A course based on David Allen’s Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity is sweeping my company. I haven’t taken the course, but after hearing all the raves from people who have, I got the book.
I haven’t gotten very far, but I have done what my co-workers are raving about: emptied my email inbox. Everything must be dealt with immediately – either taken care of if it will take less than 2 minutes, or files in “to do”, “reference”, “waiting for response”, etc.
It’s very weird, staring at a blank inbox. Six hundred and thirty seven emails, reduced to something like 5 to do’s, a couple dozen references, and everything else tossed. I seem to have a lot more time, but I’m spending it staring anxiously at my empty inbox. Hopefully this discomfort will pass.
Heh … that’s how I do things. Learned the hard way that if you dont do things RIGHT AWAY, they just pile up.
Ditto — the overflowing inbox (either paper or virtual) just doesn’t work that well :-)