The GTD or Get Things Done daily review is a productivity hack that lets you look back on the day gone by, reflect on all that you have achieved, and set better goals for the next day so you can get more done.
It helps you sort through any ideas you generated during the day, and arrange your work plan around them to get the most out of the following day. If done regularly, this can be an excellent way to analyze all the lessons you learned and use them to move towards a better, stronger, and more successful version of yourself.
So, how can you go about making the GTD daily review a part of your daily schedule. This post includes some hand-picked tips from the users of Coach.me habit tracker and will help you build this new habit.
1. Do a quick morning review
As user, Richard Olpin puts it, “my morning review is a quick skim of my forecast for the calendar, flagged and due items, etc. Weekly I do a more comprehensive project review and decide my most important tasks for the next week.”
2. Split it into two parts during the day
Following the advice of user Josh Roman, here’s what you can do:
- View your calendar the first thing in the morning. Then, quickly review your projects and update any tasks before switching to the Forecast view. Then, edit your task list and move all of tomorrow’s tasks onto tomorrow’s calendar.
- In the evening, do a quick review of your Goals & Systems so you’re in the right frame of mind for the next day. Then, review your calendar for any hardscape items, and reorganize your calendar if needed.
3. Follow a 3-step process like the weekly review
Just like performing the GTD weekly review, user Mascha van de Weersuggests following three steps to get your daily review done:
- Check your calendar
- Check your next actions lists (if you have time during that day for any next actions).
- Look in your inboxes to estimate and plan the time you need for processing.
4. Prioritize the tasks for the day
As user Dominik Jaworski suggests, here’s what you can do: “Plugin calendar (use it as a trigger list too), notes on iPhone and Mail (physical mail from last day and actual email). Then prioritize most important things. Do a quick check on your email including deleting spam, sorting out todos, etc. in less that two minutes. The rest goes to a list item “Mail” which usually gets done after the most important tasks.”
5. Get an accountability partner
Talk to someone about your goals of doing a GTD daily review every day. This can be a friend, a roommate, a partner, a sibling, or a parent. Roping someone in on your journey and having them hold you accountable can be a way to make sure you’re not alone on this journey. headshop
You can also hire an accountability coach. These are trained professionals who will help you build a new habit or get rid of old ones. Having a compassionate, professionally-trained expert by your side can be a wonderful way to make sure you don’t fall off the wagon while trying to build this new habit of performing a GTD daily review every day.
6. Bonus: Use technology
Download a free habit tracker where you mark each day on the calendar when you successfully performed your GTD daily review. Seeing an unbroken streak of indulging in your new good habit can be an incredible motivator to keep pushing you ahead on this endeavor of performing a GTD daily review every single day.