Tag: “Basic GTD”

In GTD, a project is quite a different concept from what we are used to in the business world. Put simply, a project is anything we want to do that requires more than one action step. It’s therefore a mechanism to remember that, when we finish that first action step, there will still be something more to do.

Once you’ve captured everything that haunts you, the second stage of GTD is to clarify or process all that stuff, that is, to define exactly what each thing is and what the next step to achieve the end result is, if any.

If you capture all the stuff that command your attention, clarify what they mean and what to do about them, organize the resulting tasks and reflect on them when appropriate, then your daily actions are found in these three lists:

It is the first stage through which any possible action or task has to pass. First of all you have to catch it. Capturing is to collect everything that might represent something you have to do into a reliable system you will process and review later. So simple: noting down something in your notebook, recording a thought in a voice memo, entering a task in your favorite application…

The Next Actions list may contain a large number of possibilities. These actions must be done as soon as possible, but what criteria should you use to choose the most appropriate action to do at all times? These four, in this order: