Analog Inbox Planner for GTD Practitioners

Table of Contents

1. About This Spreadsheet
2. Open the Spreadsheet
3. Printable PDFs
4. Preview
5. How to Use It
6. GTD Context and Limitations
7. Dedication to David Seah
8. What is GTD?
9. Printing Instructions
10. Why This Matters
11. Productivity Strategies and Tools

About This Spreadsheet

This is a single-day productivity planner designed to work as a printed, analog tool for capturing and organizing your thoughts and actions throughout the day. It was born from the desire to not look at a screen during meetings, deep work, or conversations—especially valuable for consultants and customer-facing professionals.

The design closely mimics the content and visual style of David Seah’s Emergent Task Planner (ETP), translated into a modifiable and shareable Google Sheet. It includes modern additions to support GTD workflows, while maintaining the classic ETP elegance.

🖨 Printable PDFs

A4 and US Letter (8.5" x 11") PDF versions of the planner are included in this repository under /pdf/. They are formatted for clean, border-free printing and suitable for both home printers and professional print shops.

📄 Open the Spreadsheet

🔗 View the Planner (Google Sheets - View Only)

➡️ Click Here to Make a Copy This allows you to edit your own version in Google Sheets.

🖼 Preview

Want to contribute? You can share your modified versions or submit a pull request to improve the layout.

How to Use It

1. Start Fresh Daily: On a clean sheet, write today’s date in the upper left corner.
2. Time Blocking: Number the hours of your day down the left side, starting with your start time.
3. Meeting Schedule: Check your digital calendar (Outlook, Apple Calendar, etc.) and copy your meetings and time-specific events into the left column.
4. Evening Engagements: Don’t forget to add those too, so you’re mentally prepared.
5. Top Three Tasks: Identify three major tasks for the day—this is where you eat your frog 🐸.

As the Day Progresses:

• “What else is going on today”: Use this space for notes, drawings or math.
• Compact Calendar: Quickly reference upcoming dates or holidays during discussions. Holidays are color-coded and editable.
• Right Column = GTD Inbox: Dump your brain here. Every stray thought, task, or idea lands in this catch-all column.
• Shopping List Inbox: Not strictly GTD—but a trusted place to note things you need to buy, personal or work-related.

End of Day Routine:

• Review the page.
• Transfer notes into your digital note system (Obsidian, MS Notes, etc.)
• Transfer any calendar entries to your digital diary (Outlook, Apple Calendar, etc.)
• Transfer inbox entries into your digital GTD system (OmniFocus, Things, etc.) using the checkboxes to show that entry has been captured.
• Then, in your GTD system, break tasks down, delegate where necessary, and smile as you close the notebook or archive the sheet.

Why This Matters

In a world of constant digital interruptions, writing things down with a pen on paper is powerful. This analog inbox lets you stay mentally present in meetings and conversations, while still capturing everything you need to process later.

It’s light, flexible, and quiet—letting you engage more like a human and less like a machine.

Dedication to David Seah

This ETP is an homage and love letter to the original Emergent Task Planner designed by David Seah in the mid-2000s. He was one of my favourite people featured on Lifehacker in its prime. David sold printed versions of the ETP on Amazon, and they were on beautifully thick and textured paper stock. At some point, David decided to stop publishing them, and I pretty much bought up all of the last stock, which lasted me five years or more.

David was more of a time tracker than I am, and parts of the ETP never quite worked correctly for me. It was also not explicitly designed to work with GTD, even though that was my primary use case. Over the many years, I thought about changing things, but David only provided the PDFs, and the layout and typography were positively sublime. How could I improve on this visual perfection?

Necessity is the mother of invention, so I printed an A4 version of the ETP and used a ruler and Google Sheets to reverse-engineer a version, trying to emulate the style and colour scheme that brought me so much joy over many years. Google cannot do the curved corners of the squares and delicate dotted lines of the original ETP, but I am happy trading that for its current flexibility.

David had a compact calendar that I also adapted to Google Sheets and updated to the ETP colour scheme. With all that established, the two Inboxes seemed like a no-brainer addition.

So, all of that is to say, thank you, David. You have quite literally improved my productivity and my career over the last two decades, and I am grateful.

---

GTD Context and Limitations

This planner represents only the INBOX portion of a complete GTD system. It's intentionally focused on capture and clarity, not task tracking, next actions, or project management. You should use this in concert with a digital GTD system like OmniFocus, Things, or your own trusted method.

What is GTD?

Getting Things Done (GTD) is a productivity methodology created by David Allen. At its core, it’s about clearing your mind by capturing everything in a trusted system—then methodically organizing, reviewing, and doing. This spreadsheet focuses purely on the capture phase. For everything else, use a complete GTD system.

📖 Resource: Getting Things Done on Amazon

Google Sheet Manual Printing Instructions

To preserve the analog experience, I recommend printing this planner on artist sketchbooks like:

• Born A4 Visual Art Diary 120 Page

Here’s how to get the best results:

🖨 Google Sheets Setup

1. Open the Google Sheet and go to File → Print (or use Download → PDF).
2. In the Print (or Export) drop-down, select Workbook.
3. In the Selection drop-down, choose the specific pages you want to print.

   The page order may appear reversed—this is intentional for correct front-and-back alignment in spiral-bound notebooks. Feel free to adjust as your layout preferences dictate.

📐 Layout + Margins

• The sheet includes hidden columns on each side to account for spiral binding or offset layouts.

  • Hide or unhide these columns based on your preferred layout.
  • Unhiding A (on the left) or AJ (on the right) of the ETP will shift the content to the side for binding.
  • Hiding all offset columns will center the layout and make it ideal for standard paper printing.

• Set margins to 0.15 inches on all sides.

  If this is too close to the edge for your printer, increase slightly until no clipping occurs.

• Set scale to 100% in all print dialogs to preserve layout fidelity.

🌀 Binding Tip

If using a spiral-bound sketchbook:

1. Gently remove the paper from the binding and run the pages through your printer.
2. Rebind the notebook—you can use pliers or a gentle hand.
3. Secure the binding by weaving the wire with dental floss. This will keep the notebook from unwinding.

Productivity Strategies and Tools

📋 Task Management Tips

1. Break it down – Decompose large tasks into manageable actions.
2. Write for your future self – Be explicit. You will forget what you meant.
3. Use start dates instead of due dates – Only assign a due date if there really is one.
4. Focus on one thing at a time – Single-tasking is underrated.
5. Do the hardest thing first – “Eat the frog” before the day eats you.
6. Put first things first – Prioritize high-impact tasks before busywork.
7. Schedule if necessary, but sparingly – Time-block when you need protected focus.
8. Review weekly (at minimum) – The most important GTD habit.

🧠 How Do You Organize All the Things?

“Your brain is for having ideas, not for holding them.” — David Allen

GTD is a five-part process:

1. Capture – Write it down. All of it. Immediately.
2. Clarify – What is it? Trash, action, project, someday?
3. Organize – Put it where it belongs.
4. Reflect – Review often. Keep your system clean.
5. Engage – Pick the right task with confidence.

🐸 How Do You Prioritize the Organized Things?

“Eat a live frog first thing in the morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” — Mark Twain

Your frog is your most important, most procrastinated-on task. It’s what moves the needle. Tackle it at the beginning of the day when your energy and focus are highest.

📖 Resource: Eat That Frog on Amazon

⏱ How Do You Execute Well, Sustainably?

Pomodoro Technique by Francesco Cirillo:

1. Choose a task.
2. Set a timer for 25 minutes.
3. Work with focus.
4. Take a 5-minute break.
5. After four cycles, rest longer (15–30 minutes).

Pomodoro builds your “start” habit. The more you train yourself to begin, the easier sustained focus becomes. I aim for four Pomodoros a day—two hours of focused work can create enormous value.

📖 Resource: The Pomodoro Technique on Amazon