For many years, I have been using David Allen's Getting Things Done (GTD) productivity app. It is simple and easy to follow. All along, I tried nearly every to do list possible - Outlook, Notepad, Wanderlist, Onenote, Excel. They all felt clunky and against the beauty and simplicity of GTD. When I finally found ToDoist, I was in ecstasy.

• Gtd Todoist Setup
• Setting Up Todoist For Gtd Online

• How to set up Todoist in the true GTD style. Posted by 2 years ago. How to set up Todoist in the true GTD style. This thread is archived. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast.
• Feb 27, 2021 Now that you know the simple principles of GTD, let’s choose a nearer seem at how Todoist can support. The very first factor you are going to want to do is build a new parent Projects composition in Todoist that contains all the buckets for organizing your various incoming duties. These buckets (dad or mum folders) include.

ToDoist is everything I could want in a time management app and productivity management tool - simple, elegant and quick. It gets out of your way. It has just the right amount of customization without being everything to everyone.

My Todoist set up - End of 2020 After years of using Todoist I think I finally found the perfect set up for me: the main concepts come from GTD (I do a weekly review, I break tasks in different steps, and put anything I may need to do in here) but, as almost every Todoist user, I.

If you haven't used David Allen's Getting Things Done, review this quick reference chart as I walk through my process. Here are my top 10 tips on how to Get Things Done with ToDoist!

1. COLLECT EVERYWHERE USING TODOISTS MANY INPUT METHODS

One of the main reasons I love ToDoist is that you can put it everywhere. Install all the clients. Keep it open on your desktop. Have it in your mail client. Have a quick email to your main projects. Here are the ways that I input my tasks using ToDoist:

1. I enter most of my tasks using the PC client with Ctrl-Alt-A (which is the quick add shortcut on PC - I am sure it is similar on Mac)

2. I add tasks on my mobile and iPad when I am on them (usually when out or doing the reading) using the great iOS application.

3. I add tasks to my favorite projects with add task via email.

4. I add tasks in Gmail with the great ToDoist Gmail plugin. Got an email with a task? Just hit the ToDoist button.

5. I add tasks while browsing for a web page I need to remember via the chrome and firefox plugins.

2. SET YOUR TODOIST PROJECTS TO BE THE MAIN CATEGORIES IN YOUR LIFE

Don't go too deep on your ToDoist Projects. I like two levels. This is because you can still group related tasks into subtasks to do grouping inside of a ToDoist Project. I have three main projects: Work, Home, and Shared (for shared projects). Under Work, I have Sales, Marketing, and Operations. Under Personal, I have Career/Coaching, Chores, and Shopping.

3. REVIEW TASK LIST EVERY DAY / EVERY WEEK USING THE IPAD APP

I love the iPad app the most for reviewing my ToDolist. I have to confess that I do this before I get out bed every day. I have found doing my review in the morning avoids the end-of-day decision fatigue (this is a real thing!) When I am reviewing, I am trying to do a few things. Reprioritize my list, move things out of my inbox to correct projects and get items that are old to the right dates. The iPad application works best for me because not only is it small and great for my pre-morning blanket wrapped to do a review, but swipe left is the quick method for moving to a new date with an awesome interface to move something to today, tomorrow, next week, next month or custom. On Sundays, I usually try to look at the whole list, not just the stuff that has fallen into today 'pile'.

4. USE FLAGS AND DRAG TO ORDER TO PRIORITIZE IN TODOIST

Task Priority is one of the difficult things in any to-do list management system. How do you keep from having 20 top priority tasks? The red, orange and yellow flags will automatically default to the top of your list if you are using priority sort (which is the default). Thus, I use the colored flags to set my top priorities. I usually set one red flag for my main thing I want to get done that day, and it is usually customer related. I set 2-3 orange flags of important tasks that should get done that day. Finally, I have a few key habits that I leave yellow. My next priority is done via the drag and drop order. Inside a flag color (including no flag), you can just drag and drop to change the order.

5. SET CONTEXT AND TIME REQUIRED USING TODOIST LABELS

This may be one of my favorite things about ToDoist is the label/tagging system. This is where most people fall down on the GTD system. If you can set the context (where you are) and how much time you have (5 minutes or 60 minutes?), then you can always look at your to-do list in a 'gap' time and not have to think about what to do next. This is the key to productivity. Reduce your decisions. Know exactly what to do next. I have created color-coded labels for a few time frames from 5 to 60 minutes and a few contexts (PC, iPad, Home). You need to make your own, but as an example here is what my label bar looks like:

6. USE TODOIST'S LABEL AND RECURRENCE FEATURES FOR MANAGING HABITS

It is so easy to setup the Habit tasks in ToDoist. I try and do certain things like exercise and meditate every day. I set up a recurrence on these items using ToDoist's recurrence feature. If you want a task each day, you can just type in the date field 'Every Day starting today' or for a shortcut 'Ev Day start Today'. In fact, ToDoist can recognize most English dates like 'Each Weekday' or 'Every third Tuesday starting' or 'The first of every month.' I also use a label for my habits that is in red (see above) which easily lets me see my habits at a glance. I created a filter that shows my habits still left to be done today as follows: @Habit & (today | overdue):

7. DEFINE A SYSTEM FOR THE 3-D'S - DO, DELEGATE, DEFER

One of the key points of GTD is to be able to continually parse the flow of your life. To me, this is mostly email. I try and read my email multiple times per day (I know this goes against the convention). I have found continually parsing to be easier and less stressful to me. I try not to be interrupt driven, but when I first sit down in a gap, I process. Emails are either done in real time (if less than a 2 minute action), delegated to someone else (I use ToDoists shared projects with some of my team to assign a task. Otherwise, I just fire off an email and star it to review later), or defer it (create an action for the future in your ToDoist). At this point, if it is trash, spam or FYI, I usually just leave it read in my email box for later searching (search to me is better than filing). I do set up a tag for a future task that 'NeedsProject' or 'Someday_Maybe', as you can see from above. These are both GTD categories on how to defer items that are not tasks, but instead are containers (projects) for several tasks and items that you may eventually get to respectively.

8. NOW USE YOUR PRIORITIES AND FILTERS TO DECIDE WHAT TO DO NEXT!

Gtd Todoist Setup

Now that you have tasks in and you are ready to sit down and start working, use your filters and priorities to decide what to do. Do you only have 5 minutes? Filter for just 5-minute tasks. Sitting at your computer, filter for your computer context. Stuck at the doctor's office with only your iPhone? Filter for just your tasks labeled phone. Are you ready to just do the next thing? Pull up your Today tab in ToDoist and do your next task. Try to finish your red and orange tasks every day. Go back and look at your completed tasks on Sunday and you will be amazed how much you are getting done.

9. HERE ARE SOME OTHER RESOURCES ON TODOIST AND GTD

No system is perfect. You have to find a system that works for you. Before I found my system, I had read many books and tried many different things. Here are some other links to resources about ToDoist and GTD:

• Some of my methods were based on this ToDoist article on GTD.

• This article helped me with some of my contexts and filters (note that ToDoist does not let you use labels with the < symbol anymore).

• Here is a great blog post by Becky Kane (@19Kane91) about how she uses ToDoist and GTD.

• Here is one more GTD and ToDoist Method.

10. BONUS TIP: USING A POMODORO TIMER

A Pomodoro timer is a method for driving flow - the ability to get lost in deep concentrative work where time seems to disappear, and you get tons of work done! Pomodoro is the best way I have found to get flow. The way it works is you set a timer for 25 minutes and work without breaking. Then you set another timer for 5 minutes and goof off on anything you want. You do this for four cycles and then take an extended break. Here is a quick and dirty Pomodoro Timer.

I hope your new year starts off great! But more importantly, I hope these tips will help you build a habit of organizing and attacking your tasks that will make 2016 your most productive year yet!

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In this article I’m going to discuss how I moved from Omnifocus to OneNote for implementing the Getting Things Done methodology.

Setting Up Todoist For Gtd Online

OneNote is a great cross platform general purpose digital notebook application from Microsoft. The cross platform nature of OneNote suits me really well since I have an Android, Mac and iPad and am constantly switching between each.

This doesn’t represent the only way to implement GTD. Customize it to suit your particular way of working (and share what you did in the comments!).

OneNote organizes content in Notebooks, Sections and Pages.

My basic setup consists of the following.

• A single Notebook labeled GTD
• Multiple Sections as follows
  • Collection
  • Project List
  • Next Actions
  • Someday or Maybe
  • Checklists

Each of those has one or more pages within each section. I’ll talk about each of these in turn.

A note about OneNote. Hyperlinks are your friend. I link individual project pages to my Project list. I also link out to Dropbox folders for things I have stored digitally. It saves a few seconds every time I need those items.

Collection

The Collection section consists of a single page labeled Inbox. When I’m in a flow state and an idea pops in my head I can quickly get it into my Inbox using a number of methods.

Getting Stuff into the Inbox

I wanted a way to get things into a single inbox in no matter where I am or what I’m doing. What I settled on is building out some workflows using the service Zapier and the OneNote API.

Zapier connects applications to each other via their application programming interfaces (APIs). With Zapier and the OneNote API I could easily append items on a page.

It’s the glue that makes my collection process easy. I’ll show you each of the workflows I’m using below.

Email

Getting stuff into my inbox via Email is handled using the “New inbound Email” trigger and the “One Note” action within Zapier. It’s setup as follows.

1. Create a new Zap
2. Set the Trigger to “New inbound Email”

This will create a unique email address that you can use to send content into Zapier.

Now, connect it to OneNote

1. Add a OneNote action to Zapier
2. Select the “Append Note” action, it might be listed under “less common options”
3. Give Zapier permission to access your OneNote account
4. Setup the template that maps the email content to OneNote
   1. Set the note book to the name of your GTD notebook
   2. Set the Section to “Collection”
   3. Set the Page/Note to “Inbox”
   4. Set the Content Type to Text
   5. Set the Content to the email subject line. I actually append the text “Handle email” before the subject so it shows up in the Inbox in a nicer form.

I then add the Zapier email address to my address book so it’s available everywhere. When I receive an email that I need to take action on I just forward it to my inbox. I can then process it during my review.

Google Assistant

I want to be able to use the “Take a note” function on my Android to append a note to my inbox. Unfortunately, while OneNote supports “Take a note” it can only create a new page. This isn’t exactly what I want to do.

Instead, I rely on using Trello as an intermediary with Zapier.

I have a Zap setup that will Append a Trello card to my Inbox whenever a new card is created on a board. It’s pretty hacky but it works. You can follow a process similar to the one above but replace the New Inbound Email trigger with a New Card in Trello trigger.

Alfred

Alfred is a killer productivity app that lets you work more efficiently by giving you the ability to control actions on your Mac with the keyboard. One great feature is the ability to trigger automated workflows. This feature allows me to quickly capture ideas into my trusted system without interrupting my flow.

To get this to work, I use the Zapier for Alfred workflow developed by the gang at Zapier. You can follow the instructions on that link to learn how to get it running.

Once it’s running you can add things into your system by tapping a key and typing

onenote This is an item for my inbox

It’s a game changer for me because it keeps me out of the rabbit hole I often fall into when I break flow and enter another application.

Project Lists

David Allen defines projects “as any desired result that can be accomplished within a year that requires more than one action step.” Those projects should go on a project list. Within OneNote I have a section labeled “Project List.” This section has a number of pages.

At the top, is a page titled Projects. This page lists all of the projects that have multiple next actions. Then, I have a series of pages for projects that contain my project support material. Each of those is hyperlinked into the main project list.

Not every project in my Projects List needs a project support page but for the more complicated projects it’s handy to have everything linked up in one place.

A Project Support page uses the following template:

Page Title is the Project Name, I use the same name that appears in the Project List

Then I have the following sections

• Purpose / Principals
• Outcome
• Brainstorming – where I keep notes
• Next Actions – where I keep a running list of next actions, this is helpful if I think of a bunch of tasks during brainstorming
• Notes – a place to keep miscellaneous notes related to the project

Next Actions

This sections consists of a series of pages for each of the Categories or Contexts that I care about. Here’s my list but feel free to create your own.

• Computer
• Read
• Email
• Errands
• Calls
• Home
• Waiting For
• Thinking

Someday Maybes

I keep my Someday Maybe list in its own section. I do this in case I want to keep more than one page for Someday / Maybes.

Checklists

Finally, I have a set of checklists that I use to help keep me on task. I’ve always loved using checklists. If you haven’t read the Checklist Manifesto, I recommend checking it out.

Here’s my current set of checklists

• Morning Review
• Weekly Review
• Monthly Review
• Mental Sweep Checklist

Morning Review

I like to keep my system in check so every morning, I do the following:

1. Process my email inbox
2. Review my calendar
3. Review my GTD inbox
4. Review my Next Actions
5. Review my Projects List
6. Review my tickler file

Doing this everyday gets me ready for the day and makes my weekly review easier.

Weekly Review

My weekly review checklist is an expanded version of the Morning Review. I basically follow the process outlined in the book to get Clear, Current and Creative. The only variation is the things I check when I’m “getting clear.” I’ve described that below.

Getting Clear

• I’ll look around my office for any loose paper or things that don’t belong and stick them into my inbox.
• I then follow the mental sweep list to get a bunch of things out of my head. I don’t like to do this at the computer because I tend to get distracted. Instead, I’ll grab my iPad and jot things using the Notes app.
• I then go through my various inboxes and process them.
  • I’ll check my various email accounts, and process them.
  • I’ll check my physical inbox and clear that out
  • I’ll check my OneNote inbox and move things to projects and next actions
  • I’ll clean out my Mac Downloads folder
  • I’ll also clean out a special folder on Dropbox called 1Scans. This folder contains content I’ve scanned in but haven’t filed in my digital system yet.

I’ve mentioned that I use Zapier to get my stuff into my system. How do I deal with handling things while I’m on the go? I’m using a Google Pixel phone and the OneNote application. OneNote for Android lets me create shortcuts to specific pages right on my home screen.

I’ve created a link to my Errands page so I can easily check it whenever I’m out. There’s also a link to my Inbox which gives me another way to get things into my system.

Are you interested in using OneNote for implementing GTD? If so, you can download my GTD Template.

If you have your own tips for using OneNote for Getting Things Done I would love to hear them in the comments.

2 Comments

Hi Joe, Nice blog post. Saw your link on the GTD page on Reddit. I like the way you organize your project lists. It can be tough to get things done as a new engineer without some kind of good system. This was helpful for me. Can you share a little bit about what you review with your checklists? Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the feedback Jason. I just updated the post with my Weekly Review Checklist. My 1Scans folder is probably a blog post on it’s own.

I actually started GTDing years ago when I was an engineer too. It definitely helped me get my head around things. It’s probably going to take you time to sort out how to deal with your own project lists plus things in your Issue tracking system.

One way you can deal with that is just add a “Check JIRA” task to your Morning Review checklist.

Please share your thoughts.

My first professional job involved playing video games for 9 hours a day. After experiencing early signs of brain rot, I decided to teach myself how to write software.

My entire career is characterized by this “why not?” attitude.

I'm currently the co-founder of AppJawn, the software company behind the amazing recipe organizer app ClipDish.

I also help transform companies into product driven organizations as a fractional CPO.

Affiliate Disclosure

On blog posts where I discuss products I may include affiliate links. If you click on one of these links and buy something then I get a teeny-tiny commission. As of this writing I think I make enough to buy a cup of coffee once every couple of months.

I don't get any paid compensation directly to write product reviews. I think that's pretty scammy.