2026-03-05

David Allen - Getting Things Done

Chapter 1

The main concepts of this books are
- Capture everything
- Always have a list of next things to do
- Curating and coordinating all of this
As we have moved from an assembly-line industrial world to a more knowledge-work one, the definition of work has changed. It no longer has boundaries.
It used to be that if you made more cars you are being better. But now there is no clear definition of what better is. Every project could have been done a little better. There is infinite possibility to optimize.
All of this has caused a tremendous number of inputs being fed into our brains. Without a systematic way to process all of these input, we are doomed to be in perpetual stress.

Starting from the top down doesn’t work. The day-to-day minutia doesn’t allow this to work. It is not practical.

Contradicting the title of the book, getting things done is not about doing more. It is about doing what is appropriate. Sometime the best way to get things done is not doing anything. Appropriate response to stimuli is our goal.
Mind like water is a martial arts analogy. Water always responds appropriately to the external world. If you throw a rock at it, it responds proportionately the size of the rock.
You probably have experienced this state before - though not in pleasant times. During moments of crisis, being in this flow state is often necessary. You focus on the task at hand with such intensity that time flies. This is what we want to capture.

Our brain is an automatic reference counter. It keeps tracks of stuff whether we like it or not.
We give commitments to others or oneself. When these commitments exceed a certain number we begin to feel stressed.
More precisely, our brain keeps track of open loops in our life. Things that don’t have a trusted place that you can refer to, so your brain thinks that it has to remember it.
You can never fool your brain. If you don’t have a system that you can absolutely trust your brain will always keep it in the back of its … mind, whether you like it or not.

Mind is for having thoughts, not storing them.

You usually don’t think about the things that you do. You just do them.
It is like a goat grazing a field, haphazardly moving from patch to patch.
You should aim to be like a lion planning its hunt. It never acts without a plan.
There should be intentional thought behind everything that you do.

Stuff is anything you haven’t clarified the next action for.
Most of the inputs that we receive are stuff
The most important part of GTD is transforming stuff into actions
Lot of organizational systems fail because they don’t emphasize on this transformation. Just putting down stuff onto a piece of paper is almost worthless. It may even cause more bad than good.

You don’t manage time. You don’t manage priorities. You don’t manage anything other than actions. Small atomic things that you can do right now to make meaningful progress in any of your pursuits.