Getting Things Done Summary (2026): David Allen's GTD on a Mac

Getting Things Done (GTD) is David Allen's system for getting every commitment out of your head and into a trusted set of lists. It runs in five steps: capture, clarify, organize, reflect and engage (gettingthingsdone.com). The payoff Allen promises is less a longer to-do list than a calmer mind that knows nothing is slipping.

The book has a reputation for being dense, and plenty of people buy it, read the first chapters and stall at the filing advice. That's a shame, because the core is short and it fits a Mac well. This summary covers the five steps in plain words, the two ideas people misread most (the two-minute rule and the weekly review), the Horizons of Focus, and a setup you can build this afternoon in Reminders, Notes and Calendar, or in Things or OmniFocus if you want more.

What is Getting Things Done about?

Getting Things Done argues that stress at work comes less from having too much to do than from keeping unfinished commitments in your head. Allen's fix is to move every one of them into external tools, decide what each one means, and review those tools often enough that you trust them. The book was first published by Penguin in 2001, and a revised edition came out in 2015 to account for changes in technology (Wikipedia).

Allen borrows the phrase "mind like water" from martial arts for the state he's after: a mind that responds to whatever comes in, then settles again (Wikipedia). The method is deliberately neutral about tools. Allen suggests starting on paper, and nothing in GTD needs a particular app. That neutrality is useful on a Mac: macOS already ships with most of what you need.

The two editions name the steps differently. The first used collect, process, organize, plan and do; the second uses capture, clarify, organize, reflect and engage (Wikipedia). The ideas are the same, so either edition works, though the 2015 one reads more naturally if your work lives in email and chat.

The five steps of GTD

The five GTD steps are a loop you run every day and tighten every week: capture what has your attention, clarify what each item means, organize the results, reflect on the whole system, and engage by doing the work (gettingthingsdone.com). Each step depends on the one before it, which is why skipping straight to a shiny task app rarely sticks.

1. Capture: get it out of your head

Capture means writing down everything that has your attention, in a small number of inboxes you trust. A thought about a client, a bill to pay, an idea for the next offsite: all of it goes into an inbox instead of staying in your head. The tool can be as plain as an in-tray or a list, paper or digital (Wikipedia).

The first time I did a full mind sweep, the list ran onto a second page, and most of it was small and nagging: a dentist call, a reply I owed a client, a lamp that needed a new switch. None of it was urgent. It was the sheer number of loose threads that had been making Sunday evenings feel heavy.

On a Mac, keep capture to two or three places. A Reminders list called Inbox, a Quick Note (hold Fn or Globe and press Q, per Apple's Notes guide) and your email inbox are plenty. Every extra inbox is one more place to check during the review.

2. Clarify: decide what each item means

Clarify means going through each captured item and asking what it is and whether it needs action. If it doesn't, it goes in the trash, into reference material, or onto a list to hold for later. If it does, you decide the very next physical step and whether it belongs to a larger project (gettingthingsdone.com).

This is where the two-minute rule lives. Allen's version: once you've defined the next action, if it takes less than two minutes, do it now, because tracking it would take longer than finishing it (David Allen). He adds a condition people tend to drop: only if it needs doing at all. Deleting it is also allowed.

When a client asks for a file I already have open, I send it while the email is still in front of me. When the same client asks for "a quick look" at a forty-page deck, that isn't two minutes, and pretending it is just wrecks the afternoon. I use the rule while processing my inbox, not as a license to spend the whole day on tiny tasks.

3. Organize: put each item where it belongs

Organize means putting the reminder for each clarified item in the right place. In GTD, every item ends up in one of eight homes: the trash, a someday/maybe list, reference files, the project list, done on the spot, a Waiting For list for things you've handed off, a next-action list sorted by context, or the calendar (Wikipedia).

Contexts are the part that has aged most. Allen groups next actions by where you are, the tools you need or the people involved, and you choose what to do by context, time available, energy and priority (Wikipedia). A list called @computer made sense when computers stayed on desks. Most of my work happens on one laptop, so that tag told me nothing. Contexts by person (things to raise with my manager), by energy (low-focus admin for late afternoon) and by place (errands) have earned their keep instead.

The calendar gets special treatment. I keep it for things tied to a specific day or time, the way GTD intends, not for tasks I hope to get to. Keeping it that strict is what lets you trust it at a glance.

4. Reflect: the weekly review

Reflect means looking over your lists often enough to keep them current, and the weekly review is the habit that holds GTD together. Allen splits it into three parts: get clear, get current and get creative (GTD Weekly Review). The official checklist has 11 steps, grouped here under its three parts:

1. Get clear: gather loose papers and notes, empty every inbox to zero, and write down anything still in your head.
2. Get current: go through your next-action lists, your calendar for the past week and the weeks ahead, your Waiting For list, your project list and any checklists you keep.
3. Get creative: read your someday/maybe list and add any new, bolder ideas worth tracking.

I do mine on Friday afternoon, before the week's loose ends go cold. Looking back at last week's calendar is the step that pays most: a meeting I barely remember usually left behind a promise I made in passing, and the review is where it turns up.

5. Engage: do the work with confidence

Engage is simply doing, using the system to choose your next action instead of whatever is loudest (gettingthingsdone.com). Because everything is captured and current, you can work on one thing without the low hum of everything else. If you sit down with forty minutes and low energy, the system should hand you something that fits, such as three calls or a batch of expense receipts.

Projects, next actions and the Natural Planning Model

In GTD, a project is any outcome you're committed to that takes more than one action step (David Allen). That's a much broader definition than most people use. "Replace the office printer" and "Plan Q1 offsite" are both projects, and both belong on one list so nothing hides.

Allen's advice on keeping projects moving is practical (David Allen):

• Keep every project on the project list, even small ones.
• Put only the immediate next step on your action list; keep the longer plan in the project's notes.
• In the weekly review, make sure every project has at least one next action.
• When you stop partway through something, write down where you left off.

That last tip is underrated. When I delegated a pitch deck to someone on my team, I logged it on my Waiting For list with the date I asked. Two weeks later the review surfaced it, and a one-line check-in kept it from sliding past the client meeting.

For bigger projects, Allen describes the Natural Planning Model, a five-stage thought process: define the purpose and principles, picture the outcome, brainstorm, organize, and identify next actions (gettingthingsdone.com). Allen presents it as the way we already plan when we're at our best, as opposed to reactive planning (David Allen). Writing the purpose first is the step I'd never skip, since it settles half the arguments before the brainstorm starts.

The Horizons of Focus

The Horizons of Focus are six levels for looking at your commitments, from today's actions up to your life's purpose. Allen says priorities come from the top down: purpose shapes vision, vision shapes goals, and so on down to projects and actions (gettingthingsdone.com).

The review cadence column is my own habit, not Allen's prescription. Even though Allen sets priorities from the top down, I find it easier to begin at ground level: get the daily actions and projects under control first, and the higher horizons become easier to think about once your head is clear.

How to set up GTD on a Mac with Reminders

You can run all of GTD with Reminders, Notes and Calendar, the apps that come with macOS. Reminders handles the lists, tags stand in for contexts, Smart Lists build the views, Notes holds reference material, and Calendar holds the fixed appointments. Set it up in this order:

1. Make your lists. In Reminders, click Add List and create Inbox, Next Actions, Projects, Waiting For and Someday/Maybe.
2. Tag your contexts. In a reminder's title or notes, type # followed by a word, such as #calls, #errands or #lowenergy, and pick it again from the suggestions next time (Apple).
3. Build a view per context. Click Add List, choose Smart List from the List Type pop-up menu, and set a filter such as Tags includes #calls (Apple).
4. Filter on the fly. Scroll the sidebar down to Tags, click several tags, then pick All Selected or Any Selected at the top of that section (Apple).
5. Give each project a note. Keep the plan, links and meeting notes for each project in a Notes folder named Projects, and keep only the next step in Reminders.
6. Capture fast. Use a Quick Note (Fn-Q or Globe-Q) for thoughts mid-task (Apple), then move them to Reminders when you clarify.
7. Keep Calendar strict. Put only appointments and true deadlines there.
8. Schedule the review. Add a repeating Friday event called Weekly Review, with the three-part checklist above in its notes.

Email is the inbox most people forget to clarify. If most of your actions arrive by email, our guide to running your Gmail inbox like a task list shows how to use archive, stars and snooze the same way, and in Apple Mail, renamed flag colors can mark Waiting For and Next Action without leaving the message.

Which Mac app is best for GTD?

For most people, Apple Reminders is enough to start GTD on a Mac, and a dedicated app is worth paying for only once the habit sticks. The two dedicated apps Mac users reach for most are Things and OmniFocus. They cost very different amounts and suit different temperaments.

Things earns its price with Quick Entry. Press Control-Space from any app to add a to-do, and Quick Entry with Autofill can save a link to the email, web page or Finder file you're looking at (Cultured Code). That makes capture almost free. OmniFocus is the deeper tool, and Omni Group's own page quotes David Allen. It rewards people who enjoy tuning a system and punishes people who don't.

Already on Todoist and tempted to move? Our Todoist alternatives page compares it with Things and others on price and platforms. Switching apps is rarely the fix, though. When a GTD setup stalls, it's usually the weekly review that broke, not the software.

Common GTD mistakes and their fixes

GTD tends to break in four predictable ways: the system gets too elaborate, the weekly review gets skipped, next actions are written as vague goals, or the calendar fills with wishes. Each one has a simple fix.

• Too many lists. If you have more contexts than you can name from memory, merge them. A short list you trust beats a perfect taxonomy you avoid.
• Skipping the review. Without the review, the lists go stale within a couple of weeks and your head takes over again. Protect it like a client meeting, and make it shorter before you skip it.
• Vague next actions. "Website" isn't an action. "Email the designer for the homepage draft" is. If you look at an item and feel resistance, it probably isn't the next physical step yet.
• Treating the calendar as a wish list. Blocking time for tasks you hope to do trains you to ignore the calendar. Keep it for commitments.

Is Getting Things Done worth reading in 2026?

Yes, especially the 2015 revised edition, which Allen updated for changes in technology since 2001 (Wikipedia). The capture and clarify chapters are the most practical advice on inbox overload I know of. The filing sections are the part to skim if your reference material already lives in Notes, Finder and cloud folders.

What GTD doesn't tell you is what's worth doing. It's a system for keeping commitments, not for choosing them, which is why the Horizons of Focus matter more as you get comfortable. Read the five steps, set up Reminders tonight, and book your first weekly review for Friday.