How to get things in order and keep up with everything: a complete guide to the GTD system

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

From theory to template to help plan any project.

Why is GTD good?

The problem with productivity services is that everyone positions themselves as a place where they can solve all problems, store information, communicate. Most services ask you to prioritize and act on them.

But few can concentrate on performing important tasks and not pay attention to all sorts of little things: urgent tasks, requests from colleagues, friends or acquaintances. When there are a lot of tasks, it is difficult to deal with them. Therefore, in practice, you have to use several services for managing affairs. When there are a lot of things to do, we start to get confused in these services and lists and eventually stop using them.

The Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology provides a universal blueprint for building a single system in which you can solve any problem. You will be able to relax and not worry, as you will be sure that you will not forget anything. At the right time, the system will prompt what needs to be done and what to focus on.

So why do so many work unproductively?

People start to work unproductively when there are a lot of projects, cases and tasks. It is difficult for them to keep all this in their heads, let alone prioritize. Therefore, either nothing is done at all, or what is easiest is done, and important matters are postponed until later. Another problem appears: when urgent tasks had to be solved yesterday.

In addition, a person begins to get tired faster, becomes irritable. He is constantly running like a squirrel in a wheel of routine, and really important, monetary and strategic projects are left on the sidelines.

The Getting Things Done system, described by David Allen in a book that was published in 2001 and became a world bestseller, will help to cope with this situation.

Tell me about the basic GTD concepts you need to know

Routine - these are those deeds, thoughts and worries that disturb, distract and waste energy. Until routine is translated into tasks, it cannot be controlled. Pondering the same problems multiple times is an ineffective use of creative energy that creates frustration and stress.

The goal of GTD is to free your head from routine and remove internal stress.

Human operative memory- the area of the brain where short-term memory is located. This is where we usually put current unfinished business, promises made to other people and other thoughts that bother us. Unfortunately, there is a limit to the amount of routine you can store to keep your brain functioning properly. If your RAM is full, you get distracted by small tasks and forget about your goals, which leads to stress.

Information gathering tools- where the information goes and where you record what needs to be done. For example:

• organizers;
• notebooks;
• Email;
• calendar;
• voice recorder.

Basket "Inbox"- a single repository for the routine that you turn into tasks and tasks. One of the most important rules for working with your Inbox is to clean it regularly.

Simple actions - one-step actions that take less than two minutes to complete. In practice, it is more convenient to set aside five minutes for such matters.

Project - a task that requires more than one step to complete. It is necessary to leave a reminder about the project and describe the first steps for its implementation. As a result, the project turns into a simple action that can be completed in the next five minutes and get the final result.

The project should have a link to a card or file, which describes the details: responsible, deadlines, category (for example, "Marketing", "Legal", "Development"), links to smaller cards with tasks. This structure is convenient to organize in Trello.

Context list - a list of tasks that are convenient to perform under certain conditions. For example, in the contextual list "Purchases" there will be a list of things and products that need to be bought in the store. The Calls list may contain a list of calls to make when you are free.

It is convenient to make individual contextual lists for the people with whom you work and communicate. When meeting with a specific person, you can quickly open the list and resolve the necessary issues.

How do I use the calendar?

The following should be entered in the calendar:

• actions that should be performed at a certain time (meetings, business meetings, seminars);
• actions that need to be done on a specific day (finish the project by a specific date, take part in the conference);
• information about specific dates (anniversaries, birthdays, holidays).

I use Google Calendar to keep track of all these things. This service is convenient because:

• accessible both from the phone and from the computer;
• several calendars can be displayed on one screen at once;
• there are reminders on the smartphone.

If you added something to the calendar, you either do it or postpone it to another date. There is no need to clutter up the calendar with a to-do list that is regularly rescheduled from day to day. There are separate solutions for such lists.

If you regularly need to call customers, suppliers or contractors at a certain time, it is better to use a CRM system for this.

What lists should you create?

Priority action lists

Drawing up a weekly report, examining a competitor's website, clearing the inbox in your mailbox, drawing up a technical assignment for designers - all these actions take more than two minutes, but they cannot be delegated to anyone. We put such things on the lists of priority actions and carry out them during the day.

Rules for working with such lists:

• There should not be many lists, two or three are enough. For example, Personal, Work, Family. If you have a task from the list for a specific day, set a reminder on your calendar.
• It is convenient to mark tasks in this list by context: “On the road”, “At the computer”, “Read”, “Buy”, “Promises”. Tasks can have one or more labels. For example, the task "Walk the Dog" would refer to the "Personal" project and the "Promises" label.
• Before adding a task to the list, consider whether you need to do it at all. If the answer is yes, decide if you need to personally complete the case. After all, you can send a voice message to a subordinate and delegate to him. The tasks that you have assigned will be labeled "Assigned". It will contain cases from both the Work list and the Personal list.
• Review the lists regularly. Do this when you have a free minute. Move up the tasks that need to be done first.
• Clean your to-do lists at least once a month.

List "Someday"

This list will include things that do not require active action. It can be:

• books, records, video trainings that you want to buy;
• useful skills that you want to master;
• places you want to visit;
• things that you want to buy.

You need to periodically look into this list, take notes and turn them into goals on which work will be carried out.

How do you store reference information that will come in handy in the future?

This information does not require any action. The main criteria for the repository of this information:

• Convenient search by titles, tags, short descriptions.
• Ease of placing information in the repository.
• Intuitive structure of information storage. When new data comes in, you have to quickly choose the category and subcategory where to put it.
• Storage availability from any device.

Are there mandatory GTD rituals?

Yes, there are several of them.

Collection of all information in the "Inbox" basket

There are many tools for collecting information. But all this should flow into one place, with which you will continue to work.

Emptying the Inbox

Once or twice a week, you will have to review the Inbox list and sort the accumulated by folders or shortcuts. This ritual should become a habit, which is formed from an understandable algorithm of actions and their systematic repetition.

You should have a simple, step-by-step plan for how you clean up your to-do system weekly. Create a calendar in which you will mark the days when the cases were dealt with. Assign yourself a prize if, for example, in 30 days at least 20 you will empty your Inbox and cross out days on your calendar.

Revision of the list of priority actions and the list "Someday", prioritization

When revising lists, it is important to prioritize correctly and be realistic about your strengths. This is necessary so as not to overload yourself with overwhelming tasks and not to suffer from the realization of your inefficiency.

Destroying unnecessary baskets

Often, while communicating with colleagues and partners, new mailboxes, documents, and lists appear.

Your task is to automate everything as much as possible so that the data flows into the Inbox folder.

It can be either a mailbox or an electronic planner. For automation and information redirection, IFTTT and Zapier services are suitable. There should be fewer baskets for collecting information.

How to work with the Inbox basket and sort the accumulated cases?

First, extract the task, case, or information from your inbox and answer the question, “What is this? Do you really need to do something?"

If you don't have to do anything, you have two options. If it's rubbish that is no longer useful, you throw it away. If it's useful information, put it in the archive. It should be structured by category and tag, so it's easy to find what you're looking for.

If you need to do something with the information, there are three options:

1. Complete the required. If the action is important and will not take more than 2-5 minutes.

2. Delegate to someone. If the action takes more than two minutes, consider whether you can delegate it to someone.

When delegating to someone, the following should be written:

• final result;
• work plan (path to the goal);
• the deadline for the completion of the task;
• the date of control and the result that must be ready for it (intermediate or final).

3. Postpone for the future. In doing so, indicate:

• desired result;
• the nearest next action to be taken. Remember: it is impossible to complete the project as a whole, you can only take specific simple steps that will bring you closer to the final result;
• deadline. If there is no exact timeframe, add the action to the "Someday" list.

You can send messages to yourself to receive them on the appointed day. For this, both the "Google Calendar" with a reminder on the right day, and the Boomerang mail application, which will send you an email at a certain time, are suitable.

How to plan your work?

All work can be divided into three steps:

1. Implementation of the planned in advance. It can be both strategically important things that bring you closer to your goal, or a routine that just needs to be done.
2. Performing work as it unexpectedly appears. This is when tasks from colleagues, managers, letters from clients arrive during the day.
3. Planning for further work: drawing up and revising lists, setting priorities. This point should not take too long for you to do planning for the sake of planning.

The practice of planning cases and tasks (memo book) is described in the book by David Allen.

David Allen Personal Performance and Time Management Consultant, author of the GTD Productivity Methodology

For a commemorative book, you need 43 folders: 31 marked with numbers from 1 to 31, another 12 with the name of the months. Daily folders are put in front starting tomorrow. Behind the folder with the number 31 is the folder for the next month, and behind it are the folders with the rest of the months.

The contents of the folder for the next day are daily transferred to the trash, then the folder is placed behind the last of the daily folders (as if carried over to the next month). When you free folder 31 for the current month, there will be a folder with the name of the new month behind it, followed by folders with the days of the new month. Likewise, the folder with the current month when it has passed is transferred to the next year.

In a specific folder, you need to store documents that require specific actions (a form that must be filled out, a letter to send).

For the system to work, it needs to be updated daily. If you forget to update the folder of tomorrow, you cannot trust the system. Important information will be missed, which will have to be dealt with in other ways.

If you are leaving for several days, then before leaving you need to check the folders for the days during which you will be absent.

How to organize it in practice, taking into account modern planning systems:

1. Instead of a memorable book, use an organizer with to-do lists for every day and enter tasks for the current day into it. Meetings and affairs tied to time should be recorded first and reminders should be set so that the system notifies them in advance.
2. Create a file with a to-do list for a month. This is a list of what you want to get done during this time. You add cases to it during the whole month. Revision of tasks should occur once a week. When planning your most important tasks, scatter the week by week so that you understand your priorities. You will perform them in the first place, otherwise all the time will go to small and urgent matters.
3. Create a file with plans for the year. It should be reviewed once a month. Cases from this file are transferred to monthly plans.
4. Make plans for the year based on long-term goals for 3-5 years. It is better to prescribe these things either at the end of the year, or during vacation, when the head is not loaded with daily tasks.

These four points are what David Allen calls the natural planning system. This system allows you to move towards goals that are important to you and not waste time on routine.

Is there a one-size-fits-all plan that can be used to plan any project?

Oh sure. David Allen calls it the Natural Planning Model. It consists of several steps.

Step 1. Goal and picture of the ideal result

Define a goal or ideal end result, imagine that you have achieved it.

Describe it with all the criteria for success (money, people, recognition). The more detailed you describe the end result, the stronger the motivation will be, especially at the moments when you need to perform specific actions, but there is no time for this.

Step 2. Principles

Describe the principles you will follow as you achieve your goal. For example: "I will give people full freedom of action if they … (stay within the budget, complete the project before a specific deadline)." Ask yourself: “What actions can interfere with my activities? How can I prevent them?"

The principles are clear and provide a reliable guideline for the management of activities.

Step 3. Brainstorming

Brainstorm while jotting down all the different ideas that come to mind.

Key principles of brainstorming:

• do not judge;
• do not dispute;
• do not evaluate;
• do not criticize;
• think about quantity, not quality;
• sideline analysis and organization.

Step 4. Project plan as a list

Organize your brainstorming results into a to-do list. Start planning at the end and work your way back. This will make it easy for you to plan and identify the first step towards your goal. An example of planning from the end:

Purpose (ideal result): I can speak Spanish and understand people.

Why is this: I want to communicate without the participation of translators during business negotiations with Spanish partners and freely communicate with others during my vacation in Spain.

Steps to the goal:

• One step before reaching the goal: I found a native Spanish speaker and talk to him twice a week.
• One step before: I passed the B1 language proficiency exam.
• One step before: I passed the A1 proficiency test.
• One step before that: I took Spanish classes eight times in a month and completed all my homework.
• One step before that: I signed up for a Spanish course and paid for a month of study.
• One step before that: I collected information about Spanish courses and made a comparison table.
• First step: I have planned a time on the calendar when I collect information about the Spanish courses.

When a team is working on one task and need to organize the entire plan in one place, it is convenient to use a Gantt chart. The first column in it is the stages on the way to the goal, the second column is the responsible ones. Further there will be columns with a time period. The cells will contain the status of a specific stage, for example, "Planned", "In progress", "Completed", "Postponed".

GTD and the natural planning system can seem daunting. But when you customize it for yourself and start using it regularly, you will feel that everything is much easier than it seemed at first glance.