Write, record, or gather any and everything that has your attention into a collection tool.

Is it actionable? If so, decide the next action and project (if more than one action is required). If not, decide if it is trash, reference, or something to put on hold.

Park reminders of your categorized content in appropriate places.

Update and review all pertinent system contents to regain control and focus.

Write down everything that grabs your attention when it shows up (supporting the idea that your mind is better used to have ideas, not hold them).

Create a game you can win with GTD. Instead of saying you’re going to get your inbox to zero every day, start with an easier goal of once a week. Instead of saying you’re going to do the GTD Weekly Review every week for the next 10 years, try scheduling just the next one. And when you’ve done that one, book the next one after that.

However, at the first time—when you decide that enough is enough, that it’s time to start organizing your stuff—, you should perform a complete (or nearly complete) capture of everything that exists in your mind. This is called The Mind Sweep in GTD, i.e. a overall scan of everything holding your attention right now. It consists in identifying anything concerning your work or your personal life which you consider should be different, and put it all in one single place, which we can call the in-basket.

This is the “incompletion triggers” list that David Allen recommends you to review every time you need to do a mind sweep: Professional stuff: Projects started, not completed. Projects that need to be started. Commitments/promises to others (boss, partners, colleagues, subordinates, customers, organizations, professionals…) Communications to make/get (phone calls, e-mails, letters, memos, etc.) Writing to finish/submit (reports, proposals, articles, promotional materials, instructions, etc.) Meetings that need to be set. Decisions that have to be made. Who needs to know? Significant read/review. Financial stuff (budgets, forecasts, statistics, credit line, cash flow, etc.). Projects formal planning (goals, targets, objectives). Travel. Banks. Administration (legal issues, insurance, procedures, etc.) Customers. Marketing. Promotion. Sales. Systems (computers, phones, office equipment). Supplies. Waiting for… information, delegated tasks, replies, petty cash, ordered items, decisions of others, etc. Professional development (training, things to learn, skills to practice.) Research. Personal stuff: Projects started, not completed. Projects that need to be started. Commitments/promises to others (spouse, children, family, friends.) Communications to make/get with family and friends. Upcoming events (birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, travel, social events, cultural events, sporting events, etc.) Things to do (places to go, people to meet.) Administration (bills, banks, investments, loans, taxes, insurance, legal affairs.) Waiting for… orders, repair, loaned items, etc. Home/household (plumbing, electricity, decoration, furniture, etc.) Computers (software, hardware, connections, internet.) TV, VCR. Music, CDs. Cameras, film. Phones. Sports equipment. Closets/clothes. Garage/storage. Vehicle repair/maintenance. Pets. Health care. Hobbies (books, music, movies.) Errands (drugstore, market, bank, stationer, etc.) Community (neighborhood, schools, local government).

The Natural Planning Model is a productive way to think about projects, because it allows to get maximum value with minimum effort. This is an informal approach that does not require great elaboration. Although you don’t realize it, you usually do these five things to accomplish any task, no matter how simple it is:

You rarely think about your principles consciously, but they exist, and are of particular importance when there are more people involved. You don’t want to reach the result at any cost. If your personal values are violated, you will consider the project as a failure.

1. Make any choice. 2. Challenge yourself. Don’t compare. 3. Take steps and find out. 4. Start small. Begin anywhere. 5. Reframe. Make it a game. 6. Spill milk. Bounce back. 7. Be average. Good enough is enough. 8. Lay eggs in lots of baskets.

Tip #1 Learn to love your Weekly Reviews

Tip #2 Prioritize ruthlessly, then cut out some more

1. Just because you put it on your to-do list doesn’t mean you have to do it.

Just because someone asks you to do something doesn’t mean you have to say yes

Just because it sounds like a cool project or awesome opportunity, doesn’t mean you should take it on.

It’s ok to reschedule today’s tasks for tomorrow, or later in the week, or just someday/maybe.

By imposing a degree of structure, by asking ourselves to behave in a slightly more focused way, we’re giving ourselves an opportunity to develop our creative muscles. It doesn’t always mean that what we create every single time every single day will be an act of great art and beauty, but if indeed the best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas, then using GTD principles to create windows of opportunity to generate lots of ideas, sounds like a good approach.