In my current role, a huge amount of general mail comes into my in-tray. I also get a lot of out-of-date stuff from around the office that no one wants to deal with … keep or dump? Current or Archive? Might come in useful for ….?
In true GTD fashion, I constantly try to empty the tray.
I find that a lot of the items involve decisions – but the topic in question is not really important in the first place. Things like new training courses, upgrades of existing programs, alternative computer programs, client checklists from three years ago etc.
The decision in each case is not a quick and simple one. It could be a case of trying to value in cash terms the benefits of expensive purchases. This would in turn involve "testing the waters" as to what level of expenditure my boss is willing to take on. Are the current levels of training and software producing more or less the same benefits?
Alternatively, it can be case of trying to imagine possible future scenarios.
Now, the best time of the say for me to this kind of stuff is (a) when I am fresh, and (b) when my boss is availed and is not already preoccupied with main projects.
In GTD speak, I am not sure what the next action is, I don’t know what the desired outcome (if any) is, and I don’t know if I am ever going to do/discuss/defer it. The potential benefits will probably not change in the short term, so the tickler file is not the home for it.
To put it bluntly, I couldn’t be bothered wasting my good (and usually limited) quality brain time trying to decide. My solution? I am going to open a folder called “unimportant”.
I now that at least one third of my in-tray will go into it. These are the things that I know are not critical as soon as I look at them. They are not worth any mental energy, but they are just short of trash.
Probably the only time I will deal with things in the folder is if they jump out and bite me, which will almost definitely be never (unless a training company happens to belong to my boss’s brother). I will empty it every few months, when time has proven that they were in fact useless.
The key thing is that I will not waste any time whatsoever on thinking of an outcome or NA for these things.
I know this a great idea because I felt a huge weight leave my shoulders when I thought of it.
Dave
In true GTD fashion, I constantly try to empty the tray.
I find that a lot of the items involve decisions – but the topic in question is not really important in the first place. Things like new training courses, upgrades of existing programs, alternative computer programs, client checklists from three years ago etc.
The decision in each case is not a quick and simple one. It could be a case of trying to value in cash terms the benefits of expensive purchases. This would in turn involve "testing the waters" as to what level of expenditure my boss is willing to take on. Are the current levels of training and software producing more or less the same benefits?
Alternatively, it can be case of trying to imagine possible future scenarios.
Now, the best time of the say for me to this kind of stuff is (a) when I am fresh, and (b) when my boss is availed and is not already preoccupied with main projects.
In GTD speak, I am not sure what the next action is, I don’t know what the desired outcome (if any) is, and I don’t know if I am ever going to do/discuss/defer it. The potential benefits will probably not change in the short term, so the tickler file is not the home for it.
To put it bluntly, I couldn’t be bothered wasting my good (and usually limited) quality brain time trying to decide. My solution? I am going to open a folder called “unimportant”.
I now that at least one third of my in-tray will go into it. These are the things that I know are not critical as soon as I look at them. They are not worth any mental energy, but they are just short of trash.
Probably the only time I will deal with things in the folder is if they jump out and bite me, which will almost definitely be never (unless a training company happens to belong to my boss’s brother). I will empty it every few months, when time has proven that they were in fact useless.
The key thing is that I will not waste any time whatsoever on thinking of an outcome or NA for these things.
I know this a great idea because I felt a huge weight leave my shoulders when I thought of it.
Dave