Once you’ve clarified what you need to do with each item, it’s time to physically sort them in your organizing system. You should now have an empty in-tray and two piles: a pile of reference items and a Pending pile.
You’ll organize the Pending pile by placing items in the following places (discussed in more detail below):
Your lists can be numbered lists (on paper or in digital form) or can be folders of papers labeled with separate items.
As you organize, keep in mind that although you threw away some items during Step 2, you might still come across items that, upon further consideration, you decide you don’t need. Trash them.
You won’t—and probably shouldn’t—crystallize your organization system when you first get the Getting Things Done program up and running. Your organization system needs to reflect what works best for you, and that will take time and some trial and error to figure out.
Now let’s take a closer look at each category.
Start with your reference pile. Your general-reference file holds information that is critically important and vastly diverse. In order for your general-reference information to be useful, your organization must be simple and easily navigable.
Follow these guidelines to effectively organize general-reference materials:
There are multiple locations where you can keep your general-reference material, based on the content.
Next, go through your Pending pile and find the items labeled “Projects list.” Your Projects list is purely an index of your projects—it shouldn’t include the plans or details for any of your projects. Those kinds of details will be on your calendar, Next Actions list, and files of project support materials.
Keeping your Projects list complete, current, and straightforward has several benefits:
Despite the exhaustive capturing process, there may still be projects that you haven’t recognized or added to your Projects list. You may find unrecognized projects in these three places:
Current activities: Look through your workspace, calendar, and next actions to find pieces of projects. For example, maybe you have a meeting on your calendar about an upcoming presentation, but the presentation itself isn’t on your Projects list. Or maybe you have a note to call Susan about a fundraiser on your Calls to Make list (covered in the Next Actions section), but planning the fundraiser isn’t on your Projects list.
Higher-horizon goals and interests: Take stock of your longer-term goals and interests and you’ll find projects such as learning a professional skill or planning for retirement.
Problems and opportunities: Problems, improvements, and opportunities all present the opportunity to create projects that resolve the issues or capitalize on the opportunities. First, reaching a solution to any problem is most likely a multi-step project. This can include addressing an issue with your landlord to resolving a dispute with your business partner.
Second, you may notice inefficiencies or frustrations in your workflow—whether for storage, record keeping, keeping in touch with people, or filing—that could or needs to be improved. You can create projects that reconfigure your workflow and ultimately improve your life.
Third, put things that you’ve thought about doing or want to try on your Projects list, such as learning photography or Italian cooking. You can initially put these on your Someday/Maybe list, but as you use the GTD system more and get a better grasp on your life, shift some of those someday projects into current projects.
The Projects list can be a numbered or bulleted list on a sheet of paper or digital organizer or it can be a file folder with separate sheets of paper for each project.
A master Projects list is sufficient for most people, but you may find it makes more sense for you to have a list for each category of project. Consider these categories:
Some projects are so big they encompass sub-projects; for example, a project to renovate your house includes sub-projects such as upgrading the kitchen and setting up a home office. In these cases, you can:
Now, gather all your project support materials from the Pending pile. Your project support materials are purely reference material that is specific to a particular project.
Don’t include reminders or action items—those need to be on your Next Actions list, calendar, or Waiting For list. When reminders are hidden away in your Project Support Materials file, it’s easy to lose track of your next actions and delay progress; or, if you do remember that you need to work on the project, this isn’t an efficient way to clarify what needs to be done and doesn’t encourage you to make any progress.
Consider using a Pending tray or a standing file holder on your desk to keep your project support materials more accessible than your general-reference files.
As you’re working on a project, you’ll probably have notes and ideas that you don’t want to act on yet but want to keep around for consideration and reference. There are several ways you can organize these notes along with your project support materials.
However you organize your “back-of-the-envelope” thoughts, they must be easily accessible so you can review them regularly to determine a next action.
Check your Pending pile for items labeled “Waiting for.” Add them to your Waiting For list.
Use your Waiting For list to keep track of two types of items:
Each entry on the list should have the task, who’s responsible, the date you made the request, and the due date. Regularly review your Waiting For list so you can determine if you need to check on the status of something or nudge a project forward.
At this point, your Pending pile should be much smaller. Turn your attention to items labeled “incubation.” These items will likely go to one of three places: your Someday/Maybe list, your tickler file, or your calendar.
A Someday/Maybe list gives you the freedom to explore your goals, fantasies, and aspirations without having to commit to doing anything now—from learning a new language to tackling a certain home improvement project**.** Furthermore, listing these ideas increases the likelihood that you’ll achieve them.
You can keep a master Someday/Maybe list or divide them up into subcategories, which can help distinguish between items that you want to do as soon as you have the time and money (such as home improvements) as opposed to bucket list-type items (like learning French).
Consider these categories:
Periodically review your Projects list for any projects that aren’t urgent and could move over from your current commitments to your Someday/Maybe list. If you realistically won’t be able to make progress on a project for at least a few months, switch it to your Someday/Maybe list to declutter your Projects list.
Don’t use your Someday/Maybe file as a Hold-and-Review file, with things you may be interested in that you’ve set aside to process later. Doing this clogs your Someday/Maybe list with things that really need to be captured in your in-tray and clarified; some of your Hold-and-Review items will belong in your Someday/Maybe file, but others will probably end up in the trash, in your general-reference file, on your calendar, in a tickler file, and even on your Next Actions list.
The second destination for “incubation” items is the tickler file. If you want a reminder to revisit an item later, put it here. For example, if you have a flyer for a concert you want to attend, put the flyer in your tickler file for the date the tickets go on sale.
A tickler file consists of 43 file folders: Twelve labeled with the months of the year and the rest labeled “1” through “31” for each day of the month. File agendas, flyers, and other documents into the file for the day you want to be reminded.
On the first day of each month, open that month’s file and put all the contents into your in-tray, then move that file to the back. Each day, do the same with that day’s folder contents and move the empty file behind the folder for the upcoming month so that tomorrow’s folder is always in front.
The tickler file is a good place for:
If you’ll be away from your tickler file for a weekend or a trip, pull all the contents for the days you’ll be gone before you leave.
Other “incubation” items may belong on your calendar. As we talked about, put only time- and date-specific items on your calendar; don’t dilute it with aspirational items that belong on your Next Actions list.
However, in addition to items like meetings and appointments, you can also use your calendar for date-specific reminders (this works just like the tickler file, but the tickler file is better for reminders that have necessary documents). Use your calendar for:
Delaying decisions may seem counter to the GTD philosophy (don’t leave things floating around undecided), but it’s acceptable as long as you have a system to store that item and revisit it later. Delaying a decision is fine if:
The only items left in your Pending pile should be those labeled “Next Actions.” Most people end up with 50 or more items on their Next Actions lists. When you have a few minutes to knock out a couple of tasks, scanning through a list this long is unproductive and makes you lose valuable time. Instead, divide your next actions into separate lists based on location or context.
Categorizing your next actions makes the most of your time when you’re in a certain location (for example, at the office) or have a certain tool on hand (such as a computer). It also helps when you’re in a certain work mode: When you’re humming along at your computer, it’s more efficient to tackle computer tasks than to shift gears and make calls.
Consider these categories:
There are two types of reminders you’ll capture in your in-tray and sort into the appropriate folders:
It usually makes more sense to write a note with a reminder to call the plumber than to print and file the email from your spouse telling you to call the plumber.
However, sometimes it’s more efficient to use the original item as your reminder. For example, instead of writing a reminder to read a magazine, simply put the magazine in your Read/Review file.
Additionally, if your work calls for you to process a lot of one type of document (such as service requests), just file the actual service requests in the appropriate folders. Don’t put them all in a Service Request file, but rather sort them based on the action required for each: One might belong in the Calls to Make file while another should go in the Waiting For folder.
If you spend a lot of time on email, consider using the emails themselves as reminders and sorting them into folders within the email system. Create an Action folder and a Waiting For folder for your emails, and work through your inbox just like you would your in-tray, eventually emptying it entirely. Be sure to review these folders as regularly as you review your other Next Actions and Waiting For lists.