Hi!
David Allen's Getting Things Done (GTD) system is a well known tool for helping knowledge workers get organised. If you are feeling overwhelmed at work by having too many different tasks to keep up with, or stressed from having too many things to do stuck in your head, this system might be useful for you. The rescue time blog has a good summary of the system here. I also made a simple infographic to share at @Praxium’s learning day some time back which you can download here.
I read GTD early last year, and have actively been adopting parts of the methodology into my work (my system also draws some ideas from the bullet journal method). The entire book is quite detailed, and I will not be able to discuss all of it here. To me, these are the most valuable features of the GTD system worth considering:
Indiscriminate collection: All sources of potential tasks or information within your life should be channeled into a limited number of collection points. For example: an email inbox, an in-tray containing documents, or a notepad recording all meetings, calls, thoughts in your head. This collection system is indiscriminate and should be able to capture anything in your life or work.
Processing: GTD separates the act of collection (which is indiscriminate), from processing of each input. This helps to gain control over the various inputs, rather than reacting to them as they happen in a haphazard manner. Each collected item is either trash (eg a marketing email), reference material to be filed away (notes from a training seminar), or an actionable item (eg a document for review).
Next Actions: Actionable items should be recorded by their "next actions" in to-do list. The "next action" is the most basic action needed to move that item forward. This way, when looking at the list to decide what to do next, there is no friction or uncertainty from trying to recall how to get started. For example, if I need to get the document for review from another colleague before I can start reviewing it, my next action step would be "ask XXX to send me -document-".
Waiting for / Someday Maybe: The GTD system also suggests the creation of separate lists from the to-do list. The "waiting for" list keeps track of items which you need to monitor but are unable to do anything about. The "someday/maybe" list holds ideas you may want to execute down the road. Otherwise, these items add clutter to the to-do list, and create stress by reminding you that these ideas have not been carried out. I find these additional lists are a good answer to the realities of working life that many other productivity tips do not manage to consider.
Benefits: I like this system because it helps me with work-life balance. GTD's idea is that, by helping to capture all inputs and process them, it frees us from having to constantly keep our tasks inside our memory, and we can better focus on the tasks at hand. The fear that we forget what we need to do creates a need to handle things immediately. By having a system to keep track of everything, once I leave the office, I can let work fall off my mind, confident all my tasks are collected and processed in a way for me to quickly restart my work mode, without worrying that I miss or forget any task..
Drawbacks: Like any system, this has drawbacks too. I think the biggest one is that, this system gives a way to gain clarity, but it does not directly, save time. GTD requires that sufficient time and effort is spent to regularly process items that build up in collection points, and the discipline to regularly check the various lists. During an intense period of work, collection points may start to overflow, and the system begins to fall apart until significant time is spent sorting everything. Most people mind find it hard to get used to this and revert back to keeping track of tasks in the head, which is convenient in the short term. The full book helps bring up ways to mitigate these problems, and is worth a read if you intend to try implementing this.
If you want to know more about the GTD system, feel free to drop me a message, I am always happy to share. If you have an even better way of keeping track of your work and personal life, or some interesting modification to this please also tell me about it!
Hope you have a great week ahead!
James