Getting Things Done is an important part of my life. I’ve been using it for almost ten years now! It helps to organize my projects and boost my productivity. Let me share my thoughts about the pros and cons of this method. Enjoy reading!

Awesome things

There is a bunch of things that make the Getting Things Done method unique. Even if you don’t want to use GTD with all its habits, you can apply small parts of it to see an immediate improvement in your productivity.

Habit of defining the next action

The crucial part of GTD is keeping to-do items in the right shape. Whenever something new comes to the system, it’s stored in the ‘Incoming’ section. But then it should be handled correctly: discarded, delegated, converted to a calendar event, or transformed into a to-do item. An accurate to-do item. Perfect to-do action needs to be well-defined, clear, and possible to execute at any moment. I like the idea (don’t remember if it’s in the book tbh) that a precise to-do item should spark joy. When looking at it, you should simply think: “I can do that!”. If not - it means it’s too blurry, too big or it’s not the next action.

When you practice creating well-defined, doable actions, you start to think differently. Doesn’t matter if it’s a planning meeting at work or a discussion about house renovation - the question “what should be the next action” comes naturally.

Reliability of the system in hard times

Using well build and adjusted GTD system on daily basis is helpful. It makes dealing with complex projects far easier. But a good GTD system shines in the hard times. When there is a significant amount of work; something unexpected happened, or a big project is being executed. In such moments it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and lost. But all you need to do is to stick to GTD habits even more. Have all projects in one place, define relevant next actions, and choose the right items to execute first. Doing weekly reviews is essential here. It helps in being up-to-date even in the biggest chaos. Putting all needed actions into the OneNote notebook releases mental space for dealing with the hardest tasks.

Checklists

A very small aspect, yet the thing I love. In my “Notes” section I have a page with checklists. Whenever I see something that is repeatable in my life and requires more than a few steps, I create a checklist for it. So I have a variety of checklists:

• what to pack on 2-week vacations
• how to prepare for a mountains hike trip
• what software to install on a fresh Windows desktop
• what to check during the weekly review
• how to prepare my house for the winter season etc.

The beauty of GTD is that I still use lists created many years ago - it’s easily accessible at any moment and saves me a lot of time.

Hard things

Of course, everything comes at a price, so there are also a few challenging aspects of Getting Things Done. Specifically:

Weekly reviews

The most difficult part for me. In theory, one should make a weekly or bi-weekly review of the GTD system to keep it up-to-date. It’s essential. Having an outdated project list not only slows down the progress in them but decreases the reliability of the system. And if the system is not reliable why would you want to use it? So you need to find two or three hours each week for system review. It’s not easy. And the task is a little boring. But after each review, especially after a long pause, I have a feeling of gaining full control of my life again. I know what to do and I’m motivated because I know where to start.

Tools

I use OneNote for keeping all my stuff, but it’s not perfect. Sometimes sync between devices takes too long or causes weird issues. Also, OneNote for OSX is not as feature-rich as the version on Windows. And there is a weird capacity bug - when you have lots of notes, simple text copy-paste takes some time! Unfortunately, all alternatives I tried didn’t convince me. Evernote, Notion, and Obsidian - all are great, but not game-changers. And I can’t imagine migrating my huge notebook to another tool right now.

Planning software

As a software developer, I want to keep track of progress in my pet projects. And I find GTD to completely fail in this matter. I see that method is not designed for such a use case. Building backlog and keeping track of in-progress items don’t work for me. So for planning software-related projects, I use Trello (or Jira at work). I store only basic information in my GTD notebook, so managing those projects is not incorporated into GTD.

Things out of the scope of GTD

To me, GTD is a great method for managing current tasks and priorities. For storing knowledge and keeping all information that might be useful at some point. But I realized that there are extra steps needed to improve my productivity. Namely:

• planning long-term goals. GTD method tells that from time to time one should look at their priorities from a higher perspective: one year, five, or ten years. But how to do it in practice? And how to convert long-term goals into the right day-to-day actions? OKRs is an answer, so I merged it into my GTD system (I have one more project: OKRs for the current quarter)
• work-life balance. Having a separate notebook for work and personal life is a must-have. But when you work at home, the problem becomes harder. I solved it in the easiest possible way - no work notifications after a certain hour and turning off the computer.
• digital disturbances. Tons of notifications, newsletters, messages on slack, etc. worsen my productivity every day. The digital world is taking over my attention at every possible moment. GTD can help in filtering important stuff that comes to the system, but it’s not enough. So, I’m using digital detox ideas.

Summary

I used GTD in very different circumstances, at different stages of my life. It helped me in managing many complex projects: my wedding, house renovation, and bachelor’s degree paper. And I use it on daily basis to handle my daily tasks. The method has many great features, but also challenges; it doesn’t solve all the problems your productivity might struggle with. If you are wondering if GTD is for you - I recommend giving it a try!

P. S. There will be more blog posts about GTD, and instructions on how to start using GTD are coming soon :)