How I GTD

I’m a pretty productive guy and I’m often asked what I do to get things done. Well, I thought it’d be cool to talk a bit about how I stay productive as my first blog post of 2008. It’s actually pretty simple, I mean, keeping it simple is kind of key to my whole philosophy. In my opinion, one of the biggest deterrents to getting things done is having a system that has to be managed. If you’re spending more time looking for new ways to help you get things done you’re missing the point. Keep it simple.

I’ve got a few “rules” and methods that I stick to pretty religiously that make up about 90% of what keeps me productive. Want to know what they are? Read on.

Capture everything.

The first rule: capture everything. I hardly ever “try” to remember anything. I simply record anything I need or want to remember. I do this in several ways. I’ve got a few notebooks for brainstorming and recording ideas by hand and when at my computer I jot things down into Scrivener. I tend to take lots and lots of notes and make lots of lists and I really try and get things down as I think of them.

Lately I’ve also been using Sandy, a lightweight and easy to use capture/remind application. They recently added Twitter support which is awesome as I can now direct message Sandy any time I want something remembered. Sandy will record anything and I can even easily set it up so that it’ll SMS me reminders whenever I want. I haven’t been using Sandy long, but I’m really impressed with the ease of use and the fact that it integrates easily into my pre-existing process.

It’s all about getting things out of my head and somewhere I can find them easily when I want to. I can’t tell you how much this helps free my mind up for other things. If there is one thing I took from David Allen’s book it’s the idea of capturing everything as soon as you can.

Do it now!

My second rule has to do with not letting small tasks pile up. I’m really good about dealing with things as they cross my plate and lot letting them linger and pile up. It was a bit tough at first, but now that I’ve been doing it for awhile it’s almost second nature.

What it boils down to is taking the time to immediately deal with anything that’s going to take less than five or so minutes to do. For example, responding to e-mail or checking my mail. I never let this stuff pile up. Some days are harder than others as sometimes small tasks can come at you in large numbers, but even then I’ve found it’s better overall to just deal with them and save the bigger tasks for when you can focus on them and only them. Which brings me to my next rule.

Focus. Don’t multi-task the big stuff.

For “larger” tasks I tend to clear everything away so that I can focus on one thing. For example, as I write this I’ve effectively turned everything else off. I’m ignoring e-mail, IM, the phone, etc. For things I really need to focus on—designing for example—I’ll literally turn off everything that might distract me from the task at hand. I’ll also set aside ample blocks of time to dedicate to getting something done. Usually in 2-4 hour blocks, depending on what I’m doing. This really helps as I can lose myself in the flow of work.

Not only does this make my a bit more productive, I find the quality of my work is greatly increased when I’m able to focus on it.

E-mail and a clean inbox every day.

“Inbox Zero” is all the rage these days, and there are good reasons for that. I’ve actually been striving for an empty inbox at the end of the day for years now and I find it really, really helps me focus. To do that I’ve got a few other, related rules:

• I don’t check my e-mail constantly. I usually let it pile up a bit. But just a little bit. :)


• Respond to anything it takes less than five minutes to respond to as I get it. This is key, I don’t ever wait to respond unless it requires a complicated response or some other action.


• File anything I can’t respond to. I’ve got three places I file things; the first is a massive and really organized archive, the second is a “waiting” folder for things I’m waiting for more info on and the third is a “action” folder for things that I need to attend to later on. I review these folders a few times a week.


• Delete anything I won’t be needing later. I make pretty liberal use of my delete key.

Keep things clutter-free.

This goes for my physical and digital work spaces. Clutter is distracting. I do a really good job of cleaning and organizing my workspaces and this really helps me stay focused when I need to.

The bottom line.

I think GTD is really about finding a system that works for you and sticking with it. All to often I see folks derailed simply by constantly trying to come up with a system that’s bigger and better. GTD doesn’t need to be complicated; for me it’s mostly about eliminating distractions, focusing when appropriate, taking care of the small stuff before it can pile up and capturing everything. It’s not hard to do and doesn’t require any complicated software or systems.

Well, I hope this is helpful for some of you looking to be more productive. Again, if you have a system that works for you, stick with it and if not, well, you might try some of what I do here. Best of luck getting things done in 2008!