Introduction
It all began with a shortage of time. Time to bring CogitActive back on track (after the unexpectedly long doldrums that followed that fateful summer of 2020) was nowhere to be found. My activity here—like much of my personal life—was pushed aside, swallowed whole by work, work, and more work. The podcast release stalled, the blog limped forward with thin content and, worse still, filler posts. Quality gave way to survival.
Faced with this erosion, I turned to the obvious question: how to reclaim time? Long‑time readers may recall the series on time management that followed, stretching far longer than I had anticipated—from January 6, 2022, to its conclusion on January 26, 2023. Time management, after all, carries a tantalising promise: to get more done in less time.
And so I plunged into the sprawling landscape of tips, tricks, and methods, determined to cultivate genuine skills that might restore balance and productivity.
Among the many techniques, one stood apart—not a mere trick, but a method: Getting Things Done (GTD), the framework devised by David Allen. Though GTD requires no specific tool, I chose to anchor it in OneNote. That decision, however, led me into uncharted territory. While OneNote is a versatile notebook, it is not a task manager. Worse still, there was no good guide on how to bend it to GTD’s demands. The so‑called official guide? A disappointment, as I explained in my review of Microsoft OneNote 2016 for Windows Setup Guide.
With no reliable roadmap, I built my own: “GTD using OneNote my way.” The system worked—up to a point. It gave structure, but at a cost: the upkeep was punishing. I spent more time defining my work than actually doing it. The promise of effortless clarity remained elusive. The culprit was clear: OneNote’s lack of native task management meant endless manual updates to the tables in my GTD notebook.
Still, I refused to abandon OneNote. Determined, I searched for workarounds, documented my failed attempts, and kept refining. Eventually, I solved the shortcomings of my first system. Not only did I simplify the setup, but I transformed OneNote into something more than a notebook—a true, standalone task manager.
To me, the transformation was undeniable. The system worked, alive and seamless. Yet what was clear in my eyes was…
… not so obvious to others
The evidence of this transformation was plain to me indeed. I could see how the links stitched projects together, how the tables carried the weight of Next Actions, how tags lifted tasks into view at just the right moment. To me, the system was self‑explanatory. But what is evident to its creator is not always transparent to those who arrive later, trying to reconstruct the design from scattered posts and screenshots.
That gap became clear when a reader named T. S. reached out. He had discovered my “My OneNote GTD setup 2.0” post, but—unable to leave a comment—chose instead to write directly to me. His message began with gratitude: a kind acknowledgement of the time and effort I had poured into documenting my system. He went on to explain his own intent, his willingness to adopt the framework I had built within OneNote. Yet, despite his determination, he confessed to struggling with the details. Linking pages, grasping the underlying structure, making sense of how the pieces fit together—these remained elusive. His words revealed that what felt self‑evident to me was not so obvious to someone encountering the system for the first time.
I did reply to him. How could I not? Someone had taken the time to read my blog, to send kind words, to persevere past the closed comment wall just to reach me. That kind of motivation deserves an answer—and, after all, helping people is the very reason I share my adventure here.
I am more than happy for you to use my email as a comment or even feature it in a blog post. I believe that sharing this exchange could benefit others who are navigating similar setups.T. S.
To be honest, I hadn’t thought of doing so until last week, while drafting the post on the bonus project. But rereading his words, the idea seemed obvious. Why keep our dialogue private when it could illuminate the path for others?
And so, with his blessing, I now share that private Q&A. Not verbatim, but polished—his questions, my answers, and the improved screenshots that reveal the structure more clearly. If my earlier posts laid the foundation, this dialogue builds the bridge, turning solitary explanation into shared understanding. Hopefully.
In Reply: Putting the pieces together
His message began with appreciation, but quickly moved to the heart of the matter: he wanted to adopt my OneNote GTD system, yet struggled to understand how the pieces fit together. Linking pages, grasping the underlying structure, and following the flow of tasks were not as intuitive from the outside as they had become for me on the inside. As he put it, “I can see the potential, but I’m not sure how to connect everything the way you do.”
I know it is a big ask, but would you be willing to share a template of your GTD 2.0 notebook with some example pages and links, so that I can better understand the method you are using for the GTD setup?T. S.
Before diving into the explanation, I made sure to thank him 1. Then, I addressed his request directly: “I understand that putting all the pieces together from my blog posts might not be entirely intuitive. While I don’t have a ready-made template to share, I’d be happy to provide some screenshots to clarify the setup further.” That was the challenge he laid before me, and the explanation that follows is my attempt to make the structure clear—not just for him, but for anyone who might face the same difficulty.
Understanding the Project page
To help T. S. make sense of the structure, I began by walking him through a first screenshot of my “Getting Things Done” notebook in OneNote—specifically, a Project page.
As I explained in my “OneNote for GTD Setup 2.0” post, the key improvement was to consolidate the entire Next Actions workflow into a single, redesigned table embedded directly within the Project page. In my earlier setup, Next Actions lived in a separate section, which meant every task had to be duplicated—once on the Project page and again on the central Next Actions page. The solution was to move that table into the Next Actions area of each Project page, rethink its columns, and let it become the operational core of the system. This embedded table is now where tasks are captured, updated, and tracked, and it is ultimately what makes the entire setup function.
If you compare this to the first image in my blog post (Project Plans & Support page), you’ll notice they are quite similar, with one key difference: the inserted table in the Next Actions section (as shown in the third image in my blog post). This table is where everything happens!CogitActive
In the email, I also drew his attention to the links embedded in the page, because they play a quiet but essential role in how the system works. I emphasized the importance of the page title link in particular. Unlike the other hyperlinks on the page, this one is structural rather than informational. The title points back to the corresponding row in the Project Index, where the project’s unique ID links forward to this very page. Together, these two connections—Index to Project and Project back to Index—form the backbone of the entire system. They create a stable, bidirectional path that keeps every project anchored and makes navigation immediate and coherent.
These two links—the one from the project page back to the index, and the corresponding index entry linking forward to the project page—are what make the entire system work seamlessly.CogitActive
The Tags Summary in action
To clarify how tasks move through the system, I also showed T. S. a second screenshot—this time with the Tags Summary pane open on the right. This view reveals how OneNote actively pulls information from the Next Actions table and surfaces it as a focused list of actionable items.
Compared to the first screenshot, I’ve added two sample Actions to the Next Actions table: “15 < ! _ Take a screenshot of the Project NAME page” and “15 < ! _ Mask all the private info from the screenshot”. For this screenshot, I also opened the Tags Summary pane (on the right) and moved to the Anywhere tag (represented by the yellow checkbox with the star symbol). There, OneNote displays all Actions carrying that tag (with the real ones masked for privacy and only the demonstration items left visible).
Importantly, not every row in the table appears in the Tags Summary, and that behavior is intentional. In the demonstration, the first Action—the one visible in the earlier screenshot—no longer shows up because its tag has been checked off (and a Completed on date recorded). The second Action is new and carries the appropriate tag, so it appears in the Summary as expected. The third Action, however, is also new but has no tag yet (nor an Activated on date), so OneNote correctly keeps it out of view for now.
This tagging feature ensures that only relevant, actionable tasks appear in the Tags Summary, streamlining project management while keeping completed tasks out of sight.CogitActive
This selective visibility is by design. Completed items drop out of view, and inactive ones stay hidden until they are ready to be engaged. The result is a streamlined list that shows only what is actionable now, while keeping everything else neatly in the background.
With that, I closed my reply by reassuring him that the screenshots and explanations should bring clarity, while inviting him to reach out again if needed:
I hope these explanations, along with the screenshots, make the setup clearer. If you go back and revisit the blog posts now, I believe everything should come together more intuitively. Of course, if you still have specific questions, don’t hesitate to reach out—I’d be happy to clarify anything further!The guy behind CogitActive
And the last word to T. S.
Looking back now as I prepare this post, I have to admit that my email didn’t offer much beyond the gesture of replying— though it may have helped him connect a few dots. Still, after receiving my detailed response with screenshots, T. S. wrote back with warmth and clarity. His words showed not only appreciation but also how much the explanation had helped him:
Thank you so much for your detailed and thoughtful response! Your explanations and screenshots are incredibly helpful and clarified many aspects of the setup. I truly appreciate the time and effort you put into addressing my questions.T. S.
In my reply, I had asked whether he would be open to having his email featured in some way. His answer was not only generous, but also the reason you are reading this post today. It deserves to be highlighted once more:
I am more than happy for you to use my email as a comment or even feature it in a blog post. I believe that sharing this exchange could benefit others who are navigating similar setups.T. S.
That closing note from him is what turned a private exchange into a public resource. If you find value in this post—if the explanations or screenshots help you make sense of the GTD setup in OneNote—then you owe a word of thanks to T. S. Without his thoughtful questions, his persistence in reaching out, and his blessing to share, this post would not exist.
1 His persistence in reaching out despite the closed comments and his kind words about my blog deserved acknowledgement. I told him how much his message meant to me—that sometimes sharing my journey feels like shouting into the void, and knowing that at least one person found value made all the effort worthwhile. ^
2 When OneNote highlights an Action in grey, the entire row becomes visible at a glance, including the Supplementary Information column. In this demonstration, that meant I could see the rationale behind the first sample Action (“to replace the emailed one”), while the Action below revealed additional instructions (“use Paint to do so”). ^