GTD Terms

From RaveWiki

The terms below describes GTD’s own language, born out of necessity. This table lists many of the key concepts that you’ll need to understand in order to use GTD workflow management effectively. This is my own “decode” after a few months of study – David Allen or his staff might well explain these terms differently. What’s important is to grasp the key concepts and to apply them in approaching your workload in a more efficient way.

The GTD methodology creates a set of rules for defining, organizing, and viewing your pending work queue. Traditional “To-do” items are eschewed, being replaced by more detailed, specific actions that are called “next actions”. A next action is a short unit of work, defined in a way that you can perform it without having to stop and doing any “thinking” about how to approach it, once it’s defined. The methodology for properly defining next actions is one of the key GTD skills, which the book discusses in some depth.

In applying GTD principles properly to organize your work, a higher ratio of the "thinking and organizing" is done before action is undertaken; however once the GTD rules are learned, the thinking usually doesn’t take very long. This is contrary to natural, long-adopted working styles for the majority of us. With GTD, any activity that requires more than one next action is defined and organized as a "Project". The focus is placed on visualizing what a successful outcome of each project looks like to you, versus trying to detail micro-plan each step of the project along the way. All that is really needed in most cases is to properly define the next action; the project flow toward the desired result often changes along the way, in ways you can’t predict from the outset.

To keep things in motion, each Project needs to always have at least one associated next action. So in organizing your workflow under GTD, you are going to be dealing with a large list (database) of next actions and projects – typically 200 to 800 items for a busy person. Excel's powerful auto filtering, sorting, outlining, auto-summing, macro, printing, memorized custom views, and charting capabilities work in concert to allow you to "slice and dice" this workflow data in ways that will free you to work from new, more efficient working contexts which you may presently not be aware of or be able to utilize. The net effect can be a major boost in your level of organization, focus, and productivity. And that’s what GTD is all about – getting more out of your time, achieving your more important objectives, and feeling more relaxed and in control about it in the process.

Contents 1 The Collection Process 2 Open Loops 3 The Trusted System 4 Inbox 5 Next Action 6 Amorphous Blob 7 Desired Outcome 8 Project 9 The Five Steps of Workflow Management 10 Collecting 11 Processing 12 Organizing 13 Reviewing 14 Doing 15 Prioritizing 16 Someday/Maybe Item 17 Buckets 18 Calendar 19 Reference Information 20 Tickler file 21 Hard Edges 22 Project Files 23 Stuff 24 Black Belt 25 Mind Like Water 26 Getting things "Off Your Mind" 27 Relaxed Focus 28 Flow State 29 The Weekly Review 30 10,000 Foot Level 31 20,000 Foot Level 32 30,000 Foot Level 33 40,000 Foot Level 34 50,000 Foot Level

[edit] The Collection Process

A process whereby you gather all of your open loops into a database ("trusted system") – described at length in the book. Can take as little as 3-6 hours; but took me 4 weeks to pull together my first complete “collection” of all open loops. I had 85 projects and 900 next actions in the first database; that’s now down to 10 active projects and less than 100 next actions, plus 200 incubated (“Someday/Maybe”) items.

[edit] Open Loops

Any open commitment, plan, or unfinished business that exists in your life. It is typical today for a busy person to have many hundreds or even thousands of "open loops" bouncing around throughout their conscious and unconscious thought processes, all vying for attention. Most of the stress people experience (conscious or otherwise) tends to come from inappropriately managed open loops (commitments) they make or accept.

[edit] The Trusted System

A (preferably) computerized GTD Database. GTD can also be implemented without a computer (e.g. on a yellow ruled pad) but it is by nature highly suitable for implementation on Computers, PIM’s, and/or a Palmtop computer.

[edit] Inbox

A central point (a physical or electronic inbox) where “stuff is collected”, before it is processed into your GTD system.

[edit] Next Action

A visible, physical task that can be performed without thinking about how to do it. The most atomic unit of information in your GTD system. There is a bit of an art to defining work items as a next action. Use action verbs, and keep it succinct.

[edit] Amorphous Blob

What you find as a "To-do" item in a typical To-do list. Lacking hard edges. When you scan the items in your GTD Database, typically a "Blob" item will mildly repel you. That is because there is some confusion about how to actually DO it – it hasn’t become a next action yet.

[edit] Desired Outcome

GTD emphasizes visualizing the desired outcome when thinking about a project, versus linear project planning. This approach has many benefits, per the book.

[edit] Project

Any desired outcome that requires more than one next action to complete is considered a project (discretion required).

[edit] The Five Steps of Workflow Management

Collecting, Processing, Organizing, Planning, Doing -- per the "Processing and Organizing workflow diagram" in the GTD book.

[edit] Collecting

Gathering placeholders (GTD DBase records) for all the things, stuff, projects that you consider incomplete. The GTD philosophy encompasses collecting "Anything and everything" you consider incomplete.

[edit] Processing

After an item is collected into your GTD system, the Process stage is where you do the critical, item-by-item thinking about what you need to do about each item. "Stuff" in your inbox is processed into your GTD system on a continuous basis.

[edit] Organizing

Once the process decision(s) are made, you then organize the GTD item into the correct "bucket" in your system.

[edit] Reviewing

The process of going through your GTD Database to make decisions about what should be active, and what’s not. This is done in different ways, on different time horizons. See "The Weekly Review".

[edit] Doing

The mode in which you are Getting Things Done. GTD places a high priority on working in the "doing" state, versus spending a lot of time planning, organizing, etc. The GTD structure gets all that out of the way quickly/efficiently, and discourages over-planning.

[edit] Prioritizing

GTD emphasizes relying upon your intuition moment-to-moment throughout the workday, instead of trying to formally prioritize everything. It’s a common-sense approach vs. trying to mechanically prioritize everything, which has been known not to work. GTD simply emphasizes considering four criteria before deciding which item to do 1) where are you (context – what can you do there); 2) how much time do you have? 3) what are your resources? 4) how much payoff from doing it?

[edit] Someday/Maybe Item

A project or next action that is on hold. The period could be days, weeks, months or years; all are lumped into the Someday/Maybe database and reviewed once a week during the weekly review.

[edit] Buckets

A category for grouping the records in your GTD database. Several categories tend to be associated with each physical working context.

[edit] Calendar

Under GTD, your calendar holds only commitments that MUST be done at a certain date/time. Everything else is in the GTD Database as a next action. With hard edges, it is only one place or the other.

[edit] Reference Information

Information which is not actionable, but which is kept on hand for reference purposes. Same concept applies to computer files. To distinguish an item as a "Project item" vs. a "Reference item" is a hard edge that greatly eases filing, both paper and electronic.

[edit] Tickler file

43 physical files folders numbered 1-31, and Jan-Dec (representing each day of the month, and each month), which is checked daily to use as a prompting system. Used in conjunction with the electronic GTD database, to handle time-critical paper workflow.

[edit] Hard Edges

The concept of absolute clarity as applied to the item-by-item thinking required to properly handle a GTD item, which results in a high degree of decision-making clarity – no "fuzziness". Used as a verb, e.g. "need to put some hard edges on that" means to clean up, clarify, and/or objectify a Project or Next Action item.

[edit] Project Files

Paper and/or electronic files which are kept in support of an active or incubating project.

[edit] Stuff

Anything you have allowed into your life that doesn’t belong where it is, but for which you haven’t determined the desired outcome and the next action step. As long as it’s "stuff", it’s not controllable.

[edit] Black Belt

A person exhibiting a high degree of skill in applying the GTD workflow methodology to manage his or her affairs.

[edit] Mind Like Water

A sense of relaxed clarity that results from successfully implementing GTD successfully. A condition of working, doing, and being in which the mind is clear and constructive things are happening.

[edit] Getting things "Off Your Mind"

A key GTD principle is to get everything into a computerized system, so that it is "off your mind". This gets at the Zen of the system – by getting everything into a GTD system, you are also clearing many distracting thoughts about things you should/would/could be doing. This has the subtle but powerful effect of freeing you to focus fully on what you are doing in the present. Once your open loops have been collected into a trusted GTD Database, you will be freed from the need to constantly cycle through them, either consciously or subconsciously.

[edit] Relaxed Focus

The state that results when you get everything "off your mind"… the best state to be working from. Also referred to as working in "The Zone" or the "Flow State".

[edit] Flow State

A state of working in which you lose sense of time and all of your energy is directed on the task at hand, seemingly effortlessly, with high productivity. Described in many books, the best is Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Look anywhere there are high-performance activities and you will see people working in this state: high-level athletics/sports e.g. professional Golf, Football, Soccer; Traders on the CME/CBOT floors in Chicago; Doctors performing surgery, Politicians in a debate, CEO’s giving an important motivational speech, etc. Amazing results come from working in the Flow state! It’s something to seek out.

[edit] The Weekly Review

A critical weekly process that ties everything together and makes the system work, long-term. Usually takes 1-2 hours on a Friday or a weekend, after your GTD database is up and running. Described at length in the book.

[edit] 10,000 Foot Level

The operational, or "runway" level. Where the "doing" happens.

[edit] 20,000 Foot Level

Current Roles and Responsibilities (what "hats" do you wear?). Both personally and professionally.

[edit] 30,000 Foot Level

Intermediate-term goals and objectives - on a 12-18 month timeframe.

[edit] 40,000 Foot Level

Longer-term goals - on a 3-5 year timeframe.

[edit] 50,000 Foot Level

Your overall mission in life – "the ultimate strategic planning level".

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