GTD Trusted System

When you set up your GTD system - or any organizing system - it is imperative that you use it consistently and with refined Standard Operating Procedures. This is what David Allen calls 'Your Trusted System'.

A trusted system is a key GTD concept because you can rely on the trusted system to house what your next actions and projects are. You know that you almost exclusively use your system to track progress, record things, hold ideas, take notes, keep your lists and hold all the elements of your GTD implementation. Thus, when you need to refer to something or take action, you go to your trusted system knowing what you're looking for is there.

Contrast using a single planner, PDA, moleskine, or notebook with many people's current system -

Many people use:

• a scrap of paper, and
• sticky notes, and
• the back of a napkin, and
• the outside of an envelopes, and
• a notebook, and
• the margin of a printout that's in easy reach, and
• a calendar at home and another calendar at work, and
• a paper planner, and
• a computer system such as Lotus Notes or Microsoft Outlook.

When random components often used for 'notes' are listed in one place like this (a trusted list) the inability to trust a scattered system (or is it a non-system) becomes illuminated.

Is your system reliable or scattered or blended? Is that serving you?