David Allen introduced this system in his book, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity.
I’ve used my own personal variant of GTD since 2019ish and while I’m not fanatical about it, I find that it works for me.
I’m not going to write about what GTD is. Plenty of resources online for that already. But here are my personal takeaways from picking up the book and adopting the system:
- The book introduces the idea of 6 distinct planning horizons and although the majority of the remaining content is on the bottom two, the full mental model of the horizons resonates with me
- I like physical 3x5 cards. I’ve tried every electronic, web and mobile tool and app I could find. They were all cute and nifty and fun to play with. However, I’d often find myself focusing on navigating the tool itself and clicking on glowing pixels rather on task at hand, which often boiled down to just “write it down” I love technology, but for me lowest friction is to pick up a small piece of paper and a pen and jot down a quick note
- Having the ability to write a note quickly and place it into “inbox”…
- allows your brain to free up for all kind of braining withing worrying the thing you just thought of will be forgotten. Once written down, you have peace of mind to move on
- it counteracts the focusing illusion by intentionally creating a space between “ooh, I’ve got to do X” thought that just popped into your head and actually acting on it. Thus allowing you to stay focused on task at hand.