Capture everything? A bit much, no?

I often get the surprised look when people learn how much goes into my GTD system – carrying paper and pen most everywhere I go; capturing my whole life in Evernote; doing a review of this system every week, and so forth. Then, occasionally, I get the follow-up question … “Isn’t that a bit much?”

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I must tell you – the alternative … not using a GTD-based system, gives me hives. Bad bad! The system doesn’t have to be Evernote or some other fancy electronic system, but I know I will always break out the paper to pull together a basic GTD system. Why? Funny you should ask … that’s exactly what this post is about.

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5 Reasons I Have a GTD System 

(1) Think once.

When I get a great idea, I capture it then and there. And now that I’ve reached the point where I trust that my GTD system works, I rarely think about that idea again until I am processing the captured idea or doing it. I don’t get any those “Oh, I had better write that down before I forget it again…..”, or the “Wait, wait … I know I had a great idea about how to solve that.” Instead of using brain space to remember the idea, I’d rather spend the brain space coming up with new ones.

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(2) Think through.

This is the essence of the process phase.  Every single task I do is defined such that I know exactly what needs to be done, what resources I need to do it, and if substantial, how long I think it will take. And every single project or goal, even if it takes only 2 steps to complete, is defined in such a way that I know exactly what the successful outcome looks like. So when it gets to doing, I’ve cut out the need to think about what to do… I can just concentrate on the doing.

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(3) Being reminded when and where I want to be reminded. 

Every single action I need to do at the later date is parked in my list in such a way that I will be reminded exactly what the next physical action is, at the time and place I need to be reminded. So even though I may remember to buy the milk while preparing breakfast, to buy new batteries when turning on the morning news or to buy more windshield washer fluid while driving in to work, it’s only when I show up at the grocery store that my system says: “You need to buy batteries, milk and windshield washer fluid”.

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(4) Clear head.

I don’t rely on my brain to remember things – that’s what my system is for. And it’s soooo much better at it. So I don’t keep a mental checklist of all the things I need to talk to Jen, and Roy, and my dad, and the dozen or so other people who happen to not be right there when I think of these agenda items. Rather, I park it in my system and with 2 clicks pull up all the things I needed to talk to the person about.

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(5) Not dropping the ball.

No one is perfect – everyone forgets things sometimes. But with my GTD system, I must say that I rarely drop the ball. If you want to make sure I don’t forget to do something, just ask me to capture it. Because I have this system, once it gets captured (step 1) … it gets processed (step 2), organised (step 3), reviewed if needed (step 4), and done if still relevant and if it is priority (step 5).

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Question for you:

Is there anything on this list you can do stand to have more of?