David. It’s always satisfying to see that someone has been thinking the same way as me. I’ve had the idea that GTD is a lot about patterns; maybe the wider stuff that Merlin posts is too? But “GetItAllDown” certainly has potential as a pattern, along with many other GTD techniques. Something like “SeparateCollectionFromProcessing” (only with a snappier name) would be another potential pattern. Many of the Life Hacks over on the 43F Wiki would also potentially qualify as patterns that people have tried and found to be generally applicable. Of course, there is also scope for describing GTD Anti-patterns too; things that people have tried as a possible solution to productivity problems, but in the end turn out to cause more problems than they solve. For example, an Anti-pattern could be “UseExpensivePDASoftware” (not that I’m bitter).

It strikes me that the 43F Wiki would be a good place to explore this further, if Merlin was amenable. The Unsorted Life Hacks section looks a bit like a prototype Patterns category anyway, and is always an interesting read in any event.