Determine whether the tasks on your list are actionable – check out this article for more on converting to-dos to action items. You may find that some items in your list may require multiple steps to finish. In this case, you can create a separate project, and break that project down into actionable steps. Instead, you need to frequently review your tasks and reprioritize if necessary. That’s why it’s critical to understand the priority of each task. If new tasks are higher priority than older work, understanding each task’s relative priority helps you reschedule your work and easily juggle shifting priorities.
You then need to ask yourself what the next action for this item or project is. This is the next physical, visible thing you can do to further the project. So, for example, “set a budget for a bathroom renovation” is a concrete next action. The idea is not to think about what you will do with these ideas in the future. Instead, you just jot them down without thinking about them. 5) Next Actions – This is the list of actions which you need to be able to complete in order to move ahead and hit that final goal.
Reference materials
If the answer is “yes”, then you can proceed to the “Process it” step. The first step to GTD is collecting all of the information that is bouncing around in your head by getting it out of your mind. Without a system for recording ideas, your mind gtd system wastes a lot of energy by neurotically keeping those ideas fresh in your memory – you just can’t stop thinking about them. Your thinking process will tend to go in circles, constantly thinking and worrying about the tasks that you must not forget.
These areas are a tool to draw attention to your broader life goals while deciding what to work on next. If a task does not fit within the scope of any of your areas of focus, it may be time to reassess if it’s something you want to spend your time on. Or you may just want to separate your projects between “Work” and “Personal”.
Break big goals into small parts
There is no value to keeping information that is useless. Throw away anything that is not actionable or has no reference value. Once all of your tasks are recorded in a trustworthy system that you can review whenever you want, you will no longer have to worry about forgetting to do anything. To break it down in simple terms, GTD is something you do alone; Waterfall is something you do with other people. The faster you understand that GTD is for you and that Waterfall is for your project, the faster you’ll see how perfectly they fit together.
- These goals influence your areas of focus and accountabilities.
- Common GTD templates include next action to-do lists, project lists and planners, and weekly review checklists.
- Though the basis of GTD are these five simple steps, they’re not always easy to execute.
- After brainstorming, organize those ideas into tasks, gather all the information you need, and set priorities and sequences while making sure to factor in task dependencies.
- Where people get stymied is when they have to apply the same process to a much bigger project.
When this task is complete, mark it with O and add the next action. When you have an item that needs to be broken down into its constituent actionable steps, you are in the “Project Planning” stage. In Toodledo, you can create a folder for this project and start brainstorming a list of the steps that must be taken to complete the project.