Something to readWorkload & wellbeing
Getting Things Done
A book about the art of stress-free productivity: getting every commitment out of your head and deciding the next step for each
Why it’s worth your time
Much of the stress of a busy job comes from commitments held loosely in your head, and David Allen's answer is to get them all out and decide what each one actually needs next. His method, first published in 2001 and revised in 2015, captures everything in a system you trust and reviews it weekly. Its publisher counts it among the most influential business books of its time, and its next-action idea is worth having even if you never adopt the whole system.
How to get everything out of your head and moving
The book · About 7 hours of reading · Buy or borrow
How to get it
We don’t earn anything from these links.
- Start with Part 1 of the book.
It lays out the whole method in a few chapters: the five stages of mastering your workflow and a way to plan projects. The later parts go deeper into putting it into practice, and you can dip into them as you need.
- Write down everything on your mind.
Set aside half an hour and list every open loop you can think of, work and personal, big and small. Then pick three and write the very next physical action for each: not 'plan the offsite' but 'email Sam for possible dates'. Do any that take under two minutes right away.
Good moments for this: at the start of a busy seasonwhen you can't stop thinking about your liston a Friday afternoon
Keep going with Truest
Small actions add up. Truest helps you find the next thing worth doing, make the space to do it, and keep a record of your progress. It’s a private place to work on your career, and it’s yours, not your employer’s.
- It actually happensWe’ll put it on your calendar and remind you before it starts.
- Lands in your closeoutFriday's closeout asks for progress, priorities, and proud moments; this is one.
- It’s yours to keepEach thing you do is saved to your private record, there when your next review or job search comes around.
Anything else we can help you with this week?
Making it work for you
Every workplace is different. Here’s what to think about before you start, and what might get in the way.
Things to think about
Many tasks stall because they're written as outcomes, not steps. Even without the full system, asking what the very next physical move is tends to unstick things.
What might make this harder
Start with a single list and one review a week. Add contexts and folders later, if you find you miss them.
Questions people ask
What is Getting Things Done?
David Allen's productivity method: capture everything that's on your mind, decide what each item means and what its next action is, organize the results into lists, review them weekly, then choose what to do.
What is the two-minute rule in GTD?
If the next action would take less than two minutes, do it now rather than tracking it, since filing it away would take about as long.
What is a GTD weekly review?
A regular session, usually once a week, where you go through all your lists and open projects, clear out what's done, and decide what matters next. It's what keeps the system trustworthy.
Is Getting Things Done still worth reading?
Its core ideas, the next action and the weekly review, are still worth having, and the 2015 edition updates it for digital work.
What it says, and how it holds up
David Allen's starting observation is that the things nagging at you usually aren't hard, they're unclear. An email you mean to answer, a project with no obvious first step, a promise made in a hallway: each takes up attention until it's done or written down somewhere you trust. The method is a way to move those loose ends out of your head and into a system, so your attention is free for the work in front of you.
It has five stages: capture what has your attention, clarify what each item is and what the next action would be, organize the results into lists, reflect on them in a weekly review, and engage by choosing what to do now. Around that sit a handful of durable habits, like doing anything that takes under two minutes immediately, grouping actions by where you can do them, and keeping a someday list for ideas that aren't commitments yet. It's practical to the point of being granular, and the full system asks for real upkeep.
A trusted list can quiet your head without shrinking your workload. The method also assumes you decide much of what you do next, which fits a self-directed job better than one where the day is set by others. Oliver Burkeman wrote about it in a 2016 Guardian long read. For a lighter taste first, the David Allen Company's site has free articles and podcasts on the method.
Having too much work and losing track of it are separate problems, and no system will make an impossible list fit. And if what's weighing on you is a decision rather than a task, like whether to stay in a job, a list of next actions can become a way of staying busy instead of deciding.
Other perspectives
Different takes on the same question. You don't have to pick a side.
You might like
More in Workload & wellbeing
See allRead this alongside your role page
Tell Truest what you’re dealing with
We read every one, and we write guides for the things that come up most. Leave your email if you’d like to hear when we do.
Picked by Truest and described in our own words. The original belongs to its creator. Last updated October 9, 2026. We sell a career membership; where that’s relevant above, we say so.