GettingThings Done. The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

person to do it, you will have to defer acting on it until later and track it on one or more 'Next Actions' lists.

Organize

The outer ring of the workflow diagram shows the eight discrete categories of reminders and materials that will result from your processing all your 'stuff.' Together they make up a total system for organizing just about everything that's on your plate, or could be added to it, on a daily and weekly basis.

For nonactionable items, the possible categories are trash, incubation tools, and reference storage. If no action is needed on something, you toss it, 'tickle' it for later reassessment, or tile it so you can find the material if you need to refer to it at another time. To manage actionable things, you will need a list of projects, storage or files for project plans and materials, a calendar, a list of reminders of next actions, and a list of reminders of things you're waiting for.

All of the organizational categories need to be physically contained in some form. When I refer to 'lists,' I just mean some sort of reviewable set of reminders, which could be lists on notebook paper or in some computer program or even file folders holding separate pieces of paper for each item. For instance, the list of current projects could be kept on a page in a Day Runner; it could be a 'To Do' category on a PDA; or it could be in a file labeled 'Projects List.' Incubating reminders (such as 'after March 1 contact my accountant to set up a meeting') may be stored in a paper-based 'tickler' file or in a paper- or computer-based calendar program.

Projects

I define a project as any desired result that requires more than one action step. This means that some rather small things that you might not normally call projects arc going to be on your 'Projects' list The reasoning behind my definition is that if one step won't complete something, some kind of stake needs to be placed in the ground to remind you that there's something still left to do. If you don't have a placeholder to remind you about it, it will slip back into RAM. Another way to think of this is as a list of open loops.

A Partial 'Projects' List

Get new staff person on board

August vacation

Staff off-site retreat

Publish book

Finalize computer upgrades

Update will

Finalize budgets

Finalize new product line

Get comfortable with new contact-management software

Get reprints of Fortune article

Get a publicist

Finish new orchard planting

R&D joint-venture video project

Produce new training compact disk

Establish next year's seminar schedule

Orchestrate a one-hour keynote presentation

Get proficient with videoconferencing access

Finalize employment agreements

Install new backyard lights

Establish formal relationships with South

American rep

Finalize staff policies and procedures

Get a new living-room chair

Projects do not need to be listed in any particular order, whether by size or by priority. They just need to be on a master list so you can review them regularly enough to ensure that appropriate next actions have been defined for each of them.

You don't actually do a project; you can only do action steps related to it. When enough of the right action steps have been taken, some situation will have been created that matches your initial picture of the outcome closely enough that you can call it 'done.' The list of projects is the compilation of finish lines we put before us, to keep our next actions moving on all tracks appropriately.

Project Support Material

For many of your projects, you will accumulate relevant in formation that you will want to organize by theme or topic or project-name. Your 'Projects' list will be merely an index. All of the details, plans, and supporting information that you may need as you work on your various projects should be contained in separate file folders, computer files, notebooks, or binders.

Support Materials and Reference Files Once you have organized your project support material by theme or topic, you will probably find that it is almost identical to your reference material and could be kept in the same reference file system (a 'Wedding' file could be kept in the general-reference files, for instance). The only difference is that in the case of active projects, support material may need to be reviewed on a more consistent basis to ensure that all the necessary action steps are identified.

I usually recommend that people store their support materials out of sight. If you have a good working reference file system close enough at hand, you may find that that's the simplest way to organize them. There will be times, though, when it'll be more convenient to have the materials out and instantly in view and available, especially if you're working on a hot project that you need to check references for several times during the day. File folders in wire standing holders or in stackable trays within easy reach can be practical for this kind of 'pending' paperwork.

The Next-Action Categories

As the Workflow Diagram makes clear, the next-action decision is central. That action needs to be the next physical, visible behavior, without exception, on every open loop.

Any less-than-two-minute actions that you perform, and all other actions that have already been completed, do not, of course, need to be tracked; they're done. What does need to be tracked is every action that has to happen at a specific time or on a specific day (enter these in your calendar); those that need to be done as soon as they can (add these to your 'Next Actions' lists); and all those that you are waiting for others to do (put these on a 'Waiting For' list).

Calendar

Reminders of actions you need to take tall into two categories: those about things that have to happen on a specific day or time, and those about things that just need to get done as soon as possible. Your calendar handles the first type of reminder.

Three things go on your calendar:

• time-specific actions;

• day-specific actions; and

• day-specific information.

Time-Specific Actions This is a fancy name for appointments. Often the next action to be taken on a project is attending a meeting that has been set up to discuss it. Simply tracking that on the calendar is sufficient.

Day-Specific Actions These are things that you need to do sometime on a certain day, but not necessarily at a specific time. Perhaps you told Mioko you would call her on Friday to check that the report you're sending her is OK. She won't have the report until Thursday, and she's leaving the country on Saturday, so Friday is the time window for taking the action—but anytime Friday will be fine. That should be tracked on the calendar for Friday but not tied to any particular time slot—it should just go on the day. It's useful to have a calendar on which you can note both time specific and day-