Get it done book update#

Therefore, a weekly review is crucial to making the whole GTD system work.Įmpty your collection buckets on Friday afternoon, for example, and then update all your lists. They’re only as good as they’re up to date. These are just two of several lists in the GTD system and the thing with all lists is this: Lesson 3: Do a weekly review of everything, or else! Note: The “next actions” list was a major part of the beautiful productivity system for essentialists I described here. Now, when you’re at the airport and your flight’s been delayed, but there’s no wifi and your phone is dead, you can still pull out your notebook list and do something on paper. You can even have multiple “next actions” lists and sort them by project or location of where you’re able to do the tasks on it.įor example you could make these lists: laptop with wifi, laptop without wifi, phone, notebook. That way you always know what to work on next, when you have the time and energy to work, meaning you just pull out the list, pick a task and go. Sure, you can make a list with 17 items, but none of that accounts for interruptions, crises, delays, other people or, and this too happens, a simple lack of energy where you’re just not able to do as much.ĭavid Allen suggest you do this instead: Create a “next actions” list, where you list out all the specific tasks (= takes less than 30 minutes) of your current projects. Here’s the major problem with to-do lists: They trick you into thinking you can know in advance how much you’ll be able to achieve. Lesson 2: Create a “next actions” list for all your projects to avoid thinking in the moment. Your brain will only get a feeling of relief from putting something in your collection bucket when it knows that whatever lands in there will be taken care of sooner rather than later. Of course this system is only good if you empty your collection bucket or buckets regularly, Allen suggests weekly. This lets you deflect interruptions as they occur and keeps your mind from derailing, while you’re on a productivity roll.

Whatever lands in your brain or lap while you’re busy working ( for example during a Pomodoro time block), goes in there.

It serves as a means to collect all interruptions, whether they come in the form of thoughts in your mind or to-do’s handed over to you by coworkers. Your collection bucket can be a simple piece of paper, a notebook or note inside Evernote, a note on your phone, or even a physical bucket in your office. “Buy milk, buy milk, buy milk, buy milk, buy milk, buy milk, buy milk, …” You can’t seem to un-remember it and it keeps nagging you, while all you’re trying to do is work. You know that horrible feeling you have once you remember you have to buy milk? There’s a reason it made #1 on this list. This one’s been a major game changer for me in 2015.

Get it done book pdf#

If you want to save this summary for later, download the free PDF and read it whenever you want.ĭownload PDF Lesson 1: Use a “collection bucket” to store things outside your mind and stay focused.