Category: “Getting Things Done - GTD”

The last stage of the GTD workflow is probably the most misunderstood, perhaps because of its name. In the current version of the Getting Things Done book in English it is called “engage”, although at the beginning it was simply called “do”.

Decision making has a direct impact on your effectiveness. From the simplest to the most far-reaching decisions, every choice you make influences the direction your life takes. Effective decision making requires careful evaluation of options, consideration of short- and long-term consequences, and a willingness to take responsibility for our choices. This process requires significant mental effort, which in turn consumes much of our willpower.

In his book Making it all work, David Allen, creator of GTD (Getting Things Done), claims that there are two key elements in personal management: control and perspective. Or, as he called them in his first book, horizontal control and vertical control.

The main function of a to-do list is to organize and prioritize the tasks you have to do. Besides, they allow you to gain a certain sense of control and peace of mind, since you know you don’t need to remember what’s on it.

You are working on an activity that you are stuck on, or that you don’t feel like continuing to work on because you don’t have the right mindset at the moment, or you simply don’t have the energy to continue working on it. There are two things you can do: rest or switch tasks.