Hi friends, welcome back to my channel. This video is all about the basics of the Getting Things Done method, a planning methodology
created by David Allen. And as you can see on
the front of his book, it is all about the art of
stress-free productivity. This video is intended
to be for beginners, to provide a very simple
overview to help you get started. So I'd like to emphasize
that I'll only be sharing the basics, based on my
own experience and system, what worked for me in the past year, and I'll also be sharing
tips along the way. According to the Getting
Things Done website, GTD, as it's abbreviated, is a
personal productivity methodology that redefines how you
approach your life and work. Now, the core of GTD
comes in five steps. First, you capture, you clarify,
you organize, you reflect, and then you engage. And these five simple steps
manifest into the method in the form of your
inbox, your weekly review, your planning system, and
then the follow through. And I will be going through
each step and explaining to you what they mean, how they work, and how you can implement them
into your planning system. The first step of getting
things done is to capture everything that you need to handle. Every idea that you have, everything that you want to accomplish, whether it's in the near future or in the very distant future. And for that, you have your
inbox, also called the "in" system in the book. Your inbox is the place where
you put in all the things that you need to go through throughout the week. That can be mail, letters,
forms, any sort of paperwork, but it can also include
ideas, dreams, goals. And my tip for you here is
to don't overthink this step. This step is designed
to capture everything that's in your brain. Everything that needs to get done, it's a judgment-free zone. If you're trying to brainstorm, write down anything that
comes to mind bigger, small, even if it sounds silly. If you want to climb Mount
Everest someday, cool. Write it down. If you thought of a really silly joke that you want to tell your
friend the next time you speak to them, great. Write that
down so you don't forget. If you have pieces of mail
that you'd like to reply to, but they're not immediately urgent, just place them in your inbox
and you can go through them on your weekly review, which
we will be discussing later. Now in the book, David Allen
has a very specific in-system that requires a filing
cabinet, 43 folders, stacks of legal sized paper... It's a very involved
process, but in my opinion if you're just starting out with GTD, I suggest that you start small. As an example, here is my inbox system. It's very simple. I have this tray that holds
all of the physical items that I need to process
on my next weekly review. And I also have the Google
Keep app on my phone which I'm using my phone to
film, but I have my old one here to demonstrate. And here is where I store my
ideas, brainstorm any projects, if I need to remember to buy something, I write it down here.
Like here on my inbox, it says butter knife, so I don't forget to pick
up some butter knives the next time I'm out. I have a section for meal
planning, a projects list, and I will go into greater
detail on these later on in the video. But Google Keep is basically
a sticky notes-style app where you just write down
notes, and you can pin them on the top, so you don't lose them. You can assign colors to them. I really like Google Keep
because it's on my phone, and I always have my phone on me. And if I don't have it,
I'm always looking for it. So I feel that my phone is
the best place for my inbox, because if I think of
something that I want to handle in the future, I don't have
to go looking for my notebook and then by the time I find my
notebook, I forget the idea. I can just go straight on my phone. And I like Google Keep because
it's simple, it's free, and it's effective for me. Now, my physical tray again
is for physical items, and I do have a couple
of things here already. So things like letters,
forms that don't need to be dealt with straight away, and then this wallet. I'm
trying to process a return on this wallet, so I do
have to follow up on that on my next weekly review. And this wallet is an example of something that might not seem like
a thing that you wanna put in your inbox to process,
but this is something that you need to deal with. And I don't wanna forget about this. So it goes in my inbox and by the time I do my weekly
review, it's right there. And I'll remember that, oh
yeah, I have to follow up on this return. So don't feel like something
needs to feel important, or corporate, or whatever
else for it to deserve a place in your inbox. Literally dump everything into your tray and into your brain dump
section, whatever that might be. And I like this inbox system for me because it's very simple,
I only have two things. And that's another tip that I have for you when you are setting up your GTD system is to keep your inboxes as few as possible. Because the fewer inboxes
that you have to check, the more effective you will be. If you have, say, an inbox for every room, that might seem like a
good idea, but trust me, you're going to forget
to look at one of them, and then something might
fall through the cracks. And we are trying to prevent
that with the system. So I like mine because I only
have the one physical inbox and then the one digital
inbox for my ideas. And also my email, I guess.
That's also another inbox to look at. But for the most part
it's these two for me. It's fairly simple. It's nowhere near David Allen's
suggestions, but I like it. So now that you've set up a
system for capturing everything that you need to do, what's next? You clarify. And I do have a flow chart here that we can look at step by step. So at the top you have the stuff and these would be the
things that would be on your paper tray, for example, and then on your brainstorming tools. So just for this video, we'll
say we're using Google Keep. So, stuff on your tray
and your Google Keep. Those two would be your inbox. The next step is to clarify
everything in your inbox. Let's just use this wallet as an example. The first thing you want to ask yourself when you're looking at an
item is, is it actionable? In other words, can you
do something about this? So in my case, yes, I can do
something about this wallet. I am trying to return it to the seller which is a whole thing, but nonetheless that's what I'm trying to do. I want to return this wallet. So, yes, it is actionable. Once you've decided that
your item is actionable, you want to ask yourself,
what's the next action? And here you'll see that
you have three options. If the next action is less
than two minutes long, just do it. So as a separate example,
let's say that you have a text from your friend that
you wanna get back to and you only need to send
them a simple "yes" or "no." That takes less than two minutes. So just go ahead and do
it right then in there. You can also delegate an action,
so another separate example... let's say that there's
something wrong with the house that needs fixing, and I'm not
comfortable doing it myself., so I want my husband to do it. So I would go to him and say, "Hey, can you please fix this?" So I delegated that action to my husband, and this is something
that is very important. Don't be afraid to ask
other people for help. Don't be afraid to delegate tasks, because you want to increase
your own productivity. And that means offloading
certain things that you know can be done better by other people, so that you don't get bogged down by them. And you'll be able to
address the other things on your task list. And then once you've delegated
an action to someone else you put that on your "Waiting On" list, which again we will get to later. And then the third option
you have is to defer the next action. And this is where your calendar
and your next actions list come in. You have the calendar, which our planners typically have a way for
us to put down things in a dated format. And then you have the next action list which you can just write
down as a to-do list on your planner. Now, let's get back to the wallet example. When you're thinking of
what the next action is or something that you're processing, you want to think of the
next physical action. Now, I know that I want
to return this wallet but what do I need to physically
do to make that happen? Well, I have to contact
the seller first, right? So that will be my next action. I contacted the seller. Have I returned the wallet? Well, no, not yet. I've only just spoken to the seller. That means I need to do
at least one more action to return this wallet. Now, if an item requires two
or more actions to complete then according to David
Allen, that becomes a project. And when you have a project you want a way to plan that project. And again, this is where
your planner comes in. If you use the bullet journal
method, you can go ahead and make a collections page
on your bullet journal, or if you have a project planning section on your rings planner, you can
write down all of the steps you need to complete your project. If I were to make a project
to return this wallet, my first action is to contact the seller. And then let's say they get
back to me and they say, "Okay, sure, we will
give you a shipping label just to print it out
and mail it back to us." The next action after that for me is to print the shipping label and then I need to pack the wallet and then I need to mail it out. And then I have returned the wallet, and I have considered
this project completed. And again, don't think of the word project as something that needs
to be this huge thing or it has to be this
really important thing that has to do with work, and it has to be professional. All a project means in GTD
is a task that involves multiple steps to do. So feel free to plan as
many projects as you want, and don't forget to keep track of them in your weekly review. As an example, I have a
section here on Google Keep for just my projects. So these are all of the projects that I'm actively working on. I do take a look at them every
week and just make sure that I am either working on them,
or if I am deferring them, I make sure that I am at least
aware of their existence. If you are a paper planner,
feel free to write them down on your planner as well. All right, so let's go back
to the question up here. When you are processing
an item in your inbox, is it actionable? Now, I have a piece of paper here that is just a medical record. Do I have to do something
about this piece of paper? Like, do I have to call somebody
or set up an appointment or anything like that? No, I don't. So if you have an item
that is not actionable, that means that you personally
don't have to do anything about it, you also have three options. First, you can just trash it if the task is considered completed and you don't need to hold
on to this paper any longer, then don't be afraid to
just remove it completely from your life. Of course, by trash, I do mean recycle, but the whole point of this
option is, don't hold onto things that you no longer need,
because it's just going to add clutter to your life. Now, if you do want to keep this, you have these two remaining options. You can put it on your someday/maybe list, if you can't get to it straight
away, but you would like to one of these days, or you can
add it into your reference so that you can pull it
up whenever you need. And those are the six steps
that you need to think about whenever you're processing your inbox. I don't suggest deviating
from these six options too much. These are really all you need
to process your inbox properly and to help you get things done,
help you be more productive and help you realize your
goals and dreams in the future. All right, great. You've learned how to clarify our inbox. What do we do next? Now, we organize all of these
things that we need to handle. And again, that is where your
planning system comes in. And this is arguably the fun
part of Getting Things Done because this is where you get
to play with your planners. Now, David Allen doesn't
specify what planner you should be using. He never says that you need to
use rings or a bound planner or discbound, nothing
about weeklies, dailies. It really doesn't matter. So just go with what you like
and what's working for you, but you do need at least
the following sections on your planning system to make the Getting Things Done system work. So, number one, you have
your Waiting On list. Remember when I said earlier
that you shouldn't be afraid to delegate tasks to other
people that can do them better? Well, how do you keep track of all of that? Because I'm sure there have
been times where you've spoken to somebody, let's say your
partner, and you've told them, have you done this? And they're like, I thought
you were going to do that. And you were like, no, you
were supposed to do that. And it becomes this whole thing. This is where you're
Waiting On list comes in. This is where you keep
track of all the things that you've delegated to other people. If you are waiting on an
email reply from someone, for example, the seller
that sold me this wallet, it goes right into your Waiting On list. So again, I keep mine on my phone. Here is my Waiting On list. So I do have three items in here, and once I get back from somebody or once a task has been
completed by somebody else, I simply check these off. Again, feel free to make
your own waiting on section in your planner. I just prefer digital but
you can easily transfer the Waiting On list into a planner. So those are for the actions
that you have delegated. For the actions that you
deferred for yourself, you have the Calendar and
the Next Actions list. So here's a page from my planner. I have the left side of my
weekly spread for the dates, and then the right side
is typically blank. So this side of the planner
would be the calendar for me, and then this side would
be the Next Actions list. The calendar is designed for
actions that have a due date tied to it. Things like appointments
that you can't miss, if you have a work project
that needs to done by this date, you wanna put them on your calendar. If you have a friend whose
birthday is coming up and you need to get a gift,
that goes into your calendar. Any action that has a
deadline on it should ideally go into your calendar. And then the Next Actions
list is the list of tasks that must be done, but doesn't
necessarily have a due date. Things like the next
action of your project, maybe email replies that
aren't immediately urgent, if you're trying to declutter your home, that's a very big project
that you want to do in small increments, lest
you overwhelm yourself, those things you want to put
on your next actions list. Now for me the calendar
and the Next Actions list, do get a little murky because
just the way my brain works. I like to have a date tied
to a task because in my mind, if it's not assigned to a date, then it just doesn't exist in my head. I am trying to be better about it lately and trying to properly practice
GTD by placing more things on the Next Actions list. But that is the general idea
of how you use the Calendar versus the Next Action section. And a tip for you is, try
to keep your Next Actions list short as you go week
by week, or day to day if you're using a daily
planner, just to avoid overwhelm. I know I tend to get really
ambitious about my tasks and get overwhelmed, and
I don't have enough time for everything and things get forwarded, and that can all be avoided
if I were just more realistic and I kept my list short. And I just like to add that
I also do the bullet journal method in my planner. So here I have my key, and I find that the bullet journal method
blends in really well with the Getting Things Done method. And I'm happy to make a follow-up video about that if anybody's interested. All right, so we've discussed
the waiting on list, the calendar, the next actions list. And now we're gonna move
on to the project planner. Here is an example of
what a project planner looks like for me. It's
simply a collections page on my planner, and here's
one of the projects that I'm currently working on. I am restoring a vintage
Coach folio which is taking longer than I'd like, but the great thing about writing it down in its own project page
on my planner is that I know exactly which step I need to do. I know exactly where I left off. I know what to do next, and I
don't need to mentally remember where I'm at because it's all in here. I will say that if you're
the type who likes to use multiple planners, or
you just need an excuse to use another one, the
project planning part of GTD is a great excuse to set up a new planner. That's just me, that's just my advice if you like to keep multiple planners. All right, so we've covered
the actionable section of our planning system. And now we're going to move
on to the non-actionable items which is right here. So your trash is pretty self-explanatory. If you have any recyclables
go ahead and toss those, in recycling. If it's something like a piece
of plastic, I would suggest finding an alternate way to use it just to reduce the waste
output in your home. And then we move on to
the someday/maybe list, and this is your "tickler"
file, as David Allen likes to call it. This can range from
anything to wanting to learn a new instrument, or something
big like go on a sabbatical and travel the world. And those might seem like huge lofty goals that seem impossible right
now, but maybe in the future, you can get to them, who
knows? The whole point of the someday/maybe list is
it holds all of these things that you can't get to now, but they are still very much
present in your planning system and very much present in your life. So, again, I like to keep
mine in my Google Keep. I have a someday/maybe list right here. Lastly, you have your reference, which is basically the filing system for important documents. I like to keep mine in this letter-size discbound notebook. Here is where I keep health records, family information, things that I know will be
important to have in the future but for now, I'm just
keeping them close by. And a tip I have for you for this is make sure it's easy to access, it's within arm's length when you're doing your weekly review every week., so that it's easy for you
to file your references and you don't lose them. So keep your reference easy
to use and easy to get to. Okay, so, we know how
to clarify our inbox. We've set up our planning
system according to GTD. What's next? Step four is to reflect,
and this comes in the form of your weekly review. An important tenant of GTD
is regular, consistent review of your inbox and your planning system. That includes your someday/maybe
list, your projects, your Waiting On list... All of this needs to be
looked at on a regular basis. For most people, a weekly
review would suffice. If you are a very busy
person, maybe you wanna do it twice a week. Do what works for you, but
you definitely want to choose a specific day every week to sit down and go through inbox
and your planning system, and make sure that you're
not missing something. For me, I like to do it every Sunday, just because that's the
end of the week for me. In my mind, every week starts on a Monday. So I process things on Sunday,
plan out the incoming week, and then I don't have to worry about, "Oh, what should I do this week?" It's all planned out for me. Again, choose a day
that works best for you. If you have an
unconventional work schedule, you definitely want to plan
your weekly review around that. The whole point is it needs to be regular, which means the same day
and same time every week, and it needs to be consistent, so you don't want to
miss your weekly review. And a tip I have for you
for the weekly review, and this is in the book as
well, is that you want to set up a planning space with
easy access to your inbox, your reference, and your planner. Don't just try to do it
anywhere in the house. Make it a specific, intentional goal for you to have a dedicated planning space, so that you can get into
the right head space when you're doing your weekly review. So for me, I have this little desk here next to my computer desk, and
it's not the prettiest thing but it's clear of distraction, and it really does help me
focus on the weekly review every week. And the weekly review is where
you want to really sit down and clarify and organize
all of your things. On your non-weekly review days, you should be gathering
things for your inbox and executing all the next
actions that you've set for yourself. And then the weekly review
is where you want to go through this part of the
flow chart over here. So do not miss your weekly review. Make sure you do them every
week at the very least. That is my recommendation: once a week. So we have our inbox, we
have our planning system that helps us clarify
and organize our things, and we have a regular weekly review. What's next? Step five is to engage, which
simply means, do the thing. Follow through on your calendar
and your next actions list and get those things done. This system will mean nothing
without the follow-through, and that's true for any
sort of planning system. All these steps and these inboxes and these planners and references, they're not gonna do anything for you unless you follow through with your plans. But if done right, the
GTD method will help you get things done, manage your
tasks, and realize your goals and dreams and the future. This is just a basic
overview of the method. I highly recommend the book,
which I will link down below, because it has so many more
tips that I didn't share here on this video, and it will also help
you understand the system on a deeper level. You'll be able to know more
about David Allen's philosophies and what his intentions
are for you in setting up the GTD method. If you have any questions,
please do let me know. I'd love to make more
GTD videos in the future, going in-depth on things
that I either missed or glossed over. So, please, don't be afraid
to share your suggestions down below. Thank you so much for watching this video. If you enjoyed it, please
do consider subscribing. This is spellbound notes
and I'll see you next time. Bye! (smooth music)
