GTD: why can’t I put things in order?

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

There are 5 steps in GTD:

Step 1
Collect. All tasks must be collected in a convenient medium.

Step 2
Clarify. If the task completion takes no more than 2 minutes, it should be done immediately. If it takes more time, then the next action is to be done for it.

Step 3
Organize. Tasks should be sorted by projects, dates, contexts ("Things that can be done in the office", "Calls", "Shopping", etc.), waiting lists (lists of tasks that require your attention, rather than participation)

Step 4
Review. Tasks should be looked over regularly.

Step 5
Engage. Tasks must be done.

The problem is that you can do dozens of tasks every day and be shocked because you still find yourself unsuccessful. A Hamster on a Wheel Syndrome is an occupational disease of GTD followers. Yes, you will be effective, but you will hardly be happy. And here’s the reason why.

The main GTD drawback is its fixation on the following simple actions. You split all your projects into tasks which execution takes several minutes. And now you have a huge list of small actions similar to each other — you can no longer to see which of them are routine activities, and which ones are caused by the greatest ambitions. Everything is equal. You are forgetting about great things. The main thing here is to do as much as possible and believe you are doing great.

Fortunately, we still have something that helps us to oppose artificial intelligence. So, not everything can be reduced to simple algorithms. Only those actions that cannot be easily performed, cause our real satisfaction and other people' admiration. They make us prominent players and give us promotion. But GTD doesn't deal with such actions. It believes in universal tasks and does not take into account the actual efficiency of the tasks.

Chaos management develops the best ideas of GTD and removes mentioned above limitations.
The result is:

Step 1
Save all tasks on a convenient medium — see how much the Inbox in SingularityApp suits you for this.

Step 2
Instead of dealing with the tasks that take less than 2 minutes and writing down the next action, exhale. Match all the tasks with your vision of an ideal future (if you still don't have one, stop and decide what it should be like). Will these tasks really bring you closer to it? Prioritize your tasks.

Step 3
Set the dates for the tasks so that they appear in the "Plans" folder. Sort the tasks by projects.

Step 4
Review the tasks in Review mode regularly and put some of them into the plan.

Step 5
Manage your project in Focus mode and execute tasks with Pomodoro.

This will prevent a daily plan from being cluttered up with small actions. They will not be displayed over and over, but you can always open any task and see the checklist.

Smart tasks sorting takes into consideration both priorities and deadlines, so it will not allow you to get engaged with small urgent matters and forget about important ones.

Focus mode will help you focus on an important project rather than be distracted by other tasks.

In Check mode, it’s convenient to plan a new session based on what has already been done during this period.

Check which tasks must be done next week and see what important things you can plan between them without being tied to dates.

Perhaps you’ll do less than with the GTD. But you will do things you live for.