digest
Short Summary
Main recommendation: Keep the categories of your GTD system (project list, project support, calendar, next actions list, waiting-for list, reference, and someday/maybe, plus Today and agendas as used in coaching) pristinely distinct from one another, so each list keeps a clear, specific purpose. According to David Allen's book, when these "hard edges" blur, the value of organizing is lost; Meg Edwards recommends periodically checking that the edges are still in place.
Key Points
- David Allen's Getting Things Done (2015 edition, pages 142–143 in chapter seven on organization) lists the basic categories: project list, project support, calendar, next actions list, waiting-for list, reference, and someday/maybe list.
- Allen describes each category as a discrete type of agreement made with yourself, to be reminded of at a specific time and in a specific way; blended categories lose much of their value.
- In a client case, a "Today" list held items one to three weeks old, and the next actions list was too large to be useful; both had lost their edges.
- Another client had merged project support, reference, and archive in one place, causing overwhelm until the items were separated and labeled.
- Clear edges, not low volume, reduce overwhelm: the speaker compares it to a library, which holds thousands of books without feeling chaotic because they are organized.
Details Worth Noting
- Concrete instructions:
- Check your task management tool and confirm that Today, next actions, waiting-for, agendas, projects, project support, reference, and someday/maybe each exist as separate, named lists.
- Open your Today list and keep only your top three items for today; move anything older or non-urgent to the appropriate list.
- Review your next actions list and remove irrelevant items, mark finished items complete, and move items you will do later to a "next action on hold" list (or someday/maybe if they are truly uncertain).
- Separate to-dos from agendas: keep only the things you need to discuss with specific people on agenda lists.
- Revisit your waiting-for list and keep only items you are actually waiting on someone else to return.
- In reference, distinguish current reference from archive: items you still use stay in reference, while deeper, rarely used material moves to archive in a separate location.
- Use the "get current" step of the Weekly Review to clean up actions and waiting-for lists.
- The coaching cleanup session for the first client took about 50 minutes.
- The speaker notes that edges often take time to set up, so a client may need several coaching sessions before they are fully in place.
- The speaker plans future videos on chapter seven's organizational lists.
Bottom Line
A GTD system works when its lists stay distinct, so periodic cleanup, guided by the Weekly Review, keeps the system clear and manageable.
