Castanea_d.
Registered
I have before me a nice bottle of wine, given to me by a parishioner for Christmas.
But I don't drink.
It currently sits in my In box, on top of the incoming paper items.
This sort of thing -- physical Stuff that comes my way -- is an area where I face strong Resistance. My strong natural inclination (and I am surely not alone in this) is to set it aside "somewhere," such as the back of my desk, or my work table. There it sits, nagging at me to Do Something with it. And before long, my office would be back in the state it was before I discovered GTD.
Yes, I know what to do: Clarify and Organize.
(1) Send a thank-you note (done!).
(2) Decide on a next step (done: I am going to give it to one of my co-workers.)
But he is on vacation for a week. So I need a place that is not my In box for the bottle. And I will need to find it when my friend returns next week. If it were a piece of paper, I would stick it in a file until then. My system can deal with that sort of thing. It is the physical stuff that is more of a problem.
Another example, more complicated: our secretary had a nice serving plate that was left at the church after a reception. She repeatedly contacted its owner, who sometimes said she would come and get it "soon" or (more often) ignored the e-mail/phone messages. It was part of the church office for about seven months, sitting on the work counter, a place that tends to become the "In box" for the entire parish. Obviously, the owner of the plate did not care about it very much, or she would have retrieved it. Equally obvious: should the secretary have done the logical thing and given the plate to Goodwill, the lady would then show up demanding her plate and throw a fit when we no longer had it.
In the end - just a few weeks ago - the lady did indeed show up and took her plate. Happy ending, I suppose. But that one plate ended up taking too large of a space, physically (on the work counter) and psychically, a loose end for all those months.
Any ideas?
But I don't drink.
It currently sits in my In box, on top of the incoming paper items.
This sort of thing -- physical Stuff that comes my way -- is an area where I face strong Resistance. My strong natural inclination (and I am surely not alone in this) is to set it aside "somewhere," such as the back of my desk, or my work table. There it sits, nagging at me to Do Something with it. And before long, my office would be back in the state it was before I discovered GTD.
Yes, I know what to do: Clarify and Organize.
(1) Send a thank-you note (done!).
(2) Decide on a next step (done: I am going to give it to one of my co-workers.)
But he is on vacation for a week. So I need a place that is not my In box for the bottle. And I will need to find it when my friend returns next week. If it were a piece of paper, I would stick it in a file until then. My system can deal with that sort of thing. It is the physical stuff that is more of a problem.
Another example, more complicated: our secretary had a nice serving plate that was left at the church after a reception. She repeatedly contacted its owner, who sometimes said she would come and get it "soon" or (more often) ignored the e-mail/phone messages. It was part of the church office for about seven months, sitting on the work counter, a place that tends to become the "In box" for the entire parish. Obviously, the owner of the plate did not care about it very much, or she would have retrieved it. Equally obvious: should the secretary have done the logical thing and given the plate to Goodwill, the lady would then show up demanding her plate and throw a fit when we no longer had it.
In the end - just a few weeks ago - the lady did indeed show up and took her plate. Happy ending, I suppose. But that one plate ended up taking too large of a space, physically (on the work counter) and psychically, a loose end for all those months.
Any ideas?
