About a year ago I learned the GTD system by reading David Allen’s book multiple times, annotating it, and listening to GTD podcast. While I do not follow it to a tee, capturing has been by far one of the most valuable skills for me.
I feel like I should be more disciplined with the Weekly Review (another key term from GTD) but I am not.
Tools to capture: sticky notes in the car, Google Keep on my phone, and my accessory notebook.
What I capture: everything, big and small. If a thought comes into my head and it’s actionable (another GTD term!), it gets captured. Examples from this week: get flowers from the supermarket for L and R teachers, an idea for a family vacation and/or solo trip, a book recommendation, and text to a friend. I also captured “order black flats.”
What I do with it afterward: if it’s on a sticky note that means it was probably captured when I was at a red light/parked. I bring the sticky home, then make it an actionable item on my calendar, add it to Libby or Google Keep, or put it on a someday/maybe list. In other words, it is transferred into a new “home.” Same goes for notes I took in Google Keep and my accessory notebook. I make them actionable items or completely throw out the sticky. For example, just last week I wanted to do something, captured it on a sticky, than gave it some thought and admitted to myself that at that point in time I simply did not have the bandwidth for that task. Deleted.
Benefits for my mental health:
- Gives me a sense of control;
- Provides peace of mind;
- Relieves me of the pressure to hold anything in my memory (that’s a big one);
- Gives me breathing space
- Helps with anxiety.
What about you? How do you capture your tasks? What tools do you use? Are you happy with your system? Is there a system you’d like to try?
Mom of Children 