Getting Things Done

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PRACTICING STRESS-FREE PRODUCTIVITY | PART TWO
actionable and what's not. Once you've made a clean distinction
about which is which, what's left as reference should have no
pull or incompletion associated with it—it's just your library.
Your only decision then is how big a library you want. When
you've fully implemented this action-management metho-
dology, you can be as big a packrat as your space (physical
and digital) will allow. As I've increased the size of the hard
disk in my computer, I've kept that much more e-mail in my
archives. The more the merrier, as far as I'm concerned, since
increasing the volume of pure reference material adds no psychic
weight.
The Variety of Reference Systems
There are a number of ways to organize reference material, and
many types of tools to use. What follows is a brief discussion of
some of the most common.
• General-reference filing—paper and e-mail
• Large-category filing
• Rolodexes and contact managers
• Libraries and archives
General-Reference Filing As I've said, a good filing
system is critical for processing and organizing your
stuff. It's also a must for dealing with the sometimes
huge volume of paper-based materials that are valu-
able for you for one reason or another. Ideally you
will already have set up a general-reference filing sys-
tem as you were processing "in." You need to feel
comfortable storing even a single piece of paper that
you might want to refer to later, and your system
must be informal and accessible enough that it's a snap to file it
away in your alphabetized general-reference system, right at hand
where you work. If you're not set up that way yet, look back at
chapter 4 for help on this topic.
164
Your filing system
should be a simple
library of data,
easily
retrievable—
not your reminder
for actions,
projects, priorities,

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