GTD Phase 2: Process

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Originally published 18 Jan 2006

Since I am currently without my PDA (it’s in the repair shop), I am taking this time to review and re-read the book. In a series of posts, I’m going to go through each of the phases of the GTD methodology: Collect, Process, Organize, Review and Do, and list how I am using them.

The Process phase is when I go through everything I got together in the Collect phase. I don’t have to *do* it then, I just have to process it into the system.

In GTD, David Allen provides a flow chart for moving through the pile (available free from his store at http://www.davidco.com/store/catalog/Advanced-WorkFlow-Diagram-p-16193.php).

The process is basically this: Put stuff in your in-basket.Then one item at a time (and no fair putting anything back!), ask What is it? Is it something I can act on? If the answer is no, I have three choices: trash it, incubate it for future consideration, or file it in my reference files. If the answer is yes, then I must determine what the outcome is, and if it has more than one step. I then need to determine what the next physical action is to move it forward: I can do it (if it will take less than 2 minutes, delegate it, or defer it into my system.

One thing that struck me on this second perusal was the “incubate”. I was putting stuff into my projects list with dates to start on, thereby acting as a trigger. But the supporting paper work ended up in a big pile, which I lugged around. This is not efficient, and quickly came to be another way for me to avoid work - I went numb to the pile.

Instead of having a note in my system to “decide on IEEE membership” based on a pamphlet, I decided to put the pamphlet into an incubate area. Now, I haven’t implemented the full 43 folders system (1-31, plus 1 for every month); I just went with month folders.

Another thing that struck me is that I am conscious of not doing the project thing well. Often I need sub-projects or I haven’t defined the outcome clearly. Next Actions are just as bad - I find myself skipping steps in my mind and then things get stuck on the lists - because they are not the true next action.

Summary: I needed to implement an incubate area, which I did, and I need to find a better way of defining outcomes and next actions. I know this will be addressed in a future chapter of the book, so I will hold on until then.