GTD (Getting Things Done) Academic Paper: The Science Behind Stress-Free Productivity

I recently finished reading a helpful academic paper put out by two students at the Free University of Brussels examining the science behind the GTD system. If you're a GTD practitioner, as I am, you'll benefit from reading this paper, especially it's analysis of "stigmergy" and GTD.Here's the abstract:

Allen (2001) proposed the “Getting Things Done” (GTD) method forpersonal productivity enhancement, and reduction of the stress causedby information overload. This paper argues that recent insights inpsychology and cognitive science support and extend GTD’srecommendations. We first summarize GTD with the help of a flowchart.We then review the theories of situated, embodied and distributedcognition that purport to explain how the brain processes informationand plans actions in the real world. The conclusion is that the brainheavily relies on the environment, to function as an external memory, atrigger for actions, and a source of affordances, disturbances andfeedback. We then show how these principles are practically implementedin GTD, with its focus on organizing tasks into “actionable” externalmemories, and on opportunistic, situation-dependent execution. Finally,we propose an extension of GTD to support collaborative work, inspiredby the concept of stigmergy.

Here's the paper:Download GTD-Science.pdf