In the previous section, I propose to write all the tasks in order to grasp the overall picture of tasks. David Allen proposed the method GTD in his book “Getting Things Done.” It is highly related.
In GTD, first of all, we gather all anxious things in one place. We can not remember so many things at once. If you try to remember more than you can remember, the burden makes stress, and the stress diminish your cognitive abilities.
So, you need to gather everything you have to do. By gathering everything, you release yourself from the stress to remember what to do.
Many people have tried to create a task list. GTD seems similar to them, but interestingly there is a little difference. In GTD, we gather all anxious things. A task list is a list of tasks. It should not contain a thing which is not a task. So before you put something in the task list, you need to judge whether it is a task or not. In GTD, we postpone the decision and collect everything you care about. We separate the gathering phases and the thinking phases so that we do not do multiple tasks at the same time.
For example, suppose you have an unread letter. To judge whether it is a task that needs a reply or garbage that you can throw away, you need to read it. Do not judge it in the gathering phase. Put it in the “inbox”, the gathering box. The work on the letter is over. The goal of the gathering phase is to create a state that everything you care about is in the inbox.
*2: Allen, D., 2015. Getting things done: The art of stress-free productivity. Penguin.