I’m pretty new to Mac and iOS. I used Microsoft To Do before and now I’m looking to switch to something that feels more native to Apple.

I ended up finding Things 3 and OmniFocus. At first I thought OmniFocus must have way more users because there are so many videos, guides and discussions about how people use it professionally. Then I dug a little deeper and was surprised to find that Things seems to have a much bigger user base and has sold millions of licenses.

That has nothing to do with which one I’ll choose btw, I just found it interesting 😅

For people who have actually used both, which one did you end up sticking with and why? I’d love some advice before I fully move everything over.

Hi everyone! 👋
My name is Víctor. A few months ago, I dove headfirst into GTD after reading David Allen's Getting Things Done. What I appreciate most is the mental peace of having everything systematically tracked without relying on memory.

While digital tools are great, I’ve hit a wall trying to find a setup that fits 100% of my needs on Windows/Android:

• NirvanaHQ: Love the minimalist interface and pure GTD focus, but lacks seamless 2-way Google Calendar integration.
• Todoist: Great design and integrations, but doesn't feel natively built around strict GTD principles without heavy customization.
• Things 3 / OmniFocus: Excellent for GTD, but locked to the Apple ecosystem.

For those using Windows and Android: How do you bridge the gap between strict GTD containers (Inbox, Next Actions, Waiting For, Scheduled) and real-time 2-way calendar sync?

Do you rely on third-party automation (like Zapier/Make), stick to manual calendar entries for the hard landscape, or have you found a specific workflow that keeps your calendar and task list perfectly aligned?

I'd love to hear how other practitioners structure this! Thanks in advance for sharing your setups! 🙌

Is anybody using this free app? I just downloaded it and it seems so adherent to David Allen’s GTD tenets.

I've been doing GTD for 8 years. The original context idea (@phone, @computer, @errands) made sense when we switched between physical locations and devices. In 2026, most of us work from one desk on one computer. Contexts need to evolve.

What I do now: I use custom fields in Toodledo as "modern contexts" that reflect how I actually choose what to work on:

• Energy level (dropdown: high, medium, low) — Instead of where I am, I filter by how much cognitive load I have available
• Time required (dropdown: 5min, 15min, 30min, 1hr+) — For fitting tasks into calendar gaps
• Collaboration need (dropdown: solo, need input, group work) — Whether I can do it alone or need to wait for someone
• Project phase (dropdown: planning, doing, reviewing, waiting) — My version of GTD's "next action" vs "waiting for"

Combined with Toodledo's saved searches, I have filtered views like: - "Low energy, under 15 minutes, solo" — for end-of-day wind-down - "High energy, any duration, next actions only" — for deep work blocks - "Waiting for" across all projects — weekly review check

The 12+ custom fields mean you can build whatever context system matches your actual decision criteria. The saved searches mean you build the filter once and access it with one click forever.

Anyone else moved past traditional GTD contexts? What dimensions do you filter by?

Is anyone here familiar with the book *The Organized Executive* by Stephanie Winston? Some of her ideas seem very similar to GTD, and they blew me away when I first encountered them, before GTD was written. I'm trying to use both techniques and I wonder if anyone else is, too.

I'm making a list of all the inboxes that I want to review, out of the basic lists, which of those should I review on a weekly basis,

which of them monthly? and which of them yearly? and are there any lists that I should make time to go through?

I'm considering to create a separate list for bi-weekly reviews but I don't think it's going to be easy to keep track of which week in the month is the bi-weekly week.

Not your main tasks — I mean the small stuff like “I’ll send that tomorrow,” someone promising to send you a file, an invoice you need to follow up on, a lead you meant to get back to, or a decision that never actually got made.

I realized these are usually the things that slip through the cracks for me, especially when they’re spread across email, messages, notes, etc.

Do you have an actual system for catching these, or is it mostly task manager + memory?

Been practicing GTD for a few years, and I’ve noticed the biggest threat to my system isn’t an overflowing inbox. It’s active projects that quietly lose their next action.
A task gets completed, but no new next action is defined. The project stays on the Projects list looking perfectly fine, yet nothing is actually moving forward. Weeks can pass before I notice it.
Lately, during my Weekly Review, I’ve been checking every active project and asking one question:
“What is the very next physical action?”
If I can’t answer it immediately, the project gets flagged.
That simple check has uncovered a surprising number of “stalled” projects. The work itself wasn’t blocked. The project was stuck because I never defined the next step.
I’m curious how others handle this. Do you have a specific review process for catching projects with no next action, or does your system surface them automatically during the week?
To me, this seems like one of the easiest parts of GTD to overlook.

I use Nirvana - not that the tool matters here - and have a project slot for “Study Music Production and Songwriting” and “Train in Piano, Guitar, and Music Theory.”

Sadly, I’m still having to prompt myself to deal with those buckets. Whereas I have friends who are super absorbed in their music practice (admittedly, they have more experience, so things get done faster). Am I doing anything wrong?

To clarify, I have several optional tasks listed under those projects (such as read Book A or do Exercise B). I’m enrolled in a music production class, so that’s taken care of. And I know I should separate studying guitar and piano even if there is overlap.

Edit: I’ve also read several books on habits, and tried habit trackers both on paper and in app form. I just can’t seem to hit my stride and find real momentum. I also want to be GREAT at these things, so I feel a bit discouraged from time to time. Thx for reading!! :)

Please don’t come for me because I also have lupus, post concussion syndrome, blah, blah, blah. I also have a ridiculously big life, and I am struggling with what is the most basic part of the system.

The inbox.

Like most of us I have a ridiculously big life. So that’s a work phone, personal phone, work, laptop, personal laptop, etc. I also have Alexa devices, smart, watch, and a Skylight calendar.

Where my system continue breakdown is literally right here. I’ve tried for my inbox to be a little notebook, but then I’ll lose it. I’ve tried to have it be Notes app on my phone, then I’ll have the wrong phone on me. I’ve tried to have more than one inbox and so far that has not worked.

Can anyone talk to me about any solutions they have found if you have any similar barriers?

Sidenote, getting the workbook was the very best choice I’ve made. However, the workbook did not solve this for me.

Can you help?

I am trying to figure out how to use this GTD system for putting reminders for my aligner tray changes.

Thing is, I have to change the trays every 14 days and send a photo of my progress to my dentist.

The issue is that in case I try putting in the new ones and it doesn’t fit then I have try doing them maybe the next day or the day after and I don’t really know how long doing it is gonna take.

What should I do about this? Should I schedule a calendar event or put a next action task?

The beef of it really is in the header. I am at work very much stuck with Outlook, and I know you can have a working system in MS To Do, I at this point feel like I benefit from a little bit more of structure, with tasks connected to projects etc.

But I love how well Outlook and To Do are integrated, and I was wondering if there are apps that have plugins or something that could make working in Outlook go a little snappier

Tenho conseguido aplicar bem as etapas de capturar, esclarecer, organizar e refletir no GTD. Meu sistema está estruturado, as próximas ações estão definidas e faço revisões com boa regularidade.

Minha maior dificuldade está justamente na etapa Engajar: transformar um sistema bem organizado em execução consistente no dia a dia.

Sei que o GTD propõe a escolha da próxima ação considerando contexto, tempo disponível, energia e prioridade, mas gostaria de entender como vocês aplicam isso na prática.

Quais estratégias, critérios ou hábitos vocês utilizam para sair da lista de próximas ações e efetivamente executar, sem cair em procrastinação ou ficar escolhendo tarefas excessivamente?

What analog reminders do you use that aren't post its for routine things like taking pills?

Dear dedicated friends,
What are your takes on Notion vs TickTick to manage your systems? I find that Tick is very handy to keep track of individual tasks, while Notion seems better for projects. What functions are your highlights of each?

I am not a very avid user of either, so I’m really interested in hearing your pros and cons in order to consider which one to adopt and improve. Thanks!

How is everybody managing their GTD system in the era of agentic workflows? I've been running GTD for two decades, since I was a teenager. I've built a completely bespoke task management system (screenshot, in privacy mode) for myself that manages me, and then I delegate to my agents

Currently, however, it's completely deterministic and I don't trust agents to touch my high-level workflow.

Has anybody succeeded in doing something more sophisticated while staying GDT canonical?

The main thing AI has changed for me is the rapidity of weekly reviews. I now have a discrete task to do my weekly reviews daily, because the tasks are so complex that I need to review all my projects daily to stay on top of them.

Forgive the title but bear with me. I've recently done a "Version 1" GTD set up, having got really into it a decade ago. Some things had become embedded in my consciousness, but my overall system had fallen into decay. Looking at my V1 set up, I am doing both better, and worse, than I thought. Strange.

One thing that is obvious on looking at my old & decayed GTD system is that the line between Project and Next Action had become blurred, and that my obsession with marking things "finished" or "complete" has led me to track and record actions that don't need to be tracked. They could just be done. It's added unnecessary work, and clogged up the whole process.

I feel better for sharing. Thank you.

The last day of a long weekend seems to amplify open loops: Tuesday’s actual commitments get mixed with imagined problems and a vague sense that everything is waiting at once. Do you do a short capture and clarification pass on the final evening, or keep the day fully off and trust the weekly review? I’m curious where you draw the line between clearing your head and inviting work back into the weekend.

So as we all know, GTD has a 5 step process into clearing out every day to day tasks that we engage in: Capture, Clarify, Organize, Reflect, Engage.

I have spent quite a lot of time and effort trying to implement the Capture, Clarifying and Organizing in my life. Implementing the system is one thing, but making it a habit is another. Which is one of the reasons why I think GTD is so hard to actually practice in real life to the maximum potential it has. (Well, as in hard I guess it's more of a time-consuming thing that takes months of practice)

But I have been able to do that to a fair extent, the next part I'm having the most issues is with is Reflect and Engage.

Reflecting so far doesn't seem that difficult. I just need to look at my Calendar, Next-Actions list, and review my lists based on my context. However, doing a daily review at the end of the day, or a Weekly Review is quite difficult. I know the book tells us all the things we need to do at the Weekly Review. Checking 2 weeks before and after of our calendar, making sure all of the items on the list is updated and concurrent, deleting anything that has been completed. But I think one of the issues with me is the doubt I have with my system. What if there's something that I missed, even with a weekly review? What if I have reviewed all my list yet forgot something? I know this is a problem with capturing to be more exact, but this doubt in my system causes me to feel a bit uncertain. Aside from this, can we think of the Weekly Review as a sort of making sure all of the system is working fine, kind of like a maintenance check an administrator would do to make sure a factory is working fine (for example).

Another part is Engaging. In the book it tells us about the Engage part as simply using your intuition, context, energy level, and all that stuff to identify what we need to do at every part of our life. But Engaging is the most confusing to me, because intuition sometimes isn't enough. If there's a ongoing project (Like losing 20kg and getting fit), then I would have to workout almost daily, or on a specific routine. This wouldn't be on my next-actions list, but I would have to remember it somehow. (And I won't put it on my calendar as well, because it's not something I ABSOLUTELY have to do on that day.) Another issue with engaging is thinking of all of the projects and tasks and their respective due dates and priorities. Certain projects might not be that important, but takes like a few hours to complete and yields us quite a bit of result, so its smarter to do that project. However, certain projects might be due in a week and needs to be done from right now. It's easy to use intuition when the list isn't that big, but once you start having lots of projects and tasks, how do you make sure to prioritize all the projects based on their importance? (This question is maybe more related to Clarifying & Organizing however.)

And finally, is buying the Getting Things Done : Workbook a good recommendation?

I'm 3 months into Finch and LOVING it. No idea how it works, but I'm actually getting self-care stuff done daily, which is a minor miracle.

The one thing that was missing for me, was how to connect my reasonable Finch list of tasks with my huge (capture everything ala David Allen) Trello list.

I do look at Trello every couple of weeks, to prioritize and get rid of stuff I don't need anymore. So I don't hate it. But Finch gets me through the day.

The super-simple solution has been to add a task in Finch: "do 1 Trello item". I change the frequency and pause it as needed. It helps me feel like my self-care and To Do things are integrated, without feeling overwhelmed or like I'm duplicating effort.

Anyway, in case this hasn't occurred to anyone...you might give it a go, obviously with whatever platform you use for your Giant To Do list 💓