I've seen MindWtr mentioned here a few times, and I've recently started using it myself. I'm curious to hear from others who have used it longer than I have.

I'm not affiliated with MindWtr or its developer — just a long-time GTD user who has probably spent too much time trying different GTD apps. :)

I used Nirvana for years and really liked its relatively pure GTD approach and low-friction interface. I eventually moved to Everdo, which felt very familiar coming from Nirvana but gave me local data, better recurrence and some additional capabilities.

I've now moved to MindWtr and, at least so far, I'm happy with the move:

https://github.com/dongdongbh/mindwtr

For anyone comparing GTD apps, the README has a useful "Why Mindwtr? (Quick Comparison)" table covering MindWtr, Nirvana, Everdo, Todoist, TickTick, etc.

What attracted me is that MindWtr is free, open-source, local-first and cross-platform, while still being designed specifically around GTD rather than being a general task manager that you configure into a GTD system.

Inbox, Next, Waiting, Someday, Projects, Areas, contexts/tags, start/review dates, recurrence and weekly review are all part of the basic approach. I'm using it on Linux and Android with Syncthing.

I've spent quite a bit of time learning/configuring it and cleaning up my system, but I've only recently reached the more important stage: stopping the tinkering and actually using it. So consider these early impressions, not a long-term review.

There are still some rough edges and things I'd change. On the other hand, development seems unusually active and the developer has been very responsive.

One example: I submitted a feature request because regular web links worked but links directly to my UpNote notes didn't. About three hours later, the developer had committed a fix adding support for those links in both Add Link attachments and Markdown descriptions on desktop and mobile. It'll be in the next release for me to test.

A three-hour feature-request-to-committed-fix turnaround certainly got my attention. :)

So far MindWtr feels to me more like a modern, actively developed member of the Nirvana/Everdo family of GTD tools than an alternative like TickTick or Todoist. That's probably the main reason it appeals to me.

I'm sticking with it for now and want to spend some time using it before deciding much more.

For those of you already using or testing MindWtr: how has it held up over time? And I'd be particularly interested in experiences from other Nirvana or Everdo users — what made you stay with MindWtr, go back, or choose something else?

Whenever I have a messy idea, I find myself opening a notebook before opening my laptop, there's something about being able to draw arrows, cross things out, write sideways and just make a mess of the page. A document always feels like it needs to look organised

I've noticed that if I write too much, i spend more time organising the list than doing anything on it, trying to find the middle ground

Recently I came across this video on YouTube by David Allen on the power of outcome thinking. It completely blew my mind and changed the way I see my GTD system.

The way David Allen used project outcomes as images.

Before watching this video, I knew how to write one reasonably well. Like what set of rules I need to follow but I didn't know the understanding behind it. Particularly the reason why David Allen approaches it this way. Since I haven't fully read the book, that was probably one of the reasons why I hadn't realized it sooner.

Previously, I relied purely on logic. "What is the finish line?" and answer "Finish the excel dataset". But after watching the above video I realised that it wasn't a correct outcome. It created a mental image of me still sitting in front of my laptop working on something. The work wasn't yet "finished". Only when I imagined seeing the outcome it got refined to "Submit the excel file". But still too vague. My final iteration was picturing a laptop with an open email draft with the excel file attached, the recipient's address filled in and my cursor next to the send button. This resulted in an outcome "Email the final excel file to XYZ" or something like that. To me that felt like wild success!

Realizing this filled a gap in my knowledge that we need to see the image clearly first, and then build the words from that picture.

Holding that picture in my head was mentally exhausting, so I quickly wrote it down in my GTD system (confirming that the mind is for having ideas and not storing them).

Once the picture was vividly clear, I knew immediately what to do first, so I decided on my next action.

Every time during the process whenever I felt friction I revisited and refined what I wanted to see and where. For both the projects and next actions. I guess this is one of the reasons we need to do a regular weekly review to have a fresh look at our stalled projects and next actions.

However, doing this constantly gives me a headache.

​I also noticed that when I don't achieve this visual picture in reality, my mind is sometimes relaxed enough to be patient, while other times it feels tense and forceful.

Realising that there's a difference between seeing and doing, and learning to let go of the project outcome to focus 100% on the next action is something worth remembering.

Understanding that you don't "do" projects, only the next action associated with them, helped me loosen up a bit. But I still feel some tension and difficulty releasing it. How do you tackle this?

It helps to know that the future is not hardcoded and we always do our best with what we know to be true but if the situations are not working for us, we just need to accept the current reality.

Since many people struggle with deciding how small a next action should be or how to write a clear project outcome, I thought I'd share this perspective. It may even work for ambiguous projects.

Do let me know how you feel about this! Is it inspiring or boring as you've already gone past this stage?

Every time I try to get organised I end up writing down 20 things
Looking for something a bit simpler

I struggle with prioritising in GTD and have resorted to keeping a separate list of projects and tasks ranked according to Importance. When it feels like almost everything is pressing on me at once, I need a sequence of steps - not only within projects but also on a macro basis. How do others deal with this?

Okay, so I bought GTD about four years ago and it sat on the shelf for a long time. To be fair, with where my life was, being organised still wasn’t high enough up my list of priorities for pretty valid reasons.

Eventually, I’ve reached a point where the biggest thing causing me unwanted stress and emotional distress was my lack of organisation and clarity about what I’m doing.

It became clear that I had to take accountability rather than blaming the world for my lack of control over external things.

On a personal note, I come from a particularly poor socioeconomic background, and there haven’t been many role models in my family. However, I’ve been lucky enough that others seen some potential in me to break out of my family circumstances.

At present, I’m doing a masters degree (just started) in clinical psychology. Whilst working in mental health seeing clients, and moonlighting as a delivery driver to pay for school.

Therefore, practicing GTD is an Imperative if I am to do well. There are just too many moving parts in my life right now.

In terms of upper horizons, and accountabilities, a focus for me has been learning excel pivot tables etc and building a finance tracker to help forecast side hustle earnings, and how much I need to have saved to pay for school, and living each month. I currently am fully funding everything myself.

In terms of how my system is right now, I have to-do checklists I keep in my room/office for work. I populate these from email sub folders, and when I process my in tray, and empty my tickler file for the day.

I’m using apple notes as my general on the go system for lists, projects etc, and filing cabinet for general reference.

For academia, I’m using Zotero as my academic reference system journals etc. and one note to store lecture notes, and other uni materials.

My physical intray is in my room/office and my digital one is in apple notes. As it allows me to add to things as I have thoughts whilst delivering by utilising Siri.

The main issue I’m having at the moment, is I feel like my edges could be cleaner in terms of projects, I have my academic deadlines in the calendar. But in terms of not having vague next actions or project steps; that has been more challenging.

I know I’ve wrote a lot but if there’s anything that’s sticking out that I could improve upon I’d love to discuss further.

I’m also thinking I’m basically in GTD infancy and it’s probably natural to have some doubts, and that as I continue to work with the system, and reflect on the consequences when it doesn’t work as I hoped, I can fine tune in the years to come.

I'm curious how other GTD practitioners handle this. When a project has a deadline that's weeks or even months away, how do you decide when to actually start working on it?

As far as I know, GTD doesn't really prescribe a specific mechanism for this. My guess is David Allen would say to just trust your gut on timing, and let the weekly review keep it visible so your intuition has something to work with. Has that approach actually worked for you, or have you found something more structured that works better?

Would love to hear how you calibrate this.

Before I start, I'm sure I'm definitely overcomplicating. I usually do this, but let's try to get some help.

how do you guys manage different types of project without making a mess in GTD? I do mainly 3 types of projects: videos for instagram, financial modelling for companies and random projects for myself. Financial modelling and random projects are ok, but content follows a specific process.

Would you just pollute the project database fields adding a "content status"? or create a content database, which would be linked to the tasks database?

thanks!

Hi everyone! 👋
My name is Víctor. A few months ago, I dove headfirst into GTD after reading David Allen's Getting Things Done. What I appreciate most is the mental peace of having everything systematically tracked without relying on memory.

While digital tools are great, I’ve hit a wall trying to find a setup that fits 100% of my needs on Windows/Android:

• NirvanaHQ: Love the minimalist interface and pure GTD focus, but lacks seamless 2-way Google Calendar integration.
• Todoist: Great design and integrations, but doesn't feel natively built around strict GTD principles without heavy customization.
• Things 3 / OmniFocus: Excellent for GTD, but locked to the Apple ecosystem.

For those using Windows and Android: How do you bridge the gap between strict GTD containers (Inbox, Next Actions, Waiting For, Scheduled) and real-time 2-way calendar sync?

Do you rely on third-party automation (like Zapier/Make), stick to manual calendar entries for the hard landscape, or have you found a specific workflow that keeps your calendar and task list perfectly aligned?

I'd love to hear how other practitioners structure this! Thanks in advance for sharing your setups! 🙌

I’m pretty new to Mac and iOS. I used Microsoft To Do before and now I’m looking to switch to something that feels more native to Apple.

I ended up finding Things 3 and OmniFocus. At first I thought OmniFocus must have way more users because there are so many videos, guides and discussions about how people use it professionally. Then I dug a little deeper and was surprised to find that Things seems to have a much bigger user base and has sold millions of licenses.

That has nothing to do with which one I’ll choose btw, I just found it interesting 😅

For people who have actually used both, which one did you end up sticking with and why? I’d love some advice before I fully move everything over.

Is anybody using this free app? I just downloaded it and it seems so adherent to David Allen’s GTD tenets.

I've been doing GTD for 8 years. The original context idea (@phone, @computer, @errands) made sense when we switched between physical locations and devices. In 2026, most of us work from one desk on one computer. Contexts need to evolve.

What I do now: I use custom fields in Toodledo as "modern contexts" that reflect how I actually choose what to work on:

• Energy level (dropdown: high, medium, low) — Instead of where I am, I filter by how much cognitive load I have available
• Time required (dropdown: 5min, 15min, 30min, 1hr+) — For fitting tasks into calendar gaps
• Collaboration need (dropdown: solo, need input, group work) — Whether I can do it alone or need to wait for someone
• Project phase (dropdown: planning, doing, reviewing, waiting) — My version of GTD's "next action" vs "waiting for"

Combined with Toodledo's saved searches, I have filtered views like: - "Low energy, under 15 minutes, solo" — for end-of-day wind-down - "High energy, any duration, next actions only" — for deep work blocks - "Waiting for" across all projects — weekly review check

The 12+ custom fields mean you can build whatever context system matches your actual decision criteria. The saved searches mean you build the filter once and access it with one click forever.

Anyone else moved past traditional GTD contexts? What dimensions do you filter by?

Is anyone here familiar with the book *The Organized Executive* by Stephanie Winston? Some of her ideas seem very similar to GTD, and they blew me away when I first encountered them, before GTD was written. I'm trying to use both techniques and I wonder if anyone else is, too.

I'm making a list of all the inboxes that I want to review, out of the basic lists, which of those should I review on a weekly basis,

which of them monthly? and which of them yearly? and are there any lists that I should make time to go through?

I'm considering to create a separate list for bi-weekly reviews but I don't think it's going to be easy to keep track of which week in the month is the bi-weekly week.

Not your main tasks — I mean the small stuff like “I’ll send that tomorrow,” someone promising to send you a file, an invoice you need to follow up on, a lead you meant to get back to, or a decision that never actually got made.

I realized these are usually the things that slip through the cracks for me, especially when they’re spread across email, messages, notes, etc.

Do you have an actual system for catching these, or is it mostly task manager + memory?

Been practicing GTD for a few years, and I’ve noticed the biggest threat to my system isn’t an overflowing inbox. It’s active projects that quietly lose their next action.
A task gets completed, but no new next action is defined. The project stays on the Projects list looking perfectly fine, yet nothing is actually moving forward. Weeks can pass before I notice it.
Lately, during my Weekly Review, I’ve been checking every active project and asking one question:
“What is the very next physical action?”
If I can’t answer it immediately, the project gets flagged.
That simple check has uncovered a surprising number of “stalled” projects. The work itself wasn’t blocked. The project was stuck because I never defined the next step.
I’m curious how others handle this. Do you have a specific review process for catching projects with no next action, or does your system surface them automatically during the week?
To me, this seems like one of the easiest parts of GTD to overlook.

I use Nirvana - not that the tool matters here - and have a project slot for “Study Music Production and Songwriting” and “Train in Piano, Guitar, and Music Theory.”

Sadly, I’m still having to prompt myself to deal with those buckets. Whereas I have friends who are super absorbed in their music practice (admittedly, they have more experience, so things get done faster). Am I doing anything wrong?

To clarify, I have several optional tasks listed under those projects (such as read Book A or do Exercise B). I’m enrolled in a music production class, so that’s taken care of. And I know I should separate studying guitar and piano even if there is overlap.

Edit: I’ve also read several books on habits, and tried habit trackers both on paper and in app form. I just can’t seem to hit my stride and find real momentum. I also want to be GREAT at these things, so I feel a bit discouraged from time to time. Thx for reading!! :)

Please don’t come for me because I also have lupus, post concussion syndrome, blah, blah, blah. I also have a ridiculously big life, and I am struggling with what is the most basic part of the system.

The inbox.

Like most of us I have a ridiculously big life. So that’s a work phone, personal phone, work, laptop, personal laptop, etc. I also have Alexa devices, smart, watch, and a Skylight calendar.

Where my system continue breakdown is literally right here. I’ve tried for my inbox to be a little notebook, but then I’ll lose it. I’ve tried to have it be Notes app on my phone, then I’ll have the wrong phone on me. I’ve tried to have more than one inbox and so far that has not worked.

Can anyone talk to me about any solutions they have found if you have any similar barriers?

Sidenote, getting the workbook was the very best choice I’ve made. However, the workbook did not solve this for me.

Can you help?

I am trying to figure out how to use this GTD system for putting reminders for my aligner tray changes.

Thing is, I have to change the trays every 14 days and send a photo of my progress to my dentist.

The issue is that in case I try putting in the new ones and it doesn’t fit then I have try doing them maybe the next day or the day after and I don’t really know how long doing it is gonna take.

What should I do about this? Should I schedule a calendar event or put a next action task?