{"id":3998,"date":"2010-08-12T09:00:51","date_gmt":"2010-08-12T17:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gtdtimes.com\/?p=3998"},"modified":"2018-08-31T09:13:42","modified_gmt":"2018-08-31T16:13:42","slug":"how-do-you-control-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/08\/how-do-you-control-paper\/","title":{"rendered":"How do you control paper?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/secure.davidco.com\/store\/catalog\/GTD-SYSTEM-FILE-FOLDERS-p-16211.php\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-3999\" title=\"gtdsystemfolders\" src=\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/gtdtimes\/2010\/08\/gtdsystemfolders-253x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"202\" height=\"240\" \/><\/a><strong>Q: <\/strong> I write down everything but I always seem to end up having problems controlling all the pieces of paper and lists; what are your suggestions?<\/p>\n<p><strong>GTD Coach: <\/strong> Writing everything down is a great first step.\u00a0 All those &#8220;notes&#8221; where you&#8217;ve captured and collected what&#8217;s in your head, need to be put into an &#8220;IN&#8221; box and then within a day or two they need to be &#8220;processed&#8221; so that you make decisions about what the work is to be done (an email to send, a call to make, etc.).\u00a0 Once you process them, put reminders of the work to be done in your Next Action lists or on your calendar.\u00a0 If you travel, your &#8220;IN&#8221; box can be a folder, for example. On a regular basis, stop to gather up any notes, business cards, loose papers, etc. that you might have left in a pocket, briefcase, wallet, or which are still on a notepad (tear them off) and put all those in the &#8220;IN&#8221; box or tray to be processed.\u00a0 You can read more about Collection and Processing best practices in David&#8217;s first book <a href=\"https:\/\/secure.davidco.com\/store\/catalog\/GETTING-THINGS-DONE-PAPERBACK-p-16175.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Getting Things Done<\/a> and we have loads of Webinars and educational resources on <a href=\"https:\/\/secure.davidco.com\/connect\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">GTD Connect<\/a> about this.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Q: I write down everything but I always seem to end up having problems controlling all the pieces of paper and lists; what are your suggestions? GTD Coach: Writing everything down is a great first step.\u00a0 All those &#8220;notes&#8221; where you&#8217;ve captured and collected what&#8217;s in your head, need to be put into an &#8220;IN&#8221; &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/08\/how-do-you-control-paper\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;How do you control paper?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[22,29,61,69,46,91,100,108,109],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.4 (Yoast SEO v22.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>GTD Tips for Managing Paper<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How do you get control of paper in GTD? A GTD Coach gives helpful advice for managing paper, at home, in your office, and on the go.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/08\/how-do-you-control-paper\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How do you control paper?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How do you get control of paper in GTD? A GTD Coach gives helpful advice for managing paper, at home, in your office, and on the go.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/08\/how-do-you-control-paper\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Getting Things Done\u00ae\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gettingthingsdone\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-08-12T17:00:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-08-31T16:13:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/gtdtimes\/2010\/08\/gtdsystemfolders-253x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"GTD Times Staff\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@gtdtimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@gtdtimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"GTD Times Staff\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/08\/how-do-you-control-paper\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/08\/how-do-you-control-paper\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"GTD Times Staff\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/person\/52d8dfa5db8d4e8792586794625c12a4\"},\"headline\":\"How do you control paper?\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-08-12T17:00:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-08-31T16:13:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/08\/how-do-you-control-paper\/\"},\"wordCount\":207,\"commentCount\":4,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/08\/how-do-you-control-paper\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/gtdtimes\/2010\/08\/gtdsystemfolders-253x300.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Getting Things Done\",\"GTD\",\"trusted system\",\"Implementing GTD\",\"Implementation\",\"David Allen Company\",\"Tips and Tricks\",\"coaching\",\"GTD Best Practices\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Productivity Tips\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/08\/how-do-you-control-paper\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/08\/how-do-you-control-paper\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/08\/how-do-you-control-paper\/\",\"name\":\"GTD Tips for Managing Paper\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/08\/how-do-you-control-paper\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/08\/how-do-you-control-paper\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/gtdtimes\/2010\/08\/gtdsystemfolders-253x300.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-08-12T17:00:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-08-31T16:13:42+00:00\",\"description\":\"How do you get control of paper in GTD? A GTD Coach gives helpful advice for managing paper, at home, in your office, and on the go.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/08\/how-do-you-control-paper\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/08\/how-do-you-control-paper\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/08\/how-do-you-control-paper\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/gtdtimes\/2010\/08\/gtdsystemfolders-253x300.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/gtdtimes\/2010\/08\/gtdsystemfolders-253x300.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/08\/how-do-you-control-paper\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How do you control paper?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/\",\"name\":\"Getting Things Done\u00ae\",\"description\":\"David Allen&#039;s GTD\u00ae Methodology\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Getting Things Done\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/gtd-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/gtd-logo.png\",\"width\":370,\"height\":338,\"caption\":\"Getting Things Done\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gettingthingsdone\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/gtdtimes\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/gtdtimes\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/groups\/2328651\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/person\/52d8dfa5db8d4e8792586794625c12a4\",\"name\":\"GTD Times Staff\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7e6cca53b54e1192e3459333751eb5c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7e6cca53b54e1192e3459333751eb5c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"GTD Times Staff\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/author\/webadmin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"GTD Tips for Managing Paper","description":"How do you get control of paper in GTD? A GTD Coach gives helpful advice for managing paper, at home, in your office, and on the go.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/08\/how-do-you-control-paper\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How do you control paper?","og_description":"How do you get control of paper in GTD? A GTD Coach gives helpful advice for managing paper, at home, in your office, and on the go.","og_url":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/08\/how-do-you-control-paper\/","og_site_name":"Getting Things Done\u00ae","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gettingthingsdone\/","article_published_time":"2010-08-12T17:00:51+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-08-31T16:13:42+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/gtdtimes\/2010\/08\/gtdsystemfolders-253x300.jpg"}],"author":"GTD Times Staff","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@gtdtimes","twitter_site":"@gtdtimes","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"GTD Times Staff","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/08\/how-do-you-control-paper\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/08\/how-do-you-control-paper\/"},"author":{"name":"GTD Times Staff","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/person\/52d8dfa5db8d4e8792586794625c12a4"},"headline":"How do you control paper?","datePublished":"2010-08-12T17:00:51+00:00","dateModified":"2018-08-31T16:13:42+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/08\/how-do-you-control-paper\/"},"wordCount":207,"commentCount":4,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/08\/how-do-you-control-paper\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/gtdtimes\/2010\/08\/gtdsystemfolders-253x300.jpg","keywords":["Getting Things Done","GTD","trusted system","Implementing GTD","Implementation","David Allen Company","Tips and Tricks","coaching","GTD Best Practices"],"articleSection":["Productivity Tips"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/08\/how-do-you-control-paper\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/08\/how-do-you-control-paper\/","url":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/08\/how-do-you-control-paper\/","name":"GTD Tips for Managing Paper","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/08\/how-do-you-control-paper\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/08\/how-do-you-control-paper\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/gtdtimes\/2010\/08\/gtdsystemfolders-253x300.jpg","datePublished":"2010-08-12T17:00:51+00:00","dateModified":"2018-08-31T16:13:42+00:00","description":"How do you get control of paper in GTD? A GTD Coach gives helpful advice for managing paper, at home, in your office, and on the go.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/08\/how-do-you-control-paper\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/08\/how-do-you-control-paper\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/08\/how-do-you-control-paper\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/gtdtimes\/2010\/08\/gtdsystemfolders-253x300.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/gtdtimes\/2010\/08\/gtdsystemfolders-253x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/08\/how-do-you-control-paper\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How do you control paper?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/","name":"Getting Things Done\u00ae","description":"David Allen&#039;s GTD\u00ae Methodology","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#organization","name":"Getting Things Done","url":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/gtd-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/gtd-logo.png","width":370,"height":338,"caption":"Getting Things Done"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gettingthingsdone\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/gtdtimes","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/gtdtimes\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/groups\/2328651\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/person\/52d8dfa5db8d4e8792586794625c12a4","name":"GTD Times Staff","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7e6cca53b54e1192e3459333751eb5c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7e6cca53b54e1192e3459333751eb5c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"GTD Times Staff"},"url":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/author\/webadmin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3998"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3998\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}