Read/review inbox

R

rangi500

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Hi guys,

I'm a GTD rookie and was just wondering how you guys handle read/review inboxes? If you have several weekly magazines to review, do you put them all in one place then have a certain time in the week when you go through them? And what do you do with articles on the web that you want to read sometime soon?

How does reading and reviewing regular publications relate to 'Next Actions' and 'Projects'? There will always be things in my read/review inbox, so should 'do read/review' be permenantly on my 'Next Actions' list? Or should each thing I want to read/review go down as a seperate NA?

Any advise would be much appreciated,

Rangi
 
I try to put anything I intend to Read/Review in a single basket (separate from my inbox). Web articles I generally print out & throw in there as well - I find it easier to read something in hard copy that on the computer, unless it's a article I just need to quick-scan. Whenever I have some time to read/review or if I'm going on a trip or to an appointment, I just pull some stuff out of the basket & take with me. Once it's read it then goes in the trash bin or is filed in its appropriate place.

Don't know if this is a best practice, but I also have read/review stuff at home which is separate from what I maintain at the office, so technically I have two read/review buckets.

I don't think it's necessary to keep a N/A which says "Read/Review", nor do I think it's necessary to list each article or publication as a separate N/A. I see "Read/Review" as a sort of standing N/A that's always there - I don't need to be reminded of it and I don't really think about it except when it pops up in the normal course of the day as appropriate. The only exception would be something which I must Read/Review before I can move on to the N/A on a project, but generally something that important will be filed properly on the front side of the Process/Organize phase, so it never finds its way into Read/Review to begin with.

Also, David Allen says a good way to purge Read/Review is to just throw it away when the stack gets so big it falls over.

(BTW, I'm also a GTD rookie, so if anyone corrects me you should probably accept their suggestion over mine).
 
I keep a read/review pile on the end table beside the sofa with magazines and whatever books I am reading. For web articles I sync those into iSilo on my Palm so that I can read them anywhere (while waiting for a train during the commute, waiting in line at a restaurant, in the bathroom, waiting for a meeting to start, or any other unexpected period of time).

Magazines usually are a great source of inspirations for someday/maybe items or new projects!
 
Also, David Allen says a good way to purge Read/Review is to just throw it away when the stack gets so big it falls over.
Click to expand...

DA says that in a lighter mood and refers to people who have not been initiated into the GTD methodology. After GTD the read/review should be actually read/reviewed (at least in theory!).

There was a similar discussion started by me sometime back-you may check the link

http://www.davidco.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1223.

AA
 
I handle my R/R exactly as described by spectecGTD. My R/R box is about 3 inches high and when the stack reaches the top of the box I purge. When something has sat in my R/R box for a week or so, I have more perspective on whether I really need or want to read it. A lot of good intentions die during the purge. One trick I use to keep the stack low without disregarding things I really want to read is tearing up magazines. When a magazine arrives in my inbox, I will take two minutes to review the table of contents and ID articles I want to read. When I get a chance, usually while on the phone or while needing to do “gnat like things,” I’ll tear out the articles I want to read. This also makes for a better fit in my plastic R/R file for weekends and travel. Like spectecGTD, must read/review items are also in the box or folder but also become an NA.
 
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