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The method, in brief
See what matters. Do what's next.
A short, clear guide to the method: the idea behind it, the five moves, the one decision that sorts everything, and the habit that makes it stick.
Most task apps are built around dates. Getting Things Done is built around a different question — the one that actually moves you forward.
Unfinished tasks become small accusations.
They start out helpful. Then the counters climb, the red badges multiply, and the unfinished work quietly turns into a backlog you carry around all day.
So you stop opening the app. Not because you stopped caring, but because it stopped helping.
Dates are kept for real deadlines.
Everything else turns on a single question, and it is not the one a calendar would ask. You stop scanning for what is overdue and start looking for what you can actually do.
The work stays held until you are ready for it — nothing nags, nothing hides.
Five moves, run as a loop. Not a checklist you finish, a rhythm you keep. Each move earns its place by making the next one lighter.
If it pulls at you, it goes in. No sorting, no judging, no deciding. Capture is the one moment you are allowed to be messy.
Pick one thing up and ask if it is truly actionable. If it is, name the very next physical step. If it is not, be honest and let it go.
Sort by where you can act, not by when it is owed. Keep a few lists you will actually open, and nothing parked where you will never look.
Once a week, walk the whole system end to end. A list you never revisit is a list you have quietly stopped believing in.
Nothing nags and nothing hides. You pick what fits the moment you are in, you do it, and the system holds everything else.
Take one item out of your inbox and run it through this. Every item gets exactly one home, and nothing is left in a maybe-later pile that never gets decided.
Once an item is clarified, it has exactly one home. A handful of lists is all the method needs, and you only ever look at the one that matters right now.
Everything you have captured but not yet processed. A holding bay, emptied often, never a place things live.
The concrete steps you can take now, grouped by context. This is the list you actually work from.
Things you handed to someone else and are tracking, so a handoff never quietly disappears.
Only what is truly tied to a day or a time. It stays short and sacred, never a wish list.
Ideas you are not committing to yet. They rest here, reviewed now and then, until you are ready.
Information worth keeping that you cannot act on. No checkbox, just findable when you need it.
Any outcome that takes more than one step. Each one owns a single, clear next action.
Where you are and what you have. You filter your next actions by what is possible right now.
You only ever open the list that fits the moment. The rest waits, quietly.
Once a week you walk the whole system end to end, one step at a time. It is the habit that keeps everything else worth trusting, and the one most people skip.
Empty your inbox and your head, and decide what each loose thing is.
Walk every list. Update next actions and revive whatever has stalled.
With a clear system, add the someday ideas you now have room for.
A review does not have to be all or nothing. Walk it in the same order each time, and choose how far to go.
Inbox and next actions only. Enough to get back on solid ground when the week got away from you.
Choose a few projects to think through properly, then move quickly through the rest.
Every list, one at a time, in order. Nothing skipped and nothing assumed.
However deep you go, you reach the end and the whole system fits in your head again — that is why the loop is worth keeping. Getting Things Done® and GTD® are registered trademarks of the David Allen Company. tingdo is not affiliated with or endorsed by the David Allen Company.