These are the five steps of workflow management according to Getting Things Done by David Allen. First we capture the incompletes that have our attention. Then we clarify those incompletes, the results of which we organize into discrete collections. We then review those collections to keep them useful so we…

Many people say they “work better under pressure.” As David Allen explains, this is often a sign of poor workflow management. People come “under pressure” when crisis strikes. And crisis often strikes as a result of things we’ve procrastinated on coming to a head. In such situations, our brains kick…

David Allen wrote, “There is no reason ever to have the same thought twice, unless you like having that thought.” This is good news, because having your thoughts on repeat is unpleasant. If you have the same thought a second time, that means you didn’t engage with it appropriately the…

Keeping reminders of all of your projects on a list is key to keeping them out of your head, as David Allen explains in Getting Things Done. …

I mostly use the to-do list app Things for my GTD system. I have it on my Mac, iPhone, and iPad. I get the sense that the developers designed it with Getting Things Done in mind, thus the app’s name. Things makes the GTD “Capture” step very easy. It has…

“Flow” is the knowledge worker’s nirvana. Like nirvana, it is hard to achieve. But adopting David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) practice can help by eliminating the distractions that can disrupt flow. One of your greatest sources of distraction is your own mind. If your internal commitments are mismanaged, those…

Many people have dysfunctional relationships with family members and with work colleagues. Many treat that as an unalterable given. And yet it bugs them. Some troubling behavior of the other person keeps flaring up in their thoughts. What if, when that happens to you, you captured it in an inbox…

A project, according to David Allen, is any outcome that, you are committed to achieve, will take less than a year to achieve, and will take more than one action to achieve. A key practice in Allen’s Getting Things Done method is to keep a list of all your projects…

The subtitle to David Allen’s book Getting Things Done is “The Art of Stress-Free Productivity.” And that subtitle is actually just as important as the title. The value of the book is just as much in helping to reduce stress as it is in helping to improve your productivity. …