Getting Things Done 101: The five phases of project planning

For your GTD system to work, you need to build a habit of adding the correct labels to each and every task. The fewer labels you have to choose from, the easier it will be to remember. This way, when you’re ready to start the task or project, you’ll have all of the information you need close at hand. While GTD requires an upfront investment in time and energy to set up, it pays off with consistent use. You’ll no longer worry about forgetting a deadline or missing an important task.

• For example, as the result of a team meeting, you may end up with a number of new items in your inbox.
• As a Folder-level template, it contains numerous Lists and views.
• Your inbox is only used to collect the chaos of your thoughts in order to get them off your mind.

Thinking about tasks and deciding which ones to complete is often the most tedious step of any endeavor, personal or professional. The Waiting For list is helpful when you are waiting for items from others. Our list includes a section to write how and when you asked them for this item.

Free Getting Things Done (GTD) Templates for Productivity

Again, I’m stymied without some sort of process to work through this stuff. Breaking large projects into bite-sized pieces helps you take action right away. Click the cell under the Type column and enter the type of task.

Next you need to clearly state how this aligns with your organizational goals. This is a good smoke test to ensure you’re in lockstep with your company. If you can’t easily nail this, the project might not be worth doing. On the other hand, avoid aligning with too many priorities at once, as it will likely result in mission creep. Think of it as a holding bin where you can analyze each task and determine its level of priority, or which project it belongs under.

Day Plan – Single Day Planner Pad BW / Minimal Day Planner / GTD Daily Productivity Planner / Undated Planner / Planning Pad

For example, I work on Marketing and Customer Success, so I have a number of projects related to initiatives for each of those responsibilities. When you open Priority Matrix, gtd system you’ll see a project broken down into four quadrants. They’re labeled “Critical and Urgent”, “Critical and Not Urgent”, “Urgent but Not Critical”, and “Uncategorized”.

Make sure you’re using a system that makes it easy to capture information. A key tenet of the GTD method is capturing information as soon as it enters your brain. That immediately lightens the load—and helps ensure nothing falls through the cracks. Where applicable, make sure to add additional context like documents, collaborators, due dates, or key details.

A5 (Half Letter) GTD BUNDLE Getting Things Done System Planner Printable’s PDF Cricut Silhouette

Finally, they face the question, “What’s the vision and purpose? The next actions list(s) should include all tasks you can accomplish immediately. These tasks are specific, actionable items that contribute to the completion of larger projects.

GTD is a popular time management strategy because of how simple it is to implement and how powerful it can be in practice. Even if you aren’t aware of it, your brain is constantly “on” in the background, shuffling and rearranging your upcoming to-dos to make sure nothing falls through the cracks. Whenever you introduce a new task to the mix, your brain needs to think through everything you have on the docket and reprioritize your work relative to this new task. Wrike offers template folders where you can store your projects.