Getting Things Done (GTD) is a personal productivity system developed by David Allen and published in a book of the same name.

[b][c] This allows one's attention to focus on taking action on each task listed in an external record, instead of recalling them intuitively.

[5] First published in 2001,[4] a revised edition of the book was released in 2015 to reflect the changes in information technology during the preceding decade.

[1] Allen first demonstrates stress reduction from the method with the following exercise, centered on a task that has an unclear outcome or whose next action is not defined.

[1]: 13 [e] He claims stress can be reduced and productivity increased by putting reminders about everything one is not working on into a trusted system external to one's mind.

The goal of the control processes in GTD is to get everything except the current task out of one's head and into this trusted system external to one's mind.

Allen argues that it is often difficult for individuals to focus on big picture goals if they cannot sufficiently control the day-to-day tasks that they frequently must face.

[1]: 54  By developing and using the trusted system that deals with day-to-day inputs, an individual can free up mental space to begin moving up to the next level.

Context lists can be defined by the set of tools available or by the presence of individuals or groups for whom one has items to discuss or present.

Consequently, the "next actions" stored by context in the "trusted system" act as an external support which ensures that we are presented with the right reminders at the right time.

[10] In 2004, James Fallows in The Atlantic described GTD's main promise as not only allowing the practitioner to do more work but to feel less anxious about what they can and cannot do.

A 2008 paper in the journal Long Range Planning by Francis Heylighen and Clément Vidal of the Free University of Brussels showed "recent insights in psychology and cognitive science support and extend GTD's recommendations".