Thoughts about keeping working modes separate

[achieve]

There was a quote in the weekly review reminder email years ago that describes the weekly review that I put on a post it and attached it to my weekly review card: "A real meeting with a real assistant where I delegate everything to my assistant. I am very clear what they need to do with specific tasks to accomplish, tasks I can review the following week."

Placing reminders where you know you will see them when you can do something about them is a key GTD skillset. Part of creating a functioning GTD system is looking at the review portion of the methodology as the need for habits and integration into daily life. Reminders have to have an integration point in our regular activities. Otherwise, the reminders are not functional.

Incidentally, I have abandoned calling next actions "tasks" and prefer actions or reminders. Their function is not to be a task. Their function is a reminder to take action.

I'm thinking of "don't sweat the small stuff and it's all small stuff" while reading this.
David Allen basically said handle everything that has your attention. There is no "judge the importance or complexity" before deciding what something means to you and what you are going to do about it, if anything.

The little stuff grabs your attention more than the big stuff, true.
But any big or complex stuff that is out of sync with what it means to you will not be addressed properly or completely.

Taking the trivial tasks out of your mind increases focus. Getting it all out of your head into your system creates laser focus.

I would assert that it actually increased the cost commensurate with the delay.
On this line of thinking, I had difficulty with clarifying inbox items and my eye would go to the next item in the inbox and do the ones that were easier to clarify. This left stubborn ones in the inbox and avoidance behavior was enhanced.

I wrote a vision of clarity: I finish the thinking on each time to allow it to rest comfortably in my system, ready for action, added to the possibilities, or concisely declined. I am focused on what I can do with clear visualization and effective planning. I expand my resources to enable the clarity.

This helped.
Then I read about an associate of David witnessing him calmly taking the top item from the inbox and processing it calmly with no distractions or interest in what else was in the inbox. Everything else can wait.

Now I had a picture in my head of what that looked and felt like to do.
No more cherry picking, no more moving away from an item I have decided to clarify.

Lots of good stuff in your post I didn't comment on. Learning lots.
Clayton.

_eat more fruits and vegetables, move every day, and don't eat too many sweets._ - Grandma

Thank you. I'm honestly blown away by your reply. To be candid, I was feeling a bit disheartened yesterday. I had spent a significant amount of time polishing this post, and the initial silence was making me feel like my thoughts were perhaps too long and boring for anyone to read.

So, waking up to your reply today was an incredible surprise. As I read it, and then re-read it, I just got more and more excited. I feel so seen and understood—you completely got what I was trying to say, and then took it to a whole new level.

Your reply is packed with valuable takeaways for me. I especially love these concepts: the "integration points" for making reminders functional, the "real assistant" metaphor for the weekly review, and achieving "laser focus" by clearing everything out. And your description of calmly processing the top item without "cherry-picking"—that's the perfect image of "mind like water" in practice. It's profoundly helpful.

But among all these gems, there's one idea in particular that I'll be thinking about for a long time: your redefinition of "Next Actions" not as 'tasks,' but as 'reminders to take action.'
That single conceptual shift is brilliant—it crystallizes so much of what we've been discussing. It completely changes the mindset behind how we write the item itself—drafting a 'reminder' to trigger a future action feels very different from just recording a static 'task. 'Suddenly, "integration points" are about delivering the reminder effectively. The "real assistant" is the one managing these reminders. And achieving "laser focus" is the natural result of trusting that the right reminders will show up.
What’s most exciting for me is how this deepens the proactive side of GTD. While I always knew GTD wasn't purely reactive, I confess I often found myself using it primarily to manage the 'stuff' life throws at me. But this 'reminder' mindset is a powerful new lens for deconstructing huge, ambitious goals. I can now look at a massive plan and, instead of feeling overwhelmed, I feel empowered to consciously design and plant a series of specific 'reminders' for the crucial actions needed to drive it forward. It makes the entire process of breaking down a grand vision feel not just manageable, but genuinely thrilling.

I've learned so much. Thank you for sharing so generously and for turning my day around.

 

[Stefan Godo]

a nice example I discuss with people curious about implementing GTD.
There are in principle two ways:
1. If you love systems thinking, you start by yourself, and can play with and tinker on your system for years.
If you love the process and do not care of making mistakes and getting the "mind like water" state later, this is your way to go.
2. If you just want to get rid of overwhelm fast (result is more important than the path of discovery), go and find a certified trainer who has already taken the first road and helps you avoid mastakes. Takes a few weeks (finetuning can go on endlessly)
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to the separation of steps - do not overcomplicate it :

1. capture whenever needed. During focused work, keep simple TOOLs at hand. paper is better, because your phone comes with all the attached disctractions. Capture in the simplest form, which allows you to remember and clarify LATER (1-2 words usually OK)

2. Clarify is the THINKING (algorithm).
note that when an item is not actionable, you just decide WHERE to store it.
NOT answering the questions "what is the next action?" and "what is the desired result?" is the single most important mistake by intelligent people. Then they want to organise the original information, and not the extracted wisdom, creating hell for their future self.

3. Organize is to STORE the result of Clarify so that it shows up in the PROPER form and ONLY at the right moment.
(this is what our head cannot do, otherwise it would not wake us in the night).

IN PRACTICE, steps 2 and 3 are done together.
e.g. Once you know that you need to call and ask somebody, decide WHEN or WHAT conditions are best for being reminded of this. (calendar, next actions lists, ...?, your preferred tools)

footnote: Some items come to us already clear (clarification happens in 1s at arrival). Only then, you jump immediately to step 3 and put it e.g. on you calendar (with a clear instruction for "your future zombie")

4. as we have plenty of stuff stored for later, some of them just become obsolete - check and clean the pile regularly (middle part of WR)

5. is simply the SELECTION of what to do and what not in a given moment.
Criteria for selection:
1. what is possible (think back to steps 2+3, if you have thought well, this is CLEAR at this point...)
2. from the remaining: What is important/useful (operative prioritisation)
3. what is sustainable (=besides doing the actions you have to spend some time in steps 1 to 4 to sustain order...).

 

[achieve]

Wow, your post really brings to mind the core ideas from David Allen’s book. The fundamentals of GTD are truly timeless classics, pure gold.

NOT answering the questions "what is the next action?" and "what is the desired result?" is the single most important mistake by intelligent people.

This reminder about the two questions is a powerful wake-up call. I’ll be sure to keep it top of mind!