What is Getting Things Done?
Getting Things Done, or GTD for short, is a method for moving your tasks out of your head and into a system you can trust. David Allen described it in his 2001 book of the same name, and it has five steps: capture, clarify, organise, reflect and engage.
The core idea is simple: your head is a great place for ideas, but a poor place to store them. Whatever you "need to remember" pops up at the wrong moment – the bike inner tube comes to mind in the shower, your taxes at three in the morning. Every open loop costs attention. GTD doesn't close those loops by making you work faster, but by having you think each thing through exactly once and put it somewhere you trust.
Instead of walking through the theory chapter by chapter, we'll take a real pile and run it through all five steps. Our tool is TidyPepple, a free GTD app for the browser and Android. The method works just as well on paper, though – the decisions are the same.
The pile: 15 things buzzing around your head
This is what an ordinary Monday morning looks like if you write it all down honestly. None of it is sorted; some of it is a task, some of it only half a thought:
- Call the insurer back
- Dentist
- Moving in November
- Do my taxes
- Present for Mum
- Painter quote?
- Presentation on Monday
- Bike inner tube
- Service charge bill looks wrong
- Team outing
- Winter tyres
- Learn Italian?
- Holiday photo book
- Sign the nursery form
- Kitchen showroom brochure
This is typical of a full head: entries like "Dentist" or "Do my taxes" aren't tasks, they're headlines. Nobody can simply do "Do my taxes". That is exactly what changes in the next steps.
Step 1: Capture – get everything out of your head
Capturing is only about being complete. You write down everything on your mind and decide nothing yet: not whether it matters, not when you'll do it, not even whether it's a task at all. If you start sorting while you jot things down, you'll stop after five entries.
In TidyPepple you open quick capture with the plus button, or with the c key on a computer. One line, Enter, next line – the field stays open until you're done. Anything you capture without a context or a date lands in the Inbox. That's on purpose: the inbox is your in-tray, where unclarified things wait until you have time to clarify them.
After a few minutes your head feels noticeably lighter. That alone is worth it: you no longer have to remember anything, because it's all in one place.
Step 2: Clarify – what exactly is this?
Now you take each entry in turn, top to bottom, and answer the same questions. No skipping, nothing goes back into the inbox – every item gets a decision now.
- Is it actionable? If not: throw it away, file it as reference or move it to "Someday".
- Does it take less than two minutes? Then do it right away. Filing it would take longer than doing it.
- Am I the right person? If not: hand it over and note it as "Waiting" so you can follow up.
- Does it take more than one step? Then it's a project. Create it and decide on the first concrete step.
- What is the next visible action? Phrase it so you could start without thinking – with a verb.
That last question is the real heart of GTD. "Dentist" becomes "Call the dentist to book a check-up". "Do my taxes" becomes "Sort tax receipts into one folder". It sounds trivial, but the difference is huge: you'll put off the first version for weeks, the second you'll do in passing.
In TidyPepple you tap an entry to open the detail view: title, status, due date, contexts, tags and notes. The key details can also go straight in while capturing with shortcuts: @phone sets a context, +Move adds the task to a project, #taxes adds a tag, !fri makes it due on Friday, >+21 keeps it hidden for three weeks, and !! marks it as important.
Here's how our pile turns out:
| Captured | Decision | Result in TidyPepple |
|---|---|---|
| Call the insurer back | Next action, urgent | "Call the insurer back about the water damage" @phone !today !! |
| Dentist | Next action | "Call the dentist to book a check-up" @phone |
| Moving in November | Project | Project "Move" with four steps, due on moving day |
| Do my taxes | Next action | "Sort tax receipts into one folder" @home !fri #taxes |
| Present for Mum | Next action with a deadline | "Buy a book for Mum's birthday" @errands !sat |
| Painter quote? | Next action | "Review the painter's quote" @office |
| Presentation on Monday | Next action with a deadline | "Prepare slides for the Monday meeting" @computer !mon #work |
| Bike inner tube | Next action | "Buy a 28-inch bike inner tube" @errands |
| Service charge bill looks wrong | 2 minutes, then wait | Emailed the landlord on the spot, then "Waiting for landlord" with a deadline |
| Team outing | Handed over | "Ideas for the team outing", waiting for Jonas |
| Winter tyres | Relevant later | "Book a slot for winter tyres" @phone >+21 |
| Learn Italian? | Not actionable now | Someday |
| Holiday photo book | Not actionable now | Someday |
| Sign the nursery form | Under 2 minutes | done on the spot and ticked off |
| Kitchen showroom brochure | Not actionable | deleted |
A few of these decisions in detail:
The service charge bill was a classic two-minute case with a sequel. The email to the landlord is quickly written – but then the ball is in their court. So it doesn't get forgotten, it gets the status Waiting, with "landlord" as the person and a deadline in ten days. If nothing has arrived by then, TidyPepple puts it back in your Next list automatically, with a note to follow up.
The team outing isn't your job; Jonas is organising it. You sent him a quick message and are waiting for his ideas. That becomes a "Waiting" entry too – otherwise in three weeks you'll wonder whether something was supposed to happen.
The winter tyres only matter once it gets cold. Instead of seeing the task in your list every day, you set a "visible from" date. Until then it stays hidden and out of your way; after that it shows up in Next like any other task.
Italian and the photo book are lovely ideas, but not for now. Throwing them away would be a shame, so they go to Someday. There they don't get in the way, but they aren't lost either.
The brochure goes in the bin. That's a valid decision too – and a liberating one.
Step 3: Organise – everything in its place
Organising gives every clarified item its home. GTD needs only a handful of lists for this: next actions, projects, waiting for, someday/maybe, and your calendar. That's all. Anyone who sets up twenty categories ends up spending more time sorting than working.
Contexts: where or with what you can do something
A context describes what a task needs: @phone, @computer, @errands, @office, @home. It sounds old-fashioned, but it's practical: when you're sitting in a waiting room, all you care about is what you can do with your phone. TidyPepple comes with these five contexts; you can rename them and add your own in the settings.
Projects: anything with more than one step
In GTD a project is any outcome that takes more than one step. "Move" is a good example. In TidyPepple a project isn't a separate type, just a task with steps. You open "Moving in November", rename it to "Move" and add what needs doing under "Next steps":
- Get three quotes from removal firms
- Get moving boxes
- Set up mail forwarding
- Transfer the internet contract
When the project is set to Sequential, your Next list only ever shows the first open step. Only once the quotes are in do the boxes move up. With Parallel, every open step appears in the list – useful when the order doesn't matter. You can also add later steps while capturing: "Apply for a parking permit +Move" goes straight into the project.
Tags: slices across everything
Contexts answer "where?", projects answer "what for?". Tags cover everything else. #taxes gathers everything to do with your tax return, #work separates work from private life. Tags need no upkeep: a tag exists as long as a task carries it. In search, #tax finds every task tagged #taxes.
Step 4: Reflect – keep the system current
You won't use a system you don't trust. That's why GTD includes the weekly review: once a week, for about half an hour, you go through everything and bring it up to date. A tried-and-tested order:
- Empty the inbox: clarify everything that came in during the week, as in step 2.
- Go through Next: is everything still relevant? Is anything actually done already?
- Check your projects: does every active project have a next step?
- Review "Waiting": who do you need to chase?
- Skim "Someday": has anything become relevant now?
- Look at what's done: what did you get through? That's more motivating than you'd think.
In TidyPepple the All view is made for this. Sorted by status, it shows every open task in collapsible sections, including what's waiting or parked for someday. Collapse the next actions and you can see at a glance who you're waiting on – and for how long. The tick at the top right leads to everything you've completed, grouped by day. The Projects overview tells you which project has run out of next steps.
Step 5: Engage – do the right thing with a clear conscience
Now comes the part this is really all about. And this is where the groundwork pays off: you no longer have to think about everything that's on your plate, you just pick. GTD suggests four questions for this, in this order: which context are you in? How much time do you have? How much energy? And only then: what's most important?
Say you have a quarter of an hour and your phone in your hand. In TidyPepple you filter the Next list to @phone and see exactly three tasks: the insurer (due today and important), the dentist and – from the Move project – the removal quotes. The winter tyres are missing because they only become visible in three weeks. And you don't need to think about the boxes yet, because in the project they come after the quotes.
This is the moment GTD starts to feel good. You call the insurer, tick it off, call the dentist, tick it off. No guilt about the taxes, because they're safely on the list with their place on Friday. When time gets tight, the Important only button shows you just the tasks you marked with !!.
Common beginner mistakes
- Not capturing everything. If you only write down the "proper" tasks, you keep the rest in your head – and never quite trust the list.
- Vague tasks. "Taxes" or "Mum" on the list means the thinking hasn't happened yet. Every next action starts with a verb.
- Projects without a next step. A project with nothing in Next doesn't move. The weekly review is where you spot it.
- Too many categories. Five contexts and a handful of tags are plenty for most people.
- No review. Without a weekly review every list goes stale. It's what keeps GTD running in the long run.
Conclusion: a clear head in an hour
Our pile had 15 entries. After clarifying, it turned into eight clear next actions and one project with four steps, plus two waiting items with deadlines and two ideas for someday. One thing was done in two minutes, one went in the bin. You no longer have to remember any of it.
That is the heart of Getting Things Done: not working more, but keeping less in your head. Try it with your own pile. Take an hour, write everything down and clarify it entry by entry. TidyPepple is free, runs in the browser and as an Android app and keeps your tasks on your device, no account needed. The FAQ answers questions about the app.
Getting Things Done® is a registered trademark of the David Allen Company. TidyPepple is not affiliated with the David Allen Company.