Inbox Priorities

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thekeymaker

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I seem to be caught up on this idea about the GTD system. Getting all my “stuff” into my inbox is supposed to be a capture process. Get everything out of my head and on paper. But lets say that I come up with something that needs to be done now, or even better, in a few minutes and if it stays in my inbox I am going to forget it. Do I take two minutes and skip the inbox and park it somewhere appropriate, or do you process you inbox right away? I feel like I should be processing my inbox every second I have something in there. How do you deal with this feeling and what do you to make sure you’re not stuck with the thought of “what is in my inbox that I am forgetting”.

Sorry if this questions had been addressed if someone could point me in the right direction.

~Cheers
 
I seems to have become some kind of widespread myth that GTD allegedly prescribes that you must leave things to ferment in the inbox for some time, just as a matter of principle or something. I keep hearing this all the time, but this is definitely not how I understand it.

The inbox, i.e. your known set of collection points (mailboxes and intrays, notepads, post-its on the fridge ...), collectively referred to as "the inbox", is just a means for you to be able to keep doing other things, if you do not want to be disturbed, and be able to rest assured that this input is safe and will not be forgotten and will be dealt with sooner or later.

By all means, do the stuff straight awy, if you find it appropriate. David Allen calls this "doing work as it shows up", if I recall correctly.
 
The advantage of having a complete and current list of your commitments with yourself and others is that it's easier to assess whether work that shows up in the moment should take precedence or take a back seat to pre-defined actions.
 
Totally agree. And this is one further reason to avoid letting things sit and ferment in the inbox without a good reason. If I have the time to collect, process and organize in one fell swoop, this is what I always do - to keep it as neat and tidy and current as possible.

I believe the reason why David Allen describes it as three distinct steps - collect, process, organize - is the simple and obvious fact that the steps MUST happen in that order. You simply cannot organize it (put it on the right list, apply tags, whatever) until you have clarified what action(s) need to be taken (i.e. "processed" the thought). And you cannot clarify anything unless you are aware that something may be required of you (i.e. "collected" the thought).

But this does not mean that it is necessary to introduce any artificial time gaps between these steps. They can all be done in immediate sequence, if only you have time. The main purpose of the inbox is to have somewhere to keep such notes until you can find the time to deal with them. Unfortunately I see and hear "everywhere" that GTD somehow prescribes such artificial time delays, but this is nothing I have ever read from David Allen or his company. On the contrary, one of his associates expressly emphasized on this forum quite recently (but I cannot find the thread) that "please, please, please" put it straight on the right list immediately if you are able to.
 
I had a complete brain apocalypse this week after watching the keynote of the Apple Developer's Conference... I have a completely underutilized personal assistant and her name is Siri!

I'm using Siri's reminders (on the iPhone) for all of those immediate things that have to get done before I process my inbox.

(Pressing and holding the home button... "bing")
"Siri, remind me to call my husband in twenty minutes"
"OK! I'll remind you."
And in 20 minutes a reminder pops up.

I say, "Siri, remind me to..." twenty times a day and all I have to do is pull down the reminder screen and there they all are.

The items that don't get done that day I scrawl on paper and throw in my inbox, just like I would normally, but I've found over the last week or so that almost everything is getting done - and on time! How did I live without her??
 
thekeymaker said:
Do I take two minutes and skip the inbox and park it somewhere appropriate, or do you process you inbox right away?
Click to expand...
I view the inbox as the corral in which to place those things that I can't deal with right now. If I have to switch and do something right then and there or I feel it is the best use of my time in the moment I do it. No sense putting it off. The inbox is to give you one or at most a few separate places to deal with stuff.

I'd also caution you on adding things to your lists without proper processing. You may catch them at the weekly review but it's better to wait until you have the time to properly process the thought before adding them to your lists.
 
artsinaction said:
I'm using Siri's reminders (on the iPhone) for all of those immediate things that have to get done before I process my inbox
Click to expand...

I use Siri all the time. I also use it to send random things I think of directly into Evernote.
 
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