GTD stands for Getting Things Done, a book written by David Allen. It really is the productivity book when it comes to task management and doing exactly what it says. I started reading it over a year ago and began implementing it soon thereafter.

Immediately I found value in the 2 minute rule and Weekly Review. However, the whole contexts concept has been a difficult transition. The idea is that instead of primarily grouping your tasks by day, that you would group them by your context.
I have continued to struggle with making a daily list, then not getting everything done and having to move things to the next day. The last few weeks, however, I made a change in my system. Here’s what I did.

1. I decided I am not going to use a @MustDoToday tag.
2. During my Weekly Review, instead of putting my tasks for the week into all of my contexts, I put them in a This Week notebook (btw, I use Evernote for task management).
3. Then each day I review my This Week list and put tasks for the next day into the contexts that I will be in. I only put tasks in there if I will be in those contexts that day.
4. Then I work my list based on where I am during the day. It is much easier thank having a really long list to have to look through throughout the day.

All this to say, Mr. Allen, I’m starting to actually get it. My GTD system is starting to hum and it has been worth the hard work to get it here. I have a trusted system that allows me to have a “mind like water” and focus on what I need to focus on.

Have you started doing GTD? What has been difficult for you?