Please note: This is an unofficial summary, course, and workbook created to help you understand and apply the principles outlined in the book. For full disclaimer details, click here.
GTD Meaning
What does GTD mean? The Getting Things Done (GTD) method by David Allen is not about getting things done. GTD is really about being appropriately engaged . It is about being appropriately engaged with the project or task you are working on at any given moment. It is also about freeing the mental bandwidth you need to think. You need space (physical and mental) to be creative and innovative. However, when that space is cluttered with too many details and stuff you don’t have the space to be creative or innovative. The GTD program will help you free your mind and your workspace so that you are optimally available to deal with any issue in your life. Once you do this, you will be in a better position to deal with your relationships, work, home, business, goals and anything else. You will be appropriately engaged and available to deal with anything.
Uncluttered minds and organized thoughts are required to be productive. If you have too many things on your mind, you cannot be effective. You need to get things out of your mind to free it to think about more important things.
The Getting Things Done (GTD) method will help you attain reliable, stress-free productivity . This will help you organize your work and life and focus more on your purpose in life. When you use this system, you will find yourself being more productive, reducing your stress levels and taking control of your life. In order to get things done well you need an efficient method that you actually implement and that’s where the GTD method comes in.The idea behind the GTD method is to free up your brain to solve problems and to keep all your projects – both personal and professional – moving forward.
Your brain is great at thinking but terrible at remembering things. At any given moment most people have numerous things on their mind. Our brains become cluttered with information, ideas, tasks, etc. The author, David Allen, refers to this as “stuff”. We are so busy trying to remember everything that we cannot concentrate fully on the work at hand.
The author stresses the importance of using your brain for the things it does well. Use it to think and analyze and not to remember. The things on your mind are open loops – things you have not yet completed. They are constantly on your mind whether you are aware of it or not. It is very distracting and prevents you from focusing properly as these thoughts interrupt your flow.
Why use the GTD system?
When you use the GTD program, you will gain a level of relaxed control you might never have experienced before. You will also be more creative than ever before since you will have the mental bandwidth to think creatively.
Also, when your workspace is set up according to the principles of GTD, it will reduce your resistance to dealing with the things you don’t enjoy doing and make it attractive for you to sit down and get your work done.
However, there are a few steps you need to take in order to get there. We will help you follow the GTD program step-by-step. We will take you through each of the steps and provide all the free printables you will need to get there.
The five-stage workflow of GTD
The GTD system uses a five-stage workflow to gain control of everything you have to do:
- Capture your thoughts. Instead of keeping all those ideas, to-dos, decisions, etc. in your head, you need to capture them in some external platform, whether on paper or digitally.
- Clarify what each item is and what you can do with it.
- Organize the outcomes into a structure of lists (see free printable lists below).
- Reflect on what is important to you and review the items in your system.
- Engage your tasks. Pick the things you want to do and do them.
