Getting Things Done

CHAPTER 7 | ORGANIZING: SETTING UP THE RIGHT BUCKETS
Lotus, which sort into their systems at the top. Your resulting
"FACTION" folder will hold those e-mails that you need to do
something about.
Next you can create a folder titled "@WAITING FOR,"
which will show up in the same place as the "@ACTION" folder.
Then, as you receive e-mails that indicate that someone is going
to do something that you care about tracking, you can drag them
over into the "@WAITING FOR" file. It can also hold reminders
for anything that you delegate via e-mail: when you forward
something, or use e-mail to make a request or delegate an action,
just save a copy into the "@WAITING FOR" file.*
Some applications (such as Lotus Notes) allow you to file a
copy of an e-mail into one of your folders as you send it (with a
"Send and File" button). Others (e.g., Outlook) will simultane-
ously save only into your universal "Sent Mail" folder. In the latter
case, what seems to work best for many is to copy ("cc" or "bcc")
themselves when they delegate via e-mail, and then to pull that
copy into their "@WAITING FOR" folder. (It's relatively easy to
program Outlook to automatically send any e-mail that you "cc"
to yourself into a designated folder, which would replicate the
process just described.)
Getting E-mail "In" to "Empty" The method detailed above will
enable you to actually get everything out of your e-mail in-basket,
which will be a huge boon to your clarity about and control of
your day-to-day work. You'll reclaim "in" as "in," so anything
residing there will be like a message on your answering
machine—a blinking light telling you you need to process some-
thing! Most people use their e-mail "in" for staging still-undecided
actionable things and reference, a practice that rapidly numbs
the mind: they know they've got to reassess everything every
*Microsoft Outlook allows users to copy or move e-mails into its "Tasks" con-
text, which, if organized according to my recommended categories, could work
equally well.