This chapter is within pages 138-180 of my copy, for about 16% of the total book, and bringing me at its conclusion to 70% of the way through the book. The 42 pages of this chapter alone represent one-sixth of the book. It’s a big one.

Okay, so now we can capture, collect and process our “stuff”, but what do we do with it now? We ORGANIZE it. We create a system of airtight “buckets” that will hold our stuff in a trusted container, freeing our minds from thinking about them.

There are seven basic types of things you track from an organizing perspective:

• A “Projects” list (anything that requires more than one action)
• Project support material
• Calendared actions and information (date/time hard edges)
• “Next Actions” lists
• A “Waiting For” list
• Reference material (besides the project support)
• A “Someday/Maybe” list.

The end-point for your processed “stuff” is one of these things. It is vital that each of these be clearly distinct from each other. An item only lives in one place at a time. Do not mix reference materials with “someday” stuff. Don’t put non-date/time specific items onto your calendar. Each of these categories is nothing more than a LIST.

By “LIST”, what is meant is a grouping of items that share a similar characteristic. It can be as substantive as a file folder full of paper or as ethereal as a list in a PDA.

So, start with the pile of “PENDING” that the processing phase created. If an item has a hard date/time edge to it (MUST occur on a given day, or an appointment is set) put it on your calendar.

Any item that is not going to be done in the short term goes into the “Someday/Maybe” list.

As you put items onto the “Next Action” list, assign them CONTEXTS. In other words, tag them as to where/when they can be done. For example, if an action requires you to phone someone, a context category of PHONE would be appropriate. Then, when you have an opportunity to do some phone work you can crank through all pending @PHONE items. If you are using a PDA the "” symbol also allows these items to pop to the top of lists.

Sample contexts could include:

• @PHONE
• @COMPUTER
• @ONLINE
• @ERRAND (to be done when out and about)
• @AGENDA (when planning a meeting – broken out by participant)
• @HOME (chores and such)
• @READ/REVIEW (things to go over when opportunity presents)
• @OFFICE (things only possible when at the office)

I use a Palm PDA, with a “To Do” list item for a project, with the action items stored in the attached notes. As actions are completed and drop off new ones are pulled from the note and assigned a context. The “To Do” item has the same prefix as the project in the list (e.g., “GTD”) and more than one action item can be on the list (pulled from the project note) if they are not dependent upon each other and do not share the same context (for example, I may need to make a call AND do some on-line research to move a project forward, but they don’t depend on each other and require different contexts).

There is also a category of “Waiting For” that allows me to move an item to that status when it attains it, yet shift it back to another when it comes back to me.

The book advocates using the original item as its own action reminder, but this is not always practical. Some things like items to read that are printed are easily tagged with a sticky note and added to a “To Read” folder, whereas other items might take the form of an e-mail that does not easily move to whatever your list is. The portability of the original item is also an issue if you are not always in the same place.

E-mail work flow follows the same GTD processes and should result in an empty in box. All e-mail clients worthy of mention allow you to organize your messages, either by folders or by tags. Tags are ideal as an item can exist simultaneously in different tag categories, whereas a folder limits the item to existing only in place (unless you make a copy of it). Use similar category types as you do with physical items and apply them to your messages. DELETE what you can, FILE what you want to keep but don’t have to act on, DO anything that is less than two minutes and MOVE all actionable items into an @ACTIONS (or such) folder/tag group.

Your “projects” list is an index of your current open loops. It does not hold any “someday/maybe” items. It is also not the plans or details of a project – it is only a list of ACTIONS for the project. You don’t “DO” a project, you do the action steps it requires. A project may be large enough to have sub-projects. These can be held in the project support material and brought in when needed. Specific types of sub-projects that occur in parallel with each other should be first-class project items, but linked to the parent project.

Project support material itself takes many forms and the ways to manage it should provide the GTD benefits of keeping things off your mind, out of your sight and readily available for review.

Non-actionable reference data can be categorized as general (paper and e-mail), large-category (dedicated reference on a single topic), contact management and library. General reference will be used all the time. Large category items that are your area of focus are best kept together away from general reference. Contact management is vital, but easily supported by many techniques, including address books both real and virtual. A library is largely a personal preference and a question of how much stuff you want to or are able to keep.

Your “Someday/Maybe” list will get a lot of your mind-clutter squared away, as it now has a new home and will be periodically reviewed. During these reviews they may become a current project, or you may have a change of heart and drop the idea entirely. Just in case you don’t have enough items yet, the book provides some categories of “Someday/Maybe” to jog your mind.

• Things to get or build for your home
• Hobbies to take up
• Skills to learn
• Creative expressions to explore
• Clothes and accessories to buy
• Toys (GEAR!) to acquire
• Trips to take
• Organizations to join
• Service projects to contribute to
• Things to see and do

At the time you load this list you should re-assess your current projects and see if maybe they are actually “Someday/Maybe” items and should not be consuming current resources.

Use your calendar to trigger yourself for date-specific items, placing reminders BEFORE an item occurs, so that you will be prepared for it. The author recommends, and many people cleave to (witness 43folders.com) the use of a “tickler file” with folders for every day of the month, and one folder per calendar month. This allows you to place item reminders into folders before the due date so when you open your folder for today there is your reminder.

This might be useful to someone with a lot of paper based items and such, but I honestly do not see it as useful for myself. It requires daily diligence that I do not have, whereas I always have my PDA with me and can easily set “alarms” for days before an event, acting as a warning of a coming item.

The last significant topic in the chapter is checklists. When an item is an on-going task, like exercise, you want to have a list that is never “done” that is always there for you to follow. It is a kind of reference file as well as an action item. Topics of checklists suggested by the book include:

• Personal Affirmations
• Job Areas of Responsibility
• Travel Checklist (everything to take on or do before a trip)
• Weekly Review (everything to review and/or update weekly)
• Training Program Components (all things to handle when putting on an event, front to back)
• Clients
• Focus Areas (key life roles and responsibilities)
• Key People in my Life/Work (relationships to assess regularly for completion and opportunity development)
• Organization Chart (key people and areas)
• Personal Development (things to evaluate regularly to ensure personal balance and progress)

Myself, I am going to add ones like:

• Software Development
• Software Architecture
• Source Code Control
• Documentation Standards
• Coding Standards
• Karate Katas
• Self Defense Moves

After all this organizing has been done, the only other thing before actually DOING something, GETTING IT DONE, is the review phase, the topic of the next chapter.