GTD is like driving. You learn it over a long stretch of time and gradually find the style that fits you. As the saying goes, learn the fundamentals, then forget them — you follow the book at first, and later adjust things to suit yourself.
Even when you tailor it to your own style, GTD's principles remain. To use it over the long haul, you need to understand what it actually does for you. You have to trust the methodology to keep using it.
1. The Zeigarnik effect 1
Work stresses you out less in the doing than in the having-to-do.
GTD's capture stage brings a task to a provisional close so you can forget about it, which lowers the stress.
2. A complete framework
There are criticisms — that GTD doesn't suit creative work, and so on — but GTD is a framework you can apply to any kind of work.
Everything fits: daily routines, things that have to happen at a fixed time, tasks to handle ASAP, long-term projects.
The good thing about a complete framework is that you can adopt it incrementally.
Because it's not some superficial productivity tip from a YouTube video but a complete system that can account for everything, you can apply it piece by piece, customized to yourself, and build up your skill as you go.
The single most usable piece of GTD on its own is the two-minute rule. If something can be handled in under two minutes, don't put it off — do it right now. It's a useful criterion because it lets you decide easily, the moment something comes up, whether to defer it or do it immediately.
It also helps you discover elements of task management you hadn't thought of — using a calendar, say, or tracking what you're waiting on after delegating.
It's much like being shown the full Map of Contents of task management. Picking up GTD won't be a waste of your time. Especially the younger you are when you learn it.
Footnotes
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The Zeigarnik effect is the tendency for unfinished tasks to keep lingering in your mind ↩