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GTD - How to Decide What to Do | GTD®

Thumbnail of the video “GTD - How to Decide What to Do | GTD®”
Community upload. AI output has not been independently verified.
Author: GTD
Categories: Productivity
Tags: productivity
Views: 2 · Last viewed: 2026-10-16 03:06 UTC

Short Summary

Main recommendation: decide what to do in the moment by weighing four factors (where you are, how much time you have, how much energy you have, and what you've already defined as work), then rely on your trusted inventory of lists and your calendar, keeping planning to the minimum you need and trusting intuitive judgment for the rest. The speaker frames this as GTD's core approach to choosing actions, where a complete and organized inventory is what makes spontaneous decisions reliable rather than avoidant.

Key Points

  • Four limits shape any choice: what you can physically do where you are, how much time remains before your next commitment, how much energy you have, and whether the task is realistic given those constraints.
  • The "threefold nature" of work covers three sources: planned work already decided, unexpected work not on the calendar, and time spent processing incoming items to keep lists complete.
  • Your calendar is the first thing to check, since it holds "hard landscape" items (commitments tied to specific times) that locate you in space and time.
  • After the calendar, check your other defined lists (calls, computer tasks, and similar) for options you have already chosen to do.
  • Unplanned impulses like a nap, lunch, or an unexpected call are weighed against your commitments, asking whether you can afford them.
  • If your inventory is incomplete, you cannot trust your judgment about unplanned items; an unprocessed inbox or unclarified thoughts can make a nap feel like escape rather than rest.

Details Worth Noting

  • Concrete instructions: When deciding what to do at any moment, (1) check what is physically possible where you are; (2) check how much time you have until your next commitment; (3) check your energy level; (4) look at your calendar first to locate yourself in time and see committed items for the day; (5) then check your other lists (calls, computer tasks, and so on) for already-defined options; (6) for unplanned items, judge whether you can afford them against your commitments (for example, "Can I afford a nap? Can I spend time on this call, or should I call back?"); (7) before relying on your judgment, make sure your inventory is captured, clarified, and organized, and process any piled-up inbox or email first.
  • The speaker's own practice is to plan as little as possible, keeping only hard-landscape commitments and trusting spontaneous judgment about what they feel like doing.
  • Calendars are for hard-landscape items; items like "take nap" would not appear on a calendar but are still valid unplanned options to evaluate.
  • The speaker notes that a nap taken without a clear inventory tends to feel like an escape rather than a restful break, which is why the system matters.
  • The speaker mentions these are best practices discussed in the GTD program for feeling comfortable about decisions.

Bottom Line

Good in-the-moment decisions come from a trustworthy system, not from planning every hour: check your calendar and lists, weigh time and energy, and only then trust your instincts.