I recently started using GTD. It's a system with three main principles: 1. You need to get all "open loops"—anything you think you need to do or want to do—out

I recently started using GTD. It's a system with three main principles: 1. You need to get all "open loops"—anything you think you need to do or want to do—out of your head and written down. You naturally get rid of these whenever you find yourself mulling over them and distracting from your main task. 2. They should be put in a trusted system that is both complete and has no duplication. Usually this should be separated by context (things to do at work, at home, etc). You should have just this one system, and not jump around between several ad hoc systems (an email inbox here, a list on the fridge there). 3. Each item needs a defined next physical action. So you can't just have something like "plan vacation." You need that to have an attached next action, such as "google hotels in Miami and make a list of options." And then when that's done you replace it with the next physical action and so on, until "plan vacation" is done. I combine this with a homespun version of pomodoro (where I both work on tasks in 25 minute chunks and block my internet access with apps like Freedom and Stayfocusd for that amount of time). I also review my lists during break periods to get confident I'm doing the right thing. In just a few months I've cleared out a lot of my backlog and removed a lot of the background anxiety that had been plaguing my free time.