Getting Things Done

by David Allen

Anything that does not belong where it is, the way it is, is an “open loop,” which will be pulling on your attention if it’s not appropriately managed.

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.

We need to transform all the “stuff” we’ve attracted and accumulated into a clear inventory of meaningful actions, projects, and usable information.

Thought is useful when it motivates action and a hindrance when it substitutes for action.

Getting things done requires two basic components: defining (1) what “done” means (outcome) and (2) what “doing” looks like (action).

Vision is not enough; it must be combined with venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps; we must step up the stairs.

Horizontal control maintains coherence across all the activities in which you are involved.

Vertical control, in contrast, manages thinking, development, and coordination of individual topics and projects.

There is usually an inverse relationship between how much something is on your mind and how much it’s getting done.

There is no reason to ever have the same thought twice, unless you like having that thought.

We (1) capture what has our attention; (2) clarify what each item means and what to do about it; (3) organize the results, which presents the options we (4) reflect on, which we then choose to (5) engage with.

As soon as you attach a “should,” “need to,” or “ought to” to an item, it becomes an incomplete.

I define a project as any desired result that can be accomplished within a year that requires more than one action step.

Psychologists have now labeled this and similar processes “distributed cognition.” It’s getting things out of your head and into objective, reviewable formats—building an “extended mind.”

Only he who handles his ideas lightly is master of his ideas, and only he who is master of his ideas is not enslaved by them. —Lin Yutang

If more action is what’s needed, you need to move down the model. There may be enthusiasm about the purpose of a project but at the same time some resistance to actually fleshing out what fulfilling it in the real world might look like. These days, the task of improving quality of work life may be on the radar for a manager, but often he won’t yet have defined a clear picture of the desired result. The thinking must go to the specifics of the vision. Again, ask yourself, “What would the outcome look like?”

There are seven primary types of things that you’ll want to keep track of and manage from an organizational and operational perspective: A Projects list Project support material Calendar actions and information Next Actions lists A Waiting For list Reference material A Someday/Maybe list

The Most Common Categories of Action Reminders You’ll probably find that at least a few of the following common list headings for next actions will make sense for you: Calls At Computer Errands At Office (miscellaneous) At Home Anywhere Agendas (for people and meetings) Read/Review

Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its shortness. —Jean de La Bruyère

Core of the Weekly Review As I have indicated in other places, the Weekly Review is the critical success factor for marrying your larger commitments to your day-to-day activities. And a complete Projects list remains the linchpin for that orientation. Ensuring weekly that you’re OK about what you’re doing (or not doing) with a dog for your kids, along with what you’re doing (or not doing) about next year’s conference, is an essential practice. But that Projects list must already be there, in at least a somewhat recent form, before you have the capability to think about things from that perspective.

There are three primary areas in which you are likely to have “hidden” projects: Current activities Higher-horizon interests and commitments Current problems, issues, and opportunities

Current Problems, Issues, and Opportunities A very rich place from which to gather items for your inventory is the broad area of often-amorphous things that can disturb your focus if not recognized and dealt with by shaping them into real projects with action steps. These fall into three categories: Problems Process improvements Creative and capacity-building opportunities

The real trick to ensuring the trustworthiness of the whole organization system lies in regularly refreshing your thinking and your system from a more elevated perspective. That’s impossible to do, however, if your lists fall too far behind your reality. You won’t be able to fool yourself about this: if your system is out of date, your brain will be forced to fully engage again at the lower level of remembering.

Every now and then go away and have a little relaxation. To remain constantly at work will diminish your judgment. Go some distance away, because work will be in perspective and a lack of harmony is more readily seen. —Leonardo da Vinci

Trying to create goals before you have confidence that you can keep your everyday world under control will often undermine your motivation and energy rather than enhance them.

The world itself is never overwhelmed or confused—only we are, due to how we are engaged with it.

I have found three priority frameworks to be enormously helpful in the context of deciding actions: The four-criteria model for choosing actions in the moment The threefold model for evaluating daily work The six-level model for reviewing your own work

Remember that you make your action choices based on the following four criteria, in order: Context Time available Energy available Priority

It is often easier to get wrapped up in the urgent demands of the moment than to deal with your in-tray, e-mail, and the rest of your open loops.

To ignore the unexpected (even if it were possible) would be to live without opportunity, spontaneity, and the rich moments of which “life” is made. —Stephen Covey

The Six-Level Model for Reviewing Your Own Work The six levels of work as we saw in chapter 2 (pages 54–56) may be thought of in terms of altitude, as in the floors of a building: Horizon 5: Life Horizon 4: Long-term visions Horizon 3: One-to two-year goals Horizon 2: Areas of focus and accountability Horizon 1: Current projects Ground: Current actions

Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it. —Buddha

If you’re not totally sure what your job is, it will always feel overwhelming.

When you’re not sure where you’re going or what’s really important to you, you’ll never know when enough is enough.

Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win. —Jonathan Kozol

The middle of every successful project looks like a disaster. —Rosabeth Moss Kanter

You need to set up systems and tricks that get you to think about your projects and situations more frequently, more easily, and more in depth.

There are two types of projects, however, that deserve at least some sort of planning activity: (1) those that still have your attention even after you’ve determined their next actions, and (2) those about which potentially useful ideas and supportive detail just show up ad hoc.

One of the greatest blocks to organizational (and family) productivity is the lack of decision by someone about the need for a meeting, and with whom, to move something forward.

The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small, manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one. —Mark Twain

Start by doing what’s necessary, then what’s possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible. —Saint Francis of Assisi

The challenge is to marry high-level idealistic focus to the mundane activity of life. In the end they require the same thinking.

The Three Tiers of Mastery Over the many years of engaging with people who have adopted the GTD methodology, I have noticed generally three stages of maturity they have demonstrated in using the model: 1 | Employing the fundamentals of managing workflow; 2 | Implementing a more elevated and integrated total life management system; and 3 | Leveraging skills to create clear space and get things done for an ever-expansive expression and manifestation.