GTD

Empty your mind – Troubleshooting your Capture system for Getting Things Done (GTD)

Ever had your brain reminding you of things to do at the most inappropriate moments. Like when you are in a deep conversation with someone or your head touches the pillow at night?

A lot of us carry most of our to-dos in our head. Or keep them scattered in diverse locations.

Our brain is great at thinking, imagining and creativity but poor at storing and reminding. Yet that’s exactly what it will focus its resources to if it doesn’t have an external system to capture what has your attention.

Bruce Lee - "Empty your mind. Be formless, shapeless, like water…Be water, my friend".

The good news is that the Capture stage of Getting Things Done (GTD) is easy to master.

If you have already done the initial setup but struggle with maintaining the capture practice then here’s what you need to revisit -

Optimize for speed of capture. It should not take more a minute to capture else your brain will take over.

Capture everything that has your attention. Actionable tasks and non-actionable reference material.

Have few capture containers. Keep hard boundaries. Don’t use a notes app, calendar or email for keeping your tasks.

Empty (clarify) the containers regularly.

Start with a task manager, a calendar app, a notes app and a document folder for the variety of items you will capture.

Don’t try to setup the perfect all pervasive capture system. Start with your top information sources and let the practice evolve.

David Allen - “When the only thing on your mind is the only thing on your mind, you’ll be “present,” in your “zone,” with no distinction between work and play”.

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