This section lets you track how well you’re achieving your goals and how proficient you’re becoming with the GTD methodology.

The information is grouped into four areas so you can examine different facets of your personal productivity.

Overview Section

This section gives you an overview of your activity over the past week.

The header displays the number of active projects and actions the number of actions set to trigger in the next seven days:

• Active actions are those in your Next Actions, Calendar, or Waiting For lists.
• Actions scheduled to activate in the next seven days are those in the Tickler File with activation dates within that time frame.
• Active projects are those on your Projects in Progress List.

The graphs below allow you to see different breakdowns of your active actions:

• How many are aligned with higher Areas of Focus or Goals, and therefore focused on accomplishing important things.
• How many of your actions are individual, belong to a project or belong to a routine that is repeated over time.
• How many of your actions have been delegated, and how many have to be done by you.

The data rows indicate how many items you’ve captured, the percentage you clarified, and how many actions you completed in the past week. In each case the chart shows: how your numbers compare with last week, and how often on average you perform the stages (Capture, Clarify, and Engage).

In the Clarify section it doesn’t show how many sessions you had; instead it shows the percentage of items you clarified each time you ran the process. The key here: you should empty your Inbox completely (100%) every time you clarify.

Tracking GTD Stages

The next sections let you review how you’ve been implementing the GTD workflow over the past week, month and year.

Each section follows the same format: the header shows raw data for the last seven days, month or year, and you’ll also see how that compares to the previous period.

Note: you’re seeing results for the last full week, month or year—not the current one. For instance, assuming a date of April 12 2022, the weekly data covers from Wednesday of the previous week through today, the monthly from March 13 to today, and the yearly from May 2021 to today.

Each graph also includes a line for the running average—so you can easily see whether the trend is going up, down or flat.

The Clarify section doesn’t show how many times you have clarified, but rather the percentage of stuff clarified each time you have performed the process.

The Engage section you can filter the actions by Area of Focus or Goal if you want to monitor those specifically.

Tracking “Perspective”

In the Perspective section you’ll see how many actions you completed last year that relate to your defined levels of perspective: Visions, Goals and Areas of Focus. This helps you spot areas you’re over-focusing on—and those you’re neglecting.

The Projects and Goals sections follow the same layout. They let you track how many projects and goals you’ve completed in the past year. This is an image of the Projects section:

Under the histogram you’ll find your average project-completion time for the past year and past month, plus how it compares with the previous period.

You’ll also find a month-by-month listing of completed projects on the right.

In the Projects section you can likewise filter by Area of Focus and/or Goal.

Self-Assessment

This option allows you to gather qualitative feedback on how you’re applying GTD®. It’s far more important to do the right things than to do lots of things.

How can the system tell whether you’re doing the right things? It can’t—it’s impossible. You are the only person who at any moment can determine what’s most appropriate—once your system is running and you’re reflecting regularly on your responsibilities and goals.

To enable this tool, simply select the days of the week on which you’ll assess how your day went (we recommend starting with every day).

If today is one of your selected review-days, a button will appear in the Engage section (on the Calendar view) to evaluate the day.

Ideally, you answer the question at the end of the day when your work is complete. This is the simple question you’ll reflect on:

> “Did you have the sense that you did the right things today?”

It comes down to assessing whether you spent your time on the right things—i.e., those that made the most sense given how your day unfolded: your context, environment, people, commitments, and so on.

Remember: you’re making a qualitative assessment, not measuring quantities. If you spent a working day racing to finish a project whose deadline was near, and you ended up reacting to whatever came up rather than driving your work, your assessment should be low—even if you accomplished a lot. By contrast: suppose on a Saturday you decide to rest and enjoy leisure time; if you spend half the day relaxing and the other half with friends, you’ll likely feel you made good use of your time—so your assessment should be high.

You already have the information to decide what’s appropriate at any given moment—and as you become more fluent in the methodology, your intuition will naturally improve. We recommend using this tool regularly. It will help you build awareness and boost your effectiveness.