I’ve seen a lot of links on Twitter implying that President Obama uses David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) system. The tweets have come from folks like Tim O’Reilly, David Allen, Steve Rubel, and others, and reference a link to a Slate article entitled The Getting-Things-Done President: is GTD any way to run a country.
I’ve read the article twice and have yet to see where it literally says that President Obama actually uses GTD, or where he has made any reference to it at all. The article goes so far in its inferences as to show an “Obama Getting Things Done Unofficial White House Flowchart,” one that indeed looks official enough, but the words above the flowchart say “our take on Obama’s GTD workflow.”
Based on my reading of the article, I do not consider it to be at all authoritative. If you know different, that is if you have evidence that Obama does or does not use GTD, I’d like to hear it. For now I am going to assume that he does not.