David Allen - GettingThings Done. The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

"Incompletion Triggers" List

Professional

Projects started, not completed

Projects that need to be started

Commitments/promises to others

Boss/partners

Colleagues

Subordinates

Other people in organization

"Outside" people

Customers

Other organizations

Professionals

Communications to make/get

Internal/External

Initiate or respond to:

Phone calls

Voice-mail

E-mail

Pages

Faxes

Letters

Memos

Other writing to finish/submit

Reports

Evaluations/reviews

Proposals

Articles

Promotional materials

Manuals/instructions

Rewrites and edits

Meetings that need to be set/requested

Who needs to know about what decisions?

Significant read/review

Financial

Cash flow

Statistics

Budgets

Forecasts/projections

P&Ls

Balance sheet

Credit line

Planning/organizing

Formal planning (goals, targets, objectives)

Current projects (next stages)

Upcoming projects

Business/marketing plans

Organizational initiatives

Upcoming events

Meetings

Presentations

Organizational structuring

Changes in facilities

Installation of new systems/equipment

Travel

Banks

Receivables

Payables

Petty cash

Administration

Legal issues

Insurance

Personnel

Policies/procedures

Customers

Internal

External

Marketing

Promotion

Sales

Customer service

Systems

Phones

Computers

Office equipment

Other equipment

Utilities

Filing

Storage

Inventories

Supplies

Office/site

Office organization

Furniture

Decorations

Waiting for...

Information

Delegated tasks/projects

Completions critical to projects

Replies to:

Letters

Memos

Calls

Proposals

Requisitions

Reimbursements

Petty cash

Insurance

Ordered items

Items being repaired

Tickets

Decisions of others

Professional development

Training/seminars

Things to learn

Things to look up

Skills to practice/learn especially re:

computers

Tape/video training

Resumes

Outside education

Research—need to find out about...

Professional wardrobe

Personal

Projects started, not completed

Projects that need to be started

Commitments/promises to others

Spouse

Children

Family

Friends

Professionals

Borrowed items

Projects: other organizations

Service

Civic

Volunteer

Communications to make/get

Family

Friends

Professional

Initiate or respond to:

Phone calls

Letters

Cards

Upcoming events

Special occasions

Birthdays

Anniversaries

Weddings

Graduations

Holidays

Travel

Weekend trips

Vacations

Social events

Cultural events

Sporting events

R&D—things to do

Places to go

People to meet/invite

Local attractions

Administration

Financial

Bills

Banks

Investments

Loans

Taxes

Insurance

Legal affairs

Filing

Waiting for. . .

Mail order

Repair

Reimbursements

Loaned items

Medical data

RSVPs

Home/household

Landlords

Property ownership

Legal

Real estate

Zoning

Taxes

Builders/contractors

Heating/air-conditioning

Plumbing

Electricity

Roofing

Landscape

Driveway

Walls/floors/ceilings

Decoration

Furniture

Utilities

Appliances

Lightbulbs/wiring

Kitchen things

Washer/dryer/vacuum

Areas to organize/clean

Computers

Software

Hardware

Connections

CD-ROM

E-mail/Internet

TV

VCR

Music/CDs/tapes

Cameras/film

Phones

Answering machine

Sports equipment

Closets/clothes

Garage/storage

Vehicle repair/maintenance

Tools

Luggage

Pets

Health care

Doctors

Dentists

Specialists

Hobbies

Books/records/tapes/disks

Errands

Hardware store

Drugstore

Market

Bank

Cleaner

Stationer

Community

Neighborhood

Schools

Local government

Civic issues

If your head is empty of everything, personally and professionally, then your in-basket is probably quite full, and likely spilling over. In addition to the paper-based and physical items in your in-basket, your inventory of "in" should include any resident voice-mails and all the e-mails that are currently staged in the "in" area of your communication software. It should also include any items on your organizer lists for which you have not yet determined next actions.

I usually recommend that clients download their voice-mails onto paper notes and put those into their in-baskets, along with their whole organizer notebooks, which usually need significant reassessment. If you've been using something like a Palm PDA or Microsoft Outlook or Lotus Organizer for anything other than calendar and telephone/address functionality, I suggest you print out any task and to-do lists and put them, too, into your in-basket. E-mails are best left where they are, because of their volume and the efficiency factor of dealing with them within their own mini system.

Connection is completed when you can easily see the edges to the inventory of everything that is complete.

But "In" Doesn't Stay in "In"

When you've done all that, you're ready to take the next step. You don't want to leave anything in "in" for an indefinite period of time, because then it would without fail creep back into your psyche again, since your mind would know you weren't dealing with it. Of course, one of the main factors in people's resistance to collecting stuff into "in" is the lack of a good processing and organizing methodology to handle it.

That brings us to the next chapter: "Getting In' to Empty."

ASSUMING THAT YOU have collected everything that has your attention, your job now is to actually get to the bottom of "in." Getting "in" to empty doesn't mean actually doing all the actions and projects that you've collected. It just means identifying each item and deciding what it is, what it means, and what you're going to do with it.

When you've finished processing "in," you will have

1. trashed what you don't need;

2. completed any less-than-two-minute actions;

3. handed off to others anything that can be delegated;

4. sorted into your own organizing system reminders of actions that require more than two minutes; and

5. identified any larger commitments (projects) you now have, based on the input.

To get an overview of this process, you may find it useful here to refer to the Workflow Diagram on page 120. The center column illustrates all the steps involved in processing and deciding your next actions.

This chapter focuses on the components in the diagram's center column, the steps from "in" to next action. You'll immediately see the natural organization that results from following this process for each of your open loops. For instance, if you pick up something from "in" and realize, "I've got to call Andrea about that, but I've got to do it on Monday, when she's in her office," then you'll defer that action immediately and enter it into your calendar for Monday.

I recommend that you read through this chapter and the next one, on organizing your actions, before you actually start processing what you've collected in "in." It may save you some steps. When I coach clients through this process, it invariably becomes a dance back and forth between the simple decision-making stage of processing the open loops and the trickier task of figuring out the best way to enter these decisions in a client's particular organization system.