I enjoyed chapter 6 and a few things in general really stuck out to me:
1. Nothing goes back into "in"
I've already had a system of inboxes for awhile but, in reading this chapter, I realized one of the issues is that I constantly put items back into "in." When I glance at the pile, sometimes I'll assign jobs for each thing but, more often, I simply grab the pieces of mail or magazines that I'm interested in and leave the rest of the items sitting in the inbox on my counter. This part of organizing was really helpful for me to understand.
2. And if there is an action... what is it?
The way that Allen lays out the explanation for "next steps" was very clear. It was especially helpful when he followed up with saying that when we don't list actionable next steps, it also allows the item to become a vague burden in the back of our minds that causes us to want to avoid it because we don't know what we want to do with it.
I'm slowly starting to take the steps but it's been difficult to get rid of all the loopholes. It just seems impossible to keep on top of every little thing in every aspect of my life. However, I do see the logic in it, I just question how probable the realistic application of it all is. I guess I will see!
I also think that the system is extremely logical and eye opening in that sense. It should be practical, but processing and organizing everything seems so daunting especially when our schedules are already full. We just need to give ourselves those two days (like Allen says a weekend), to actually start it from top to bottom. I am probably starting somewhere in the middle and trying to catch up in either direction since I have not found enough free time to process everything.
ReplyDelete