Getting Things Done® (GTD®) Template (Notion)

“Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity” by David Allen is the go-to organizational system used throughout Silicon Valley.

The essence is to process every item in your inbox (email, Slack, phone etc.) and all to-dos every day. Then…

• If it’ll take less than 2 minutes to complete, do it immediately
• If it’ll take longer than 2 minutes to complete, add it to your GTD system

The GTD system consists of 2 review categories:

1. Check daily
2. Check once per week (recommendation is on a Monday)

Within “Check Daily”:

• Top Goals
• Next actions
• Waiting for

Within “Check once per week”:

• Projects
• Someday/Maybe
• Agenda

The overview of each is as follows…

Top Goals: Many articles/books cover SMART goal setting. For the purpose of this organizational system, only include your top goals (likely 3 or less). Then schedule dedicated “Top Goal” time in your calendar. The recommendation is to strive for 2 hours each day in the morning, and to achieve this habit it’s good to start by scheduling 30 minutes every 2 days, and build up from there.

Next Actions: The next tasks on your priority list, separated into Computer, Calls, Outside, Home. This is your go-to list for everything that you need to get done.

Waiting For: The tasks where the next step is with someone else. Note the person and expected date, then ensure you follow up with them as required.

Projects: Where you have more than one next action. Write out all the known actions, then add chronologically to your Next Actions.

Someday/Maybe: Things you want to get done one day, but you don’t need to get them done now.

Agenda: Things you need to cover with another person during your next meeting. If an item can wait until your next scheduled meeting with someone, then it is often better to batch multiple items together and cover during the scheduled meeting, instead of firing off multiple emails.

Getting to Zero Inbox: You can also use this system to get to zero inbox. The approach is to have 2 dedicated “Inbox Zero” times scheduled on your calendar. The first in the morning, and the second in the early afternoon. If the email takes less than 2 minutes to address, do it immediately. If it will take more than 2 minutes, write down the next action for it within your GTD system and place the email in a corresponding folder on your email client (the same approach works for other online communication such as Slack).

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GTD® and Getting Things Done® are registered trademarks of the David Allen Company. This Notion template is not affiliated or endorsed by the David Allen Company.