Getting Things Done (GTD) is a productivity methodology designed by David Allen. GTD increases your productivity by taking things out of your mind and turning it into a reliable system you can trust. This frees up your mind to work on the task at hand, instead of trying to remember a large number of things at once. You will find yourself more relaxed and more productive at the same time.
In particular, a user-friendly part of GTD (which I describe later), it only takes 2
minutes to learn, but can increase
its efficiency by phonemenal levels.
There are many parts to GTD. An important component is the next action lists, which
replace to-do lists in other methodologies.
David Allen realized that in today’s fast-paced society, to-do lists, daily plans, etc., often
They do not work. If everything and everyone around you goes 100% to plan, they can
work, but how often does everything go according to plan? A meeting lasts longer
than expected, the report you need is not yet ready or the computer network is down
down for an hour, and the whole day can spiral out of control.
David Allen’s solution to this was next action lists. Instead of planning the day
Based on the projects, it lists the next action items for the tasks you need to perform. You
record these next actions in separate lists based on context.
This is best shown with an example…
Suppose you have the following to-do list:
- Investigate the purchase of a new Palm pilot
- Organize the next marketing meeting
- bus service
- Buy new Apple Mac
- Cancel magazine subscription
- Prepare for the department meeting.
The first step in GTD is to change the list to be based on the next physical action for
each project:
- Search online to find different potential Palm Pilots to buy
- Call John to set up the next marketing meeting
- Look in the car manual to find a qualified car mechanic.
- Call an Apple reseller and buy a new Apple Mac
- Call and unsubscribe from the magazine
- Print the financial report for the department meeting.
By listing the next specific physical action, it becomes much easier to continue
The projects. You can put off “Prepare for Department Meeting,” but
“Print financial report for department meeting” seems much easier
something you need to address and are therefore MUCH more likely to do so. Fair
This single idea will dramatically increase your productivity! It seems simple, but
it’s actually quite deep, because it focuses your mind on ACTION.
The next step in Getting Things Done is to move these next actions to
context-based lists:
@Phone (Things I can do when I’m on a phone):
- Call John to set up the next marketing meeting
- Call and unsubscribe from the magazine
- Call an Apple reseller and buy a new Apple Mac
@Computer:
- Search online to find different potential Palm Pilots to buy
- Print the financial report for the department meeting.
@Home:
- Look in the car manual to find a qualified car mechanic.
Why have separate lists? The main benefit is that it allows you to see the tasks that are
it is only suitable for where you are at the moment. If you’re at work, you’re not
distracted by the tasks that are in the @Home list, and if you are at home,
They are not distracted by work tasks. The actual GTD contexts you use depend on
you. The standards that David Allen recommends are generally based on
location (like the ones above), but you can use the one that best suits your needs.
Another benefit of separating lists into contexts is that it becomes easy
change what is working quickly if something goes wrong. Suppose you are in
in the middle of an online investigation, and the computer network goes down. Wilst
other people may decide it’s time for coffee, you can only look at yourself
phone list and start tackling some of the @Phone tasks for you.
Dividing your to-do lists into next-action lists based on context may seem like a lot.
more work than a standard to-do list, but it really isn’t. It just takes a little more time
plan, but the increased productivity more than makes up for it.
Next Action Lists are a small part of the Getting Things Done methodology. They
they are useful on their own, but their power is multiplied when used with the rest of
David Allen’s system. GTD is incredibly effective and I recommend you give it a try.
by himself, reading David Allen’s book (“Getting Things Done: The Art Of
Stress Free Productivity”), or trying some GTD software.