The weekly review, or where we mix 1 and 2
So now we have 1) lists of tasks (one for each context), and 2) project plans full of future tasks, grouped by sequences, priorities and components. Let’s mix 1) and 2) and we’re almost there, can you believe it?
This is the moment when the weekly review becomes essential for the maintenance of our system. In 1), we just wrote down our to-do lists guided by random, instinct or urgency, and divided into contexts. We then developed 2) using the natural planning method, and we got appealing “manuals” full of tasks, our project plans, from which we’ll take every week what we need to get that nice feeling of going ahead (I agree with Allen: the sensation of control is wonderful, and it increases with time. It’s a nice balance between being free and being guided, the perfect point of application of the lever). Of course, by assimilating the changes in our environment and the results we obtain from our actions, new ideas will arise. Wouldn’t it be great to maximize the benefit we obtain from them? That’s what capture and inbox processing are for.
The philosophy behind capture is simple: you have to write things down immediately. Good ideas have their own schedules and moods. At the end of any basic school education, everybody is able to express a wide range of ideas and sensations… but their perfect, unique expression very often comes only once, and you have to be there when it happens. I’m sure you know that sensation of letting the perfect idea escape (more in-depth hints and tips on capture here).
Even worse: some of your best ideas won’t even be recognizable at the first moment. Many moments of “distraction” are hidden treasures where the discovery, the unexpected point of view, lays covered under minutiae. That’s why it is very healthy to write something down and then completely forget about it; when you read it again you’ll do it with different eyes, adding different assumptions, and very often it can lead you to figure out a whole action plan; revisiting your notes is similar to having a single dot and then adding a second one, which constructs a line.
Once again, if we want to make the most of mind’s erratic ways, we’ll need a reliable system capable to keep all those notes we’ve caught, sometimes at a high risk for our personal health (I am thinking of certain subway lines), and recover them later. So here comes to the wonderful world of inbox processing.
Take your notes in any device that works for you: pieces of paper, a notebook, voice recordings, an iPhone… The only requisite is that it feels comfortable and amusing: you are going to make an intensive use of it, so you don’t want to deal with unconscious resistances. Besides, sometimes good ideas happen just because you wanted to play with a productivity “toy” you enjoy.
All those notes are later dumped together in one or several predetermined “inboxes”, which you will process later, at once, one by one. Again, format freedom is total: the inboxes can be physical trays, computer directories, any fixed place where you know you will find things later.
Then you get into the habit of emptying those inboxes from time to time, one element at a time, integrating to your plans what is interesting and getting rid of the rest. The rules for processing are simple: for every element you must ask yourself: “Does it require an action by me?”
A) NO…
- …and I don’t need it any more > throw it away
- …but it might require it in the future > you keep it in a reliable container (someday/maybe list if it is just a vague project, the correspondent folder if it belongs to an active project, permanent storage…)
B) YES…
- … and it can be done in less than 2 minutes > Do it right away
- …but it takes more than 2 minutes > Include a reminder in the corresponding project or task list so you find it later.
Allen sets 2 more options, “delegate it” (tell someone else to take care of it-then keep track of the task using an additional “waiting for” list), and “defer it” (it can wait, so I’ll write it down where I can find it in x days’ time), but for the sake of simplicity, and because, generally speaking, they are particular cases of actions, I won’t discuss them in depth.
You repeat the process item after item, and there comes a moment when all your inboxes are empty. Congratulate yourself: every relevant information is in the right place (a list or folder where you are sure to find it), and you have got rid of the rest.
This working structure has proven to be very popular for email processing. Inbox zero has very powerful effects on productivity. The principles are the same: you create the appropriate email folders (action, someday/maybe, for filing)… then you open the first e-mail and ask yourself “Does it require an action by me?”, and move it accordingly to the right folder, do it if it requires more than 2 minutes… Be careful not to mingle both stages, the scanning process and taking action. Remember: if it takes more than 2 minutes, move it to the action folder and deal with it later. The Internet has tons of information on GTD email, for example here and here. You can also take GTD to your desktop -I really liked this one: it is very soothing to take away clutter from your opening screen-.
So we have taken our task lists and divided them into contexts. We have learned how to produce better ideas and integrate them into structures thanks to the natural planning. We have added the “capture attitude”, and now, after inbox processing, our system starts to “breathe”. Eureka! There are only left a few slight details about permanent filing, and we’re done. Of course, this is only a short summary of the system, for further information, as usual, I recommend you to be orthodox and read Allen’s book. You won’t regret it.
How many inboxes do you have? Do you process them all at once? Do you believe in Inbox Zero for email?
Related posts:
The GTD First Aid Kit (and 4)
The GTD First Aid Kit (Part 2)
A car? Make it an elephant!
A few low level capture tips (part two)
Reach for the moon, but start with your (two) shoelaces