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Weekly Review
Once a week, get every list and project current so your head can let go. An hour or two buys the rest of the week.
if you're not doing a weekly review, you're trying to do it all the time.
Productivity consultant, creator of GTD and author of Getting Things Done
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Once a week, get every list and project current so your head can let go. An hour or two buys the rest of the week.
if you're not doing a weekly review, you're trying to do it all the time.
The Five Steps of GTD Workflow
The core GTD workflow is a five-step process for achieving stress-free productivity: Capture everything that has your attention, Clarify what each item means and what…
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
The Natural Planning Model
The Natural Planning Model mirrors how the brain naturally plans anything — from going out to dinner to launching a product. It follows five phases: define purpose and…
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
Horizons of Focus
The Horizons of Focus model uses an altitude metaphor to define six levels of perspective, from ground-level actions to life purpose. Each horizon generates commitments…
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity / Making It All Work
The Four-Criteria Model for Choosing Actions
When choosing what to do in the moment, filter your available actions through four criteria in order: context (what can you do given your location and tools?), time…
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
The Threefold Model for Identifying Daily Work
On any given day, you are doing one of three types of work: predefined work (executing tasks from your lists), work as it shows up (handling interruptions and unexpected…
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
The Control-Perspective Matrix (Matrix of Self-Management)
Productivity requires two dimensions: Control (managing day-to-day execution) and Perspective (clarity on purpose, vision, and priorities). The matrix creates four…
Making It All Work: Winning at the Game of Work and the Business of Life
The Clarify/Process Decision Tree
The GTD processing decision tree is a systematic flowchart for handling any input. For each item, ask: 'Is it actionable?' If no: trash it, file it as reference, or…
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
The Mind Sweep / Brain Dump
A mind sweep is the practice of systematically emptying your head of every incomplete, commitment, idea, and 'should' onto paper or into a capture tool. Allen provides…
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
The 43-Folders Tickler System
The tickler file is a physical or digital system of 43 folders (31 daily + 12 monthly) that lets you time-activate reminders and materials. Place items in the folder for…
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
If an action will take less than two minutes, do it immediately when you first encounter it. It will take longer to organize and review it than to just finish it.
Processing items from your inbox or any new input. The two-minute threshold is a guideline — extend to five or ten minutes if you have a long open window for processing.
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
Capture 100% of your incompletes — every task, idea, commitment, and open loop — into a trusted external system. Never rely on your memory to track commitments.
The foundation of the entire GTD system. Anything that has your attention and is not where it should be constitutes an 'open loop' that drains psychic RAM.
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
Any outcome requiring more than one action step is a project and must go on your Projects list. Track every project explicitly.
People chronically undercount their projects. Even small multi-step outcomes like 'get car serviced' count as projects that need next actions defined.
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
David Allen
reviews everything once a week: every inbox emptied, every project walked, the calendar read back and forward, Waiting For and Someday/Maybe checked. The goal is a system current enough that your head can let it go, and it takes an hour or two, sometimes three.
uses the weekly slot to plan execution. He reads his quarterly plan, builds a weekly plan that protects calendar time for the big projects, and time blocks each day from it.
From Weekly Review