A GTD Sprint example using OmniFocus and Freemind

So here, I’m going to go through a sprint example using GTD ®. The purpose of this is to show how the principles of GTD can apply to a real world example.

I’ll be using a fictional sprint, but the use cases shown will correspond to each kind of input that GTD caters for. Whilst it’s not real, the underlying principles will still be apparent, and each kind of ‘external input’ will be translated into a GTD input.

Everything in our sprint can be classified, which is what makes GTD so powerful.

Different Tools for Different Inputs

For the purposes of this example, we’ll only use these to tools to distinguish between a workflow tool and a tool for reference data. There are definitely more places to store reference data (the file system and email to name but two).

But we’ll just focus on two systems for now:

• OmniFocus will be used for capturing input and ‘converting it into actions’ for our workflow.
• Freemind will be used for capturing reference info, and supporting our creative thinking.

Our Simplified Sprint

Before we start, let’s look at our current setup. I have stripped OmniFocus down to show just a view where we have an inbox and a sprint with 3 projects.

Initially our projects are empty, but as we process different inputs we’ll see that change.

Freemind is just a simple supporting document, with the 3 projects:

Understanding Input

During our fictional sprint, we can get input from a variety of sources:

• Our own ideas
• Slack/Other instant messaging tools
• Emails
• Website links

but they’ll all end up in one of 3 places:

• OmniFocus if they’re an action
• FreeMind if they’re not actionable but useful information
• The bin if they’re neither of those things

When not to process something

In some cases though, when you wouldn’t process something. This would be when:

• The action can be done, there and then, in under 2 minutes – in this case the overhead of processing and retrieving isn’t worth it. This relates to “Do It!” on the original workflow diagram. 
• When you’ve identified this the item will never be relevant to you, then you eliminate it. This corresponds to the trashcan you see in the original diagram on the top right.

Let’s move onto different use cases and how they relate to our sprint.