Getting Things Done (21 page)

I recommend that you create one folder for any longer-than-two-minute e-mails that you need to act on (again, you should be able to dispatch many messages right off the bat by following the two-minute rule). The folder name should begin with a prefix letter or symbol so that (1) it looks different from your reference folders and (2) it sits at the top of your folders in the navigator bar. Use something like the “@” sign in Microsoft or the dash (“-”) in Lotus, which sort into their systems at the top. Your resulting “@ACTION” folder will hold those e-mails that you need to do something about.

Next you can create a folder titled “@WAITING FOR,” which will show up in the same place as the “@ACTION” folder. Then, as you receive e-mails that indicate that someone is going to do something that you care about tracking, you can drag them over into the “@WAITING FOR” file. It can also hold reminders for anything that you delegate via e-mail: when you forward something, or use e-mail to make a request or delegate an action, just save a copy into the “@WAITING FOR” file.
⁹

Some applications (such as Lotus Notes) allow you to file a copy of an e-mail into one of your folders as you send it (with a “Send and File” button). Others (e.g., Outlook) will simultaneously save only into your universal “Sent Mail” folder. In the latter case, what seems to work best for many is to copy (“cc” or “bcc”) themselves when they delegate via e-mail, and then to pull that copy into their “@WAITING FOR” folder. (It’s relatively easy to program Outlook to automatically send any e-mail that you “cc” to yourself into a designated folder, which would replicate the process just described.)

 

Getting E-mail “In” to “Empty”
The method detailed above will enable you to actually get everything out of your e-mail in-basket, which will be a huge boon to your clarity about and control of your day-to-day work. You’ll reclaim “in” as “in,” so anything residing there will be like a message on your answering machine—a blinking light telling you you need to process something! Most people use their e-mail “in” for staging still-undecided actionable things and reference, a practice that rapidly numbs the mind: they know they’ve got to reassess everything
every
time
they glance at the screen. If you never had more than a screenful of e-mails, this approach might be reasonably functional, but with the volume most professionals are dealing with these days, that doesn’t apply.

Again, getting “in” empty doesn’t mean you’ve handled everything. It means that you’ve DELETED what you could, FILED what you wanted to keep but don’t need to act on, DONE the less-than-two-minute responses, and moved into your reminder folders all the things you’re waiting for and all your actionable e-mails.
Now
you can open the “@ACTION” file and review the e-mails that you’ve determined you need to spend time on. Isn’t that process easier to relate to than fumbling through multiple screens, fearing all the while that you may miss something that’ll blow up on you?

There’s an obvious danger in putting reminders of things you need to do somewhere out of sight. The function of an organization system is primarily to supply the reminders you need to see
when
you need to see them, so you can trust your choices about what you’re doing (and what you’re not doing). Before you leave the office for the day, the actionable e-mails that you still have pending must be reviewed individually, just like your “Calls” or “At Computer” lists. In essence, “@ACTION” is an extension of your “At Computer” list and should be handled in exactly the same fashion. Your paper-based “Pending” workflow must likewise be assessed like a list if the paper materials are being used as your only reminders.

Distributing action triggers in a folder, on lists, and/or in an e-mail system is perfectly OK,
as long as you review all of the categories to which you’ve entrusted your triggers equally, as required
. You don’t want things lurking in the recesses of your systems and not being used for their intended purpose: reminding you.

In order to hang out with friends or take a long, aimless walk and truly have nothing on your mind, you’ve got to know where all your actionable items are located, what they are, and that they will wait. And you need to be able to do that in a few seconds, not days.

Creating and maintaining one list of all your projects (that is, again, every commitment or desired outcome that may require more than one action step to complete) can be a profound experience! You probably have more of them than you think. If you haven’t done so already, I recommend that initially you make a “Projects” list in a very simple format, similar to the ones you’ve used for your lists of actions: it can be a category in a digital organizer, a page in a loose-leaf planner, or even a single file folder labeled “PROJECTS,” with either a master list or separate sheets of paper for each one.

The “Projects” list is not meant to hold plans or details about your projects themselves, nor should you try to keep it arranged by priority or size or urgency—it’s just a comprehensive index of your open loops. You actually won’t be working off of the “Projects” list during your day-to-day activities; for the most part, your action lists and any ad hoc tasks that come up will constitute your tactical in-the-moment focus. Remember, you can’t
do
a project, you can only do the action steps it requires.

The real value of the “Projects” list lies in the complete review it can provide (at least once a week), allowing you to ensure that you have action steps defined for all of your projects, and that nothing is slipping through the cracks. A quick glance at this list from time to time will enhance your underlying sense of control. You’ll also know that you have an inventory available to you (and to others) whenever it seems advisable to evaluate workload(s).

Most people find that one list is the best way to go because it serves as a master inventory rather than as a daily prioritizing guideline. The organizing system merely provides placeholders for all your open loops and options so your mind can more easily make the necessary intuitive, moment-to-moment strategic decisions.

Frankly, it doesn’t matter how many different lists of projects you have, so long as you look at the contents of
all
of them as often as you need to, since for the most part you’ll do that in one fell swoop during your Weekly Review.

There are some situations in which it makes good sense to subsort a “Projects” list. Let’s look at these one by one.

 

Personal/Professional
Many people feel more comfortable seeing their lists divided up between personal and professional projects. If you’re among them, be advised that your “Personal” list will need to be reviewed as judiciously as your “Professional” one, and not just saved for weekends. Many actions on personal things will need to be handled on weekdays, exactly like everything else. And often some of the greatest pressures on professionals stem from the personal aspects of their lives that they are letting slip.

 

Delegated Projects
If you’re a senior manager or executive, you probably have several projects that you are directly responsible for but have handed off to people who report to you. While you could, of course, put them on your “Waiting For” list, it might make better sense to create a “Projects—Delegated” list to track them: your task will be simply to review the list regularly enough to ensure that everything on it is moving along appropriately.

 

Specific Types of Projects
Some professionals have as part of their work several different projects of the same
type,
which in some instances it may be valuable to group together as a sublist of “Projects.” For example, I maintain a separate category called “Projects to Deliver,” a chronological listing of all the upcoming seminars, coaching, and consulting assignments I’ve committed to. These events are “projects” like the rest, in that I need to keep noting whether things are moving along on and in place for them until they’re completed. But I find it helpful to see them all organized on one list, in the order in which they are coming up on my calendar, apart from my other projects.

If you are a real estate agent, sell consulting services, or develop proposals for a relatively small number of prospective clients in any profession, you will likely find it useful to see all of your outstanding “sales relationships in progress” in one view. This could be a separate list in your planner called “Client Projects in Development,” or if you already have file folders for each in-progress project, it may suffice to group them all in one file stand on your credenza. Just realize that this approach will work only if it represents a complete set of all of those situations that require action, and only if you review them regularly along with the rest of your projects, keeping them current and conscious.

Some of your projects will likely have major
sub
projects, each of which could in theory be seen as a whole project. If you’re moving into a new house, for instance, and are upgrading and changing much of the property, you may have a list of actionable items like “Finalize landscaping,” “Renovate kitchen,” “Rewire basement,” and so on, all of which could in themselves be considered separate projects. Do you make all of this one entry on your “Projects” list—say, “Finish new home renovations”—or do you write up each of the subprojects as an individual line item?

Actually, it won’t matter, as long as you review all the components of the project as frequently as you need to to stay productive. No external tool or organizing format is going to be perfect for sorting both horizontally across and vertically down through all your projects; you’ll still have to be aware of the whole in some cohesive way (such as via your Weekly Review). If you make the large project your one listing on your “Projects” list, you’ll want to keep a list of the subprojects and/or the project plan itself as “project support material” to be reviewed when you come to that major item. I would recommend doing it this way if big pieces of the project are
dependent
on other pieces getting done first. In that scenario you might have subprojects with no next actions attached to them because they are in a sense “waiting for” other things to happen before they can move forward. For instance, you might not be able to start on “Renovate kitchen” until you finish “Rewire basement.” However, you might be able to proceed on “Finalize landscaping” independent of either of the other subprojects. You would therefore want a next action to be continually current on “Rewire basement”
and
“Finalize landscaping.”

Don’t be too concerned about which way is best. If you’re not sure, I’d vote for putting your Big Projects on the “Projects” list and holding the subpieces in your project support material, making sure to include them in your Weekly Review. If that arrangement doesn’t feel quite right, try including the
active
and independent subprojects as separate entries on your master list.

There’s no perfect system for tracking all your projects and subprojects the same way. You just need to know you
have
projects and, if they have associated components, where to find the appropriate reminders for them.

Project support materials are not project actions, and they’re not project reminders. They’re resources to support your actions and thinking about your projects.

 

Don’t Use Support Material for Reminding
Typically, people use stacks of papers and thickly stuffed file folders
as reminders
that (1) they’ve
got
a project, and (2) they’ve got to do something about it. They’re essentially making support materials serve as action reminders. The problem is that next actions and “Waiting For” items on these projects have usually not been determined and are psychologically still embedded in the stacks and the folders—giving them the aura of just more “stuff” that repels its (un)organizer instead of attracting him or her to action. When you’re on the run, in the heat of the activities of the day, files like that are the last thing you’ll want to pick up and peruse for actions. You’ll actually go numb to the files and the piles because they don’t prompt you to do anything and they simply create more anxiety.

If you’re in this kind of situation, you must first add the project itself to your “Projects” list, as a reminder that there’s an outcome to be achieved. Then the action steps and “Waiting For” items must be put onto their appropriate action reminder lists. Finally, when it’s time to actually
do
an action, like making a call to someone about the project, you can pull out all the materials you think you might need to have as support during the conversation.

To reiterate, you
don’t
want to use support materials as your primary reminders of what to do—that should be relegated to your action lists. If, however, the materials contain project plans and overviews in addition to ad hoc archival and reference information, you may want to keep them a little more visibly accessible than you do the pure reference materials in your filing cabinet. The latter place is fine for support stuff, too, so long as you have the discipline to pull out the file drawer and take a look at the plan every time you do your Weekly Review. If not, you’re better off storing those kinds of project support files in a standing file holder or a separate “Pending” stack-basket on your desk or credenza.