How I’m Getting Things Done (Part 2)

August 13, 2008

Sweep by ishrona

I read a few pages here and there online and, when almost every concept I came across starting hitting home, I went and picked up the first copy I could find. For a start, I read the whole thing before I started any actions, just to work out exactly what was going on. Then I went back to the start and worked through a second time, this time putting the ideas into action. I don’t think my workspace know what hit it.

I chose a corner of my desk and worked through every pile, every paper, every note and scribble until I reached the opposite corner. Most of it ended up in the bin. Piles and piles of plain old junk. The rest was lumped in the process basket without distinction. Then the shelving got the same treatment. Then the drawers. Then the filing. My estimate would be that I threw out around 80% of the material I had lying around.

The electronic desktop was next. My Windows desktop alone ran at 1024×1280 and was completely covered with files, let alone what was on the company and personal network drives. The same principle held: start at the first folder and work through each of them, deleting or leaving for processing.

The emails came last, and were the most daunting; however, once started, it soon became much easier to make the cut here as well. Once they had been worked over, all that was left was one big physical pile of ’stuff’ and one big electronic pile. Let the processing begin…

(link to part 1)
(link to part 3)
(link to part 4)

Posted in GTD