Name: Getting Things Done
Rating: 4.3 (52 reviews)
Author: David Allen

Introduction

What’s in it for me? Discover the power of stress-free productivity.

When you throw a pebble into a puddle of water, how does the water react?

The answer: completely appropriately to the mass of the pebble and the force with which it was thrown. The water doesn’t over- or underreact.

But when we encounter stressful events in life, we often let them control us by provoking a reaction that is disproportionate to what is required. For instance, if you’re already buried under a mountain of tasks, and an email comes in adding one more thing, you might feel overwhelmed and respond brusquely. But wouldn’t it be great if you had a state of mind like water, not over- or underreacting to the email or any other events you encounter, but always just responding appropriately?

To get there, you need to attain a sense of control over all your work, and this is where the Getting Things Done (GTD) method comes in.

Built on simple principles like maintaining a comprehensive system of external lists and always defining clear and tangible next actions for your undertakings, GTD frees up your brain to solve problems and keeps all your projects – both personal and professional – moving forward.

In these blinks, you’ll not only discover how to use GTD to better organize your work, you’ll also arrive at some fundamental questions about your purpose in life.

Once you have this sense of clarity and control, you’ll not only find yourself more productive, but your stress levels will also plummet as you feel calm and in control of all your work.

You’ll also find out

how you’re probably misusing your brain;
what to do with your long-term ideas and dreams like climbing Everest; and
why being exhausted is no excuse for not being productive.

Key idea 1 of 13

Your brain is great at thinking but terrible at remembering things.

These days, work can be hectic. A typical morning might look something like this: You’re in the middle of writing a document when an email comes in telling you to update your antivirus software. Then, just as you’re about to do this, your aunt Sheila calls to say you should RSVP to her wedding, and, as you hang up, your boss marches in demanding you start working on a new document.

Now, what were you doing again?

Knowledge workers in particular spend their days juggling dozens of tasks and projects at once, while being constantly bombarded by still more. To survive this onslaught, most people cram everything into their heads, trying to keep important information, appointments and upcoming tasks “on their mind.”

Unfortunately, this approach squanders the brain’s wonderful capacity to think by cluttering it up with a jumble of information.

What’s more, trying to remember everything eventually leads to an inability to concentrate fully on the work at hand, because your brain will still try to work out all the unsolved problems and undone tasks that you’ve stored in it.

These are open loops – they haven’t been brought to closure – and your brain will constantly remind you about them, whether you want it to or not. This is distracting; you can’t possible focus properly when thoughts like “Remember to pay this month’s electricity bill” keep interrupting your flow.

So what can you do to master the modern workplace’s web of tasks, meetings and information so that you can truly focus on what you’re doing?

This is where GTD comes in.

Through a specific and powerful five-stage workflow, you can get back in control of everything on your plate:

Capture your thoughts. Instead of keeping all those ideas, to-dos, decisions and so forth in your head, you need to capture them in some external platform, whether on paper or digitally.
Clarify what each item is and what you can do with it.
Organize the outcomes into a structure of lists.
Reflect on what is important to you and review the items in your system.
Engage your tasks. Pick which action you wish to undertake at this time and do it.

It’s as simple as that. GTD enables you to feel a greater sense of control over your work, which produces a sense of relaxed control, better decisions and more flexibility when faced with changing circumstances. But before diving into the details of each step in the GTD process, let’s get your workspace and tools set up.

Key idea 2 of 13

To fully implement the GTD system, you need the right workplace, tools and filing system.

A great place to get started with the GTD system is by setting up a workplace for yourself where all relevant materials are available. By doing so, you create a cockpit of control where you always feel comfortable working.

You’ll also want to set up identical workspaces at home and in the office so you can be equally effective in both. If you spend a lot of time in transit, you may want to think about a mobile setup that lets you get things done even while on the road. Never share workspaces with anyone, not even your partner, because you don’t want to have to spend time setting up your workspace to your liking every time you arrive at it.

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Key idea 3 of 13

Capture all your tasks, ideas, reminders and more in trusted external collection tools.

We’ve established that these days our attention is under attack, constantly yanked around by a never-ending stream of incoming requests, questions, tasks, invites, and so forth.

To deal with this, the first crucial step in the GTD workflow is capturing all of them in collection tools, meaning places outside your mind where you can note down information and ideas.

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Key idea 4 of 13

Clarify: empty all your external collection tools weekly.

Have you set up your collection tools and populated them with all your tasks, ideas and reminders?

If so, congratulations!

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Key idea 5 of 13

Organize: empty your collection tools and put things in the right place.

So now that you’ve clarified what each item is, it’s time to move to the organizing stage of the GTD method. This is where the magic happens.

Most traditional to-do lists don’t work because they lack organization and quickly become a hodgepodge of tasks, reminders, thoughts and information where it’s impossible to find the truly actionable items.

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Key idea 6 of 13

Use a Projects list to keep track of your current projects and always insist on clear next actions.

Good project management is a key component of every productivity system.

In GTD, a project is defined as a desired result that necessitates taking more than one action step. Hence, writing one email is not a project, but organizing a big meeting or planning a vacation is.

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Key idea 7 of 13

Natural planning clarifies the goals and next concrete steps of your projects.

While we’re on the topic of projects, let’s briefly talk about the all-important skill of project planning. When you plan something simple like a dinner out, it’s a breeze and rarely fails. But projects like making complex deals with clients, hosting large weddings or organizing important business retreats are rarely as stress-free to plan. So how can you make planning a major work project as breezy as planning dinner?

Enter the natural planning method, which is meant to mirror the way you plan things in your everyday life. It comprises five steps:

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Key idea 8 of 13

Instead of a daily to-do list, maintain a Calendar and Next Action lists.

Many people rely on daily to-do lists for managing their productivity, but this approach leaves much to be desired. Such lists tend to fail because you can’t truly know in advance what you’re capable of completing in a given day. Hence, they lead to unrealistic planning, frustration and time wasted working on something that was doomed to fail before you started.

A far more effective method is to work with a Calendar and one or multiple Next Action lists.

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Key idea 9 of 13

Waiting For lists can be very helpful when you work with other people.

As stated previously, all current projects should be listed on the Projects list. When using the Next Action list, you can ensure that you’re consistently working on tasks that are taking your projects closer to their conclusion one at a time.

But more often than not, you also need to rely on other people. For example, you may need to wait for input from a colleague for your presentation or hear back from a hotel regarding room availability. This doesn’t mean, however, that you have to relinquish all control over the progress for the related projects.

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Key idea 10 of 13

All ideas with potential future relevance should be put onto a Someday/Maybe list or a tickler file.

Another important component of the GTD method is the Someday/Maybe list.

Everything that doesn’t qualify for the Next Actions or Projects lists but also shouldn’t be buzzing around your head goes on this list. It contains all the things you haven’t been able to translate into concrete ideas or tasks just yet.

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Key idea 11 of 13

Reflect: Constantly reviewing your system is indispensable to working productively.

We’ve now extensively covered how to organize your tasks, projects, reminders and ideas, which means it’s time to proceed to the fourth step of the GTD process: reflect.

The goal of the GTD method is to feel relaxed and in control of all your current projects, to keep track of them and make sure that they are moving forward.

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Key idea 12 of 13

Engage: Choose what to do in each moment based on the current situation and your priorities.

The final stage of the GTD process is where things actually get done.

So how do you choose what to do in each given moment?

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Key idea 13 of 13

Understand your own priorities through a bottom-up examination.

To get a grasp of what’s important to you in your work and life, it’s useful to think in terms of horizons, each one progressively further away than the last:

It would seem rational and reasonable to start with your life purpose and work your way down from there, but in practice, a bottom-up approach tends to work better. It allows you to first clear away the more nitty-gritty levels of day-to-day management so you save your creative energy for the more meaningful decisions.

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Getting Things Done summary