Getting Things Done (GTD) Method from David Allen: The Real Game Changer

Wait. Did I hear that right? The real game changer? Yes. You surely know the feeling: you wake up in the morning, and a second after opening your eyes, you remember all the tasks you didn’t manage to complete yesterday and everything you have to deal with today. Before you even get out of bed, you already feel tired and overwhelmed by the flood of tasks and things to remember. How can you handle an endless to-do list? An American productivity expert suggests the Getting Things Done method to help.

Imagine completing all your tasks on time. You check off items on your to-do list, steadily accomplish each task, and finish work an hour earlier than usual without any guilt, because you’ve done everything required of you. Impossible?

GTD stands for Getting Things Done, a term originating from the book by David Allen, a globally renowned productivity expert, titled “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity.” The GTD method is a five-step process for task management. Its core principle is that the more tasks and ideas we keep in our heads, the harder it is to determine which one is the most important and to take action towards completing it. The key is to transfer these thoughts from your mind to an external medium and then organize them. Although it may initially seem like a complex process, it is actually quite simple and significantly facilitates work. David Allen proves it’s possible. For decades, he has been training management teams, conducting individual workshops, running his own company, and writing books on how to maximize productivity. He created GTD, a task organization method, and introduced it in his 2001 publication, “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity.” Getting Things Done (GTD) is a personal productivity system created by David Allen, detailed in his book of the same name. GTD is described as a time management system. Allen asserts that “there is an inverse relationship between things on your mind and those things getting done.” Allen demonstrates stress reduction through a specific exercise focused on a task with an unclear outcome or undefined next action. He calls these stressors “open loops” or “incompletes”. The exercise involves selecting the most annoying, distracting, or interesting task and defining it as an “incomplete.” A successful outcome for this “incomplete” is described in one sentence, along with the criteria for its completion. The next step needed to move toward completing the task is also written down. After completing these steps, a self-assessment of the emotions experienced is made. Allen claims that stress can be reduced and productivity increased by recording reminders for everything one is not currently working on in a trusted external system. This allows one to focus on the current task without being distracted by “incompletes.”

Look around you. Look in your office, room, or car and think about how many things need fixing, improving, or replacing. Is your battery in remote? You need a new printer? The reading lamp need a new bulb? It’s important to gather all these items in one place. If you can’t move something, like a door that needs oiling, write it down on a sticky note and place it next to the other items. Why intentionally turn your room into a clutter of unfinished tasks, creating even more mess? To get a clear picture of how many tasks lie ahead of you use the GTD method. It’s easier to gather physical items. A walk around the house quickly reveals faults and shortcomings. However, the tasks in your mind are tucked away in various nooks and crannies, and if you forget something at the moment, it’s unlikely you’ll remember it on command. Therefore, you need to carefully consider your responsibilities and analyze your work assignments, household chores, calendar, plans, dreams, and goals. Write down everything that comes to mind on separate sticky notes. Also, consider what tasks are pending on your computer: emails, reports, invoices and bills, social media messages, downloaded files. All these should be noted down on paper or, if the number becomes overwhelming, placed in a separate folder in your inbox or on your desktop. In the future, when the GTD method becomes a habit, make sure to include the date when each note was created. On a list of tasks, if an “incomplete” is identified as a “project” (requiring two or more steps to complete). It should have a defined outcome and the next action specified. Tasks that can be completed in under two minutes should be immediately accomplished and checked off. Tasks that can be delegated to others and require a reminder to follow up should be added to a “waiting for” list. Tasks that can be completed with a single step should be placed on a context-based “next action” list. Tasks that have a specific deadline or are time-sensitive should be recorded on one’s calendar. The collection stage ends with placing all your tasks into specially prepared inboxes. These can be trays, drawers, folders, or file directories. How many should you have? Allen advises creating as many as you need. For instance, you might sort tasks into work-related and home-related, keeping the professional ones in digital form and the personal ones in paper form. Another form besides an inbox can be a trash can, a filling system for reference material, someday (maybe) lists in neat reference filing systems, task lists with next defined actions, several lists or a paper or digital calendar. After the tasks are collected a workflow process starts.

The workflow is guided by five steps, indicated with numbers in the top-left of the diagram on the right: capture, clarify, organize, reflect, and engage. (The first edition used the terms collect, process, organize, plan, and do; the descriptions of the stages are similar in both editions.) These stages aim to organize professional matters, as well as household duties and even social issues. The entirety of this technique thus consists of: gathering, analyzing, organizing, reviewing, and executing. The foundation of the method being discussed is gathering. This step aims to clear your mind clutter. To achieve this, you need an external information repository, such as a notepad on your phone, a specialized app, a binder, or even a simple notebook – depending on your individual preferences. At this stage, jot down all tasks, ideas, and goals that come to mind. Don’t worry about whether something is too insignificant or too challenging; that will be sorted out later. Right now, simply write down everything that comes to mind – from tidying up your room, preparing a project for a client, visiting the hairdresser, to even movies to watch; literally everything. The next step involves analyzing your list. Consider each item one by one and categorize them based on different criteria. This should take less than 2 minutes – do it immediately. If an item doesn’t require any action anymore, delete it from the list. If it can be delegated to someone else, assign it. If it’s not actionable now but might be later, archive it. If it has a specific deadline, note that date down. If it involves multiple steps, create a project and determine the first necessary action to move forward. If it’s not urgent or important to you right now, consider adding it to a “someday/maybe” list. Analyzing your task list will lead to categorization into several types. These include projects, which consist of at least two smaller stages. There are priority actions that must be completed as soon as possible. There are expected tasks that cannot be resumed before obtaining some details or waiting for the actions of another person. There is a calendar where all activities assigned to specific dates are noted down. Tasks can also be grouped accordingly. The most basic division involves distinguishing between tasks in your personal and professional spheres. Practitioners of GTD tailor these categories to their needs, distinguishing between tasks that can be done at home and those requiring leaving the premises. Some even use markers indicating how much energy a task requires, essentially how difficult or complex it is. This allows them to tackle easier tasks on days when they feel less energetic, leaving the most challenging tasks for times when motivation is higher. Reviewing is the stage most frequently overlooked by beginners, yet it is crucial for the method to function properly and maintain high productivity. As in every aspect of life, consistency is key in Getting Things Done. The fourth element involves regularly updating the list with new goals and organizing them. David Allen recommends conducting quick reviews daily and a more comprehensive one weekly. While this regularity demands time commitment, it pays off with a clear mind and the ability to fully concentrate on current tasks, maintaining control over schedules and responsibilities. Once all previous steps are completed, only action remains. With everything organized, starting work becomes much easier. By categorizing actions, you won’t spend hours deliberating what needs to be done next. Instead, you’ll simply see which tasks are most important now and which are suitable for the current context. David Allen emphasizes the importance of regularly emptying one’s inbox, whether daily or at least weekly, as part of his GTD (Getting Things Done) methodology. The inbox should not be used as a “to do” list, and once items are clarified, they should not be put back into the inbox. Emptying the inbox simply means applying the steps of “capture, clarify, organize” to all the incoming items or “stuff”. It doesn’t necessarily mean completing everything right away, but rather ensuring that everything is processed and organized. After emptying the inbox, the next step involves reflection, which was termed “planning” in the first edition of GTD. For multi-step projects identified earlier, a desired outcome is assigned along with a single “next action”. Finally, a task from the task list is engaged with, unless the calendar dictates otherwise. Choosing which task to work on next involves considering factors like the current context (e.g., location, tools available), available time and energy, and task priority. Despite technological advancements, GTD remains deliberately technology-neutral. David Allen even advises starting with a paper-based system before exploring digital tools. However, many task management tools claim to implement GTD principles, and Allen maintains a list of technologies that align with or were designed for GTD, some of which are labeled as “GTD Enabled”. Two key elements emphasized by Allen in GTD are control and perspective. The workflow is central to achieving control, aiming to capture all tasks and commitments into an external system, freeing the mind from constantly trying to remember everything. Allen uses the analogy of “mind like water”, where the mind responds appropriately to inputs like a calm pool of water. This contrasts with a stressed mind that reacts to every input without achieving calm. To gain perspective on life, Allen recommends reflection from six levels, known as “Horizons of Focus”, which help individuals align their actions with their broader life goals and values. The ground horizons are the current actions. The first horizon (ground) is the current projects. The second horizon are areas of focus and accountability. The third horizon are the first and second year goals. The fourth horizon are the long-term visions. The fifth horizon is concering your entire life. David Allen’s GTD (Getting Things Done) methodology diverges from traditional goal-setting theories that emphasize top-down approaches. Instead, GTD operates in a bottom-up manner. Allen contends that individuals often struggle to focus on larger goals when they are overwhelmed by day-to-day tasks and inputs. To address this challenge, GTD advocates for developing and using a trusted system that efficiently handles these daily inputs. By offloading tasks and commitments into this system, individuals can free up mental space and begin to think more strategically about higher-level goals. A key practice recommended by Allen is the weekly review, during which individuals reflect on their commitments across six different levels. This reflective process helps align priorities at the project level, which in turn determines the urgency and importance of individual tasks. During the review, tasks are categorized based on their context, such as calls to make or errands to run while out shopping. This categorization helps ensure that tasks are tackled efficiently based on the resources and circumstances available. Central to GTD is the concept of storing, tracking, and retrieving information related to tasks. Allen argues that mental blocks often stem from inadequate front-end planning. By planning tasks in advance and defining clear next actions, individuals can execute tasks without needing to engage in further planning when the time comes. This approach minimizes reliance on the mind’s imperfect reminder system, ensuring that tasks are addressed promptly and effectively. The “trusted system” in GTD acts as an external support by storing next actions categorized by context. This setup ensures that individuals receive timely reminders matched to their current circumstances. This aspect of GTD aligns with theories of distributed cognition or the extended mind, which propose that cognitive processes can extend beyond the individual’s brain into their environment or tools.

In summary, GTD’s approach to productivity revolves around systematically managing day-to-day tasks to create mental clarity and enable focused attention on higher-level goals and projects. It promotes proactive planning and efficient execution through a structured system of organization and reflection.

Do you think you can implement the GTD method also in your life?