Chapter 6 Response

Shobna Khunkhun

The premise of Chapter 6 was tackling the accumulated “stuff” in the inbox. It was essentially the how to of emptying ones inbox. It was a very helpful chapter in practice because I actually (over the weekend) got an inbox, filled it with “stuff” and needed to process it. One major concept I found intriguing in this chapter was that processing “does not mean ‘spend time on’” (122). The notion of processing the inbox does not mean spend time fully completing each task as one goes through the inbox. Instead processing is taking one item from the inbox, identifying what it is, where does it belong, and what to do with it (i.e. action steps or trash/incubate/reference). For me, personally, this notion is important to keep in mind because I have the tendency to get side tracked in trying to complete a single item as I go through my inbox. Essentially, processing enables everything to have an organized place outside of ones mind. 

Overall I was able to process my inbox [such as bills, phone calls, reference docs for my thesis, etc] but did notice something in particular. I noticed that as a student, most of my inbox “stuff” were projects. For example, studying for a midterm, essay assignment, reading assignments, these are all items that require more than one action step; they are all projects. I found it helpful to create a list of steps for upcoming projects like my research paper. While the book is doing a great job in helping organize all the clutter and open loops in my mind, I hope it will go into more detail on how to prioritize and tackle projects because I think this will be more translatable to apply as a student right now.