capability and willingness to instantly make a checklist, accessible and used when needed, is a core component of high-performance self-management.
David Allen
Step 4: Reflect
…and prioritize your work
No system is perfect. And GTD is no exception.
It’ll break down if not cared for properly.
You need to give it preventative maintenance, just like a car needs a regular oil change.
Daily planning and the Weekly Review are the two habits that hold everything together.
In this chapter, I’ll show you how to make time for both.
Daily Planning
Getting Things Done makes planning your day quick and easy.
This routine only takes me about 5-10 minutes.
1. Start with your calendar
I always begin by looking at my calendar.
Are there any meetings I need to be prepared for? Appointments that I can’t miss?
My calendar gives me the hard landscape for my day. Everything else that I need to do must fit in around these events.
I find it helpful to copy my day’s calendar into my notebook. It’s redundant, but there’s just something about physically writing down each appointment that gives me a sense of control. Seeing it on paper in front of me gives me a better feel for how much free time I have at my disposal.
2. Prioritize tasks off your Next Action lists
Next, I create a mini to-do list in my notebook. I’ll pick a few of the most important things that I need to do off my Next Action lists and write them down here.
My reasoning for this is simple. Long to-do lists are intimidating. Short lists get done.
It would be paralyzing to work off my long lists in Google Keep. But by prioritizing just a handful of tasks for the day, I’m able to lock-in, focus, and be more productive on my most important work.
3. Reference other lists as needed
Finally, I’ll take a look at any other lists as needed.
I often scan my Waiting For list each morning to see if there’s anything urgent that I need to follow up on.
And if I have a meeting on the calendar, I’ll check to see if I saved an Agenda list with reminders of things to discuss.
Using Google Keep for all of these daily tasks and reminders makes it super easy to plan my day. Everything that I might possibly need to do is organized in one spot.
Weekly Review
Planning your day is a nice habit to get into. I think it makes you more productive, but it’s not the end of the world if you don’t do it.
However, the same can’t be said for the Weekly Review. The Weekly Review is the glue that holds your entire GTD system together.
We all have days that feel like a blur. Days filled with back-to-back meetings, last-minute travel plans, or late nights trying to beat a deadline. It’s times like these that the Weekly Review is most valuable.
The Weekly Review is dedicated time for you to clean up loose ends and make sure that nothing is falling through the cracks. It’s an opportunity to catch up and reorganize things that may have gotten out of control.
You can do a 30-minute Weekly Review in three steps.
1. Empty all of your inboxes
Begin by processing everything that you’ve collected in your inboxes that hasn’t been dealt with yet.
I like to start with Evernote. If a find a note about something I need to do, I’ll copy the task to my Next Action or Project list. Otherwise, I either delete it or file it away into one of my reference folders.
Then I flip through all the pages of my notebook for the past week. I check to see if there is anything that prompts a new to-do that I haven’t already captured.
After that, I take a quick look at my paper tray and read any unopened mail.
Lastly, I go through any unread messages in my email inbox.
2. Review your calendar
Once your inboxes are empty, open up your calendar.
Review the events of the past two weeks and then look ahead to the following two weeks.
As you do this, write down anything that reminds you to do something or sparks an idea.
3. Update your Next Action, Project, and Waiting For lists
Finally, update all of the lists that you use for your daily workflow. These are usually your Next Action, Project, and Waiting For lists.
Check off items that are complete, and make sure you’ve added everything new that came up while emptying your inboxes and reviewing your calendar.
Decide what projects you’re going to focus on this week, and which ones can stay on the back-burner.
And lastly, determine if you need to follow up on something that you’re waiting for this week.
4. (Optional) Have fun reviewing your Someday/Maybe lists
Getting Things Done sometimes feels like all work and no play. But this last step of the Weekly Review reminds me that there is fun and creativity in this discipline.
After I feel confident that I know what I need to do this week, I often spend a few minutes reviewing my Someday/Maybe lists.
I’ll look for fun things that I might be able to plan into my week. Sometimes it’s a park or restaurant that I might want to visit. Other times its a new book that I want to get from the library.
Looking at these lists from time to time inspire me to be more creative and to make time for the things that I enjoy.
Making the Weekly Review stick
I’ll be the first to admit that it can be difficult to prioritize the Weekly Review. However, until it becomes a part of your regular routine, GTD won’t be as effective.
That’s why I recommend putting the Weekly Review on your calendar. Treat it like an important meeting with yourself that you can’t miss.
Pick a day of the week and schedule a recurring half-hour time block. Sunday nights usually work best for me.
The value of your Weekly Review goes up with the amount of influence and responsibility that you have.
Therefore, if you can make it a habit early in your career, it will pay dividends down the road. As your life becomes busier and more complicated, you’ll be thankful to have a half hour of personal reflection already built in to your weekly routine.
In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion.
Albert Camus
Step 5: Engage
…in the right activities
So far you’ve learned how to capture, clarify, organize, and reflect on everything you need to do.
Now it’s finally time to buckle down and get to work.
This chapter concludes GTD with two priority frameworks for deciding what to do in any given moment.
The four-criteria model
The four-criteria model is how you make intuitive decisions about what to do next. You choose to act in the moment based on the following criteria, in order:
- Context
- Time available
- Energy available
- Priority
Context
At any point in time, you can only do what you are capable of doing given your environment.
You can’t call a client while flying on a plane, just like you can’t mow the lawn while you’re in a meeting at work.
This is why David Allen recommends organizing multiple Next Action lists based on context. That way, it’s easy to scan the appropriate list when you’re deciding what to do next.
Time available
Do you have enough time to complete a task, or at least make meaningful progress?
In his book, The Effective Executive, Peter Drucker teaches that small increments of time is essentially no time at all. Effective people consolidate their time into large chunks as much as possible. This allows them to really settle in and get important work done.
Of course, no matter how disciplined you are with your schedule and time management, there will always be quarter hour increments here and there throughout the day.
By keeping all of your to-dos in one spot, GTD makes it possible to identify what you can reasonably get done in the time you have available.
Energy available
After taking time and context into consideration, you will often choose what to do next based on how much energy you have.
As the day progresses, your energy and focus diminishes.
In which case, using GTD to keep in inventory of things that need to be done that require very little mental or creative horsepower can help you stay productive at all hours of the day.
With few exceptions, I think most people do their best work before noon.
Tackle your most important, most difficult work first thing in the morning when you’re motivation is at its peak. Then pick and choose less intense tasks to do later on when you’re in one of those low-energy modes.
Priority
The final criteria for making decisions about what to do next boils down to priority. Of all the things you could do, what should you do?
There’s not an easy formula to help anyone answer that question. A lot of it comes down to gut intuition.
But I will say, your intuition gets more accurate when you have invested time in clarifying your roles, goals, and values for your life.
When you have a clear picture of what it is that you’re trying to accomplish in each area of your life, it becomes easier to decipher what work is more important than others.
It’s like having a map for your life. You can be more confident that your next step is one in the right direction when you’ve stepped back to assess the larger landscape.
The organization of GTD helps in this respect as well. If you have a complete Project list, it’s easier to consciously decide what’s important to do now versus what can wait until later.
Remember, the promise of stress-free productivity is due, in large part, to knowing what it is that you could do, but have chosen not to.
The threefold model for evaluating daily work
This is the second model for thinking about how to approach work. It says that at any given time, you are engaged in one of three types of activities:
- Defining your work
- Doing predefined work
- Doing work as it shows up
The first two are at the core of GTD. You define your work when you process your inbox. And you do predefined work when you act upon your Next Action lists.
But sometimes things come up that just can’t wait.
For instance, a customer might call with a serious problem that needs to be dealt with immediately. Or your boss might ask for your help with a time-sensitive project that supersedes whatever else you thought you needed to do that day.
The nature of work for many professionals requires being instantly available for new work as it appears. Stopping what you were doing to assist in these situations are understandable judgement calls.
But it’s all to easy to get seduced into “busy” and “urgent” mode, especially if you have a lot of unprocessed and relatively out-of-control work on your desk, in your email, and on your mind.
Without a system like Getting Things Done, I would argue that you’ll probably spend more time engaged in doing work as it shows up than you should be.
Moving into Quadrant II
This priority framework compliments a similar idea proposed by Stephen Covey in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
Covey teaches that everything we do falls into one of four quadrants. A time management matrix can be created by one axis of relative importance, and a second axis of relative urgency.
Quadrant I consumes many people. They live their lives jumping from one crisis to the next.
Other people spend a great deal of time in Quadrant III, thinking they’re in Quadrant I, but when in reality the urgency of these matters is often based on the priorities and expectations of others.
In contrast, effective people try to spend most of their time in Quadrant II. They stay out of Quadrants III and IV because, urgent or not, they aren’t important. And they shrink the amount of time they have to spend in Quadrant I because of their focus on long-range planning and preparation.
Quadrant II is where high leverage work is done. And I would argue that it’s impossible to reliably focus on Quadrant II activities without a system like GTD.
People spend a disproportionate amount of time doing work as it shows up when they don’t have a task reminder system that they trust. Their only option is to stop what they were doing, and immediately go do what was just asked of them.
A lot of people work this way. They run around doing whatever is yelling at them the loudest, without a clue as to whether or not that task is a real priority.
But effective people have a system like Getting Things Done to help them say “no” to things that feel urgent right now, but are relatively unimportant in the long run. This kind of decision making is only possible if you have clear visibility to all your responsibilities and to-dos.
Choosing to do work as it shows up should be a conscious compromise that you make with the work that you have already defined.
Ultimately and always you must trust your intuition. There are many things you can do, however, that can enhance that trust.
David Allen
Now It’s Your Turn
I hope this guide taught you something about Getting Things Done that you didn’t know before.
Now I’d like to turn it over to you:
What’s the #1 tip from this article that you want to try first?
Are you going to start using a notebook? Or maybe you realized that you need to start doing a Weekly Review.
Or maybe you have a question about something you read.
Either way, let me know by leaving a comment below right now.
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Thank you for a very thorough article. I am also reading David Allen’s book, (audio), so it was nice to be able to see the steps and the categories in text. 🙂 Thank you for writing this.
My next step, is simply getting started with this system. I am a freelancer of different things, so I have a lot of balls in the air at all times, and no more space in my head to keep it. It seems that this system is exactly what I need.
The best way to start is to jump right in, don’t overthink it, and over time you’ll figure out what version of GTD works best for you. Good luck, Parnuuna!
Thank you for sharing good idea. I like GTD and was searched how to manege using digital tools. This article is the best guide for me. So I want to introduce it. If possible I want to use this idea and images. Can I use this article?(Of course, I will write that this article is the source)
Thanks for the comment, Acky. Feel free to use this article however you’d like!
I have read the book and GTD and was very impressed to follow it exactly and was searching since last 3 months to find a write guide for to implement this system and this article is the best, really the best guide i had come across which has given a clear steps to follow to really get the best by using GTD system, I felt that this article is more action oriented and clear and crisp compared to any other reference material i had come across.
Thank you so much Tyler, you are awesome. Would like to go through all your other articles also.
You’re welcome! GTD is a great system, but it can be a bit overwhelming at first. I’m happy to hear that you found my guide helpful!
First of all, I would like to thanks you very much for this article, Tyler.
I ‘ve read GTD last year and planned to apply it to my life for 2022. Clearly failed as I couldn’t get the idea properly from the book.
I spent the last 5 days reading your article daily, loving what I’m reading, understanding and appreciating your recommendation for the Apps and related examples.
Hopefully, 2023 will be my first GTD year, thanks to you.
Thanks, Mohammad! Appreciate the thoughtful comment. It’s encouraging to hear how this article has helped you navigate the book and put some of the ideas into practice. My GTD system is constantly evolving. So keep experimenting until you find what works for you!
Thank you, Tyler. I read through the article over the course of about a month, with my notebook, Asana task-management system, and Gmail open. I found that a lot of “stuff” popped into my head as I read, so I’d try to immediately process it. Whether work or personal. Or as applications came up (create a Project list, etc) that made sense for me, I’d just do it.
It made for slow reading, but after having read GTD before and tried and failed to maintain the system a few times, I found this method has helped me make some real progress!
Some of my fave applications so far:
– “…Waiting” tag for my Gmail inbox. I review a couple times a week and follow up if needed
– Adding “places to eat” and “books to read” and “gifts” lists under Someday/Maybe
– Grouping Next Actions by context (for me, this means by colleague)
Thanks again for sharing your learnings. I super appreciate the peace of mind and sense of progress applying GTD per your suggestions has given me.
Thanks, Aubrey. Glad to hear that some of my examples were helpful!
Absolutely loved this article. My biggest struggle at work is long to-do lists. I write down all of my ideas (projects) and tasks in the same notebook and it can be overwhelming and hard to read. Separating the two would be extremely helpful.
Thanks Caleb!