Getting started with GTD

5 steps to getting things done. 

1. Collect all the stuff that is lying around, unsolved. Tasks, books to read, places to go, projects in your mind, anything that must be dealt with, somehow.
   
   Place all of this in an inbox. This can be a mail inbox, a piece of paper, a physical box, a PDA... You can have multiple inboxes, but stick to as few as you actually need, for simplicity's sake.
2. Process all the stuff collected above. Begin from the top of your inbox, and ponder on the item you just picked up.
   
   Is this actionable? Can I do something about this? If the answer is yes, then, what can you do about it? You can do it now, if it takes 2 minutes or less to get that out of the way, you can delegate it if you think it should be done by someone else, or you can defer it to be done at a later time.
   
   What if no specific action can performed on the item? Then, you can file it away for future reference, if it still holds some importance; you can incubate it, if you think an action can arise relating to this item at some time, or you can simply throw it away, if the item holds no importance at all.
   
   Either way, never put stuff back in your inbox! When you start processing, get everything out of there, and decide what to do with the items.
3. Organize all actionable items into action lists.
   
   First, decide if the item holds a single, identifiable action, such as "Forward this e-mail to Joe", or if it holds a number of actions by itself. If that is the case, you've got a larger project in hand, which is composed of several actions. If this is the case, it should be reviewed periodically, to make sure that it is being moved forward, through the accomplishment of next actions. And what are those?
   
   For every item in your list, you should define what the next action is - the next physical part of work you should do, in order to advance the project. For example, if you have a "Get Organized" project, a next action could be "Read Getting Things Done". Once that action is done, another one is defined, thus advancing the project and getting some work done.
   
   An important part of defining next actions are contexts. These are the places, real or virtual that you can execute tasks. For example, if a task can only be performed at the office, there's no point in thinking about it at home. So, if you organize your actions by contexts, you'll always have next actions to do, at the right time.
   
   If a next action can't be performed right now, because it has been delegated, or you are waiting for some external event, mark it down as "Waiting for". Review the status of these actions periodically, to make sure the actions are still on hold, or move items to the next actions list acccordingly.
   
   If there's something you want to do, but you have no idea of when or how you'll be able to do, put it on the Someday/Maybe list. A good example of this would be "Take a trip to France", or "Learn Spanish".
4. Review all your lists in a daily basis.
   
   In order for your lists to be effective, you have to review them daily, marking off done actions, defining next actions, reviewing waiting items, and adding new items into the systems. It is also recommended that you perform in-depth reviews at least weekly.
5. Do!
   
   The objective of GTD should be no surprise... Actually getting some stuff done!. So, having a trusted system with all pending actions, is no use, if you don't actually get on to do them!