Capture
Stage 1: Get everything out of your head into Inbox.
What Capture is
Inbox is the single entry point for all inputs. Every task, idea, commitment, worry — anything that needs attention — goes to Inbox first. Not to a project. Not to a flow. Inbox.
Capture is not the time to decide what something is or where it belongs. That's Processing. Capture is just extraction: get it out of your head.
The rules
Capture immediately. When something enters your awareness, capture it right away. Don't try to hold it in your head until a convenient moment. The moment you think "I should do something about this" — that's when it goes to Inbox.
Don't process while capturing. Capture is not the time to decide where something belongs or whether it's worth doing. Just get it out. Processing comes later.
One Inbox. Everything enters through a single point. If you have five different places things can land — a notebook, two apps, your email inbox, voice memos — you'll always be wondering if you missed something. One Inbox eliminates that anxiety.
What to capture
Capture anything that requires attention:
- Tasks and commitments ("I told Sarah I'd send her the contract")
- Ideas ("What if we restructured the onboarding flow?")
- Things you're worried about ("Did I file the Q3 report?")
- Things you want to do eventually ("I want to read that book")
- Anything generating low-level mental background noise
If something is taking up any mental space, capture it. The goal is a mind empty enough to focus — not empty of ideas, but empty of the background anxiety of trying to remember.
Capture channels in the AI era
The original GTD capture model was manual: you wrote things down. OTD expands this.
In a world connected by APIs, tasks can arrive from anywhere:
- An email asking you to do something
- A Slack message assigning you a responsibility
- A calendar invitation that implies prep work
- A GitHub notification that requires a decision
- A reminder from an automated system
Every one of these is a potential Action. In OTD, all of them flow through Inbox — regardless of source. The principle is the same as GTD; the volume and variety of inflow is larger.
What this means practically: Choose an Inbox that can receive inputs from multiple channels. Many people use a dedicated app that integrates with email and communication tools. Others prefer a simpler approach: a single text file or notes app where everything gets typed. The tool doesn't matter. The single-Inbox discipline does.
The brain dump
When you first set up OTD, do a dedicated brain dump: 30–60 minutes of emptying your head. Every task, idea, commitment, worry that's been living in your head goes into Inbox. Don't filter. Don't organize. Just extract.
After the brain dump, you'll process. But first: get it all out.
See Getting Started for a walkthrough of first-time setup including the brain dump.