GettingThings Done. The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

Collect

It's important to know what needs to be collected and how to collect it most effectively so you can process it appropriately. In order for your mind to let 20 of the lower-level task of tying to hang on to everything, you have to know that you have truly captured everything that might represent something you have to do, and that at some point in the near future you will process and review all of it.

Gathering 100 Percent of the 'Incompletes'

In order to eliminate 'holes in the bucket,' you need to collect and gather together placeholders for or representations of all the things you consider incomplete in your world—that is, anything personal or professional, big or little, of urgent or minor importance, that you think ought to be different than it currently is and that you have any level of internal commitment to changing.

Many of the things you have to do are being collected^/* you as you read this. Mail is coming into your mailbox, memos are being routed to your in-basket, e-mail is being funneled into your computer, and messages are accumulating on your voice-mail. But at the same time, you've been 'collecting' things in your environment and in your psyche that don't belong where they are, the way they are, for all eternity. Even though it may not be as obviously 'in your face' as your e-mail, this 'stuff' still requires some kind of resolution—a loop to be closed, something to be done. Strategy ideas loitering on a legal pad in a stack on your credenza, 'dead' gadgets in your desk drawers that need to be fixed or thrown away, and out-of-date magazines on your coffee table all fall into this category of 'stuff.'

As soon as you attach a 'should,' 'need to,' or 'ought to' to an item, it becomes an incomplete. Decisions you still need to make about whether or not you are going to do something, for example, are already incompletes. This includes all of your 'I'm going to's, where you've decided to do something but haven't started moving on it yet. And it certainly includes all pending and in-progress items, as well as those things on which you've done everything you're ever going to do except acknowledge that you're finished with them.

In order to manage this inventory of open loops appropriately, you need to capture it into 'containers' that hold items in abeyance until you have a few moments to decide what they are and what, if anything, you're going to do about them. Then you must empty these containers regularly to ensure that they remain viable collection tools.

Basically, everything is already being collected, in the larger sense. If it's not being directly managed in a trusted external sys tern of yours, then it's resident somewhere in your psyche. The fact that you haven't put an item in your in-basket doesn't mean you haven't got it. But we're talking here about making sure that everything you need is collected somewhere other than in your head.

The Collection Tools

There are several types of tools, both low- and high-tech, that can-be used to collect your incompletes. The following can all serve as-versions of an in-basket, capturing self-generated input as well as information coming from outside:

• Physical in-basket

• Paper-based note-taking devices

• Electronic note-taking devices

• Voice-recording devices

• E-mail

The Physical In-Basket

The standard plastic, wood, leather, or wire tray is the most common tool for collecting paper-based materials and anything else-physical that needs some sort of processing: mail, magazines,-memos, notes, phone slips, receipts — even flashlights with dead-batteries.

Writing Paper and Pads

Loose-leaf notebooks, spiral binders, and steno and legal pads all-work fine for collecting random ideas, input, things to do, and soon. Whatever kind fits your taste and needs is fine.

Electronic Note-Taking

Computers can be used to type in notes for processing later. And-as character-recognition technology advances, a parade of digital-tools designed to capture data continues to be introduced. Handheld devices (personal digital assistants, or PDAs) and electronic-legal pads can both be used to collect all kinds of input.

Auditory Capture-Available auditory devices include answering machines, voice-mail, and dictating equipment, such as digital or microcassette-recorders. All of these can be useful for preserving an interim-record of things you need to remember or deal with.-

E-mail

If you're wired to the rest of the world through e-mail, your-software contains some sort of holding area for incoming mes -sages and files, where they can be stored until they are viewed,-read, and processed. Pagers and telephones can capture this kind of input as well.

Higher-Tech Devices

Now you can dictate into computers as well as hand-write into-them. As more and more communication is morphed into digital-and wireless formats, it will become easier to capture ideas (with a corresponding increase in the amount of data reaching us that we need to manage!).

'Computer!'

'Yes,David?'

'I need bread.'

'Yes, David.'

My needed grocery item has been collected. And as the organizing part of the action-management process is further digitized, 'bread' will automatically be added to my electronic grocery list, and maybe even ordered and delivered.

Whether high-tech or low-tech, all of the tools described above serve as similar in-baskets. capturing potentially useful information, commitments, and agreements for action. You're probably already using some version of most of them.

The Collection Success Factors

Unfortunately, merely having an in-basket doesn't make it functional. Most people do have collection devices of some sort, but usually they're more or less out of control. Let's examine the three requirements to make the collection phase work:

1. Every open loop must be in your collection system and out of your head.

2. You must have as few collection buckets as you can get by with.

3. You must empty them regularly.

Get It All Out of Your Head

If you're still trying to keep track of too many things in your RAM, you likely won't be motivated to use and empty your in-baskets with integrity. Most people are relatively careless about these tools because they know they don't represent discrete, whole systems anyway: there's an incomplete set of things in their in-basket and an incomplete set in their mind, and they're not getting any payoff from either one, so their thinking goes. It's like trying to play pin ball on a machine that has big holes in the table, so the balls keep falling out: there's little motivation to keep playing the game.

These collection tools should become part of your life-style. Keep them close by so no matter where you are you can collect a potentially valuable thought-think of them as being as indispensable as your toothbrush or your driver's license or your glasses.

Minimize the Number of Collection Buckets

You should have as many in-baskets as you need and as few as you can get by with. You need this function to be available to you in every context, since things you'll want to capture may show up almost anywhere. If you have too many collection zones, however, you won't be able to process them easily or consistently.

An excess of collection buckets is seldom a problem on the high-tech end; the real improvement opportunity for most people is on the low-tech side, primarily in the areas of note-taking and physical in-basket collection. Written notes need to be corralled and processed instead of left lying embedded in stacks, notebooks, and drawers. Paper materials need to be funneled into physical in-baskets instead of being scattered over myriad piles in all the available comers of your world.