Thread by @kadavy

WHAT’S SO GREAT ABOUT GETTING THINGS DONE?

I’ve been using Getting Things Done for 15+ years. It’s helped me write three books, build a business, and move to South America.

Here’s my summary of the most important ideas behind “GTD” (thread)

Four important principles to GTD:

1. GTD is your “trusted system.” You get everything out of your head and into the system.

2. GTD helps you “engage appropriately.” You’re doing no more and no less than necessary, whether you *need* to do it or *might* do it.

3...

3. GTD closes “open loops.”

You trust the system will help you engage appropriately, so you don’t think of the same thing over and over. You have mental energy left over to be creative.

As @gtdguy says, “Your mind is for having ideas, not for holding them.”

4...

4. GTD is a “bottom-up” approach.

When you get control over ground-level things in your life, it’s easier to think about higher-level things.

You trust you will “buy cat food,” so you can think about how other ideas fit into your long-term goals and life purpose.

Want a taste of GTD? Do this quick exercise:

Write down every single thing that either *needs* to get done or that *may* need to get done.

(Do NOT worry about *doing* those things, just get them out of your head.)

You’ve done step 1 of 5 to mastering GTD...

The 5-step process to GTD:

1. Capture: Write it down
2. Clarify: Decide what to do with it
3. Organize: Put it in the right place
4. Reflect: Review regularly
5. Engage: Do what needs to be done

That’s a general overview. If there’s only 3 GTD concepts you take away from this thread, it should be these:

1. The “next action”
2. The “someday/maybe” list
3. The “weekly review”

Let me break those down...

1. The “next action”:

What is the next thing you can do about this? (you identify this in the “Clarify” step.)

We usually write vague things, like “Mom” or "buy Mom birthday gift."

The next action is actually “brainstorm gift ideas for Mom.”

2. The “someday/maybe” list:

We get anxious about writing down things we aren’t sure we’ll do. Put these things – such as “move abroad” – on the someday/maybe list (in the “Organize” step).

When you “Reflect”, you can think about it again and decide if there’s a next action.

3. The “weekly review”:

Find a time each week to “Reflect,” and review your system. What’s coming up this week and the next several weeks? I like to do this on Sunday afternoons.

This is a game-changing habit.

There are other powerful GTD concepts such as "contexts," how to properly define a "project," & the "2-minute rule"

What I've mentioned here have been the most powerful concepts for me. (If you already use GTD, feel free to share yours!)

(end thread)

If you want more detail, I break things down in my Getting Things Done summary blog post here.

All in my own words – what has helped me most.

kadavy.net/blog/posts/get…