How to Get Things Done as a PhD Student with Notion - GTD David Allen Summary

A PhD student trying to stop important items from “falling through the cracks” builds a weekly Getting Things Done (GTD) system inside Notion—then turns it into a practical workflow for deciding what to do next, when, and under what conditions. The core aim is simple but high-stakes: walk into Christmas break with a clear mind, meaning every task that matters is captured, clarified into a next action, and sorted so nothing important is left untracked.

The process starts with capture—dumping everything on the mind into a single list. The student notes that early mind sweeps produced “a couple hundred” items, but repeated weekly reviews shrink the backlog; the current snapshot is about 75 tasks and roughly 40 open projects. A guided mind sweep from the Getting Things Done company is used to make the capture step less overwhelming, especially when anxiety spikes and the list feels too large.

Next comes clarification: any item that’s just a label gets converted into a concrete next action. “Haircut” becomes booking an appointment; vague items like “filming set up” become “figure out a filming setup in my new house.” After that, the system moves into triage using GTD’s decision rules. Tasks that take two minutes are flagged into a “Do” column and handled immediately—often on a Friday afternoon when offices and appointment systems are still open. Items that can be delegated are placed into a “Waiting For” list, including both requests to other people (like asking a supervisor) and dependencies (like waiting for a book to arrive before reading).

Everything else gets sorted into “Dump” (tasks that are no longer relevant or already done) or “Defer,” which then feeds a second layer of organization: context and readiness. The student associates tasks with projects—anything involving more than one step becomes a project (e.g., switching banks is treated as a multi-step project, unlike booking a haircut). Tasks also receive optional metadata: due dates only when real deadlines exist, plus priority (high/medium/low), time required, and energy required. Notion filters then help match tasks to the current work mode—at desk, at home, errands, calls, emails, and research & development—along with “Read and review” for lower-effort work.

A notable customization adds menstrual cycle phase tagging to tasks, aligning work choices with changing energy and social motivation. New beginnings after menstruation are framed as a good time for fresh, higher-engagement work; the pre-period phase is positioned for administrative tasks; reflective or low-energy tasks are suggested during the menstrual phase.

Operationally, the workflow is maintained by dragging items from a shared inbox (“sticky notes”) into the main task database whenever ideas pop up mid-day. After updating tasks and projects, the student reports the system expanding—tasks rise from 75 to 95, then to about 118 tasks total, with around 300 hours of work across 34 projects—before shifting into actual execution in the next part.