Getting Things Done® (GTD®) Resources

OmniFocus was designed with David Allen’s Getting Things Done® approach to productivity in mind. Learning and practising this approach can greatly enhance your productivity.

Whether you’re learning GTD for the first time or are a seasoned practitioner, here are some resources to support you in developing a solid grounding in the basic principles and for putting the best practices that David Allen recommends into action. At a minimum, take 2 minutes and 22 seconds out of your day to watch the following video by Epipheo.

The Omni Group also produced an excellent video that is featured on the Getting Things Done page of Inside OmniFocus.

Books

David Allen has written several books on the Getting Things Done methodology. All are readily available in print, e-book, and audiobook formats.

Getting Things Done — First published in 2001, “Getting Things Done” is essentially the manual for GTD and includes detailed overviews, examples, and coaching advice to support you as you develop your GTD system. In March 2015, a brand new edition of the book was published.
[ Goodreads | Apple Books Store ]

Making it All Work  David Allen’s second book takes GTD concepts to a whole new level and delves more deeply into the models for control and perspective.
[ Goodreads | Apple Book Store]

Ready for Anything — A collection of 52 essays David Allen wrote over a decade. Major themes include clearing your head, focusing your attention, creating successful structures, and taking effective action.
[ GoodreadsApple Books Store ]

Team: Getting Things Done with Others — This book builds on the principles shared in the original Getting Things Done book and offers practical advice for working effectively in groups.
[ Goodreads | Apple Books Store (audiobook) ]

Videos & Online Courses

You’ll find plenty of talks and interviews with David Allen on the David Allen Company website and YouTube. Here’s a sampling to get you started.

David Allen Company Video Gallery —The David Allen Company website contains a collection of videos, including David Allen’s 22-minute TEDx talk, which is well worth watching.
[ video gallery ]

“The mind is for having ideas, not holding them” — A talk by David Allen at the DO Lectures in Wales in 2011. It includes a personal account of why he was motivated to create this methodology and provides a good overview of the principles. (32:00)
watch video ]

David Allen at Google — GTD has always been very popular in the tech community. David Allen was invited to Google in 2008 to provide an overview of GTD to Google’s employees. (45:52)
watch video ]

LinkedIn Learning: Getting Things Done with David Allen — If you’re a LinkedIn Learning subscriber (or have access to this service through your local library), you have access to a course with David Allen himself. During the course, he’ll walk you through the five-step GTD process and share advice for keeping up with your work rather than being buried by it.
[ course ]

Websites/Blogs

GTD® Connect — GTD® Connect is a community of people who use the Getting Things Done (GTD) approach in their daily lives. Through the service, members can connect with other “GTDers” and access a wide variety of resources and media, including an interview with Learn OmniFocus founder Tim Stringer. There’s a monthly fee for using the service, but you can try it for two weeks free of charge.
[ website ]

GTD® Blog —The official blog of David Allen and the David Allen Company. It contains a wealth of information on many aspects of GTD and includes stories from people applying GTD in their lives. Among these stories is an article by Learn OmniFocus founder Tim Stringer entitled A Healing Journey, in which he talks about his 2008 journey through cancer and the role that GTD played in his recovery.
[ website ]

GTD® Podcast — The official podcast of the David Allen Company is a great source of information about GTD. It features a wide variety of GTD-centric topics and excerpts from talks David Allen gave. It will give you a good taste of what’s available to GTD Connect members.
[ website ]