The document provides an overview of the productivity methodology known as Getting Things Done (GTD). It discusses key aspects of GTD including the five stages of mastering workflow, collection methods, clarification techniques, and maintaining organization through lists and regular reviews. Cognitive science research is also summarized that supports how GTD can help reduce mental clutter, facilitate flow states, and support goal achievement through an externalized system for tasks and projects.

1. • Group No. 10
Sonali Gupta PGP30107 | Suhani Kejriwal PGP30109 | Vartika Jaiswal
PGP30116 | Anupam Dey PGP30363 | Yatin Bhardwaj PGP30417

2. What’s Your Biggest Problem???

3. Too much to do and so little time…

8. Welcome to Getting Things Done
“WARNING: Reading Getting Things Done
can be hazardous to your old habits of
procrastination.”
- Carola Endicot
Director, Quality Resources,
New England Medical
Centre

9. David Allen
• A management consultant and
executive coach
• Called a personal productivity guru
• Published Getting Things Done in 2001
“Your mind is for having ideas, not
holding them.”
- David Allen

10. What Getting Things Done gives you
More
Energy
Be
Maximally
Efficient
Confident
Being
Present
in
Moment
More
Clarity in
Thoughts
Being
More
Relaxed

11. A New Practice for a New Reality
The true challenge is to determine what to do with
ambiguous tasks and projects

12. A New Practice for a New Reality
Too much "stuff" stored in a person’s short-term
memory can blow a fuse.
Conscious mind is a focusing tool, not a storage place.

13. A New Practice for a New Reality
Free yourself of the "open loops"

14. A New Practice for a New Reality
David Allen says by “Horizontal focus”

15. A New Practice for a New Reality
Write down the outcomes you
wish to achieve
For every outcome, determine
the "next physical action" to
move the situation forward
Remind and Review regularly

16. A New Practice for a New Reality
Make your “mind like water”, to get things done

17. The Five Stages of Mastering Workflow
Capture
• Clean your head and capture everything in a container
Clarify
• For each item check what’s the next action
Organize
• Plan the next actions
Reflect
• Review your lists of actions and reminders daily
Engage
• Making choices what and how to act next

19. 1. Purpose and Principles: Asking the question “Why”- to define
success, create decision-making criteria, align resources,
motivate, clarifying focus and expand options
The Five Phases of Project Planning

20. The Five Phases of Project Planning
2. Envision an Outcome: Clarity and focus about ones vision and
outcomes helps ones brain’s reticular activating system (RAS) to
start making one aware of how it can happen
WHAT?

21. 3. Brainstorming: Clarity and focus about ones vision and
outcomes helps ones brain’s reticular activating system (RAS) to
start making one aware of how it can happen
INTERNALLY EXTERNALLY
Eg Mind mapping, Whiteboard
The Five Phases of Project Planning

22. The Five Phases of Project Planning (cont…)
3. Brainstorming:
Keys to good brainstorming: DON’T
a) Judge
b) Challenge
c) Evaluate
d) criticize

23. The Five Phases of Project Planning (cont…)
4. Organizing: Identify major pieces, sort into either
components, sequences or priority, detail out, determine next
steps

24. The Five Phases of Project Planning (cont…)
5. Next Actions: Identify actions to be taken now leaving aside
the dependent ones

25. Setting Up Time, Space and Tools
1. Setting Aside Time:
Smaller Chunks for
a couple of days
Large chunk of Uninterrupted
time eg weekend or holiday

26. Setting Up Time, Space and Tools
2. Setting up the Space: Set up space at home, work
and in transit.
Central Cockpit of Control
a) Writing Surface
b) Room
c) Phone
d) Computer
e) Stacking Trays
f) Working file drawers
g) Paper
h) Writing Instrument

27. Setting Up Time, Space and Tools
3. Tools:
THINGS REQUIRED
a) Stacking paper tray
b) Plain paper
c) Paper-handling
supplies
d) Automatic labeler
e) File folders
f) Calendar
g) Trash/recycling bins
h) Planner

28. Setting Up Time, Space and Tools
4. Filing System
Filling
system at
hand
distance
from
workplace
Only one
filling
system
“Where could item
be?” Should have 2-
3 possible answers
only
Quick item
filling, less
than a minute
Purge filling
system once
a year

29. Collection: Corralling Your “Stuff”
What needs to be collected How to collect it most effectively
Collections

30. Collection: Corralling Your “Stuff”
Collection Tools
Physical In-Basket
Paper-based note-taking
devices
E mail
Electronic note-
taking devices
Voice-recording
devices

31. Collection: Corralling Your “Stuff”
Physical: Gather all physical things you need to process:
paperwork, business cards, notes, etc.
Transform all items into discrete
items of work
Transform into physical form
that can be put in a basket or
work stack
If it does not fit on the stack,
label the item on a piece of
paper and put it on the 'work
stack'

32. Collection: Corralling Your “Stuff”
Can create a separate 'emergency stack' if need be

33. Collection: Corralling Your “Stuff”
Mental: Do a mental mind sweep of everything one
needs to process, including professional and personal
commitments
Psychic RAM :
to uncover anything that
may be residing in one’s
mental space

34. Clarifying: Getting “In” to Empty
Collect everything
Identify each item
Decide what to do with each
of the items in the "in" box

36. Clarifying: Getting “In” to Empty
Put the top item first (FIFO mostly)
Never put everything back into “in”

37. Clarifying: Getting “In” to Empty
Is the task
actionable?
Trash
Not of any use
Incubate
Someday/May be list
Reference
Retrievable when
required
No

38. Clarifying: Getting “In” to Empty
Is the task
actionable?
Do it
(when action takes
<2 min)
Defer it
(to the appropriate
person)
Delegate it
(do it later)
Yes

39. Clarifying: Getting “In” to Empty
Nothing goes back into “in”
The “in” tray is a processing station, not a storage bin.

40. 7 basic categories of things to keep track
A Projects List
A single place to review all projects for needed actions.

41. Calendared Actions and Information
• Actions that must be done on a
specific day or time
•Put it On Calendar
•Triggers for
• Activating projects,
• Events one might want to participate
in
• Decision catalysts

42. Next actions: To-Do List
• Record Next and Scheduled actions
• Utilize Contexts
• Errands
• Computer
• Online
• Home
• Calls
• May Assign project/Tags
• Accessible from anywhere

43. A “waiting for” list: Waiting for others to complete
Actions that are not yours to do, but ones that you
still need to know about
Needed When you
• Delegate an item to someone,
• Leave a voicemail or email with a request to get back to me or
• Anytime someone makes a promise that they're going to do an action I need
to know about.
Track All of those balls in all of
those other courts.

44. Someday/Maybe list
Eg.
• CD’s to buy
• Websites to visit
• Recipes to cook etc

45. Review your Daily Calendar
& Daily Tickler Folder
Review your Action List
Reflecting : Keeping it all fresh and functional
A few seconds a day is usually all you need for review

46. Reflecting : Keeping it all fresh and functional
Updating Your System : Weekly Review
Get Clear Get Current Get Creative

47. Reflecting : Keeping it all fresh and functional
THE BIGGER PICTURE REVIEWS

49. Four-Criteria Model for Choosing Action in
the Moment
Context
Time
Available
Energy
Available
Priority

50. 1. CONTEXT
You Have Freedom When You
Are Easy In Your Harness

51. 2. TIME AVAILABLE
Having A Sense Of Time Is Not
A Gift But A Conscious Effort To
Use It Effectively

52. 3. ENERGY AVAILABLE
We All Have Times When We
Think More Effectively And
Times When We Should Not Be
Thinking At All

53. 4. PRIORITY
It Is Impossible To Feel Good
About Your Choices Unless You
Are Clear What Your Work
Clearly Is

54. SIX LEVEL MODEL FOR REVIEWING YOUR
OWN WORK
Life
Long Term
Visions
One To Two
Year Goals
Areas Of Focus And
Accountability
Current Projects
Current Actions

55. LIFE
Life
Long
Term
Visions
One To Two
Year Goals
Areas Of Focus And
Accountability
Current Projects
Current Actions
Intuiting Your
Life Purpose
And Principles
And How To
Maximise Its
Expression

56. LONG TERM VISIONS
Life
Long
Term
Visions
One To Two
Year Goals
Areas Of Focus And
Accountability
Current Projects
Current Actions
A Three Year
Vision For
Your Career
And Personal
Network

57. ONE TO TWO YEAR GOALS
Life
Long
Term
Visions
One To Two
Year Goals
Areas Of Focus And
Accountability
Current Projects
Current Actions
One To Two
Year Goals In
Your Job

58. AREAS OF FOCUS AND ACCOUNTABILTY
Life
Long
Term
Visions
One To Two
Year Goals
Areas Of Focus And
Accountability
Current Projects
Current Actions
Level Of
Current Job
Responsibilitie
s And Areas
Of Life To
Maintain At
An
Appropriate
Standard

59. CURRENT PROJECTS
Life
Long
Term
Visions
One To Two
Year Goals
Areas Of Focus And
Accountability
Current Projects
Current Actions
Taking The
Inventory Of
Your Current
Work At All
Levels Will
Automatically
Produce A
Greater
Focus,
Alignment
And Sense Of
Priority

60. CURRENT ACTIONS
Life
Long
Term
Visions
One To Two
Year Goals
Areas Of Focus And
Accountability
Current Projects
Current Actions
Make Sure
Your Action
Lists Are
Complete,
Which In
Itself Can Be
Quite A Task

61. GETTING PROJECTS UNDER CONTROL
Brainstorming Organizing
Setting Up
Meetings
Gathering
Information
Typical
Planning Steps

62. TOOLS AND STRUCTURES THAT SUPPORT
PROJECT THINKING
Thinking Tools
Paper & pads
Essels and Whiteboards
Digital Tools
Support Structures
File Folders or Loose-Leaf Pages
Paper & Digital
Software Tools

63. WHAT IS THE MAIN SOURCE OF NEGATIVE
FEELINGS?
Broken
Agreements With
Yourself Are One
Of The Biggest
Source Of
Negative Feelings

64. HOW TO PREVENT BROKEN AGREEMENTS
WITH YOURSELF
• Don’t make the agreement –
Maintaining an objective and
complete inventory of your work,
regularly reviewed, makes it much
easier to say no with integrity
• Complete the agreement – Finish
the work that needs to be done
• Renegotiate the agreement – It is
the act of forgiveness that opens
up the only possible way to think

65. WHY BRIGHT PEOPLE PROCRASTINATE
THE MOST
Their sensitivity and creativity give
them the capability to produce in
their minds lurid nightmare scenarios
about what might be involved in
doing the project and all the
negative consequences that might
occur if it not done perfectly

66. THE INTELLIGENT DUMBING DOWN
No Matter How Big And Tough A
Problem May Be, Get Rid Of
Confusion By Taking One Little Step
Towards Solution.
Do Something

67. VALUE OF A NEXT ACTION DECISION
MAKING STANDARD
The question, “What is the next
action” forces:-
• Clarity
• Accountability
• Productivity
• Empowerment

68. GETTING THINGS DONE AND COGNITIVE
SCIENCE
Research conducted in the field of
Cognitive Science has emerged
within several frameworks and
categories

69. 1. POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
• Relevant aspects of positive
psychology include happiness,
psychological well being, strength,
character and virtue
• This is relevant to GTD as it is
more concerned with meaningful
work, mindful living and
psychological well being than

70. 2. VALUE OF AN EXTERNAL MIND
• If we use our memory as our
organizing system, our mind
becomes incompetent because of
the demand of intense work
• GTD helps in focused attention and
mindful thinking at the right time

71. 3. RELIVING THE COGNITIVE LOAD OF
INCOMPLETIONS
• Uncompleted task take up room in
the mind which limits clarity and
focus
• GTD helps in giving a trusted plan
that ensures forward engagement
will happen

72. 4. FLOW THEORIES
You can only put your conscious
attention to one thing at a time. If
that’s all that has your attention, you
are in flow

73. 5. SELF LEADERSHIP THEORY
Providing yourself the right cues,
which you will notice at the right
time, about the right things

74. 6. GOAL STRIVING
• Goals are a vital part of life
• GTD serves to facilitate both
personal and professional goals

75. 7. PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL
It consists of four definable aspects
• Self efficacy
• Optimism
• Hope
• Relilience

76. THREE TIRES OF MASTERY
Over the years people who adopted
the GTD methodology have
demonstrated three stages of
maturity

77. 1
Employing the fundamentals of
managing workflow

78. 2
Implementing a more elevated and
integrated total life management
system

79. 3
Leveraging skills to create clear
space and get things done for an
ever-expansive expression and
manifestation

80. THANK YOU