digest
Short Summary
Main recommendation: Clarify each item in your in-basket by asking "What is it?" and "Is it actionable?" and, if it is, immediately identify the next action so you can apply the three Ds (Do, Delegate, Defer) before moving on. The speaker says this clarifying step, which people often skip by jumping straight to "where does it go?", is what makes organizing easier.
Key Points
- GTD (Getting Things Done) clarifying starts with the in-basket question "What is it?"; if the meaning is unclear, the speaker suggests asking the sender to resend or explain more.
- Non-actionable items have three options: trash them, file them as reference, or move them to a Someday/Maybe list or a tickler.
- Next action thinking is what the speaker's daughter Annie said she uses most, because deciding the next action right away prevents procrastination.
- Clarifying and organizing takes effort, but the speaker reports that people repeatedly find it takes less time than they expected.
Details Worth Noting
- Concrete instructions:
- For each in-basket item, ask "What is it?" If unclear, reply asking for more clarity.
- Ask "Is it actionable, yes or no?" If no, choose one: trash it, file it as reference, or move it to Someday/Maybe.
- For a "maybe" item you want to revisit at a set time (e.g., three months), create a tickler, such as an all-day calendar event labeled "tickler" on the chosen date.
- If actionable, determine the next action immediately, then apply the three Ds in order:
- Do: if it takes under two minutes, do it now.
- Delegate: if it takes longer, ask whether someone else can do it; if so, track it on your Waiting For list.
- Defer: if neither works, schedule it on your calendar (for a specific day or a block of hours) or add it to a next actions list.
- Practice exercise: pause the video, find an old email or paper that has been sitting around, and run it through the clarifying questions.
- The speaker notes the two-minute guideline is roughly the time it takes to put an item in your system and retrieve it later.
- The speaker says Alana Wright made a video on delegation, which people often skip over in the three Ds sequence.
Bottom Line
Clarifying each item and deciding its next action immediately, rather than letting it sit in the in-basket, is the step the speaker believes makes the rest of GTD workable.
