Getting Things Done

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PRACTICING STRESS-FREE PRODUCTIVITY I PART TWO
of phone numbers. It's instructive to note that this is purely and
simply reference material. No action is required—this is just
information that you might need to access in the future.
So there's no big mystery about how to organize it, aside
from the logistics for your individual needs. Again, the only prob-
lem comes up when people try to make their Rolodexes serve as
tools for reminding them about things they need to do. That
doesn't work. As long as all the actions relative to people you
know have been identified and tracked in your action reminder
lists, there's no role for telephone and address systems to fill other
than being a neutral address book.
The only issue then becomes how much information you
need to keep and where and in what equipment you need to keep
it in order to have it accessible when you want it. Nothing's per-
fect in that regard, but as the small digital tools become easier to
use and connect to larger databases, you'll be able to have more
information at hand with the same or less effort.
Libraries and Archives: Personalized Levels Information that
might be useful lives at many levels. You could probably find out
pretty much anything if you were willing to dig deep enough. The
question of how much to keep, how close, and in what form, will
be a changing reality, given the variables of your needs and your
particular comfort levels with data. Relative to your personal
organization and productivity, this is not a core issue,
so long as all of your projects and actions are in a
control system that you work with regularly. Refer-
ence material in all its forms then becomes nothing
more or less than material to capture and create
access to according to your particular proclivities and
requirements.
Some degree of consistency will always make
things easier. What kinds of things do you need with you all the
time? Those must go into your ubiquitous planner or PDA. What
do you need specifically for meetings or off-site events? That
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If material is purely
for reference, the
only issue is
whether it's worth
the time and space
required to keep it.

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