A Guide to GTD Terminology
If you’re unsure of any of the GTD terminology or jargon this page is for you. I put together a quick reference for all of the terms used in GTD. If you want to get started implementing GTD, check out this article for a quick guide to GTD.
10,000 Feet – The perspective of Projects
20,000 Feet – The perspective of Areas of Focus
30,000 Feet – The perspective of Goals
40,000 Feet – The perspective of Life Vision
50,000 Feet – The perspective of Life Purpose or Principles
2 Minute Rule – While processing do any tasks that require 2 minutes or less rather than managing them in your system
Action – The physical step you need to take to do a task
Actionable – Something that you can take action on now
Areas of Focus – The 7-15 Areas of your life that you need to maintain
Capture Collect – The act of writing down thoughts, ideas, or potential tasks/projects to be processed later
Clarify/Process – Turning a capture into a specific next action/project
Contexts – The Location, Tool or Person required for a list of tasks (e.g. @office)
Engage – Doing
Get Clear – Doing a mind sweep and capturing any tasks from your environment, email or any other place and processing them.
Get Current – Reviewing each of your action lists, projects list and calendar.
Get Creative – Reviewing your someday maybe lists and daydreaming of anything else you’d like to do.
Goals – Things you want to achieve within the 1-5 year time frame
GTD – Getting Things Done
Horizons of Focus – The range of perspectives through which you can think about life and work
Inbox – The collection place for your captures before they are clarified/processed
Mind-sweep – A brain-dump, capturing everything that has been on your mind recently (often done at the start of the weekly review)
Natural Planning Method – The Method used to plan projects
Next Action – The very next physical visible action you can take
Next Action List – A list of your next actions usually sorted by context
Organize – Moving Next Actions on to the relevant Context list
Project – A multi-step task that you want to complete within the next year
Projects List – A List of all your projects, one per line
Project Support Material – Any Material you need to help you complete a project
Principles/Purpose – The pinnacle of value in your life (you don’t necessarily have to have one)
Reflect – Looking through your list to decide what to do
Runway – The perspective of next actions
Task – Something you want to get done
Tickler System – A reminder system for physical items
Trigger List – A list of topics and questions that guide you through a mind-sweep.
Someday Maybes – A list of things you don’t want to do now but might be cool in the future
Vision – A vision of what you want your life to be like in the future
Waiting For – A list of all the things you are waiting for other people to do
Weekly Review – A review of you entire system using ‘Get Clear, Get Current, Get Creative
Meet Gregory, a writer and the brains behind Face Dragons. He's the go-to guy for getting things done.
Gregory's been living the digital nomad life in Asia for as long as anyone can remember, helping clients smash their goals. He writes on topics like software, personal knowledge management (PKM), and personal development. When he's not writing, you'll catch him at the local MMA gym, nose buried in a book, or just chilling with the family.
