The Perfect ToDoIst GTD System

Summary

The provided script outlines Todoist's GTD (Getting Things Done) productivity method. It first stresses capturing everything that comes to mind in your inbox to compile a thorough task list. Then clarify each item, delegating if needed, adding due dates, and deleting irrelevant tasks. Next, sort your tasks into optimal organization using projects, labels, and hashtags. Regularly review your list, planning when you'll complete each task. Finally, focus solely on your prioritized daily to-do's to consistently make progress. The structured GTD workflow leads to increased productivity through thoughtful planning and strategic consistency in taking action.

Takeaways

• 😀 The first step of GTD is to capture anything that comes to mind in your inbox
• ✏️ If a task takes <2 minutes, just do it right away rather than clarifying or organizing
• 🗄️ For non-actionable reference items like files or documents, file them separately or attach to a relevant task
• 📅 Add due dates to tasks to utilize Parkinson's Law and ensure things get done on time
• 👥 If a task can be delegated to someone else, assign it to them
• 🗂️ Organize inbox items by sorting them into the right projects and using labels
• 📝 Do a weekly review to process inboxes, plan when tasks will get done, and schedule time for tasks
• 📆 Set up a recurring weekly review task to ensure consistency
• ⏱️ A little bit of planning leads to more consistent action and aggregate productivity gains
• 🙌 You can tweak the GTD method over time to suit your personal needs and style

Q & A

What is the first step of the GTD method?

The first step of the GTD method is to capture anything that comes to mind, like ideas, tasks, errands etc. This is done by writing them down in your inbox.

If a task takes less than 2 minutes, what should you do?

If a task takes less than 2 minutes, you should just complete it right away rather than clarifying or organizing it.

How can you delegate tasks using the GTD method?

You can delegate tasks by assigning them to someone else when clarifying your inbox items.

Where should non-actionable reference items be filed?

Non-actionable reference items like files, articles, documents etc. should be filed in a separate reference project or attached to the comments of a relevant task/project.

Why is it important to set due dates for tasks?

Setting due dates is important because of Parkinson's Law which states that work expands to fill the time available. Due dates help ensure tasks get completed in a timely manner.

How can projects be differentiated in Todoist?

Projects can be differentiated by using hashtags in front of the project name. This helps create grouping buckets.

What is the purpose of the weekly review?

The weekly review helps process inboxes, plan the upcoming week by assigning tasks to days, and ensure you are set up for success.

Why is the Today view important?

The Today view shows the tasks that need to be worked on for the current day. This is where actual work/action happens based on the planning.

Is some planning better than no planning?

Yes, a little bit of planning leads to more consistent action over time compared to no planning at all.

How can the GTD method be customized?

The GTD method can be tweaked and customized to suit personal working styles and preferences while still keeping the core framework.

Outlines

00:00

📝 Capturing ideas and tasks in Todoist using GTD method

The first paragraph explains the first step of the Getting Things Done (GTD) method used in Todoist - capturing any ideas or tasks that come to mind. It suggests doing a brain dump regularly to capture anything new. The writer demonstrates adding tasks directly in Todoist using browser extensions, Gmail integration, etc. to quickly capture thoughts.

05:02

📋 Clarifying and organizing tasks in Todoist

The second paragraph continues with steps two and three of the GTD method - clarifying and organizing tasks. It suggests setting due dates, deleting completed tasks, assigning labels and hashtags, and using projects and sub-projects to organize tasks. The writer provides examples of clarifying and organizing sample tasks from the first paragraph.

Keywords

💡GTD method

The GTD (Getting Things Done) method is a productivity system focused on capturing, clarifying, organizing, reviewing and engaging with tasks and ideas to stay focused. The video talks about using Todoist to implement the GTD framework to manage workflows and tasks.

💡capture

The first step in the GTD workflow is to capture anything that comes to mind as a task or idea before it slips away. The video gives examples of using Todoist extensions and integrations to quickly capture thoughts.

💡clarify

Clarifying involves adding details like due dates, delegates, comments etc to captured tasks to make them actionable. The video advises clarifying tasks as soon as possible to avoid delay.

💡organize

Organizing tasks involves sorting them into projects and labeling based on contexts and priorities. This allows tasks to be handled appropriately. The video talks about using Todoist projects and labels to organize.

💡review

Regularly reviewing tasks to process and plan is important in GTD. The video shares how Todoist provides templates for weekly reviews to ensure tasks are on track.

💡engage

The final step is to engage with the clarified, organized tasks in the Today view to actually take action and make progress on them.

💡extensions

The video demonstrates browser extensions for quick task capture into Todoist while working on the computer.

💡integrations

Integrations with tools like Gmail, Teams etc enable easy creation of Todoist tasks from outside the app for quick capture.

💡projects

Todoist projects help group related tasks and focus work. The video advises using projects to organize tasks into logical segments.

💡labels

Along with projects, labels add contextual information to tasks that can help filter and organize based on attributes like contexts.

Highlights

The first step of GTD is to capture anything that comes to mind into your inbox

If an item takes less than 2 minutes, just complete it right away instead of clarifying or organizing it

For non-actionable reference items like files or articles, file them separately or attach to a relevant task

Clarifying when tasks need to be done by assigning due dates ensures you take action on them properly

Organize inbox items by sorting them into the right projects and using labels

For pro users, sub-projects can be used instead of labels to organize tasks into buckets

Todoist provides a GTD weekly review template to help regularly process tasks

The weekly review is when you schedule what tasks will get done on which days

The today view shows you the tasks to focus on completing today

Planning strategically with GTD leads to more consistent action and productivity

GTD provides a framework that can be tweaked and molded to suit your needs

Step 1 is to capture anything that comes to mind into your inbox

If a task is less than 2 minutes, just do it right away

File non-actionable references separately to review later

Having proper due dates ensures tasks are done on time

Transcripts

let's dive into todoist's gtd method

first and foremost you want to capture

anything that comes to mind that's step

one of the gtd method so in your inbox

you just can put down whatever the heck

it is that you think is gonna come up so

on the bottom here just like this came

to mind

example task

and then

in the initial part of the gtd method

what to do is you want to just do a

brainstorm really quick and take do a

brain dump of any ideas that you have

any idea that pops up will come out and

you do that you consistently

do that on a basis that happens

hopefully just anytime you have a new

idea you want to do this however in the

beginning just do a really quick brain

dump then after you set up this this

sort of mindset you can go and do things

to make it happen so for me i have the

app on my computer on my phone and i

have some integrations that work really

well as well so we just go into my

browser here and go to

uh anything right so i i have a website

now that i'm gonna keep plugging until

people go and look at um

so i have this chrome extension so it's

like i get an idea here okay uh add

add this to my website

please and it's in the today view so

it's going to go and add that in there

if we also have another nice little

integration here with gmail

so you can do something like use the

todoist integration in gmail as well to

quickly capture any thoughts or ideas

that come into your life and the same

goes for something like microsoft teams

that turn messages into tasks so the

second part of this process is clarify

and if that item item takes less than

two minutes just complete it and do it

right away don't do any sort of

organization with it or clarification

and if it can be delegated assign that

task to somebody else as well if it's a

non-actionable reference item something

like a file an article a document etc

that you'll need to come back to later

file it in a separate reference project

or attach it to the comments of one of

the relevant tasks or projects that you

have going on so so improve your

newsletter with quotes i kind of want to

frame this

in a way that is interesting so rather

than me saying look into aliabdulls

or rather than me making it task saying

look into ali abdel's weekly newsletter

look into matt diavel's weekly

newsletter to find inspiration just type

it out in the comments so look

into matt d

avella's

weekly newsletter or i can add it into a

subtask

here as well so it's like

check out

snail mail newsletter because that's

actually something i need to do so it's

a good example here so if it needs to be

done at a specific task or date i want

to do it by today or i want to do it by

tomorrow this is that part in this step

where you you go and you take

this clarification

and you make sure it happens because we

can capture the tasks all we want but if

we don't clarify when they're going to

need to be done

then it's hard for us to take action on

that thing in the proper amount of time

if you know about parkinson's law you

want to make sure that you have due

dates that make sense if you make them

pretty far out it's going to take until

that due date for it to get completed

and if we have a bunch of tasks here

that don't need to

be implemented anymore

i can

delete i can either check it off if i

already did it or i can delete it if i

don't need to do this i actually already

did it i'm not sure if i want to buy a

world championship tickets i can delete

the small errand it happened or i didn't

do it and then that's that step of

clarification that we need before we get

into organization now for organization

once you've clarified the items in your

inbox it's time to sort it into like the

right spots uh in in reality like

clarifying and organizing your tasks

will happen like as you kind of clean up

your inbox so this is kind of a similar

process as i mentioned things earlier it

was like i didn't go that next step so i

want to show that now so for example

this is obviously something that i move

the project to a side hustle right this

obviously goes to side hustle

and this is the organization we're

talking about here it's like move to

project

uh someday slash maybe improve your

newsletter with quotes

to project side hustle

may have

yep move to side hustle and then

i can finish this out real quick

and i don't actually need any of these

tasks so i'm just going to check these

off or move them and that's the

clarification i need organizing with

like a mix of projects here is pretty

good we have five here as is the max

onto the todoist free version and

organizing with a mix of like labels

like i have these labels here

and uh the different projects are clear

so i can like add a label for youtube

or website

and then we can see

that within side hustle i can label

things

this would be more

than a label

or for this one

the same dealio

we have a website edit that we need to

make

the video ideas we can clearly have

the youtube tag attached to it so a

mixture of this and then for me i like

to have

different buckets as well if i had to do

is pro i would set it up within and make

a bunch of sub projects and do stuff

like this and make it a sub project for

example instead of the labels i'd

probably do like a youtube bucket

a website bucket rather than just having

those labels

while you're making projects as per

usual with just keyboard shortcuts if

you put hashtag you can differentiate

the projects that they're in so you can

get those buckets underway so now with

the review process which is really

what's really nice is i personally set

time

weekly

to do a plan week

sort of setup with my notion planning

however with the gtd method in todoist

it's nice that they actually have a

template made out on todoist.com's

website and a lot of the inspiration for

this came from todoist in general and

is really nice that they they do these

articles i think to do this is a great

website

a great program has a nice blog all the

sort of things it's a great company in

general so shout out to them for doing

this for us but if we go to the gtd

weekly review

after i tried to play off hitting my

keyboard just now uh to change the view

we look here and we have the weekly

reviews set up and

it's it's this time to weekly review

that you can change this uh recurring

task for what day of the week you want

it to be or you can do it twice a week

or make two of these and

basically what you do is you before you

review you process the digital inboxes

clear off the desk close all

distractions off it's a nice setup so

this review process is is where we go

and we make those planning steps we say

okay this task is being done on this day

and we make sure that it's set up in a

way with our calendars that works out so

that we can get the most

optimal time set up to get work done now

in order to engage with all this work we

need to go to uh the most important

view of all which is just the today view

so today for example i would figure out

my website stuff i have example tax add

this to my website please and buy world

championships track tickets no you will

have your actual tasks show up on your

step 5 engage and that's the part where

we take action we go and we have these

systems set up and we plan for a little

bit of time to save a lot of time when

we're actually working on things and a

lot of people may ask the question why

bother to do all this planning just take

action

i would say a little bit of planning

leads to more ability to actionably work

consistently and that consistency is

what will in the aggregate

beat out those who don't plan as

strategically so that is my opinion on

the subject and that is why i think the

gtd method is great for anybody who's

starting out with productivity and then

you can kind of mold your own concept

whereas i used the gtd method and didn't

realize it for a long time and then i

kind of tweaked things to my own liking

so that's how you use the gtd method

within todoist

and dive

into a great application