The GTD Workflow: How Items Flow Through Your System

The GTD workflow is a decision tree that every item in your life passes through. Understanding this flow is the key to implementing GTD effectively.

The Decision Tree

When an item arrives in your inbox (any item, from any source), it enters the following decision flow:

Is it actionable?

If no, it goes to one of three places: Trash (if it has no value), Reference (if it is useful information to keep), or Someday/Maybe (if you might want to act on it in the future).

If yes, what is the next action?

Does the next action take less than two minutes? If yes, do it now. The overhead of tracking a two-minute task exceeds the cost of just doing it.

Should someone else do it? If yes, delegate it and track it on your Waiting For list.

Does it need to happen at a specific time? If yes, put it on your calendar.

Otherwise, it goes on your Next Actions list, organized by the context in which you can do it.

Is it a multi-step outcome? If the item requires more than one action to complete, it is a project. Add it to your Projects list and make sure you have identified the next action for it.

Common Bottlenecks

The inbox bottleneck. Items pile up in the inbox faster than you process them. The solution is dedicated processing time, not more frequent checking. Process your inbox to empty during two or three focused sessions per day.

The someday/maybe black hole. Items go on this list and never come off. If you have items that have been on your someday/maybe list for months without being reviewed, they are not someday items. They are never items. Delete them.

The stale projects list. Projects sit on the list without clear next actions. During your weekly review, verify that every project has an identified next action. If a project has been sitting without a next action for weeks, either define one or consider whether the project should be eliminated.

The growing next actions list. This is the most common reason GTD systems collapse. The list grows until choosing what to do becomes its own burden. The solution is not better prioritization. It is elimination. Review your next actions list and remove anything that has been sitting for more than two weeks without movement.

How Nix It Streamlines the GTD Workflow

Nix It implements this decision tree with one important modification: elimination pressure at every stage.

Items enter through email or manual creation. The first question is not “is this actionable?” but “what happens if I ignore this?” This front-loads elimination, preventing items from entering your system unless they carry genuine consequences.

For items that are actionable, the two-minute rule applies: handle it now and eliminate it. For everything else, the item becomes a card on the canvas with a state (Owned for your next actions, Delegated for waiting-on items, Pending for items blocked by external events) and a trigger to surface it at the right time.

The weekly review then applies elimination pressure to everything on the canvas. The older an item is, the harder it has to work to justify its existence. This prevents the accumulation that makes GTD workflows collapse over time.

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Nix It is a work management system that supports GTD and other productivity methodologies. Learn more and try it free.