The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Things Done

Chapter 8

Operation Clean Sweep

In This Chapter

• Important versus urgent

• Where and when considerations

• Pile it up as high as it goes

• Act, file, toss, or delegate

 

Thus far in Part 3, we’ve covered the mechanics of organizing your desk and office, and of handling paper. Now we turn to a surefire way to quickly break down the mounting, recurring piles and accumulations that cover your desk, can hamper your productivity, and certainly diminish your sense of control. I call the procedure “Operation Clean Sweep.”

To make the procedure work best, we first need to classify what the paper, documents, messages, piles, and accumulations represent, namely tasks and projects of wide-ranging importance and varying urgency.

Now That’s Important

In ...