Getting Things Done Summary Cheat Sheet PDF | David Allen

The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

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We’re scratching the surface in this Getting Things Done cheat sheet. If you don’t already have the book, order it here or get the audiobook for free on Amazon to learn the juicy details.

Disclaimer: This is an unofficial summary and analysis.

David Allen’s Perspective

David Allen is an author, consultant, international lecturer, and founder of the David Allen Company. Forbes recognized David Allen as one of the top five executive coaches in the United States. Leadership Magazine quoted him as one of the “Top 100 thought leaders.” Finally, Fast Company hailed David Allen, “One of the world’s most influential thinkers” in the arena of personal productivity.

Introduction

Getting Things Done identifies how you can maximize your ability to plan and actualize tasks and projects. GTD has now become a popular approach for getting professional and personal tasks completed within the management realm. That said, Allen’s approaches are meant to be generalizable to all facets of your life. 

StoryShot #1: Get in Control of Your Life

An out of control life will make it impossible to think strategically or plan effectively. So, Allen recommends obtaining control of your daily tasks before focusing on the bigger picture. Getting things done is a bottom-up approach to productivity. The goal of this approach is to establish a sense of control over your work. This control will free up the mental energy required to think about lifelong goals.

StoryShot #2: Define Your Perception of Finished

To get things done, you have to understand your own definition of finishing something. Most people have a list of to-dos that don’t even have a clear vision of what a finished task looks like. This approach does not align with your natural tendencies. Your brain is designed to solve problems where you understand what the endpoint is. This means you should always seek to establish a clear stopping point. If you are struggling to make progress, ensure that you are still aware of what done looks like.

StoryShot #3: The Five Phases of Effective Work

Collecting

Your work is considerably more effective if you have all your required resources in one place before you begin. You will also make better use of your available inputs if all your resources are together. So, engage in collecting. Collecting is the act of gathering resources, knowledge, and tasks.

Processing

As well as gathering all relevant resources, you must also establish what you can do with the resources at your disposal. Allen calls this processing. Separate and allocate your resources to prioritize what you are planning on doing next. This can be done by task, project, or plan. Processing means emptying the box or drawer and defining the next executable action for all items you’ve collected in the first step. Most people find it difficult to act on a specific task because they do not know what they need to do next. Without defining, the chore is nothing more than an abstract idea and will keep popping up in your thoughts.

Organizing

After processing, you then have to take your results and place them into a system you trust. The importance of this system is that it means you won’t have to remember all the processing results. Organizing allows you to place these results in a useful format. Allen recommends placing tasks on to-do lists and projects on project lists. Then, place future plans on a tracking system, and reference information in a file or database. 

Doing

‘Doing’ is simply the process of taking action on the plans you have already established. So, ‘doing’ means working through the tasks you can accomplish right now.

Reviewing

After taking action, you need to examine the results of your work. After examining, revise your strategy accordingly and improve your systems for better results. In this step, you regularly confirm you have defined the right tasks and have included everything that needs to be done. This reviewing phase should take about one or two minutes for a daily review. Spend ten minutes for a weekly review.

StoryShot #4: Stop Storing Things in Your Head

People tend to attempt to store everything in their minds. Our brains are not optimized for memory storage. They are optimized for quick decision-making. 

So, try to avoid juggling information within your head. To achieve maximum efficiency, the brain must focus 100% on the task at hand. Never dwell on pending projects or other unrelated concerns. One way to do this is to stop for a moment and place all the important stored information down onto a piece of paper. Some people prefer to write this information while others prefer drawing. Either way, you want to get your stored information out of your brain. Once you have done this, you will find it far easier to make decisions based on this information. 

This approach will complement your brain, but it should also prevent stress. If you reduce the friction experienced when capturing ideas, you’ll naturally capture more of them. 

StoryShot #5: Projects and Tasks Are Different

A common mistake is tracking projects and tasks in the same way. Another mistake is conflating projects and tasks within the same review process. Conflating the two is a surefire way to overwhelm yourself. Including long-term projects alongside your daily tasks will make you feel like a failure. In your eyes, you will fail this long-term project for the months or years it takes for you to complete it.

Due to the difference in time frames between projects and tasks, you should track them differently and in a different space. For example, using post-it notes for tasks and a journal for your projects.

StoryShot #6: Always Seek the Next Action

Big projects can quickly become overwhelming due to their complexity. So, instead of focusing on the distant past goals, you should simply focus on the next action required to move forward. Building on this point, only ever focus on actions you can do right now. If a task is impossible at the moment, there is no point worrying about it.

StoryShot #7: Utilize the 2-Minute Rule

Allen recommends tracking tasks. This rule does not apply to your small tasks. Tasks that take two minutes or less should never be tracked. If you start tracking these short tasks, you will spend more time writing down tracked times than actually acting. Delegate when you feel another person could do the task faster and/or better than you. All remaining chores should be organized in a system. The system can include different types of lists. People to call, people to write an E-mail, and a list of actions for different projects you are working on. Immediately plan tasks into your calendar that are time-bound.

StoryShot #8: Use Reference Files for Long-Term Actions

Long-term tasks shouldn’t be placed in your active daily task tracking system. Allen recommends utilizing reference files to store information about long-term tasks you don’t have to act on right now. You can choose whether you want these reference files to be physical or electronic.

StoryShot #9: Keep Track of Your Commitments With Buckets

The primary purpose of buckets is to store information important enough to be a potential distraction. The crucial part of these buckets is they are close enough for access. There are seven types of buckets which help keep the system clean and clear:

• A list of active tasks – Actions you’ve committed to accomplishing in the next few days.
• A list of active projects – Between 4 and 20 projects you’ve committed to accomplishing in the next few weeks.
• A calendar – Commitments to meet with other people in the near future.
• A someday/maybe list – Ideas you’d like to explore, but not right now.
• Reference files – Information or documents you’ll need to refer to in the future.
• A capture device – Some way of capturing ideas or next actions as you think of them.

The bucket system is extremely efficient, but this is only the case when it contains useful up-to-date information. So, you need to consistently ‘take out the trash.’ Clean your buckets regularly. Allen quotes a minimum of one bucket clearance per week. The buckets’ content needs to be reviewed, reordered by priority, and any irrelevant or outdated items need to be discharged.

StoryShot #10: Schedule Non-Negotiable Time for a Weekly Review

Time moves so swiftly it can be challenging keeping track of whether you are attaining the results you expect. So, Allen suggests you schedule time for a weekly review. He offers a selection of things you could include in your weekly review:

• Process and organize anything you’ve collected but haven’t handled yet.
• Review the active tasks that you can add to, delegate, defer, or delete.
• Review your active projects and consider whether there are any to add, delegate, defer, or delete.
• Review your calendar and identify whether there are any meetings to add, delegate, defer, or delete.
• A Someday/Maybe section that includes anything you can add or promote to an active project.
• Reference Files can include anything you need soon or anything to add or update.
• Goals that you have developed. These goals show whether you are moving in the right direction or changes are necessary.

StoryShot #11: Create a Comfortable Workplace

It is crucial you structure your tasks. But it is also crucial that you optimize the structure of your workplace. Your workspace should include all the materials you require to work productively. You must also ensure you are comfortable within your workplace.

StoryShot #12: The Goal of Getting Things Done

You will not obtain instant gratification from getting things done. Instead, it will take considerable time for you to get everything under control. So, you should cut yourself some slack. 

Getting things done is about developing a collection of habits. Habits take time to develop. As getting things done is associated with a wide range of habits, you should incorporate one habit at a time. Once this habit becomes effortless, focus on installing the next habit.

The primary goal of getting things done is to make it easier to do the work that matters to you. This means getting things done helps you to effectively tackle procrastination by endlessly improving your system. These improvements are usually far simpler than you think. The most effective systems utilize the most straightforward approaches that work. When in doubt, err on the side of doing less.

StoryShot #13: Utilize Natural Planning

Project planning tends to be characterized by an unnatural non-structured process. Allen describes natural planning as a quick and fun way to identify concrete steps. These steps will lead you closer to accomplishing your long term goals.

First, start with your accomplished goal in mind. Once you have this in mind, you can start brainstorming. Avoid brainstorming in your mind and ensure you brainstorm externally. For example, write down your ideas and draw mind maps. Once your ideas are organized, you will start finding concrete steps to accomplish them and get closer to your goal.

StoryShot #14: Prioritizing Your Tasks

The priority of tasks can help you define what to do first. Allen outlines six levels of prioritization that you should consider when planning your work:

1. Your 3-5 year vision
2. Your 1-2 year vision
3. Current responsibilities
4. Current projects
5. Current defined actions
6. These actions directly influence the other five levels

Final Summary, Review and Criticism of Getting Things Done

Getting Things Done is a guide to improving productivity in all parts of your life. GTD is a system that is used in the corporate world as a way of getting projects completed. The book suggests prioritizing appropriately, clearly defining goals, creating a productive environment and writing everything down. These steps, along with several others, have the potential to move your tasks from “to do” and “doing” to “done.”

One major criticism of the book is that it introduces a lot of new habits all at once that may be difficult or overwhelming for most people to develop.

We rate Getting Things Done 4.6/5.

Getting Things Done Cheat Sheet PDF

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