People have often asked me what is GTD all about. Getting Things Done, appropriately called as the art of stress-free productivity, conceptualised by David Allen, contains the methodology to control the flow of your life’s work.

The GTD methodology is focused on the Mind, which in today’s age of information overload, is more chaotic than ever. The most appropriate state of mind is metaphorically related to the state of water, which simply responds to any external stimulus appropriately and returns to its normal state thereafter.

This state of appropriate engagement is the outcome that can be achieved through the GTD methodology based on the principle that:

“Your mind is for having ideas, and not for holding ideas”.

The GTD methodology is a simple yet comprehensive 5 step process to control the flow of your life’s work:

1. Capture

Capture anything and everything that has your attention. Capture happens all the time (24 hrs x 365 days) in 3 broad ways – physical, electronic and mental.

2. Clarify

Clarify mentally or Process what each captured item means to you. This includes deciding on what’s actionable and what’s not, what’s the next action and what’s the desired outcome.

3. Organise

Organise the clarified items physically into buckets or categories where meaning matches location. Here is where a trusted system gets created for all the stuff in your life.

4. Reflect

Reflect on your system on a regular basis to get a higher perspective, so that you are able to stay clear, current and creative. The recommended frequency is weekly review.

5. Engage

Engage into the most appropriate action at the right time, by deciding your priorities. The GTD methodology covers 3 models of deciding priority – limiting criteria, horizons of focus and threefold nature of work.

Here is a summary of the 5 step GTD Methodology presented through a mind map.

The TIME magazine had aptly hailed this book as “the definitive business self-help book of the decade” when it was first published about fifteen years ago. The Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology is based more on attention management rather than time management techniques. As David Allen puts it,

“If you don’t pay appropriate attention to what has your attention, it will take more of your attention than it deserves.”

I have been personally following this methodology since 2006, years before I became Mumbai’s First Certified GTD Trainer in 2016, when I pledged to share this powerful learning with the world.

Wish to know more about the life-transforming GTD methodology?

Here are your options:

Option A. Read the Bible of Productivity by clicking on the book below:

Option B. Attend the next GTD workshop in your nearest city

Click here to get updated about the workshop schedule

Cheers to Stress-free Productivity!