Guide to GTD for beginners

What is GTD

Our brains are easily come up with new ideas, but remember all of them it is much more difficult. For example, he remembers that you need to buy a gift for the birthday of your mother next week. Rather than remind you of this when you pass her favorite store, the brain will cause a nagging feeling that you like something had to be purchased.

GTD (Getting Things Done) - a technique that helps draw in action vague ideas, impulses, insights and reflections night. When you learn to rely on this system, your brain will not retain all the information. From this decrease stress, and you will have strength to more productive occupations.

How does this technique

GTD is based on a system of listsIn which you organize everything that comes to your mind. To implement it into your life, you need to capture and process incoming information. In addition, the need to have such lists: "Inbox", "Next Steps," "Waiting List", "Projects" and "Someday." All that requires your attention, will get first in the "Inbox", and then goes into one of the other lists.

1. collection

Collect all the information that needs your attention: from letters to be answered, to the brilliant ideas that come to your mind while you take a shower. Gathering place may be a paper notebook, application, or e-mail address to which you send mail to yourself.

When you have just started to use the GTD method, try to release the head of all the accumulated information. Write down everything that you need or want to do, all that you took the last few days or weeks, interferes with concentration or remembered at the wrong time.

2. Treatment

Consider the accumulated information. This is the main rule of the whole system. Do this regularly to keep it was not going too much. To process information, ask yourself some questions.

• This problem can be solved? You ask yourself whether you can do something to remove the item from the list. If not, delete it or move it to the list of "Someday". Useful information, which do not need to do anything, such as a recipe or an interesting article, keep in a separate place. Things you want to do in the distant future (learn Japanese, to write the book) is transferred to the list of "Someday", so they are not ranked among the "Next action".
• Is it possible to finish the job in one step? The GTD anything that requires more than one step, called a project. If you are in the "Inbox" there are a few related tasks, create for them a separate project. Add his name to his list of projects and select one operation to add to the "Next".
• Whether it will take more than two minutes? If not, follow it immediately. This is faster than adding it to the list of the following tasks or delegate to someone. If execution of the case need more time, consider whether you can make it just you, or it can be someone to send.
• Can it be delegated to someone? If so, delegate. When you need to keep track of the execution, move the item in the "waiting list". If you can not delegate a task, add it to your calendar or in the list of "Next".
• Is there a specific term of performance? If so, add it to your calendar. Do not write to everything you want to do for the day. Make only what you need to make sure: a visit to the dentist, meeting flight. If there is no specific deadline, transfer case to the "Next Steps".

3. Organization

Sort all the places: in one of the five lists in a folder with useful information for the future, in the calendar or in the trash.

In the "Waiting List" add any works which, for some reason, have stalled. For example, when you can not continue until you get an answer to my letter, or when you are awaiting delivery. Do not forget next to each item to specify the date.

The "next action" should be the task to be performed as quickly as possible. Formulate them as feasible physical actions, so it will be easier to get down to business. For example, it is better to write "call Lena and agree that she sat with a child in the Thursday evening" rather than "arrange to have a child with someone sat", although in fact they are one and the same.

Ideally, for each item in the "next" you need to add a context tag. He will tell you where you need to be with someone, you need to take with you. For example, you can tag "buying", "on the job", "children", "telephone", "computer". You can also specify how much time you have on this case, or what his priority importance. Then, if necessary, you can quickly sort all the cases for tags.

4. Overview

Once a week, be sure to check all the lists. The longer you leave the case in the "Inbox", then the more difficult it will be to deal with them.

• one next action must be defined for each project.
• Each item in the "next" should be something that you want to do during the coming week. All excess is transferred to a list of "Someday" or remove all.
• From time to time try to move something from the list of "Someday" in the "Next Steps".

5. Performance

Act! If you properly organize your system, it will be the easiest step. Regularly repeating the first four steps, you will be fully assured that all things on the list you need to make progress and get closer to their goals.

See also:

• «GTD works even in space." Layfhakera interview with his father Productivity by David Allen →
• 11 ways to spend a day as productively as possible →
• 80 to life hacking productivity →