Beginner’s Guide to GTD (Getting Things Done)

0:00 Hello and welcome back to the Todoist channel. My name is Naomi, and in today's video, we are going to discuss getting things done, or GTD for short. This is a system that was developed by productivity consultant David Allen and has been adored and adopted by many in the last 20 something years. Now, I personally love the audiobook version of David Allen's bestseller Getting Things Done, but whatever your preferred format, consider it recommended reading after watching this video, because today we will simply cover the basics. And also stick around to the end for a giveaway. The GTD methodology is based on a simple truth: the more information that we have bouncing around inside our heads, the harder it is to know what you need to focus your attention on.

0:46 You can end up then spending way more time thinking about your tasks than actually doing anything about them. And GTD simply helps you dump all of that mental clutter into a system that is going to help you organize and prioritize the things you need to take action on. It's kind of like decluttering for your brain and giving yourself clear roadmap for your tasks. You should consider trying GTD if any of these apply to you: you feel overwhelmed by the amount of things you need to keep track of, you worry about forgetting small details, you are lots of hats in your job and life. You start lots of projects that have trouble finishing them, or maybe you’re just GTD-curious. The GTD method consists of five simple practices: capture, clarify, organize, review and engage.

1:34 Now, let me be really clear here: GTD is a system that is not rules specific. You can use pen and paper for GTD. You can use a variety of apps for implementing GTD. It is universal. However, in this video I'm going to showcase it using Todoist because that's what we use. And quite frankly, many a Todoist user, I mean many a Todoist user, has told us that combining GTD with Todoist has been -- and I quote -- a life saver. Feel free to do it in a way that makes sense to you. You should learn something about GTD from this video, whether you're a Todoist user or not. First up, capture. In order for GTD to work, you have to stop storing information in your mind, regardless of what crosses your mind, whether that's to dos,

2:21 tasks, events, reminders, book recommendations. It needs to come out of your mind and be stored immediately somewhere else. If you're just starting out. I would highly recommend a complete mind sweep. That's where you dump any of the thoughts or ideas out of your brain into an inbox. Now that inbox is only used to collect the chaos of what is going on in your mind. This is not the time or place for organization. One of the key elements of GTD is being able to capture those thoughts immediately. For me, that looks like dictating into my Todoist via my Apple Watch. I also use the lockscreen widget on my phone or simply quick add whenever I'm on my laptop. Next up is clarify.

3:07 Now that you have that inbox full of all of your thoughts, it is time to turn them into concrete actions. You need to go through each item that's in your inbox individually and do one of the following things. If the item is going to take you less than 2 minutes, you complete it right away. If the task is no longer needed or actionable, you delete it. If it can be delegated, you assign it to somebody else. And if it's a non actionable reference item, you can either file it away in a reference project or attach it to the comment of its relevant task. If an item needs to be done on a specific date at a specific time, then you can assign a due date time and even a reminder. If a task requires more than one step, you can create a project to house all of the steps for that project. However, all you need to put in at this point is the next

3:55 actionable step that would move that project forward. This is a bit of a side note, but I actually do not like to have a lot of projects and sub projects on my Todoist, so I tend to use tasks and subtasks instead. If you're a GTD purist, I'm really sorry. Next up is organize. Now, the GTD book does go into quite a lot of specifics on this section, so I'm going to give you the simplified version. Areas of focus. This is the GTD term for different areas of responsibility within your life. You could create a project for each one of these areas of responsibility, or you could create a team workspace if you want to keep your team work separate from your personal project. We actually did create a video called the Commitment Inventory, which goes into a lot more detail on creating effectively an audit

4:40 or inventory of the different areas of focus in your life. Next actions. These are the things that you're going to do next. These are not future actions. This is not the big long laundry list of all the things you know you need to do in a project. These are the very next actionable steps that you can take. You could assign it a due date. However, with GTD, they do suggest that we use due dates sparingly. So another good thing that you can do is use a label like “next”. Agendas. Sometimes you're going to have things come up in your inbox that are simply just a reminder of something that you need to discuss with someone else. A good idea is to create a project for people that you have to check in with regularly, and if you've got a team workspace, then you can make this project restricted. So only you and the other person, if you choose, can have access to it.

5:29 Reference materials. So reference materials are simply something that you need to save to reference at a later date. A good place to store these can be within either the task description, or you can link to documents within the comments of a task. And that just means that when it comes time to actually take the next action, you have everything that you could possibly need in order to do wha you need to do. Waiting for. These are items that have either been delegated or you're awaiting action from someone else. For instance, if you need to send a report, but you're waiting on your colleague to review it. A good thing to do with these is to assign them a label and call it waiting for. Then you can keep track of them all. Someday / maybe. This is one of my favorite elements of GTD, which is basically all of those things that we all have

6:15 that we'd like to do one day, but we're not going to get to today or this week or maybe even this month. That could be places that you want to travel to, books that you want to read, projects that you want to eventually start. You want to store them somewhere, but you don't really want them gumming up your system. So some day / maybe project is the perfect place for this. Tasks that can be delegated. If you can free up your own time and energy by delegating a task, then you probably should. In Todoist, you can share a project with someone, you can assign them tasks, you can assign due dates, you can even collaborate in the comments. If you're sharing tasks with the team, though, you can create a team workspace in Todoist. You get five projects for free and that will just help you keep a little bit more separation between your team work and your personal projects.

7:01 Contexts. In GTD contexts identify tools, places or people that you require in order to get a task done. For example, if you're at the office, then you can't be doing anything that requires you to be at home. The easiest way to add context is with labels, and GTD recommends the following computer slash Internet home office errands, calls on anywhere. You can obviously customize this list and add your own. So for instance, if email makes more sense for you to have on that list, then add it, and then for a lot of people, computer slash internet doesn't make quite much sense anymore considering we have a computer in our pockets most of the time. And so it might make more sense for you to have a label like offline for things that you can do when you don't have an internet connection. Review. Every week you should be setting aside time in order

7:48 to review your tasks, go through your contexts and just make sure that the whole system is running smoothly. Finally, engage. Now that you've got your wonderful system set up, you've got all of your tasks and your projects and your labels. You should be able to answer the question, What should I do next? So there you have it folks, that is getting things done: the simplified version. Now on to that give away and special request. What I would love to know in the comments section below is: what else would you like to see in these videos? What topics can we cover surrounding productivity and collaboration that would be most helpful to you? Anybody that leaves a comment and is also subscribed to the channel will be in for the chance to win a free year of Todoist Pro. Now, if you like this video, you probably like our video on the weekly review, which I will link here for you.

8:34 It is directly related to the GTD method. And if you have found this view helpful, then please consider giving us a thumbs up. Leave us a comment or maybe even subscribe because it means so much when you do. Thank you so much for watching. I'll see you in the next one. Bye! The amount of work that you have going on in your life-- Who wrote this script? It was me. Oh, okay. What? What is this? I have a friend. I have a little hair friend.