Category: “Getting Things Done - GTD”

Updated and expanded in May 2024.

Processing is the stage of the GTD workflow in which you make decisions. You get all the stuff you have collected and, one by one, decide what are you going to do with them.

Have you ever felt really overwhelmed by your work? I mean those situations where you feel you have no time to do anything and just try to deal with one fire after another. If you are reading this blog, it is more than likely you have been there a few times.

From time to time I find in my lists some tasks that are difficult to manage, at least for me. They usually have these features:

Perfection can kill your intention to implement changes and make things that lead you to a better situation. Many of my blog readers tell me how hard it is to apply GTD for them. They become desperate for not reaching the levels David Allen describe in his book. My answer is always the same: just start to implement it, then refine the details slowly but steadily. Find something you can improve in each stage of the process, small changes that do not involve too much difficulty. If you are able to chain these little improvements, the return obtained will be spectacular. Here are some suggestions to get you started: