Simplicity Is Bliss

Collectors, yes, collectors. That is what we all are when we start out with Getting Things Done (GTD) or any other productivity method. We collect everything around us and put it on our task, project or someday/maybe list. And this is not a bad thing, but it is just the beginning. Unfortunately many of us just stop at this stage. While it is understandable that the act of "collect" already provides some relief, David Allen put it very well in his recent book "Making it All Work"

If you try to skip this stage of thinking [clarification], you will never see any light at the end of the tunnel, and you'll be continually compensating by trying out the latest gadgets that still somehow don't provide what you need, the way you need it. Once you really integrate this clarification process into your life- and work style, you will find yourself comfortable with a wide range of tools that can genuinely work for you. If you haven't applied this process, nothing will seem to serve you very well.

What are all those things on your lists?

It is less about having everything nicely written and collected in your (currently) favorite list manager, it is about making sense of all those items, your commitments that go with them and eventually what they mean to you and your life.

Being a collector type may cause you big trouble. Since you grab everything around you without any sort of reflection, you may very easily be overwhelmed by what all seems to be on your plate. In essence you just transformed unstructured (mental) clutter into structured clutter by writing it on a list.

While having it on a list is good, otherwise you would not be in a position to clarify it, just putting it there and think you just became productive is just damn wrong. This is where you need to evolve to the next stage and apply the process of clarification to what is on your list. This, by the way, is also why the god of productivity invented the Inbox, a place where the clutter goes, and when it leaves the Inbox, the clutter has some meaning (and if it is only 'rubbish').

Clarify what comes your way

So here is something where no tools what so ever can help you with: The simple 'taking some time and think about it'-step that is required for every true productivity approach.

1. Put it ALL to the Inbox first. Pretty simple, ain't it? So why haven't you been doing it? Instead you just put it on one of your list right-away. Just because something seems to naturally require a call or belong to a certain project, it is not enough of a reason to blindly put it on the corresponding list.
2. Take Inbox processing serious. If you fail at the beginning the rest of your productivity setup will be a disaster. Even though Inbox processing should be on your daily schedule, you should take your time and process your Inbox(s) seriously. Look at things and make decisions, take your time and think about them and never ever put them back into the Inbox.
3. Figure out what the stuff at hand means. What is it that you have collected into your Inbox? Is it a small thing that can be done rather quickly? Is it potentially a large project? Does it help you with any of your goals? ... There are many questions to ask yourself and that help you reflect on what landed on your plate.
4. Take your time. This is maybe the most important advice when it comes to Inbox processing. Many of us just quickly scan through the Inbox and put things on to lists where we feel they belong and this happens in fractions of seconds thanks to all the tools and scripts we have installed. But figuring out what a particular item in your inbox means to you takes more time. Not that much that you'll be processing your Inbox for hours everyday, but enough too make sure your downstream productivity is excellent.
5. Think about your Areas of Responsibility. If you are a good GTDer you have sorted out your 20.000ft perspective and know, or at least have a list, of your Areas of Responsibility. A quick cross-check of stuff coming your way and whether it falls into any of your Areas of Responsibility already applies a good filter. You certainly want to make sure you work on things that are within your responsibility, and if not you at least make a conscious decision to work on something outside of them.
6. Make your goals your first priority. A even more effective filter is thinking of your goals (30.000ft) when skimming your inbox. What helps me moving forward with my goals and what not? This massively reduced the amount of tasks that you take on and you will find yourself moving far more things to Someday/Maybe, delegating or simply trashing. Productivity ain't no fun if you don't get back satisfaction from reaching the goals you set - so make them your priority.
7. Get down to the essence of the stuff. Take your time and brainstorm a bit what it is and means that you have in front of you. You don't need to fire up your mind mapping tool every time to do this, it is efficient to just take that minute or two and think about what that is that came your way. Sometimes what has been considered a small (2 minute) tasks turns out to be more of a project and sometimes even something that impacts higher levels of your planning. Just writing it on some list and go on may not reveal this fact to you.
8. Figure out what it really takes. That's where David Allen would virtually put the "Natural Planning" flag up into the air. It is really important to understand what you want to get out of a something you take on (or delegate!) and consequently look at all the aspects that need to be considered (here is where mind mapping may actually deliver great value!). Once you are done with this you will have such a solid understanding of the subject at hand that it'll simply come natural to you to organise the activities required and come up with a crystal clear, physical next action. And that's what you can put on one of your lists.
9. Manage your commitment. Every time you take something on, you are making a commitment. Very often with somebody else like your manager our your spouse, but every single time also with yourself. There are clear quality standards and expectations you have of yourself and you'd like to keep up with them. By making to many commitments you'll either lose control of your time management or you sacrifice your standards. None of this should happen if you clarified what it takes to complete a project or task and how this resonates with the already existing commitments.
10. Defer and delegate MORE. All of the above may not help you that much with stopping that constant flow of stuff coming your way. But by clarifying it better, you can make more conscious decision of what to pursue actively and what to defer. Stuff that isn't your responsibility or does not support any of your goals gets delegated easier when you clarified it before. In essence good clarification of stuff will help you to move more things into Someday/Maybe or Waiting For.

The disservice of Tools

Although I have said earlier that no tools can help you with this type of clarification and me being a great fan of productivity tools and list managers (as you can tell from my blog), I believe that when it comes to clarification many, if not all, of the tools are actually doing more than not helping you with it, they provide a disservice with all the keyboard short-cuts, integration and automation. Hence you need to take the decision yourself to first clarify what is in that Inbox before hitting that key that pulls it straight to one of your lists.

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