Book: Getting Things Done

David Allen's "Getting Things Done" (GTD)

I. Core Theme: Stress-Free Productivity Through Organized Action

The fundamental premise of GTD is that stress is primarily caused by poorly managed commitments. The goal is to achieve a state of relaxed control, where one can focus attention fully on the task at hand without distraction. This is described as a "mind like water" (referencing martial arts) or being "in the zone." The method aims to provide a system to manage all "open loops" in one's life, both personal and professional. This involves capturing, clarifying, organizing, reflecting, and engaging.

• "There is a way to get a grip on it all, stay relaxed, and get meaningful things done with minimal effort, across the whole spectrum of your life and work."
• "Anything that causes you to overreact or underreact can control you, and often does."
• "A basic truism I have discovered over twenty years of coaching and training is that most of the stress people experience comes from inappropriately managed commitments they make or accept."

II. The "Ready State" & "Mind Like Water"

This concept from martial arts emphasizes a state of preparedness and responsiveness. A "mind like water" is one that is calm, clear, and ready to react appropriately to any situation. It is achieved by emptying the mind of distractions and properly managing commitments. This frictionless state is also described as "swing" by rowers: a state of arrival and flow, rather than striving.

• "If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything. —Sbunryu Suzuki"
• "Rowers have a word for this frictionless state: swing... Our job is simply to work with the shell, to stop holding it back with our thrashing struggles to go faster."

III. Why Things Are On Your Mind (and How to Fix It)

The primary reason something stays "on your mind" is because it represents an "open loop": a desired outcome that hasn't been properly defined and organized into actionable steps. To alleviate this mental burden, you must:

• Clarify the intended outcome.
• Decide on the very next physical action step.
• Put reminders of the outcome and action into a trusted system.
• "Most often, the reason something is 'on your mind' is that you want it to be different than it currently is, and yet: you haven't clarified exactly what the intended outcome is; you haven't decided what the very next physical action step is; and/or you haven't put reminders of the outcome and the action required in a system you trust."
• "There is usually an inverse proportion between how much something is on your mind and how much it's getting done."
• "The ancestor of every action is a thought."

IV. The Mind as a Processing Tool, Not Storage

GTD draws an analogy between the human mind and a computer. The short-term memory (RAM) has limited capacity and becomes overloaded with incomplete, undecided "stuff." This leads to distraction and mental overload. The conscious mind should be used for focusing, not for storing information. Externalizing these commitments into a trusted system frees up mental space.

• "The short-term-memory part of your mind... functions much like RAM on a personal computer... Most people walk around with their RAM bursting at the seams."
• "A big problem is that your mind keeps reminding you of things when you can't do anything about them. It has no sense of past or future."

V. The Five Stages of Mastering Workflow

The GTD methodology is structured around five key stages:

1. Collecting: Gathering all "incompletes" from various sources (in-basket, email, mind).
2. Processing: Making decisions about what each item is and what to do with it.
3. Organizing: Storing and categorizing reminders and materials.
4. Reviewing: Regularly updating and assessing the system to maintain clarity and control.
5. Doing: Making action choices based on context, time, energy, and priority.

• "get clear, get current, and get creative."
• "The outer ring of the workflow diagram shows the eight discrete categories of reminders and materials that will result from your processing all your 'stuff.'"

VI. Processing: Actionable vs. Non-Actionable

A crucial step in GTD is determining whether an item requires action or not. If no action is needed, the item can be:

• Trashed: No longer needed.
• Incubated: Something to be done later (e.g., using a tickler file).
• Referenced: Potentially useful information.

If action is required, the next step is to decide:

• Do it: If it takes less than two minutes.
• Delegate it: If someone else is better suited.
• Defer it: Schedule it for later and track it on a "Next Actions" list.
• "What Is It? This is not a dumb question... many of the items that tend to leak out of our personal organizing systems are amorphous forms... do we actually need to do something about them?"
• "Delegate it. If the action will take longer than two minutes, ask yourself, Am I the right person to do this? If the answer is no, delegate it to the appropriate entity."

VII. Organizing: The Right "Buckets"

The organizing phase involves creating and maintaining various lists and systems to track different types of information and commitments. Key elements include:

• Projects List: A list of all desired outcomes requiring more than one step.
• Next Actions Lists: Lists of concrete, actionable steps in specific contexts (e.g., "Calls," "Errands," "At Computer").
• Waiting For List: Tracking delegated tasks or items awaiting external input.
• Someday/Maybe List: Ideas and potential projects to consider in the future.
• Calendar: For time-specific actions and reminders.
• Tickler File: A system for triggering reminders on specific future dates.
• Reference Files: Organized storage for non-actionable information.
• "Together they make up a total system for organizing just about everything that's on your plate, or could be added to it, on a daily and weekly basis."
• "Someday/Maybe's are not throwaway items. They may be some of the most interesting and creative things you'll ever get involved with."
• "It's OK to decide not to decide—as long as you have a decide-not-to-decide system."

VIII. The Natural Planning Model

GTD emphasizes leveraging the brain's natural planning process, which involves five steps:

1. Defining purpose and principles
2. Outcome visioning
3. Brainstorming
4. Organizing
5. Identifying next actions

• "The most experienced planner in the world is your brain."
• "You often need to make it up in your mind before you can make it happen in your life."
• "If you're not sure why you're doing something, you can never do enough of it."

IX. Reference Material & Filing Systems

Reference material should be easily accessible and clearly separated from actionable items. A simple, alphabetical filing system is recommended, allowing for easy retrieval of information when needed.

• "When in doubt, throw it out. When in doubt, keep it."
• "Once you've made a clean distinction about which is which, what's left as reference should have no pull or incompletion associated with it—it's just your library."

X. Higher Level Thinking (Horizons of Focus)

GTD encourages considering different levels of perspective:

• Runway (Actions): The current, concrete tasks.
• 10,000 Feet (Projects): Short-term outcomes to achieve.
• 20,000 Feet (Areas of Responsibility): Key areas to maintain standards.
• 30,000 Feet (1-2 Year Goals): What you want to experience in the near future.
• 40,000 Feet (3-5 Year Vision): Long-term aspirations and direction.
• 50,000+ Feet (Purpose & Principles): Your life's purpose and guiding values.
• "Whereas the three lower levels have mostly to do with the current state of things—your actions, projects, and areas of responsibility—from here up the factors of the future and your direction and intentions are primary."

XI. Renegotiating Agreements with Yourself

A key benefit of GTD is the ability to renegotiate commitments with yourself. By having a clear inventory of all your "stuff," you can consciously decide what to act on, defer, or eliminate. This prevents the subconscious stress caused by unacknowledged obligations.

• "Do you understand yet why getting all your stuff out of your head and in front of you makes you feel better? Because you automatically renegotiate your agreements with yourself when you look at them..."
• "The fact that you can't remember an agreement you made with yourself doesn't mean that you're not holding yourself liable for it."

XII. The Power of "Next Action" Decisions

A core GTD principle is to define the "next action" for every project and task. This breaks down overwhelming goals into manageable steps, making it easier to get started and maintain momentum. By identifying the next action, you can create the option of doing, and remove the mental block associated with ambiguity.

• "I HAVE a personal mission to make 'What's the next action?' part of the global thought process."
• "It's just the few seconds of focused thinking that most people have not yet done about most of their stuff."

XIII. Checklists

Checklists can be useful tools for remembering important steps or procedures, especially in complex or repetitive tasks.

• "Capability and willingness to instantly make a checklist, accessible and used when needed, is a core component of high-performance self-management."

XIV. Weekly Review

The weekly review is a critical component of GTD. It involves systematically reviewing all lists, calendars, and projects to ensure everything is up-to-date and aligned with current priorities.

• "reviewing all your outstanding commitments, intentions, and inclinations— until you can honestly say, 'I absolutely know right now everything I'm not doing but could be doing if I decided to.'"
• "From a practical standpoint, here is the three-part drill that can get you there: get clear, get current, and get creative."

This briefing document provides a high-level overview of the core principles and practices of David Allen's GTD methodology.

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