Getting Things Done (GTD) Podcast

Episode 340: Slice of GTD Life with Michael Keithley
Host: Jon Forrester
Guest: Michael Keithley
Date: December 10, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode features a deep dive with Michael Keithley, a long-time GTD practitioner, technologist, and former Chief Information Officer in the entertainment industry. Michael offers insights from decades of tinkering with personal productivity—spanning paper-based systems, digital tools, and, now, the applications of AI. The conversation touches on the evolution of his GTD habits, favorite tools, AI-powered productivity, and the broader implications for work and learning.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Michael’s Background and GTD Origin Story

• Location and Early Life: Michael is based in Encino, California, and is a rare Southern California native.
• Introduction to Productivity: Introduced to time management before college with a course at USC; quickly became a fan of planners (e.g., Franklin Planner).
• Discovery of GTD: "When I first heard from Northern California, some of the folks that were really getting into David's book, just the title alone, you know, getting things done, the Art of Stress Free Productivity. I'm like, wow, this I gotta read this. And I was hooked." (03:21)
• Sustainability of GTD: Unlike earlier 'diet' productivity fads, GTD stuck due to its simplicity and ability to address all areas of life, not just work.

2. Evolution of Tools: From Paper to Digital

• Paper Origins: Started out entirely with paper-based systems, incorporating color-coded highlighters and planners.
• Transition to Digital:
  • "One of the things I have in my office is what's called the technology graveyard. So I have the original iPhone, the original Palm Pilot, the original BlackBerrys..." (04:31)
  • Early adopter of PDAs and later digital apps, experimenting with each as technology matured.
• OmniFocus & Evernote:
  • Now mostly digital: "OmniFocus is my kind of tool of choice...I pretty much tried everything, and there was a long time where I used Evernote exclusively. I still use it for reference." (08:01)
  • Importance of frictionless capture: Forwarding emails directly to inboxes in OmniFocus or Evernote streamlined workflow.
• Paper’s Remaining Role:
  • "I still use paper once in a while. Love paper. There's certain instances when you're taking notes in a meeting..." (06:26)
  • Paper in meetings aids perception; attendees see you as attentive, not distracted by devices.

3. Principles for GTD Success

• Minimizing Friction:
  • "I really try to focus on reducing friction...always have your capture device or devices with you and make it as simple as humanly possible." (08:47)
• Contextual Capture:
  • Solutions for difficult spots (e.g., using voice assistants in the shower): "I basically ask Suri to add something to Omnifocus and yell that out. Yeah, it works." (09:41)
  • Voice mode with AI assistants in the car and elsewhere to quickly record thoughts.

4. GTD and the AI Revolution

• AI as the New Productivity Partner:
  • Early and enthusiastic adopter of ChatGPT: "If I go back and I know that David Allen and the GTD community has always kind of desired to have this smart app that would help lead you through a lot of the thinking of that." (12:31)
  • Connected AI with his calendar, Dropbox, and email for proactive, tailored notifications.
  • GTD+AI = Automated surfacing of emerging ideas: "If there's anything that goes on in the GTD universe...I get notified about that." (13:40)
• AI-Assisted Weekly Review:
  • AI reviews calendars, transcripts, and meeting notes to spot open loops and uncompleted action items, offering reminders more thoroughly than Michael can on his own.
  • "It finds stuff that I've found is a lot better than me just like visually scanning it...It makes you look great." (17:50, 18:43)
• Breaking Down Complex Projects:
  • Used ChatGPT to outline steps for life events like selling and building a home:
    -"ChatGPT just broke it down and it was...magical." (16:43)
  • AI-generated prompts often reveal next actions and tasks he would not have surfaced on his own.

5. AI's Reliability, Pitfalls, and Management

• Filtering Information Sources:
  • Not all AI-generated GTD advice is high-quality; early on, more poor answers, but fine-tuning improves results:
    • "You have to work at telling it where you believe kind of the authoritative stuff instead of letting it default to Google rankings or other things." (23:47)
• Coaching AI for Trusted Guidance:
  • Directs AI to authoritative resources (e.g., David Allen’s official site, Merlin Mann’s 43 Folders).
  • "If you're lazy and just outsource the AI and trust what it has, it might hallucinate...That's why I always coach people. You have to take responsibility and you can't be lazy." (24:07)
• Human Responsibility and AI Limitations:
  • "While AI, you still need a human in the loop, you still need to take responsibility for it and check can be wonderfully helpful in that." (17:18)
• Ethics and Learning:
  • Discussion on students using AI as a calculator/slide rule analogy; focus should be on learning core concepts, using technology as leverage, not as a substitute for thought (26:22–27:41).

6. GTD, Stress-Free Productivity, and Lifelong Application

• Universal Utility of GTD:
  • Makes no distinction between personal or professional 'stuff', applying GTD principles to all commitments:
    • "If it's on my mind, if I've committed to it, I have to deal with it...the least friction possible, the easiest way I know it's there, I don't have to worry about it, I'm not going to drop that ball." (31:34)
• Leadership and GTD:
  • Brought GTD to team management; about 60–70% of employees have taken to it, gaining the benefits of stress-free productivity (29:51).
• Favorite Frameworks:
  • "There's not a single meeting that I don't go into...If we...at the end of this, what does wild success look like?" (31:34)
  • Backward planning, clarity of desired outcome, and capturing everything are central to Michael’s method.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On falling in love with GTD:
  “I live by this, okay. Even to this day. And it's unlike those diets, I think the realism of the simplicity of the GTD system and the fact that it covers all aspects of your life, not just your work life or your personal life, but everything.” (03:21)

• On technology’s evolution:
  “One of the things I have in my office is what's called the technology graveyard. So I have the original iPhone, the original Palm Pilot, the original blackberries...” (04:31)

• On reducing friction:
  “Any friction that you introduce into anything is, is, is difficult. And that's why, you know, I always advise people that are trying to get into GTD to always have your capture device or devices with you and make it as simple as humanly possible.” (08:47)

• On AI as an assistant:
  “It finds stuff that I've found is a lot better than me just like visually scanning it...It makes you look great.” (18:43)

• On the human role in AI systems:
  “You have to take responsibility and you can't be lazy. If you're lazy, it's just not gonna be a good outcome.” (24:07)

• On project thinking:
  “There's not a single meeting that I don't go into...If we...at the end of this, what does wild success look like?” (31:34)

Important Timestamps

• 01:29 – Michael’s early productivity influences and first exposure to GTD
• 04:31 – “Technology graveyard” and the shift from paper to digital tools
• 08:01 – Current digital productivity stack: OmniFocus and Evernote
• 09:41 – Using Siri and other voice assistants for low-friction capture
• 12:31 – Michael’s journey with AI and ChatGPT in his GTD system
• 16:43 – Using ChatGPT to break down complex personal projects
• 17:50–18:43 – AI’s advantage in surfacing old open loops versus manual weekly reviews
• 23:47–24:07 – Training AI to use trusted sources and pitfalls of passive usage
• 26:22–27:41 – Analogies between calculators, slide rules, and AI in learning/work
• 29:51–31:01 – GTD’s impact as a universal approach to managing all commitments

Closing Thoughts

Michael’s perspective blends a deep respect for the underlying simplicity and universality of GTD with a playful, open-minded approach to leveraging the latest technology. He urges listeners to minimize friction, apply GTD to every domain of life, and cautiously but passionately explore tools like AI—always keeping the human decisiveness and clarity at the center.

For GTD veterans and beginners alike, this conversation is a reminder that the fundamentals endure through every technological wave, and that:

"The benefit of GTD is really stress free and, and freedom. And it's the freedom to, you know, not have the, just the distractions that stress brings with, you know, things. And it really allows you to kind of focus and engage in the moment in ways that no other system...does." (30:37)

(End of summary. Ads, intro/outro content excluded.)