From the course: Time Management Fundamentals

Getting your gathering points ready

From the course: Time Management Fundamentals

Getting your gathering points ready

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- Taking control of your workspace begins with gathering. Before we start, let me share a few best practices. You'll put anything that's unprocessed into an inbox. Processed means that you know what to do with it, you've scheduled when to do it, and it's where it belongs. So if any one of those three things is missing: what, when, or where; then an item is unprocessed and should be gathered. This initial gathering may go quickly if you have little clutter or take a few hours if you have a lot. Most people have enough unprocessed items that they won't fit into one regular inbox. So that's where those large boxes on the resource checklist come in. They represent one, temporary, extra large inbox. In the beginning everything unprocessed will go in these boxes. Keep in mind that you don't need to gather things that are where they belong. I use this phrase, "Everything has a home and no visitors allowed." If something is in its correct home, it's where it belongs. And doesn't need to be gathered. Think of a desk drawer that holds pens and nothing else. Since it's a home for just pens you can leave them in there. But any visiting sticky notes or other random objects need to go in the inbox. Also, one more temporary instruction. Label that special desk inbox one week. After you complete your first gathering session, you'll take this label off. Why? As you gather items, ask one question, "Will I need this during the next week?" And if so, put it in the one week box rather than the other large boxes. This temporary separation will let you build your time management systems without falling behind. But beyond that one distinction, put absolutely anything else that's unprocessed into the other large boxes. Don't throw it away; don't sort; don't organize. Just put unprocessed items into the boxes. Now that you have those ground rules in mind, let's begin.

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