[nstart]

GTD. Been using the gtd system with obsidian for almost 2 years now. I sometimes fall out of sync with it, particularly during high stress times where I lose the motivation to work in a disciplined way, but it’s never too hard to get things back under control.

Most days I go through my next action lists when I’m thinking of stuff to do and review it each week to do any re org.

[timwis]

GTD (Getting Things Done) is definitely my answer. I use it for everything from planning my mom's birthday, to building features on an app, to managing a large team.

The key is that it's a methodology and not a tool. It works just as well on paper or a basic list manager (e.g. trello, iOS Reminders) as it does in more complex tools like OmniFocus or Nirvana (and I'd argue you should start simple). No tool can give you what a methodology will.

While I highly recommend the book itself, I have found this podcast episode to be a great overview: https://gettingthingsdone.com/2017/05/episode-29-david-allen...

[charlescooper]

Thank you for sharing that podcast link. I have just finished listening to the episode while walking and found it so potentially beneficial to me that I was taking notes on my phone while walking. I enjoy how this method is more about one's approach than the actual tool used. A yellow notepad or a few .txt files could work equally as well as a more complex "app". Those are the solutions that tend to work best for me. Let the content be as complex as needed and keep the tool simple.

[timwis]

Glad it was helpful!

[heatmiser]

Could share more detail on how you've setup GTD with Obsidian? I've been using Obsidian for my note taking and would be interested to hear about your approach.

[ponyous]

GTD + Notion here. Here is a 15 min version of GTD: https://hamberg.no/gtd

I recommend you read the book, but it's also a good refresh for all those who read it years ago.

[Ambolia]

Same, GTD on a paper planner, because many times I can do planning work but don't feel like staring at a screen.

But regarding OP's question about TODO lists, a TODO list should go nowhere near a GTD system. It should go on "project reference/planning", and maybe slowly be moved to "next actions" as needed. But dropping traditional TODO lists on GTD is a bit of a misunderstanding of the system.

[Daffodils]

Could you share how you use Obsidian for GTD? Do you make use of the Kanban extension or something else?

[sofixa]

Not OP, but sharing nonetheless.

I use Kanban with manually created cards based on preexisting notes, with the Dataview plugin to get the tasks from the respective note, so that within the Kanban view i can see the subtasks required.

Alternatively i also have a view of all tasks accros notes ( grouped by custom metadata).

In terms of workflow, i start my morning by looking at the Kanban and tasks view, and calendar/Slack/email, after which i plan my day with the Day Planner plugin ( which is kind of abandoned and not really necessary besides an automatic Gantt view of the day, and an indicator of where you are on the current thing and how much time remains until the next one).

[nstart]

Sorry. I saw this a little late. Hope this reaches you. I just make use of normal files and backlinks. No fancy whizzbangs except for a script to run the tickler for me. I need to convert this into an Obsidian plugin at some point.

The folder structure is simple

root folder -> Inbox.md (everything goes there first. I have shortcuts on mobile to open inbox directly)

Sub folders for Projects, Tickler, Attachments, Next Actions, Tickler, Someday Maybe Lists, and References

Attachments is just the folder that Obsidian automatically attaches stuff into when I paste/drag'n'drop something in.

I have about 9 Next Action lists inside the Next Actions folder (broken down by type of work [personal, work communication, work tasks, self education, etc])

Every project gets its own file inside the project folder. This will have links to sub projects and will also have its own notes and updates about the project so that it becomes a one stop location to check on a project and its history. When I finish/halt a project I move it into the Completed or Discontinued sub folder in the Projects folder.

When I need a next action on a project, I open one of the next action lists and use and add a task in there with a backlink to the relevant project. This way when I am reviewing my projects I can use the backlinks panel to see what next actions I have pending.

References are additional things like mails/announcement I am writing up. I insert references to these inside the project document (I'll use ![[project X status update announcement]] to embed)

The tickler is exactly like it's described in the book. Each day and each month gets its own file. I came up with an alphabetical arrangement method so that it displays exactly as the book specifies it — days coming up, next month, the days of the month that are done, the months that are coming up, the months that have completed (in that order). Re arranging this requires a bit of precise naming of files which is why I have a script to do that for me. I run `tickle` when I turn on my computer and the tickled tasks go into my Inbox.md file and everything is arranged automatically.

When I need to pick a next action to work on, I have several workspaces I have saved (eg: Work tasks to choose from). I open the workspace, review a next action to work off of and get into it.

And that's all there is to it. It's a lot of words to describe a process that doesn't require any mental overhead to maintain. The only mental overhead is in following the process required by GTD and that's a given :D .

Happy to answer more (feel free to mail as well)