Pandora Hacks : Capture your tasks Vol#1 GTD style

Here is another tips to a productive week; start capturing all your tasks into a notebook or any medium you prefer. Some prefer to use to-do-list applications such as RememberTheMilk, Ta-Da-List, Todolist etc, but for me a good old notebook is just fine. In fact I will recommend an analog style of recording your tasks because the act of writing it down holds more weight compared to typing it out. There is actually an article on this at Lifehack. Let's get started with GTD:

The man behind GTD....... 

David Allen is the man behind Getting Things Done ( GTD ) system which has created a big hype among productivity fans. The GTD system is a simple and elegant solution to many people who struggle with their to-do-list. Just to share with you some videos of David Allen below to get a better look at the man himself.

         

  
What is GTD ?  

After watching the videos above, I think you already have part of the answer to the question. Let me provide you with some guidance and let you decide what is GTD all about. The principle behind GTD is to dump all your tasks, meetings or anything that worries you into the notebook. The main objective of the system is to develop a capturing system where you no longer depend on your mind to organize your tasks. This will help you to make your mind clutter-free, enabling your mind to work on creative problems instead of trivial matters which will only stress out your mind. 

Enough with the clues, now I will layout some basic steps to develop your own GTD system:

1. Collect all the tasks that bothers you on a blank piece of paper. Just write down anything that runs across your mind and don;t worry about the mountain load of tasks. This step is extremely crucial because it helps to de-stress your mind. 


2. Consolidate the tasks into different categories. For those tasks which you can take immediate actions, then group it under a folder named Next Action. Scrape away tasks which you think will not bring you any benefits or not of great importance. You may be surprised that there are so many nonsense cluttering your mind. There may be also some tasks you wish to do someday, you can group those under Someday


3. Plan your tasks according to priority. How do you determine the importance of the tasks ? Simple, just ask yourself what good will doing this tasks help to fulfill my personal goals. We often try hard to accomplish as many tasks without knowing which tasks contribute the most to your development. 


4. Review at the end of every week on your performance. For example, how long do you take to complete a certain tasks ?, what can you change to make your system ?


5. Act. Take actions immediately after carving out the plan. It is best to start working to build the momentum. By the way, that is just my own two cents.


Something more for you....

I have added some links which are very useful when I started to learn about the Getting Things Done system:

1. 43 Folder: Getting Started with "Getting Things Done" 
2. ZenHabits: Zen to Done ( ZTD ) 
3. 7P Productions: 7 Mistakes to Avoid for the GTD beginners