Getting Things Done

David Allen’s workflow system (Allen, 2001), described in How to Take Smart Notes as collecting everything that needs attention into one place and processing it in a standardized way, producing a “mind like water” free of nagging open loops. The book argues GTD doesn’t transfer cleanly to insight-oriented writing: GTD needs clearly defined objectives and concrete next-steps, while writing toward insight starts vague and can’t always be broken into predictable steps.

Where this appears

• How To Take Smart Notes
• Write Things Down — Ben Thompson uses GTD (and Merlin Mann’s 43folders as the evangelist) as the frame for his argument about writing things down as the scaling mechanism for both human intention and AI systems.