I read GTD (Getting Things Done) a few weeks ago and have been applying it since then.

I can say since implementing it: my stress is lower, I feel much more in control & at peace, and I’m happier overall. So I’d say it works — or at least there’s really something to it.

Concretely:

The process of taking a fuzzy/vague/unpleasant idea of a project and progressively making it concrete by 1. Identifying the specific outcome, and 2. The specific next action has been critical for me. I wasn’t aware of this and would often get overwhelmed by these fuzzy ideas and let them linger (which made them worse). I often find that after doing the 2 steps, the idea is much less overwhelming, and often much easier than I thought (or even can be done trivially).

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I was using Omnifocus wrong — I now work out of my Forecast view which I believe is the intended way to use OF and actually works well. OF 4 is great, in particular for how much better the iOS app is (specifically implementing Focus mode).

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I find that I make more forward progress on things in general. Adding an action to a list gives me extra “credit” for having done it, because now I can check it off. But the big thing is I’m now aware of things that I can take action on (and how small and simple they often are). Often I get stuck on actions that involve other people (Ask person X this, post on Slack asking for help with X), and having an action be made concrete and on a list can help me power through it and simply send the text or make the call. I’m more aware that I have no answer to the question “So what’s you’re excuse for not taking the action to move X forward?”, and just do the thing.

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A physical inbox has been useful. I’ve discovered that having my physical environment be clean is very important for me, and a physical inbox facilitates this by creating a designated, controlled place for clutter.

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I’m amazed at how much of GTD and being productive is about writing things down in such a way that will trick your future brain into not being overwhelmed, and actually doing them.

The first part is writing specific, exciting, and inspiring project names (i.e. “Host best friend for a great weekend” instead of “Best friend visit”).

But the second and more important part is realizing how not to name actions. For example, I’ve learned that I shouldn’t write tasks like “Decide A”, or “Problem solve B situation”. My brain will immediately get overwhelmed and resist the urge to even consider this. Breaking those down into even smaller steps is a must. Like “List pros/cons of A decision” (Not too hard – just listing bullets, not “making a decision”), or “Brain dump B situation on whiteboard”).

There’s an art to writing the next action.

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Even with GTD it’s still possible to overload yourself and put more into your system than you have capacity for. I’m still struggling with how to manage when I have tasks I constantly postpone week after week.

This is a mindset I use to help with procrastination. It first came to me in my senior year on university when I needed to do lab reports. At that point, I had been doing lab reports for 8 years — ever since the start of high school. And throughout that whole time, they were always excruciating.

But I realized that they were excruciating partly because I always waited until the days before the deadline to do them, which was about a week after the actual lab. By that point, the details of the lab were much fuzzier, making the lab report way harder.

It occurred to me that even though all I wanted to do after the lab is forget everything about it and push it off to the side, that exact moment — right after the lab — would be the easiest moment to ever do the report. As more time passes, it will strictly get harder as I begin to lose the context of the lab.

So I sucked it up and started to immediately go to the library right after the lab and simply do the report right then. It worked very well and I only wished I had started the habit years earlier.

I try to remember this lesson and apply it to my life now. If there are situations where I need to do something, and no additional information will arrive that will influence how the job gets done, I try to do it as quickly as possible to take advantage of the context fresh in my brain.