Questions related to the GTD approach, including recommended gear & software
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The Getting Things Done and Making It All Work books are fantastic manuals for getting started. We also recommend:
- The GTD System—A comprehensive getting started kit with a great set of materials and resources for getting GTD off the ground
- GTD Connect—Our online learning center, which includes our 16-part GTD Getting Started & Refresher Series. Note--a 30-day pass to GTD Connect is also included with the "GTD System">listed above.
- GTD Interactive—Our eLearning course, giving learning a rich, online experience with Mastering Workflow. Due to the technical requirements, this course is only available for groups of 20 or more.
- Public Seminars—One-day classes to get a hands-on experience with the essentials of GTD Mastering Workflow (very tactical) and Making It All Work (more conceptual).
- On-site Seminars—Half-day to two-day classes at your location, tailored to your audience to learn the essentials of the GTD approach.
- Workflow Coaching—Customized one-on-one sessions with our coaching staff, at your location, to coach you through installing GTD in your work and personal life.
- Virtual Workflow Coaching—Customized coaching sessions, by phone anywhere in the world, supporting you in implementing and mastering GTD.
- GTD Live—The complete two-day Getting Things Done seminar, led by David Allen, on CD or MP3 download.
Not at all. As a matter of fact, any one little thing that you might start doing, or do more of, could be worth your whole investment of time. We’ve chosen to deliver a complete model of self-consulting and input-processing best practices, which will enable you to use what’s most relevant and have a reference for later when other parts might be more significant.
There are many references on delegation in the Getting Things Done book and in the Forums if you search on that keyword. We have not done any Webinars just on delegation, but it's frequently mentioned in any recording that talks about processing and organizing.
In our coaching and personal experience in delegating to others, we also encourage people to delegate with "enough information so it doesn't
come back to you with questions." The Waiting For and Agenda lists are fantastic lists for tracking what you have delegated.
A project is any outcome that will take more than one action step to complete. As a list, the Projects list will represent an index of the
current outcomes on your plate.
A Next Action is your physical, visible next step. Some of these are project related, some are not. The recommendation is to sort these by context.
Waiting For holds those items that you are waiting on from someone or something else. For example, call backs, responses to an email you sent, orders placed, etc.
Someday Maybe means you are not currently committed to complete it, but you are committed to track it as an item to periodically review for future
action.
We do not have any specific products yet, for teens or families, but we do have some wonderful resources you can take advantage of:
Free podcast on Describing GTD to Teens.
Many articles on GTD Times:
- Under the "family" tag: (especially this one)
- under the "GTD for kids" tag
On GTD Connect, our online learning center, Coach Meg Edwards has done two great podcasts on GTD with kids:
While all GTDers will have their personal favorites, GTD is an approach that is not tool-specific. So while it's important to land on gear (paper or digital) that will stand up to the complexity of your work and personal life, it's more important that it clearly serves the purpose of reflecting the reminders and information in the most appropriate way for you. The tool won't decide what something means—you have to do that, and the GTD process is the key.
We do have a few key tools that we personally use and recommend that have gone through our extensive vetting process. You can find a link to our recommended software in our online store and several are mentioned below.
We do not have current plans to develop a GTD application for the iPhone, iPad or iTouch. If that changes, we will make an announcement about that on our websites. We do not endorse or recommend any particular iPhone, iPad or iTouch Tasks application at this time, except for OmniFocus for iPhone, which is for Mac users only.
If you are looking for GTD action list management functionality for your iPhone (which is really just one component of your GTD system,) then please read the next question.
We are testing the new Reminders application that was released with iPhone OS5. This application is designed to give you Tasks on the iPhone that will sync through iCloud to iCal, or iCloud or Exchange to Outlook. If the application passes our rigorous testing, we will let be sure to let folks know about that. It's not something we are able to officially recommend or endorse as a GTD solution at this time without further testing.
Earlier versions of the iPhone (prior to OS5) were not built with a Tasks application, so you will need to find an App that will support the GTD best practices for a list manager (e.g. sort by context, allow but not force due dates and allow related notes to be attached to the Task.) What you choose for the iPhone would depend primarily on what do you need to sync it to. The corresponding application you want to sync it to (Mac, PC or Web) would narrow down the best application for you to install on the iPhone for Tasks. The end result is that you would have a Tasks application on the iPhone-->synching through a service-->that then shares that information with a corresponding application on the web or desktop.
You may also try searching or posting your question to our public forums for recommendations from other people who have implemented GTD on an iPhone. http://www.davidco.com/forum/
Depending on your wireless syncing service, you should be able to sync your desktop application's Calendar, Contacts, Tasks and Memos to your BlackBerry device. The trick for viewing categorized Tasks (as we recommend) on your BlackBerry is to select Menu > Filter. We do not endorse or recommend any particular BlackBerry application at this time.The built-in BlackBerry applications work quite well, in our experience, to structure your GTD lists and reminders.
We have a GTD & BlackBerry best practices guide that is an excellent resource.
You may also want to search our Forums and GTD Times for resources specific to BlackBerry.
We recommend OmniFocus™ for Mac. If you are a Lotus Notes user, we recommend eProductivity for Mac.
For Outlook® users, we recommend the Netcentrics GTD® Outlook® Add-In. Without the Add-In, our GTD® & Outlook® Setup Guide is a great resource.
For Lotus Notes® users we recommend eProductivity™ for Lotus Notes®. Our GTD® & Lotus Notes® Setup Guide is also a great resource.
We do not endorse or recommend any particular web-based or "cloud" application at this time for GTD. However, if you search the web or our Forums, you should find some options to consider. Before choosing a web-based tool or service, we suggest checking with your IT department first to see what they will support and will allow to connect to your corporate data.
While we have a good set that covers the most common applications we encounter with our clients, it would be impossible for us to cover every single tool and option available. Your best resource will always be the Getting Things Done book to learn the best practices and apply that to your tools. You may also want to search our Forums and GTD Times for resources specific to your tools. Chapter 7 of the Getting Things Done book is also a great resource for understanding the key GTD components to setting up an organizing system for yourself.
We do not have any specific recommendations for handhelds. Some will certainly handle list management better than others, but you will find GTDers using iPhone, BlackBerry, Palm, Nokia, Android and almost any other handheld you can find. The key is to make sure the handheld works for you, to give you a trusted portable solution. You may also want to search our Forums and GTD Times for resources specific to your tools.
Implementing and maintaining are two different things. To capture, larify, and organize a lot of old backlog and set up a system from scratch may require two or more uninterrupted days of your time and focus. (Though we have never had anyone say that process wasn’t worth every minute of the investment!) Once you are current, it does require time and energy to keep it maintained, processing and organizing everything you collect (typically from 30 to 90 minutes each day). But what’s the option? It will take you at least that long, whenever you do it. It takes a lot more time and effort
(and creates a lot more stress) to continually rehash the unprocessed stuff.
Getting Things Done, also referred to as “GTD,” is a work/life management approach that is based on the principle that you have to get things out of your head and recorded in a system you can trust. This frees your mind from the job of remembering everything that you need to do, and allows it to concentrate fully on actually doing those things.
Central to the GTD method is a simple thought process that you must go through with every task or problem that you are faced with. Two questions must be answered: “What is successful outcome?” And, “What is the next action?” By clarifying what must be achieved, and then deciding on the very next physical step that is required, we can generate a clear set of next actions that can be taken as soon as we are in the right context to do them. Thus, a key part of the GTD method is creating lists of tasks that are specific to a context, such as a list of calls to make or things to do at the office.
The author of Getting Things Done, David Allen, summarizes the approach this way: “Get everything out of your head. Make decisions about actions required on stuff when it shows up–not when it blows up. Organize reminders of your projects and the next actions on them in appropriate categories. Keep your system current, complete, and reviewed sufficiently to trust your intuitive choices about what you’re doing (and not doing) at anytime.”
The more out of control your environment (including people), the more critical that you implement your own GTD process. You need to know what’s yours and what’s not, and manage your own “10 acres” with rigor. And as you hold new standards, it impacts everyone to some degree. Though there’s no guarantee, the more you manage your own stuff pristinely, the more people tend to engage with you at that level.
Essentially email is no different than paper or verbal communications with the same weaknesses if things are unfocused, unclear, and/or unnecessary. Because of its accessibility, email has just magnified those problems when those standards in communication are allowed. The key is having a culture and relationships that have established (really) the best-practice standards, such as communicating on purpose, while respectful of others’ time and attention. Then, it’s a lot easier to ensure that happens within all the media, including email. If you don’t have those standards, I’ll bet it’s not just email that has those problems.
Much like exercise, it’s a matter of getting so accustomed to the positive experience of having done it regularly, you’ll feel creatively uncomfortable with anything less. The more often you come “back to the well” of a cleaned-up backlog, clarified outcomes and actions, and a well-reviewed work and life, the easier it will be to have those behaviors integrated and on automatic. You’ll process your in-tray for the same reason you brush your teeth–if you don’t, the “scuzz factor” gets too high. The key is to keep on coming back to the game as many times as you might slip away. (The Weekly Review is a master key!)
“Areas of focus” would be a high-level checklist of all the areas in life and work that you want to keep your eye on, ensuring that you are doing what you need to be doing to maintain them at your standards. Examples might be health, relationships, career, finances, creative expression, etc. You may or may not have actions and projects about them—if the area is fine and “on cruise control,” no need. But if it’s not where it needs to be, you need to ensure that you have projects and actions to get them there, such as “Set up regular exercise program,” “Call Jim re: suggestions about health clubs.”
“Someday Maybe’s” are things that you might want to do (about anything) at some point, but not yet. You just want to be reminded about them on some regular basis to ensure that you are OK with the fact that you’re not doing it yet.
For example, learn Italian, climb Mt. Everest, own a vineyard. You will probably have “Someday Maybe’s” in many of your areas of focus as well as active projects.
Just focus on doing the next action perfectly, which is a lot easier than trying to be perfect about how you approach something bigger. Be as retentive as you want. The only problem is when it stops action. Be a perfectionist about the process, which will require, of course, making decisions on the front end that might not be perfect. Think about what might go wrong if you avoid decisions and action! (If you need a negative motivator.)
Pay attention to your intuition, or just simply: What do you feel like using as a system? We’ve discovered people tend to resist the GTD® implementation process enough as it is, so you need all the help you can get to be motivated to work the system. If you know you’d like to be digital, don’t waste time on a paper system. But if you like the look and touch and feel of a cool notebook, go for it. No system works unless you work it.
There’s no universal answer to it, as it all has to do with what habit can you install for yourself that will ensure that you are reminded of the “pending” things to get done “sometime this week/month” One approach would be to put the checklist on your Weekly Review, and when you notice that something needed to be done, clarify the next action, and park that on the appropriate action list, with a due date by it (e.g., confirmation calls and your student’s lesson plan), and perhaps another notation on the calendar for the day it had better be completed by. You could also put it on a “Daily checklist”–either on a Post-it® on your paper calendar you move day to day, or a repeating attached note on a digital calendar entry daily.
It’s tricky, because you will go numb to the trigger if you 1) look at it too regularly and don’t make concrete decisions when you do, or 2) miss looking at it when you should.
Truth is, each of your various activities, because as you say they are so widely different, might need a different kind of triggering mechanism. Some things wouldn’t need a note, because their very presence would be sufficient reminder something needed to be done (e.g., cat litter).
You have as many next actions as you have, and, yes, you should be looking at everything on your Next Actions lists (by context) when you have any discretionary time, and you are in that context. So, yes, they should be reviewed sometimes several times a day. You need to relate to your Next Actions lists as your “real to-do lists” as much as your calendar, and save the calendar for “they-die-if-not-done-that-day” things. It’s good to put the due dates on the actions on the lists as well, as an extra precaution.
The Weekly Review ensures that you “hard-wire” your intuition to be making quick judgment calls, day-to-day, minute-to-minute, using the lists as a focusing tool. Much of what happens with and around you during the week won’t be on any of your lists–it’s the ad hoc stuff, but having something that represents a stable inventory as best you can define it, to work against, is the only source of stability.
If you need a “weekly priorities list,” in addition, to help you stay focused, fine. Sometimes we need that kind of thing, though most of the time, not.
Most projects (given our definition of “more than one step”) don’t need much of any support material, and if they do, one or two pages of notes and bullet points is usually sufficient. If you have lots of detailed project plans and other support materials, it would just make more sense to keep all that in digital or paper folders.
If by “maintaining” the lists you mean, “write action reminders down in a retrievable place that you’ll look at when you need to,” then it’s not going to take you nearly as much time, effort, and stress as filing it in your head, constantly feeling pressured about what’s in there, and having the thought occur again (and again, and again) in your mind because it doesn’t trust your system.
Your Next Actions lists should just reflect your commitments. If the lists are “too long,” either you need to get used to a big lists of still-undone things (renegotiating regularly with the whole batch that it’s OK you’re not doing all of them right now) or you need to make fewer commitments. However, most people’s lists aren’t really complete, which makes big lists feel much worse, because you don’t know how much ELSE there might be lurking in the dark. When it’s really the TOTAL of actions, then it actually makes it much easier to see it from the bigger picture and make good, objective judgments about the actions and your interaction with them.
We suggest you keep your system as simple as possible, but no simpler, as Einstein says. The most complex-looking part of the process is the set of various lists for next actions (at phone, at computer, at the office, at my boss, etc.) But there’s method to that madness. If you buy into the best practice of tracking everything you have attention on, you will probably have over 100 next actions. Sorting them into separate lists by context actually makes it easier to review what you can do at any point in time. In other words, when you’re out and about with a mobile phone, you would rather see one list of calls to make instead of having to find them all on a big list of all your actions grouped together.
It’s usually because of lack of sufficient reason to be doing the thing or lack of a sense of control in the initial engagement–physically, mentally, or emotionally. If the life of someone dear to you was dependent on you finishing the writing project in the next 24 hours (an outcome meaningful enough, I would guess), we think you’d find yourself breaking through some resistances to getting started. Or, if you absolutely knew what the first four paragraphs were (control), you’d find it easy to get started.
At the deepest level, our own sense of self (self-image, self-esteem) is probably the ultimate driver or inhibitor of our actions, and that’s another seminar! But given whatever that self-image is, clarifying the value of the purpose of something and getting a clear next action about how to get started will at least give you the best ammunition, given whatever energy of confidence you start with as internal resource.
Maybe there’s a good reason not to choose. There is probably a fine line between “intuitive holding,” though, and procrastination or resistance to making decisions. But before you think you need to do something about this, you might ask yourself which it is.
Usually, people don’t decide because they don’t have enough information. You can get more information from other sources (people, the Web, the library, etc.) or perhaps from internal sources (intuition, dreams, etc.). If it needs to be internal, it may take time for you to mature the question on the less-than-conscious levels.
As you’re aware, no choice is a choice. It may be a choice not to change, but that’s probably not going to be very viable for very long, because things will be changing around you, and you’ll have to be making choices to stay on an even keel.
If you are dealing with the fear of “What if it’s the wrong choice?” then you just need to focus on the positive direction about what you really want and where you really want to go, so that your internal mechanisms will have an impetus to ferret out the best methods to get there.
People tend to both over-commit and to be inefficient. Few people know exactly how much work they actually have, and therefore must take everything on that they think about and that others ask them to do. Their integrity forces them to agree to take things on because, not being real clear how many projects they already have on their plate, some part of them thinks they actually MIGHT be able to do it. And most people are inefficient because they don’t force themselves to decide what things mean and what they are actually going to do about them when they first show up. So, they are constantly rethinking the same things over and over and not making any progress in doing so–only adding to their stress. And when they DO finally decide what to do, it’s usually because they have allowed the situation to get into “last-minute” mode, and they now have to go deal with things as a crisis, one at a time, instead of in an orderly, timely, manner. For example, when you are talking to your boss about the urgent thing, why not also talk about the five things you need to talk to him or her about, before they are urgent? Most people are not that good at making next action decisions and organizing the results effectively. The inefficiency creates greater inefficiency, and it can get out of hand easily.
Rigorously capture, clarify, and track every commitment you make–little or big, urgent or not urgent, personal or professional–in a trusted system (not your head). Make a clear distinction between the projects you are actually committed to finish, as soon as you can, and the ones that should be moved to a Someday Maybe list. Review and update your active projects list regularly, to mature your intuitive ability to know what your limits really are. Decide immediately the next physical action required to move each active project forward (call, email, talk to, buy, etc.), and organize reminders of those actions based upon the critical context for the action (does it need to be done with a phone? a computer? at home? at the office?). Review those lists whenever you have any discretionary time, in those contexts.
Frequently Asked Questions
