• Getting Things Done Todoist
• Getting Things Done Outlook Todoist
• How To Use Todoist
• Getting Things Done Templates
• Getting Things Done Pdf
• Getting Things Done Mit Todoist

I am now deep into this series on getting things done, but before I go any farther, I would like to pause for a quick review. I began this series by explaining what productivity is and why it matters [Part 1]. Then I had you look at your life from a high-level perspective so you could divide it into areas of responsibility [Part 2]. Once you defined those areas of responsibility, you listed specific roles and projects within each of them, and then you worked on some brief mission statements that define what you mean to accomplish in each of them [Part 3]. In the most recent article I explained the four categories of tools required for top productivity, and told you the ones I use [Part 4].

The GTD methodology is based on David Allens book, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. The first edition was written in 2001. An updated version was written in 2015. The book is an international bestseller, translated to 47 languages. This Guide will show you how to: - Understand the fundamental GTD best practices. Optimally configure Todoist in the way we have found works best for GTD. Integrate your actionable email. Create project and next actions lists in Todoist. Create useful reference lists. Use Labels and Filters effectively. ★☆★ Subscribe ★☆★ Life Success Engineer Toolkit ★☆★ VIEW. Getting Things Done is one of those very rare books that changed my life. Before reading it in 2014 I considered myself a smart and driven person, but also unreliable, irresponsible and chaotic. Before reading it in 2014 I considered myself a smart and driven. Getting Things Done (a.k.a. GTD) is a popular, five-step time-management method that’s based on the idea of getting everything out of your head and onto your to-do list. It reduces stress and forgetfulness by helping you focus on completing tasks rather than trying to remember them. Click here to read more about the GTD methodology.

Today I want to explain and demonstrate what your areas of responsibility have to do with your tools (and why you will be missing out if you skip the hard work of defining those areas). As it happens, they have everything to do with one another. Your tools will only be as helpful as your understanding of your areas of responsibility and the duties and roles that fall within each of them. In other words, your tools function best when you combine them with a thorough understanding of your responsibilities.

Over this article and the ones that follow, I will help you use your tools to develop a system that will help ensure you give appropriate attention to each of your areas of responsibility. That word system may sound intimidating, so let me begin by distilling that fear factor.

Living in Systems

What is a system? I know it is considered bad form to quote a dictionary, but in this case the dictionary definition is very helpful. A system is “a set of connected things or parts forming a complex whole.” A system has multiple parts that work together toward a common goal.

Imagine that you were tasked with building a railroad to transport goods from your town to one twenty miles away. You would need to construct a system, and the system would need to involve all kinds of components: tracks, switches, locomotives, boxcars, mechanisms to load the trains, signals to control traffic flow, and on and on. This system would be comprised of a complex collection of parts, but once it was constructed, it would work and function as a whole. If it was constructed well, it would function smoothly and efficiently.

But you don’t need to build a railroad, you need to build a system that will allow you to be productive. A productivity system is a set of methods, procedures and routines that allow you to be most effective in knowing what to do and in actually doing it. An effective system involves identifying, deploying and relying on appropriate tools. When functioning together, these tools allow you to function smoothly and efficiently, dedicating appropriate time and attention to the most important tasks.

The fact is, to be productive, you need a system. You need to build it, use it, perfect it, and rely on it. Your system needs to gain your confidence so you can trust it to remember what needs to be remembered, to alert you to what is urgent, to direct you to what is important, and to direct you away from what is distracting.

An Organizing Principle

Our system will require tools, and in a moment we will begin setting up those tools.

First, though, I want to talk about an important organizing principle that will serve us on various levels. This principle extends to any area of life: A home for everything, and like goes with like. If you applied this all over your life (your home, your office, your computer) you’d never again find yourself scrambling to find your wallet, your keys, your passwords, or anything else.

When it comes to our productivity tools, we want to apply the very same principle: A home for everything, and like goes with like. This means that appointments need to go where appointments go, information needs to go where information goes, communications needs to go where communications go, and tasks need to go where tasks go. It means that communication and tasks should not be in the same place, and appointments and information should not be in the same place.

We can also get more specific with the principle. Information that is alike should be kept in the same place. Communications that are alike should be kept in the same place. This means that all of your information about one area of responsibility should be kept with the other information about that area of responsibility. All of your tasks related to one project should be kept with the other tasks related to that project.

Preparing the Tools

Last time we identified four different types of tool: Information tools, scheduling tools, communication tools, and task management tools. Now I want you to prepare those tools in light of your areas of responsibility. You will prepare them according to the same principle: A home for everything and like goes with like. We will focus particular attention on our information tool and task management tool.

Information Tool: Evernote
Let’s begin with your information tool. I use Evernote (evernote.com) to collect, manage and access my important information. If I will need to remember or access information in the future, I Evernote it. I know that you may use a different tool, but the setup procedure I outline here should be simple enough to adapt.

Evernote mimics a real-world information-collecting system, and it offers three levels of hierarchy. It has notes (individual pieces of information) that go in notebooks (collections of related notes). Notebooks can be grouped into notebook stacks (collections of related notebooks). It is all very simple: notes combine to make notebooks, and notebooks combine to make notebook stacks.

What I want you to do is to create a notebook stack for each of your areas of responsibility. Within each notebook stack, create a notebook for each of your roles or projects. You may want to have more notebooks than just your areas of responsibility, but try not to add them unnecessarily; whenever possible have fewer rather than more. You can see an example notebook stack setup in the attached graphic.

Action: Create a notebook stack for each area of responsibility. Within each notebook stack, create a notebook for each of your roles, duties and projects.

Within the Family notebook stack I have these notebooks (among others):

• Family: Spiritual Care (notes related to the spiritual leadership and care of my family)
• Family: Home (notes related to my home—the business card of a good plumber, the paint color for our walls, etc.)
• Family: Finance (information about our credit cards and mortgage, etc.)
• Family: Family growth (information about future vacation ideas, family night ideas, etc.).

Note: The “Family:” naming convention allows me to quickly and easily distinguish between a Finance notebook in my Business notebook stack (Business: Finance) and a Finance notebook in my Family notebook stack (Family: Finance).

Begin adding notes to your notebooks as you see fit. Notes can be text, but they can also be graphics, photos, audio files or just about anything else. You can even add Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and many other kinds of complex information. For now, though, focus on your Evernote setup; we will concern ourselves with actually using it soon enough.

Scheduling Tool: Google Calendar
I rely on Google Calendar (calendar.google.com) as my scheduling tool. I will have to be a bit less specific in my instructions for setting up your calendar, and that’s because our lives are so different and your calendar will need to reflect your life. The more meetings and appointments you have, the more important it will be to put a lot of time and planning into setting up your calendar. If you have very few timed appointments, your calendar can be basic and a low priority.

Your calendar is to be used primarily for events, meetings and appointments that happen at a certain time or a certain time and place. It is not a to-do list, so do not use your calendar to remind yourself that on October 20 you want to work on the first chapter of your new novel (which is a task). But do use it to remember that you have an 8 AM breakfast with Bob (which is an appointment).

You will need to determine whether you will have a single calendar that will encompass all of your areas of responsibility, or a separate calendar for each of them. Google Calendar will allow you to have multiple calendars and you may find there is benefit to having one for each area of responsibility. However, that also adds a little bit of complexity, so make the decision carefully.

Action: Create a single calendar that will encompass all your areas of responsibility, or a different calendar for each of your areas of responsibility.

Communication Tool: GMail
I use GMail (gmail.com) as my primary communication tool, and usually access it through Apple’s Mail app. Email is a revolting technology that refuses to loosen its clutches on our lives and businesses, so while we would undoubtedly be better off without it, we are stuck with it for the time being.

The best way I know to deeply integrate areas of responsibility with email is to use GMail’s online interface and to make use of their labels feature. I have invested a lot of time in setting up rules (a lot of rules!) that automatically label emails as they arrive. When an email arrives, it is labeled according to the sender and labeled Business, Personal, Family or GFC.

One of the drawbacks of Apple’s Mail app is that it does not display those labels, so they do not do me a lot of good when I use their app. So I continue to wait for email to disappear and in the meantime concern myself more with not allowing it to dominate my life than with deeply embedding it within my system.

I will have more to say about managing email in the near future.

Action: If possible, set up your email to reflect your areas of responsibility.

Task Management Tool: OmniFocus
I use OmniFocus (omnigroup.com) as my task management tool. If you are a Mac-user and committed to getting things done, the software is well worth the investment (and, if you are a power-user, so is the upgrade to Pro). However, OmniFocus comes with a learning curve and you will need to be patient as you learn to use it well. I have installed the app on my iPhone and desktop, but have not yet found a compelling reason to use the iPad version. If you do not wish to spend the money on OmniFocus or you are using a PC, consider ToDoist (Things is another great alternative for Mac users). Whatever system you choose should allow you to clearly delineate between projects that fall under different areas of responsibility, and it should also allow repeating (or recurring) tasks.

Set up OmniFocus (or ToDoist) around your areas of responsibility. In OmniFocus this requires going into the Projects perspective and creating a folder for each area of responsibility. Then create a project to match each of your roles or projects. I have attached a screenshot of my projects perspective displaying the areas of responsibility (plus one called “Reviews” I will tell you about soon) and a screenshot displaying some of the current projects within Family.

In ToDoist this requires creating a project for each of the areas of responsibility, and then creating a sub-project (using the indent feature) for each role or project. Again, see the attached screenshot. As with Evernote, I would use the “Family: Home” naming convention.

In the future I will tell you how to use your task management software. For today, though, focus your attention on setting it up.

Action: Set up your task management software to reflect your areas of responsibility; create a project for each role, duty, or project.

Miscellany
If you require other software tools, attempt to set them up based around your areas of responsibility. For example, if you use Dropbox or a similar service to share files between computers (or simply to keep them in the cloud), create folders to match your areas of responsibility and organize your files into one of those folders. You can also extend the system to whatever paper files you need to keep. Remember the controlling principle: A home for everything, and like goes with like.

Tune in next week and we will start to actually use all of these tools.

More in How To Get Things Done:

Table of Contents

1. In depth discussion
   1. Evernote
   2. Todoist
   3. NirvanaHQ [winner]
   4. FacileThings

If you’re unfamiliar with Getting Things Done, I strongly urge you to go read the book, it’s a life changer. I do not intend to repeat the contents here, but I will include some nice variable-length summaries I’ve found and enjoyed:

Opera mini dmg. It’s not a perfect book (I gave it ★★★★☆), but the abstract concepts behind it are so powerful that in combination they feel like acquiring a superpower.

Getting Things Done is one of those very rare books that changed my life. Before reading it in 2014 I considered myself a smart and driven person, but also unreliable, irresponsible and chaotic. I would pick up and drop projects on a whim, forget tasks that I promised to do, arrive late to everything and generally I just felt unproductive and stressed. The trust between present-me and future-me was pretty low.

After several years of practicing the GTD system, I became an objectively more reliable, consistent and productive person. Present-me and future-me have become great allies and even more importantly I enjoy the process of planning and performing my tasks and work.

Getting Things Done Todoist

The book was published almost 20 years ago and today is still, in my opinion, the best and most complete personal productivity system out there. While originally it was implemented with physical files, folders and papers, it has since been transformed by many practitioners to accommodate to the digital age.

When I started practicing GTD, the best implementation I found was in Evernote. It was called “The secret weapon” and it worked well — I’ve used and refined it for years, until last year I finally decided it’s time to switch. Surely a better implementation must exist by now.

After taking a couple of months to try different software solutions, I’ve settled on using NirvanaHQ. In the next section I explain why.

For those who just want a straight answer, NirvanaHQ is my winner. After sticking with it for months, I’m still very happy. I summarize the comparison below:

Evernote: my first GTD implementation. Used it in 2014-2018 and it completely worked. Clunky to set up and clunky to use, but versatile enough to deliver a full GTD experience. In my opinion it was the best option until recent years.

Todoist: a well designed and implemented general task-management app. Requires a lot of tinkering to fit to the GTD system and then it’s a proper solution. I love how responsive and intuitive the app is and that it has many third party integrations. Currently my second choice.

NirvanaHQ [winner]: finds a great balance between true GTD implementation and a light, well designed modern service for web and mobile. It’s not perfect (I am sorely missing integrations with outside services such as calendar or IFTTT/Zapier and support for task images / attachments), but it really achieves the GTD vision simply and beautifully. My current choice.

FacileThings: the most true, hard-core implementation of GTD I’ve seen and a great tool to introduce newcomers to the system with a guided experience. The only tool that has built in consideration of your purpose, vision, goals, areas of responsibility and even formalized a weekly review process. Too bad the UX is not so well designed and requires a lot of clicks to get anything done, and perhaps a bit too restrictive in doing GTD “the right way”.

I’ve also tried other apps like AnyDo, Wunderlist and Remember The Milk but didn’t find them to fit well with GTD.

If you’re interested in setting up a GTD implementation for a non GTD-native app like Evernote or Todoist, read on…

What is required to implement GTD?

As far as I can see, to implement GTD you need two things:

1. Mutually exclusive folders/labels to represent task status: [Inbox / Now / Next / Someday-Maybe / Waiting-Delegated / Complete].This is trivial: I need to be able to move a task from one status to another and have it erase the previous one automatically (otherwise, when I label something as next I’d have to also remove the label soon).
2. Concurrent labels to represent context:
   • What: properties of your tasks such as: priority, low/high energy, estimated time and so on. They can also be keywords such as: health, finance, family and so on.
   • Where: places where you’re likely to do tasks.
   • Who: separate tags for people you frequently work with or delegate tasks to.

The context labels allow me to figure out what to do next that fits my context. For example when I’m driving, need to fill 10 minutes or am in the mood to do something specific.

If you can make these two requirements work, you’ve got yourself a basic GTD system and the rest is details (which can sometimes still be very important!).

Mac os catalina macbook pro mid 2014. Further considerations:

• Separate work and life tasks easily.
• Have useful reminders that pop up at the right time, in the right context, in the right location.
• Integrations with other services (such as your calendar).
• Great UX and a snappy multi-platform experience.

Side note:
The minimal implementation of GTD that exists is probably todo.txt.

Evernote

My first GTD implementation. Used it in 2014-2018 and it completely worked. Clunky to set up and clunky to use, but versatile enough to deliver a full GTD experience. In my opinion it was the best option until recent years.

Implementation

The best implementation of GTD that I’ve seen for Evernote is The Secret Weapon. The only thing I strongly object to is their decision to implement task status as tags, under a .when label (see their setup page).In Evernote, I think task status must be implemented using the notebooks, since they are the only mutually exclusive kind of tag (reasoning given above).Below is a screenshot of my own setup which has worked for me for years. Note the separation of work and life into two notebook stacks. Task status switches are very easy to manage.

Pros

1. Super easy to capture tasks, ideas and information. Evernote implemented a great capturing tool on android by creating a 1-click widget to capture text, photos or voice. Everything goes into the inbox to be processed later.
2. Extremely flexible. Using notebooks and tags you can set up your system any way that you want. Tags have infinite hierarchy.

Cons

1. Not GTD-native. By that I mean that while Evernote is versatile enough to implement GTD, it wasn’t built with GTD first in mind. The result is a somewhat clunky daily experience. For example:
   • Tasks are just Evernote notes, which don’t have standard task properties like energy levels, time estimation or the ability to “tick” a box when done in a satisfying manner.
   • Reminders in Evernote are weak and it is hard to define and properly follow self-imposed due dates.
2. Two GTD notebook stacks are required to separate work and life tasks. Or at least that’s the best separation I could think of.

Todoist

A well designed and implemented general task-management app. Requires a lot of tinkering to fit to the GTD system and then it’s a proper solution. I love how responsive and intuitive the app is and that it has many third party integrations. In my opinion even after proper setup it’s second to NiravanaHQ, but for non-GTD-purists it might be a winner.

Implementation

The setup in one picture:

The main problem with implementing GTD on Todoist is that this software is oriented around due dates and there is no clear way to implement task status. This could be solved by either having a set of mutually exclusive labels (for task status) or simply nested labels (for projects, which would free up the Todoist projects pane for task status purposes). Unfortunately both features are missing, so I’m facing a dilemma:

• If I use the projects tab for task status, then I have to implement my actual projects as labels, which sucks because Todoist labels are not nested and generally not first class citizens.

• If I use labels for task status, they are not mutually exclusive which is one of the two requirements above.

How to solve this? Interestingly, I found a way around this limitation with the use of filters: give each task-status a label.

For each task-status create a filter which shows only tasks for which that status is the highest priority.Add the filters to favorites and then view the task statuses from there.

As an example, say I have the task “buy milk”. At first I add the label Soon to it. Then at some point the task becomes relevant and I add the label Next to it. The filter for Next is set up in such a way that it shows everything with label Next, so the task will be seen under it. But! The filter for Soon is set up so that tasks which belong also to Next do not appear under it, and so the task is effectively gone from this view.

To define the filter simply enter: Soon & !Next which translates to: “Show me tasks which belong to Soon and don’t belong to Next”.

Naturally I setup the other task-status the same way.

Pros

1. Full of integrations with other services
2. A very smooth experience both on web and mobile
3. Powerful reminders and repeating tasks

Cons

1. Not GTD-native and not trivial to set up proper GTD even when trying. And to be honest, even after proper set up I was still missing some critical GTD features like assigning a contact person to a task (it’s possible to implement contacts as labels, but since there are is no nesting with Todoist labels it becomes a mess).
2. I don’t really get the purpose of the karma system (scores your productivity).

NirvanaHQ [winner]

Nirvana Finds a great balance between true GTD implementation and a light, well designed modern service for web and mobile. It’s not perfect (I am sorely missing integrations with outside services such as calendar or IFTTT/Zapier and support for task images / attachments), but it really achieves the GTD vision simply and beautifully. My current choice.

Pros

1. GTD-native. Easy to manipulate and process the tasks.
2. Intuitive UX and a smooth experience across web and mobile.
3. Using Areas, very easy to separate work and life tasks.
4. Overall, strikes a great balance between GTD purity and great UX.

Cons

1. No integrations with other services such as calendar.
2. No support for attachments of any kind. This service is only text-based for now.
3. Repeating tasks do not support countdown from the time your finished the previous iteration of the task.
4. Task capturing on mobile is weak (requires opening the app and then a long press on “+”). This is solved by adding an IFTTT note widget which sends an email to my Nirvana inbox.

Note:I was recently made aware that there is an offline-desktop clone of NirvanaHQ, called Everdo. After testing it for a few minutes, it is a near-perfect clone, down to exact UI placements. Personally I don’t like such blatent copying, but for some of you this might be an alternative to consider.

FacileThings

The truest, most hard-core implementation of GTD I’ve seen. It is the only tool that has built in consideration of your purpose, vision, goals, areas of responsibility and it even formalized the weekly review process. Too bad the UX is not so well designed and requires a lot of clicks to get anything done, and perhaps a bit too restrictive in doing GTD “the right way”.

Getting Things Done Outlook Todoist

One thing I’ve noticed about FacileThings is that it’s a great platform for introducing people to the GTD method. Some of my friends who were not that interested in reading the book were happy to just watch a youtube summary of it and then try FacileThings, which provided a guided, handheld GTD experience. As their free trial ended, some of these friends decided to continue with GTD, but not all of them stayed with FacileThings.

How To Use Todoist

Pros

Getting Things Done Templates

1. A great, very true implementation of GTD. I’ve actually recommended this service to friends as an introduction to the method instead of the book - it’s more interactive and forces you to work right.
2. The only implementation I’ve seen that incorporates higher GTD concepts such as the weekly review, areas of responsibility, Vision, life goals, etc.

Cons

1. Clunky UX. It’s too hard to manipulate tasks and get all their parameters right.
2. Mobile experience is not good.
3. Not flexible. You can’t do shortcuts that are against the pure GTD way. For example:
   • you can’t add a task to the inbox and immediately process it. It goes into a processing queue which means that I only get to fill out the details when I’ve already left the current context.

Other GTD apps

Since posting, additional GTD apps have been recommended to me by various readers of this post. I’ll try to keep a list of them here:

• Nozbe
• Everdo
• GTDNext
• Skedpal
• (Update 2019-11-04) Amazing Marvin - this one looks amazing. Extremely configurable and serious power under the hood.

Getting Things Done Pdf

I’ve given each of these at least a cursory glance and while some of them are quite nice, my overall recommendations remain the same.

Getting Things Done Mit Todoist

Further discussion

Feel free to join the discussion about this post in the official GTD forums and on Reddit.Alternatively, you can leave a comment below.