Productivity: Getting Things Done
Is your mind like water? If not, get to know the ideas of David Allen
Welcome to this week’s issue. I’m glad you’re here.
This week we are going practical and starting a mini-series on productivity.
On a lunch hour in a city where I once worked, I bought a book that changed my life.
That book was Getting Things Done by David Allen. First published in 2001, I discovered it one summer afternoon in late July 2005. It had a blue cover that caught my eye and a subtitle which promised “the art of stress free productivity.”
I read as much as I could in the bookstore and then, recognizing I needed to get back to work, decided to buy it. In the ensuing days and weeks, I read it eagerly chapter by chapter and began to adopt its tenets.
At the time I was early in my career and very much still learning how to manage multiple projects concurrently and be effective in a large geographically-disbursed organization where what I needed to do arrived from many sources (clients, managers, coworkers) and I needed the involvement of others (coworkers, managers, vendors, clients) to successfully achieve project completion.
I found it very helpful — and still do.
“Your head is for having ideas, not holding them.” - David Allen
GTD: Getting Things Done
The ideas of David Allen, often referred to as GTD (which is a registered trademark of the David Allen Company), are simple, thoughtful and incredibly powerful.
You may be familiar with them. Perhaps you’re a fellow fan of GTD. Or maybe you’ve never heard of GTD before. That’s great.
GETTING THINGS DONE® is a personal productivity methodology that redefines how you approach your life and work.
At its essence are five steps (discussed more below):
Capture
Clarify
Organize
Reflect
Engage
In this short video (1m47s), David Allen walks through each of these steps.
1. Capture
Collect what has your attention: write, record, or gather any and everything that has your attention into a collection tool
In my experience, the key is to never be without a way to capture things. It can be 📝analog or 💻 digital—whatever you like.
Until the pandemic reset my work environment, I always kept a ream of blank white paper in the bottom letter tray on my desk so I could quickly jot down a note and put it in my inbox.
When I’m mobile, I add something to my Tasks list (which serves as my inbox of unprocessed stuff) in the Microsoft To Do app (which I’ll be discussing more later in this series).
2. Clarify
Process what it means: Is it actionable? If so, decide the next action and project (if more than one action is required). If not, decide it is trash, reference, or something to put on hold.
This is a critical element.
Workflow
There is a diagram in the original book that really operationalizes this concept (and the next one):
Over time, this workflow reference was refined into this:
I have kept a copy of this at my desk through multiple companies, jobs and offices (and at my home desk, too). To be honest, though: the thought process has become so automatic that I hardly ever need to reference it anymore.
Just as I once wrote that I can’t not notice lighting, I instinctively think about things in this framework.
3. Organize
Put it where it belongs: Park reminders of your categorized content in appropriate places.
In Getting Things Done, David Allen notes, “To manage actionable things, you will need a list of projects, storage or files for project plans and materials, a calendar, a list of reminders of next actions and a list of reminders of things you’re waiting for.” (p. 35).
In my early years of embracing GTD, I maintained lists of Projects, Next Actions, and Waiting For in separate Word documents. Today, I use Microsoft To Do (and will discuss this more in a future issue). You can use anything you’d like—the key is that you develop a trusted system that works for you.
4. Reflect
Review frequently: Update and review all pertinent system contents to regain control and focus.
A foundational element of GTD is the weekly review. What is the Weekly Review?
Very simply, the Weekly Review is whatever you need to get your head empty again. It’s going through the five phases of workflow management—collecting, processing, organizing, and reviewing all your outstanding involvements—until you can honestly say, “I absolutely know right now everything I’m not doing but could be doing if I decided to.” (p. 185)
For many years, I have blocked out a few hours after lunch on Friday afternoons for this. When done completely and consistently, the level of peace is palpable.
Here is a one page reference you can use as a guide through your own weekly review:
📑 GTD Weekly Review (PDF)
5. Engage
Simply do: Use your trusted system to make action decisions with confidence and clarity.
✔ When you have a trusted inventory of everything you could be doing, you will have more confidence in what you are doing (even if it’s nothing—rest and unstructured time is important, too!).
In the welcome to the original edition, David Allen shared:
The promise here was well described by a client of mine who wrote, “When I habitually applied the tenets of this program, it saved my life…when I faithfully applied them, it changed my life. This is a vaccination against day-to-day fire-fighting (the so-called urgent and crisis demands of any given workday) and an antidote for the imbalance many people bring upon themselves.”
- David Allen, Getting Things Done (2001 edition), p. xiv
More about GTD
There are many summaries of GTD online so I am not going to recreate the wheel (except to say even with all of these “Cliff Notes” the book is still very much worth reading for its mindset and nuance).
Here are links to a few (in alphabetical order by author/source):
Tired of not Getting Things Done? Master the GTD method in 5 steps by Asana
GTD in 15 minutes—a pragmatic guide by Erlend Hamberg
What is GTD and why do so many people swear by it? by RadReads
GTD - a simple and practical guide by Spica
GTD by Todoist
Getting Things Done by Wikipedia
If you are more visual, check out this animated summary of GTD (8m21s):
Go deeper: Read the full book (not affiliate links; sharing for your convenience only)
📚 Amazon | B&N | Bookshop.org | Kobo | Powell’s
Podcast: David Allen
Recently, fellow Substacker
interviewed David Allen on his love, journalism podcast and I found it to be a very engaging conversation and definitely worth a listen.
Seriously, please listen to it. It’s honestly much better than what I’ve just written. I respect your time and think you’ll find it interesting and insightful.
Let me know what you thought.
There is more to GTD than what I’ve included in this first issue. Other concepts—like context and horizons of focus—are also powerful and impactful.
Next week, we will continue this mini-series on productivity and I’d like to know what you would be most interested to hear more about. Please take a moment to vote below and feel free to reply or comment below.
Thank you. I appreciate your input.
I hope you enjoyed this issue and found it helpful. Let me know what you thought. Also, I’d love to hear:
What is your biggest productivity challenge?
What is your best productivity tip?
Finally, watch for a separate announcement about 💬Chat soon.
Thank you for reading.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
-Bryce