Dear David Allen: Where do you find the time to go through the hardest parts of your Inbox (I seem to have a lower layer that never gets finished — notes from meetings that need follow up that are important but not urgent etc.)?
DA: You’re trying to use your Inbox as your organizer, and that won’t work. You have to make the decision about the action step for each one of those, and organize the reminder of the action (if it’s longer than 2 minutes and can’t be delegated) in your system. That doesn’t take long. Sounds like you’re avoiding the decision about what to do, or you don’t feel like you have any system better than your Inbox to sustain it.
One of the upcoming Webinars with David Allen on GTD Connect will be all about processing these kinds of things that seem to get stuck in the Inbox. Thursday, March 11th @ 11am. Free for GTD Connect members.
Hey David –
As someone with a traffic-heavy inbox, I can empathize with the feeling of overwhelm that so many people feel. But, as usual, you’re right; a good system is better than reorganization.
Looking forward,
Jonathan Flaks