GTD [Book Summary]

I'm a productivity freak and I've recently read the granddaddy of all productivity books again for I think the 5th time or so?

David Allen is right in saying that each time you re-read it, you will get new insights you never had before.

Here's a super quick summary.

Documents (if any) has to be filed immediately. The only paper stuff in my life right now are credit card bills, insurance policies etc. Whatever else is paper and unimportant/retrievable should the need arise someday, I throw.

For each project, you can dump tasks in as you deem fit, but 2 items are compulsory:

1. The Next Action
2. The End Goal
   Whatever is in between, you fill in the gaps. But with the compulsory 2 items, it's so much easier to fill things in and to GTD.

2 minute rule. Simple. If an item can be done in 2 minutes, you do it immediately if you can instead of leaving it for later.

Take one item out of a stack at a time, and never put it back. This applies more for people with a ton of paperwork but I thought the "never put it back" makes alot of sense.

Be comfortable creating checklists all the time. I now have a folder in my Notes app of my iPhone where I have a bunch of checklists. Do you always forget to bring between 2 locations you often commute? Start a checklist for it. Travel often? Start a checklist. Day trade and always forget your rules? Start a checklist. Whatever is important to you deserves its own checklist.

To plan your day, always look at Calendar first for the hard landscape, then action lists.

Use your mind to think ABOUT things, not OF them.

Make "what's the next action?" an everyday part of your vocabulary, part of your global thought process

The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking down your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.

It's usually the smartest, most sensitive people that have the most number of stuck stacks. Trick is to dumb urself down by just focusing on the next action and nothing else.

My GTD tool of choice, after cycling through a bunch of others over the years like Omnifocus, Nozbe, Todoist and a few others, is the Wunderlist app.

Basically, the Inbox acts as my Brain Dump.

Every night, I glimpse through all the tasks and projects in Wunderlist. I check things off as necessary, convert tasks into projects, and determine the maximum of 10 items I want to Star and get done for the following day.

Part of my Life System also includes Evernote, Awesome Note, Notes; I also use Workflowy for brainstorming. I also use Kanbanflow and Trello for collaboration on work projects. However, Wunderlist is my primary Command Centre where I manage the tasks I need to do every day.

I started off not being able to remember which "notes" I had in which app, but now everything has its place and I'm pretty happy with how the entire system is working out.

I'd love to write a book about it someday; in fact I already have a skeleton in my Workflowy right now, and have that as a side project in my Wunderlist.

Have you read GTD? What were your biggest takeaways? I'd love to hear about it!