You can’t manage time, you can only manage actions. And you can’t do that until your mind is clear of all the junk that’s keeping you distracted and unfocused.

That’s the premise behind David Allen’s remarkable book, Getting Things Done. The book has spawned a movement, particularly amongst the tech community, because of it’s instantly applicable, immensely practical step-by-step process for achieving a “mind like water.”

Getting Things Done argues that the traditional time management and goal setting methods don’t work, because your mind is too full of junk that it reminds itself of over and over again even though you a) aren’t sure what it is, and b) can’t necessarily do anything about it right now. This low-level, tactical stuff is what prevents you from focusing on the larger picture effectively, and is largely what raises your stress level. The GTD process is designed to combat this.

Allen breaks his process into 5 steps: collecting anything and everything that’s on your mind, processing each “to-do” by identifying the ideal outcome and determining the appropriate next action, organizing it into a system that works for you, reviewing it regularly so your mind learns to rely on it instead of itself (freeing you to do more creative work), and finally doing it with a clearer head and sense of focus.

For some people, implementing the entire process might sound like overkill. But everyone I’ve ever met who has tried to seriously implement even pieces of Allen’s system has reaped tremendous dividends.