Earth 2 Adam

If you are implementing GTD (See Getting Things Done by David Allen), then you probably keep a list titled “Errands”, “@Errands”, or even “@%#Errands”. Whatever you call it, the purpose of this context is to track all of your “next actionable” items that can only be done while you are on the run. Some typical entries might read:

• Shoe Store - exchange dress shoes
• Super Market - pickup dog food
• Post Office - mail bills

But while this is real handy at directing you where to go and what to do, it doesn’t do you a whole lot of good if you don’t have the shoes, you forgot the coupon for the dog food, and your bills were tossed with yesterday’s junk mail because you left them on the kitchen counter the night before. Hmm.

Enter, the Outbox.

This can be a box, a tray, or any other physical container (no, not your shirt pocket) that you use to store all the items you want to have with you, the next time you venture out. Place this within arms length of your work space, and you now have a very useable companion to your @Errands task list.

But there’s a catch. You’ve now got your shoes, coupons, and bills tucked safely away in your nifty, spiffy GTD Outbox. But how do you know you’ll remember to check this thing the next time you leave?!

Here’s the trick. Ask yourself, what one single item is physically essential for you to complete your @Errands list (i.e., what item can you absolutely not leave the house without)? If you said “car keys”, give yourself a gold star. Obviously, we are immobilized without our keys. So by always placing these in our Outbox, we are assured of seeing what else we need to take with us when we leave. And by making a habit of keeping your keys in one place, we now won’t have to worry about loosing those either!

Now there’s one more thing that is absolutely critical to making this whole setup work. And if you remember nothing else but this one rule, you’ll be good to go for many years of productive…uhh outboxing to come. Here it is:

Your keys are the first things in and the last things out of your Outbox.
(yes, just like the Marines)

The first part of this, we already covered. But the 2nd part is equally important. This insures that you don’t start leaving things behind. Otherwise, it won’t be long before your Outbox becomes a “storage box”. And that defeats the purpose.

So there you go!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 25th, 2007 at 10:03 pm and is filed under Misc, GTD. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. |  Print This Post

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