Getting Things Done

I am reading Getting Things Done (thanks to the commenters who recommended it) and implementing David Allen's simple and yet profound organizing system. My email inbox is now only one screen deep and I feel a huge relief. My office makes sense to me. And the anxiety I've been carrying around, worrying about the matters I must be forgetting, is dissipated. I'll keep you posted on how it works over time, but going through and clearing out the swamp of STUFF I've been sort of keeping in my office, my email inbox, and my head feels terrific.

[UPDATE: Email inbox TOTALLY EMPTY. Holy cow. I had three years worth of junk in there.]

Comments

[Ernie the Attorney]

Have you implemented the '12 month 31 day tickler file' system that he talks about? I didn't appreciate the value of that until I started using it. It is so simple to do and yet so powerful. Every piece of paper that needs to be reviewed at a later date can be done so easily. The concept is amazing! Try it, you'll like it!

[Scheherazade]

Ernie, I considered it but imagined the physical system would be too cumbersome and bulky. Do you actually have a tray or set of dividers with slots for 43 folders? Did it come ready made or did you sort of cobble it together? How much physical space does it take up on your desk?

[Ernie]

I'm going to post something, but --in short-- it is simple. You get a redwell folder (letter size, or legal if you need it) and you put 12 manila folders labeled with the months of the year. Then you get 31 tabbed thingies that we attorneys use to mark exhibit attachments to pleadings; obviously get the ones that use numbers (as opposed to letters). Since we are in March, and the date is the 5th, you take the first 5 numbered tabs and put them behind the one marked "31." Then for any paper that you can't act on today, but you want to be reminded about in the future, you use the folder.

Let's say you want to be reminded to look at something on the 17th of March. You put the piece of paper you are looking at, or you write yourself a note, and put that behind the tab marked 17. Each day you look at the tab with that day's stuff in it (or if you are going on vacation, you look at the upcoming tabs). When March is over you put the tabs into the manila folder labeled "April."

Now, you might say that this system only works for 31 days. No. If you have stuff to be reminded about in June you just put it loose into the June folder. When June 1st arrives you look through the stuff in your June folder and assign it to specific days. The beauty of this system is that you rarely have things that you want to be reminded about on a specific date that are out farther than 4 weeks. But you often want to think about maybe going to a seminar that is going to be held in, say, July. Now, instead of leaving the seminar folder on your desk, you just put it in either the June or July folder, depending on how far before the seminar you want to be reminded of something.

The whole package doesn't take up much space (it's only one redwell). I keep mine in a drawer that I can get to easily. Believe me, this is a great system. But you have to try it for awhile to fully grasp the power of it.

[Brian]

Mine's the same as Ernie's: 1 redwell, 43 folders. I have the months on center-tabbed folders and the days (1-31) on right-tabbed folders.

Two keys to using it: first, put things in there that you don't want to or need to think about until a certain point in time. Initially I put a lot of things in there, but I found that I might need them earlier, and had to go through day by day to find it. I use it for travel info, CLE brochures, sporting-event tickets, theater tickets, etc. Pretty much anything that I can drop in quicker than typing it into my calendar.

Second, check it every day. Religiously. Otherwise it doesn't work. Towards the end of a day, I check the next day's folder, usually just dropping into IN to process. If you skip a day, it's the equivalent of not looking at your calendar to see what you have to do.

I also have one at home for bills, car- and home-maintenance reminders, vacation travel docs, magazine-subscription reminders, etc.

Best of luck!
-Brian