Getting Things Done

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THE ART OF GETTING THINGS DONE | PART ONE
a trash basket and  key for trash, a "tickler" file or calendar
for material that's incubating, and a good filing system for refer-
ence information.
Actionable This is the 
YES 
group of items, stuff about which
something needs to be done. Typical examples range from
an e-mail requesting your participation in a corporate service
project on such-and-such a date to the notes in your in-basket
from your face-to-face meeting with the group vice president
about a significant new project that involves hiring an outside
consultant.
Two things need to be determined about each actionable item:
1 | What "project" or outcome have you committed to? and
2 | What's the next action required?
If It's About a Project. . . You need to capture that outcome on a
"Projects" list. That will be the stake in the ground that reminds
you that you have an open loop. A Weekly Review of the list (see
page 46) will bring this item back to you as something that's still
outstanding. It will stay fresh and alive in your management sys-
tem until it is completed or eliminated.
What's the Next Action? This is the critical question
for anything you've collected; if you answer it appro-
priately, you'll have the key substantive thing to orga-
nize. The "next action" is the next physical, visible
activity that needs to be engaged in, in order to move
the current reality toward completion.
Some examples of next actions might be:
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• Call Fred re tel. # for the garage he recommended.
• Draft thoughts for the budget-meeting agenda.
• Talk to Angela about the filing system we need to set up.
• Research database-management software on the Web.
It does not take
much strength to
do things, but it
requires a great
deal of strength to
decide what to do.
— Elbert

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