Getting Things Done: David Allen's five steps, and how to run GTD in a notes app

Getting Things Done, usually called GTD, is a method for getting everything that is on your mind out of your head and into a system you trust. You capture it, decide what it means, put reminders where they belong, review them often, and then choose what to do from a clear list instead of from memory. David Allen created it, and it has five steps: Capture, Clarify, Organize, Reflect and Engage.

This guide explains each step, the two-minute rule, the lists GTD uses, and how to run Getting Things Done in Barside, a free desktop app for Windows, Linux and Mac where your to-dos live inside your notes.

Where Getting Things Done comes from

David Allen's book Getting Things Done was first published in 2001. In March 2015, Penguin Random House published a completely revised and updated edition, noting that the book had first come out almost fifteen years earlier. The David Allen Company teaches the method on gettingthingsdone.com.

The idea behind it is that every open loop you keep in your head, like the email to answer or the gift to buy, costs attention. Once all of them sit in a system you trust and review, you can focus on the work in front of you.

The five steps of Getting Things Done

The official site gives each step a short tagline.

1. Capture: "Collect what has your attention"

Write down or gather everything on your mind into a collection tool, your inbox. Ideas, tasks, worries, papers, messages. Capture is not deciding; it is getting things out of your head fast.

2. Clarify: "Process what it means"

Go through the inbox one item at a time. Is it actionable?

• If not, it is trash, reference material, or something to put on hold for later.
• If yes, decide the very next action. If reaching the outcome takes more than one action, it is also a project, and you note the project too.

3. Organize: "Put it where it belongs"

Put each reminder in the right place: action lists, your calendar, your reference files. Actions tied to a specific day go on the calendar. Everything else goes on lists.

4. Reflect: "Review frequently"

Look over your lists often enough to trust them. The centerpiece is the Weekly Review, which has its own guide: the GTD weekly review, step by step.

5. Engage: "Simply do"

Choose what to do next with confidence, because you know everything you could be doing is on a list you just reviewed.

The two-minute rule

When you clarify an item and the next action would take less than about two minutes, do it right away. Tracking it would take longer than finishing it. Answer the quick email, file the receipt, confirm the meeting.

Use it while you process your inbox. During focused work, it is usually better to capture a quick task and handle it the next time you process, rather than break off every time one appears.

The lists GTD uses

Clarify and Organize sort everything into a small set of places. Most of them also appear in Allen's Weekly Review checklist, which walks through them one by one.

Common mistakes with GTD

• Capturing without clarifying. An inbox that only grows becomes one more source of stress. Process it to empty regularly.
• Vague next actions. Website is not an action. Email Sam for the logo files is. If you cannot picture doing it, it is not clarified yet.
• Projects with no next action. Every active project needs at least one next action on your list, or it quietly stalls.
• Putting wishes on the calendar. When the calendar holds things you would like to do on a day, it stops telling you what you must do on that day.
• Skipping the review. Without regular reflection, the lists drift out of date and you stop trusting them.
• Tuning the system instead of using it. A simple setup you review beats a perfect one you redesign every month.

How to run Getting Things Done in Barside

In Barside, every checklist item in every note is a task, and the Tasks board gathers them all, grouped as Overdue, Today, Tomorrow, Next 7 days, Later and No due date. That gives you GTD's lists without a separate to-do app, and each task keeps the note that explains it. See the task board built from your checklists.

Capture from anywhere

• Tasks. Press Alt+Shift+Space in any app, type task and the words, like task call the dentist, and press Enter. Barside adds it to the Tasks note of your first workspace with no due date, and you never leave the app you were in.
• Ideas and notes. In the same search bar, type nn and a title to make a note.
• Articles to read. Type save to send the page open in your browser to Reading.
• On the board. Type in Add a task… at the top of the Tasks board, or choose Create → New task.

Clarify your inbox

Captured tasks wait under No due date. Go through them one at a time:

1. Not actionable? Delete it with the trash button, or move the information into a reference note.
2. Under two minutes? Do it now and tick it.
3. Tied to a day? Click its date chip and pick the day. It moves to Today, Tomorrow or Next 7 days.
4. Part of a project? Cut it from the Tasks note and paste it into the project's note, under its checklist.
5. Not now? Move it to your Someday/Maybe note as a plain bullet.

Organize your lists

• Projects. Give each project a note from the Project brief template, with its Milestones checklist and next actions. Make a note called Projects that links each one with [[, and pin it to the top with Note options → Pin to the top.
• Next actions. Checklist items without a date sit under No due date on the board. If you group actions by where you can do them, add a word like @calls or @errands to the task text. Search tasks… above the board matches task text, so typing @calls shows only those.
• Calendar. Give a due date only to actions that truly belong to a day. For an alert at an exact time, press the bell on the task and set a reminder. Your meetings stay in Google Calendar or Outlook, and Barside shows today and the next 7 days next to your notes. See the calendar next to your notes.
• Waiting For. Keep a note called Waiting for with a checklist: who, what and the date you asked. Set a reminder on an item for the day you will follow up. See reminders on notes and tasks.
• Someday/Maybe. Keep a note with a plain bullet list, not a checklist. Bullets stay off the task board, so your action lists stay clean.
• Reference. Keep it in notes, saved webpages, bookmarks and Reading. A separate workspace called Reference keeps it out of the way. The search bar finds any of it.

Reflect every week

Make your own Weekly Review template with Allen's checklist, and let Barside create it every Friday as a repeating note. The GTD weekly review guide has the full setup. Between reviews, the Daily briefing in Library & briefing shows reminders due today, unchecked tasks and the rest of today's calendar, worked out on your computer without AI.

Engage with the board

Each morning, open Tasks. Do what is under Overdue and Today first, then pick from No due date, using @context searches or the workspace menu to narrow the list. If you connected an AI in Settings → AI, you can type a question like "Plan my day from my tasks and calendar" in the search bar and press Tab to ask Quick AI. Barside has no AI of its own; it uses the account you connect.

Who Getting Things Done suits

• People with many commitments across work and home who feel they are forgetting something.
• Managers and freelancers juggling projects, requests and follow-ups.
• Anyone who wants a calm head, since the method is about trust in the system as much as output.

It asks for a habit: capture everything, process the inbox, review weekly. If you want something lighter, personal kanban gives you a visual board with two rules, and the Eisenhower matrix helps you sort by urgency and importance.

Related methods

• The GTD weekly review, the Reflect step in detail.
• Inbox Zero, Merlin Mann's approach to email, built on GTD.
• The Eisenhower matrix, urgent versus important.
• Personal kanban, visualize your work and limit what is in progress.
• Time blocking, give each hour of the day a job.