How to effectively apply the GTD system in life

Versatility. The ideas described here are universal, and with their help everyone will build a GTD system for themselves that will work with exactly the services they are used to.
Simplicity. The system should be intuitively easy to use. A minimum of time and energy should be spent on entering and processing information, as well as on planning the next steps. Only then will the system work in the long term and even after long interruptions: for example, if you go on vacation for a month, then when you return, you will be able to restore your approach to business management.
Reliability. The most important thing is to be confident in your system, namely, that you will not forget anything planned, as you will see a reminder at the right time.
Concentration on what's important. The system should help you focus both on what you are doing at the moment and on those things that are important in the long term.
Pleasure. The case and task management system should bring you pleasure. For example, when you lie on the couch after a hard day at work with your phone in your hands, you cross completed tasks from the list and get real pleasure from it. Especially when it is still visualized by the growth of your productivity graph.

5 main stages of the GTD system

Stage 1. Gathering information

It is necessary to collect absolutely all cases, even the smallest ones, then our consciousness will be pure and we will act as productively as possible.

That is why standard to-do lists do not work, because most people often record only the most important things, and hundreds of tasks that are not so important are not taken into account at all. But just such small tasks, regularly reminding themselves of themselves, use a significant part of the brain's resources and create additional experiences that lead to fatigue and stress.

One of the important principles of the GTD system is to completely unload all tasks from your head and put them in a reliable system that will help you remember important things at the right time.

You also need to take into account that there should be a minimum number of baskets for collecting incoming information. Ideally, one. Then it will be easiest to handle.

Stage 2. Information processing

At this stage, we process the information that is in our Inbox.

There are three options for how we can proceed at this stage:

Mark the task as "Action", indicating the next step for its completion and the deadline. You can skip specifying a deadline if you do not yet have a clear understanding of when you need to complete the task.
Move information to the "Directory" if you don't need to do anything with it, but it may be useful in the future.
Delete the information, determining that it is "Trash": that is, you do not need to do anything with it and it will not be useful in the future.

Stage 3. Organization of activities

All actions go through the next funnel.

Filter 1 - "Clipping"

Ask yourself the question: should I really do this action? If in doubt, delete it.

Filter 2 - "Delegation"

Ask yourself the question: if this needs to be done, then do I really have to do it personally? If not, we delegate and indicate the responsible person, the final result, intermediate stages of control (nodal points) and the deadline.

If the action is to be performed by you, go to the next filter.

Filter 3 - "Action"

Ask yourself a question: will this action take more than 2-5 minutes? If not, do it now and free your head. If yes, please register.

Actions in the system can be of the following types.

"The following actions" - simple tasks that consist of one action (call, write, go, and so on). For example, the action "Change winter tires on wheels" will consist of the following simple actions: call and sign up for a car service, schedule a time in the calendar, and drive up to a car service at the right time.

It is convenient to collect such actions into lists according to place and circumstances (contextual lists). It could be the In Store list, where you list everything you need to buy when you’re in the store, or the In the Chair list, where you add things and tasks that you can do in the evening after work in your favorite chair. Or a list of "boss questions", where you write down all the questions that you have for your boss, so that you can then solve them all in one go.

I usually record all such actions either in the "Google Calendar" (appointments and events), or in Todoist, a cloud service where it is convenient to organize tasks.

"Projects" - tasks that require more than one step to complete. To get the project off the ground, you need to describe the first steps for its implementation and leave a reminder of it in a reliable system. As a result, the project turns into a chain of simple actions, each of which can be performed in the next five minutes and get the result.

I post projects on Trello cards. The card is an ideal container for projects where you can place:

description and purpose of the project;
links to other documents about the project;
the names of those responsible;
deadline;
checklists with the following steps;
comments on the project;
necessary files and so on.

Delayed Actions … If we cannot plan the next actions without additional events or information (for example, we are waiting for a friend to send the phone number of a car service, where it is possible to change tires profitably), we put such actions in the "Postponed" list. Optionally, you can set a reminder that you need to control something.

Such to-do lists can also be structured as contextual lists. For example, make a list with tasks that you have assigned to your assistant.

List "Someday" contains tasks that do not require active action now, but which we would like to accomplish in the future.

It can be:

books, video trainings and courses 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 at this list, take notes and turn them into goals that you will work towards.

Stage 4. Regular review

For the system to work, it is necessary to regularly review the main tasks and projects in order to delete those that are no longer relevant, and sort the new ones by priority and send them to work.

To keep this review on a regular basis, follow these tips:

Leave 30-60 minutes in your schedule for the review (initially once a week will be sufficient).
Make a checklist or plan for such a review, where the sequence is spelled out, what comes after what. This plan shouldn't be too complicated and the review shouldn't take you too long, or you just won't be doing it regularly.

Below is an example of my weekly overview checklist. I made it in the format of a cheat sheet with a sequence of actions, which depicts the services / documents that I look into. You can arrange it with a regular list or draw a freehand diagram that is convenient for you.

Print four of these checklists per month. During the weekly review, take one of them in hand and cross the completed items from the list. This simple exercise will motivate you to keep doing these reviews.

Stage 5. Actions

When the plan for the week is drawn up, then it remains to act. Avoid one of the biggest GTD beginner mistakes when you spend too much time organizing tasks instead of actually completing them.

Here are some tips for making your actions more effective.

Make a plan for the day based on the plan for the week. Break your day into blocks, making 2-3 blocks for important tasks and a couple of blocks for other tasks. The duration of the blocks is 60–120 minutes on average. Insert free time between blocks for unforeseen tasks.
Work on the Pomodoro system, for this you can set a timer on your phone. Its essence is simple: every 25-30 minutes of work, take a break for five minutes, and after the third work block - a longer break (15-30 minutes). The total is three blocks of 30 minutes, with breaks of five minutes, followed by a long break of 15-30 minutes. You can do 2-4 such cycles per day, depending on how often you are distracted.
During blocks with important things, try not to be distracted by other people and extraneous sounds (for this, you can turn on special music for concentration in the headphones).
Determine when your energy level is highest (for example, from 7 to 9 in the morning), and during this time, do the most important things that bring you closer to your personal goals.
Do not plan too many important things for the day: 1-3 is enough. It is important that at the end of the day, after looking at the crossed out tasks in your plan, you are satisfied and make the same realistic plan for tomorrow.