I have been exposed to the GTD – “Getting Things Done” inbox folders a couple of years ago, but I wanted to get the foundation behind the principles themselves. So, for my first ebook on the Nook, I purchased Getting Things Done by David Allen.
I spent a part of today implementing the GTD folders for my inbox on both my work and personal email. I’m just scratching the surface of the book, but wanted to immediately get started organizing my inbox. This is what I have done:
In Outlook (2010 beta in my case), I created some new folders: #action, #deferred, #someday, #waiting, and archive. Why the # mark? Well, it arranges these folders higher than the other normal Outlook mailbox folders like Junk E-mail, Outbox etc. It could be any shift character, and I picked the # sign since I have dedicated the @ sign to my email address labels in mt gmail inbox. (I’ll get to that later).
The object is to keep your inbox empty. You will make quick decisions regarding incoming email and move them accordingly in your inbox. What decisions? Well, if you can act on an email and finish that task in less than a minute, do it, and archive the email by moving it to the archive folder. If you need to act on an email today, and will complete the task today, then move it to the #action folder. Next, for any emails that you do not need to address today, file it in the #deferred folder. Any emails you are waiting on a reply of action from someone else, move to the #waiting folder. Finally, if you want to read the email someday, or possibly act upon it someday, move it to the folder by that name. The rest of the emails, if no action is required, you can either archive it or delete it (in the case of spam). This will get you through the initial “set up” of the GTD folders. Now, you cycle through the folders starting with the #action folder. Respond and attend to the emails in that folder, archiving them when completed. Once that folder is empty, move on to the #deferred folder and move any emails that can become action items to the #action folder and work on them. If you receive emails in response to those in the #waiting folder, you can also move them to the #action or #deferred folders respectively. And finally, if your #someday arrives, tackle those emails and archive them.
My plan is to go through this ritual a handful of times a day. The key is not to get distracted by new email by immediately responding to it as it comes in, but to file it accordingly into these GTD folders and tackle the emails in methodological order.
Confused? Check out some of these resources for a (probably) better explanation:
http://lifehacker.com/tag/gettingthingsdone/
