In this tutorial you will set up Capture GTD, add several items to your inbox, process them into organized lists, and complete your first task. By the end, you will have a working trusted system with real items in it.

What you will need

  • A web browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Edge)
  • About 10 minutes

Step 1: Create your account

Open app.capture-gtd.com in your browser. You will see a sign-in screen with options to authenticate through an identity provider (Google, Apple, or email).

  1. Select your preferred sign-in method and complete the authentication flow.
  2. On your first login, you will be prompted to create an organization. Type My Workspace and confirm.
  3. The app navigates you directly into your workspace.

You land on the inbox screen. The sidebar on the left shows three sections: Actions (the GTD verbs — Capture, Clarify, Engage, Review, Mind Sweep), Organize (the GTD lists — Inbox, Next, Projects, and more), and Horizons (higher-level planning). For now, focus on the Actions section.

Step 2: Capture your first items

GTD starts with getting everything out of your head. You will add five items to your inbox without worrying about what they are or how to organize them.

  1. Select Capture from the Actions section in the sidebar.
  2. In the Name field, type Buy groceries and select the Capture button.
  3. The form clears. Type Plan vacation and add a description: Research destinations and budget. Select Capture.
  4. Capture three more items the same way:
    • Write quarterly report
    • Interesting article on productivity
    • Learn to play guitar

You now have five items in your inbox. Each one entered as “Stuff” — raw, unprocessed input. No decisions were required. That is the point of capture: record first, think later.

To verify your captures, select Inbox from the Organize section. You should see all five items listed there.

Step 3: Clarify your inbox

Clarifying means processing each inbox item by asking: What is this? Is it actionable? What is the next step? Capture GTD walks you through this with a card-based interface.

  1. Select Clarify from the Actions section.
  2. Your first inbox item appears as a card with action buttons along the bottom.

Clarify “Buy groceries” as a Todo

This is a single, actionable task.

  1. Select the Todo button. The card flips to reveal a form with fields relevant to a todo item.
  2. Set Effort to Small (this is a quick errand).
  3. Leave the deadline empty — you will get to it when you can.
  4. Select Submit.

The item moves to your Next list, and the next inbox item appears.

Clarify “Plan vacation” as a Project

Planning a vacation requires multiple steps, so it is a project.

  1. Select the Project button. The card flips to show project-specific fields, including an Outcome field.
  2. In the Outcome field, type Trip itinerary and bookings complete. This is the definition of “done” for this project. The submit button becomes enabled once you enter an outcome.
  3. Set Effort to Large.
  4. Select Submit.

The item moves to your Projects list.

Clarify “Write quarterly report” as a Todo

  1. Select the Todo button.
  2. Set Effort to Medium.
  3. Set Deadline to a date two weeks from now.
  4. Set Importance to High.
  5. Select Submit.

Clarify “Interesting article on productivity” as Reference

This is not actionable. It is just material you want to keep.

  1. Select the ReferenceFile button. No additional fields are required.
  2. Select Submit.

The item moves to your Reference Files list.

Clarify “Learn to play guitar” as Someday/Maybe

You are interested but not committing to this right now.

  1. Select the SomedayMaybe button.
  2. Set Effort to Large (this will be a significant time investment).
  3. Select Submit.

The screen shows All done! — your inbox is at zero. This is the target state in GTD. Every item now lives in a specific, intentional place.

Step 4: See where everything landed

Take a moment to explore the Organize section in the sidebar and confirm your items are where you expect them.

Sidebar itemWhat you should see
InboxEmpty
Next”Buy groceries” and “Write quarterly report”
Projects”Plan vacation”
Reference Files”Interesting article on productivity”
Someday Maybe”Learn to play guitar”

Select Next from the sidebar. Both of your todos appear here, sorted by impact score. “Write quarterly report” likely ranks higher because it has a deadline and is marked High importance.

Select Projects and select “Plan vacation.” A slide-out editor panel opens showing the project details, including the outcome you defined. This is where you would later add sub-tasks to the project as you plan it.

Step 5: Complete a task

Time to do some work. Navigate to the Engage screen to focus on your next actions one at a time.

  1. Select Engage from the Actions section.
  2. Your highest-priority task appears as a card. You will see the task name, its importance, and a counter showing how many tasks are in the queue (for example, “Task 1 of 2”).
  3. If the current card shows “Buy groceries,” go buy those groceries. When you are done, select the Complete button (or swipe the card to the right).
  4. The card slides away, and the next task appears.

If you want to skip a task for now, select Skip (or swipe left). Skipped tasks are not lost — when you finish the queue, a Review Again button lets you cycle back through anything you skipped.

Once you complete or skip all tasks, the completion screen confirms how many tasks you processed.

What you accomplished

In this tutorial you:

  • Created your Capture GTD account and workspace
  • Captured five items into your inbox with zero friction
  • Clarified each item into the correct GTD list: two todos, one project, one reference file, and one someday/maybe
  • Processed your inbox to zero
  • Completed a task from the Engage screen

This is the core GTD loop: capture, clarify, organize, engage. Repeat this daily and your system stays trusted.

Next steps