• It's important to know what needs to be collected and how to collect it most effectively so you can process it appropriately.
• To make the collection phase work: Every open loop must be in your collection system and out of your head, you must have a...

The essential element in managing all of your "stuff" is managing your actions. And it's very hard to manage actions if you haven't identified them.

• Clearly defined outcomes and the next actions required to move them toward closure.
• Reminders placed in a trusted system that is reviewed regularly.

In the last half of the 20th century, what "work" represented in the industrialized world was transformed from an assembly line, make-it and move-it kinds of activity to "knowledge work."

• Possible categories for nonactionable items" trash, incubation tools, and reference storage. If no action is needed on something, you toss it, "tickle" it for later reassessment, or file it so you can find the material if you need to refer to it at another time.
• ...

• You haven't clarified exactly what the intended outcome is.
• You haven't decided what the very next physical action step is.
• You haven't put reminders of the outcome and the action required in a system you trust.

Throughout your day, you’re constantly bombarded with information. All of these things are constantly competing for your attention.

Managing commitments well requires the implementation of some basic activities and behaviors:

The stages we go trough as we deal with our work:

Everything that might potentially require action must be reviewed on a frequent enough basis to keep your mind from taking back the job of remembering and reminding.

The basics principles can be summed up as follows:

• It creates decision-making criteria
• It aligns resources
• It motivates
• It clarifies focus
• It expands options, opens up creative thinking.

Stuff" means anything you have allowed into your psychological or physical world that doesn't belong where it is, but for which you haven't yet determined the desired outcome and the next action step.

• View the project from beyond the completion date.
• Envision wild success.
• Capture features, aspects, qualities you imagine in place.

Your mind goes through five steps to accomplish virtually any task: