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DECODING TASK MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
A No-Nonsense Guide to the ‘Getting Things Done’ Method
Your guide to understanding what is the GTD Method by David Allen
A little personal history with GTD
When I fully completed my PKM back in July 2021, I used Notion’s databases to create an inferred version of GTD for tracking and prioritising my tasks. However, I was violating a lot of common principles laid out in “Getting Things Done” by David Allen because I didn’t read his book until recently, only inferring what I should be doing from tertiary information.
It was during the switch from Notion to Obsidian in October 2023, that I stopped using my inferred version of GTD and started researching the GTD Method in February 2024. The impact of this research profoundly changed my approach to time management.
I believe that the reason that “Getting Things Done” is a book that people own, but never read, is not due to a lack of quality in the idea but a lack of quality in the writing. For this reason, I am sharing my consolidated understanding of GTD, after studying this book back-to-front and what I have discovered from inferring GTD’s core message.