The trouble with GTD (Allen, 2002, 2008) is that, properly applied, it regularly pushes you to think about what you did, are doing, and want to do. As well as what you didn’t do, aren’t doing, and won’t likely get to do.

It’s a very practical, and so profoundly exposing, way of showing your personal limits. This can be too much for a person used to ignoring their finitude by appealing to, “oh, I could do that but I forgot,” or the general numbness that comes from too many open loops.