How Getting Things Done (and Ed) Changed My Life
Growing up, organization, task completion, and time management weren’t my strong suit. Being 15 minutes late was the norm. I can confidently say I never made it to a Cleveland Indians (RIP Chief Wahoo) game in time for the national anthem. Class assignments were often completed at the last minute- right after my head popped off the pillow and I realized, “Oh no! I had nine months to work and I didn’t do anything.... That project is due today!”
The reason for this was part nature, part nurture. If you are familiar with the Myers-Briggs personality classification system, my fourth preferred classification is Perceiving, as opposed to Judging. A simplified explanation of this is that a person who prefers to Perceive can tend to be relaxed, improvising, procrastinating, and spontaneous. Even though I had a desire to be responsible, prepared, and proactive, my internal wiring made it challenging to do so.
Putting flesh on the scripture, “For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.” (Romans 7:19).
I wasn’t confronted about this until I was in my first job out of college. And the way I was challenged—with charity and patience—led to a lasting change in my life. This change helped me “do the good things I wanted to do” (i.e., show up to a freaking meeting on time).
It played out like this: one of my supervisors (shout out to Ed) gave me a challenge. He said, “I’m going to buy you a book. It’ll change your life. If you can read the first 50 pages of the book in 30 days, you don’t have to pay me back.”
(If you’re wondering… I didn’t finish the 50 pages in 30 days. He didn’t make me pay him back. But his challenge stuck with me, and within that year, I finally got to reading it. To this day, I still use the lessons learned from those first 50 pages. It was the beginning of a new approach to structure and getting things done—pun intended.)
What was that life-changing book? Getting Things Done by David Allen.
If you find yourself habitually late, overwhelmed by tasks, and feeling like you can’t get ahead of that heap of responsibility, the summary below of the first 50 pages of GTD is for you.
The Big Idea: Your Mind Is for Having Ideas, Not for Holding Them
David Allen opens Getting Things Done (GTD) with a simple but revolutionary idea:
Most people are stressed not because they have too much to do, but because they’re keeping too much in their heads.
Every unfinished commitment, unmade decision, or unclear responsibility—what Allen calls an open loop—clutters your mental space. The constant reminders your brain sends (“Don’t forget that meeting… pay that bill… call your mom…”) come at the wrong times and drain energy.
The antidote? Get everything out of your head and into a trusted external system—a place where you can see it, clarify it, and act on it logically.
The GTD Framework: Five Steps to Clarity and Control
Allen introduces a simple, five-step workflow that helps you reclaim mental space and restore peace of mind:
Capture – Gather everything that has your attention. Write it down, record it, or drop it in an inbox—physical or digital.
Clarify – Decide what each item means and what you need to do about it (if anything).
Organize – Place items in categories: projects, next actions, waiting for, someday/maybe, or reference.
Reflect – Review your lists regularly so your system stays current and trustworthy.
Engage – Use your system to make confident decisions about what to do next.
When practiced consistently, these steps create what Allen calls a “mind like water”—a state of relaxed control where you can respond appropriately to whatever life throws your way.
Key Concepts That Changed Everything
Stuff – Anything that doesn’t belong where it is or isn’t where it should be.
Open loops – Unfinished commitments that weigh on your mind.
Next action – The single, visible step that moves a task forward.
Projects – Any outcome requiring more than one action.
Inbox – The holding place for capturing “stuff” before it’s clarified.
Once everything is captured, clarified, and organized, the fog lifts. You can focus on what really matters, with a clear head and calm heart.
The Takeaway
Those first 50 pages of Getting Things Done taught me that structure isn’t about rigidity—it’s about freedom.
When your mind is no longer cluttered with reminders and worries, you can finally be fully present, creative, and effective.
It’s not magic. It’s management—of attention and your time.
And for someone who used to be late to everything, that lesson really changed my life.
Buy the book, take some notes, and then send me a glory story of how it changed yours.
