Getting Things Done (GTD) in ClickUp
With ClickUp, I am able to zoom in and out to see the tasks I have for the day. Then, I use GTD to determine which tasks to work on next.
Getting Things Done (GTD) is David Allen’s management system which claims to help alleviate feelings of overwhelm and instill focus, clarity, and confidence. Just like How to Take Smart Notes, GTD advises clearing your mind because your mind is for thinking, not meant for storing. Even if you have not read the book, I am sure you have seen the chart before.
Initially, my tasks all had their own spaces and statuses. It is like each life aspect has its own “mini-system”. Yet, after reading the GTD book, it seems like all my tasks have to be in the same location (space/folder/list) on ClickUp. So, it means that if I were to change my system to GTD, all my tasks from different spaces on ClickUp have to be merged into a single space. 🤯 Sounds like a lot of work, eh? Well, if I don’t try, I will never know if it works for me. So, I picked up GTD at my local library and implemented it in ClickUp. Here is a quick summary of what I have gathered after reading the book!
GTD Workflow
There are 5 main steps in the GTD workflow: Capture, Clarify, Organize, Reflect and Choose.
1. Capture what has our attention
We need to have an in-tray —physical and/or digital. To me, I think a mixture of physical and digital will make sense. Physical in-tray is for receipts that I want to file, physical mails that I need to reply to, etc. Digital in-tray is for my tasks, events, and notes that I need to schedule or keep.
2. Clarify what each item means and what to do about it, and then 3. Organize the results, which present the options
This is the bulk of the GTD system and we can refer to the flow chart above for organizing our “stuff” into different categories.
Non-actionable items include Trash, Someday/ Maybe, and Reference.
- Trash: Stuff that has no potential future action or reference value.
- Someday/ Maybe: Stuff that we probably want to be reminded of it at regular intervals.
- Reference: Stuff that can be topic, area-specific, or just general reference files. The moment I read this, I thought: I can use my Zettelkasten/ Knowledge Base for this!
Actionable items include Projects, Calendar, Next Action, and Waiting For.
- Projects: Tasks that need subtasks in order to be completed are considered projects in the GTD system. It took a while for me to understand this. I found this article helpful in explaining projects. Think of it like a content page of the main things you are currently working on.
- Calendar: Tasks that are Time Specific Actions (i.e. appointments, meetings), Day Specific Actions (i.e. tasks that you need to do on a certain day but with no specific time), or Day Specific Information (i.e. information that might be useful to know on a certain day).
- Next Action: Tasks that have a soft deadline.
- Waiting For: Tasks that you have asked someone for help, and are still waiting for their reply.
4. Reflect on the options and 5. Choose which to engage with
During the day, do the tasks on the Calendar. Once they are done, turn to the Next Action list. Projects, Waiting For, Someday/ Maybe lists need to be reviewed as often as you think they have to be in order to stop you from wondering about them.
Bringing GTD into ClickUp — yay or nay?
DISCLAIMER: As of 1 November 2022, I am under the ClickUp Affiliate Program. My intention for this article still stays the same, which is to share how I use ClickUp as an individual user. If you want to save a day every week, sign up here. Cheers!☺
Author’s note: The video version of this article will be recorded and uploaded at a later date as I decided to focus more on the writing(s) before the video(s). ☺
Being a ClickUp enthusiast, I definitely wanted to put GTD on ClickUp too! I tried the ClickUp template. There are instructions provided. At first, I was really confused because the subtasks of a project can be “Scheduled on Calendar” or “Waiting on/Delegated”.
I know tasks can be on multiple lists, but I was like — but how does a subtask appear on multiple lists? (I know there is a feature for it but please hold and to be honest, I did not discover that feature until much later…)
I panicked; I REALLY want GTD to be in ClickUp! I googled and watched YouTube videos. I also watched how Notion users use the relation feature in Notion to relate tasks with the project. ClickUp can do relations too but the tasks have to be on the same list. However, if I follow ClickUp’s in-built GTD template, it is not going to work as the tasks might be in different lists. Then, why can’t I just use ClickUp’s native tasks and subtasks feature? Well, that’s when I found this user’s post on Reddit. You can read the attached link on how he has set up GTD in ClickUp. TLDR; he placed all the tasks into 1 list.
All is going well until I felt too restrained (more on this in the next article). So, I decided to move my tasks back to their original spaces and add the new custom fields suggested by GTD. Essentially, I have combined my previous system + GTD.
- Context: A label field to store places or situations where it is conducive to doing a certain task i.e. Home, Work, Phone (Calls, Texts).
- Effort: A rating field ranging from 1 to 5 stars, where 1 star means least effort and 5 stars means most effort.
- Waiting On: A text field, where I can write who and what am I waiting for.
- Last Review: A date field, where I can store when I last reviewed this task. I used it mostly for Projects.
So far, this has been working well. I am able to zoom into each life aspect, work on the tasks and zoom out to see the remaining tasks I have for the day (using the Everything feature). Then, I use the GTD way of determining which tasks I should work on next. For example, I placed more priority on tasks tagged with “Calendar” as compared to tasks tagged with “Next Action”.
I will write another article if I do major tweaks to my system. As there isn’t really a specific template that I am using for my new system, don’t be afraid to comment on this article or reach out to me if you need help setting up your system. 🤓
Thank you for making it this far! Does this sound like something that you will use or sound like someone you know will need this? What are you waiting for? Share it with them! Follow me on Medium and my YouTube channel to see more of such content. Alternatively, never miss out on any updates by signing up here when I release further new articles. Lastly, if you want to save a day every week, sign up here. Cheers!☺
