From David Allen‘s book called Getting Things Done

From 43 folders:

“The book describes a relatively simple methodology for dealing with the “stuff” in your life, where “stuff” may be things to do, people to talk to, appointments to keep or projects to manage and complete. The book has a strong focus on what is termed the Next Action: the very next thing you have to do on a given project or activity.

The core of GTD consists of a sequence of routines for dealing with incoming claims on your time. These routines are intended to provide a system for dealing with tasks that takes things off your mind by being external and trust-worthy:

1. The Collection stage is where all stuff is gathered together in an unstructured manner. This stage involves writing down whatever things one can think of that needs doing (possibly using trigger lists), and all places where relevant information might accumulate, such as in folders and drawers, are emptied into one place.
2. The Process stage is where these items are sorted, and the further activity needed by them is decided. For each item, one asks:
   • Does the item require further action? If so, we can either (i) do it now, recommended for tasks that can be completed in under 2 minutes, (ii) delegate it and place it on a monitor list, or (iii) defer it, by assigning a next action to it and placing it on an action list.
   • If not then we should look for any value the item has. Might the item suggest future action given further thought? Then we shouldincubate it, putting it on a sometime/maybe list. Does the item have archive value? Then file it.
   • If the item demands no action, is not a spur to future thought, and does not have reference value, then it is junk and you can junk it.
3. The Organize stage takes these sorted items and puts them together in a form than can be used through the day for allocating tasks to time.
4. Regular Reviews ensure the organisation is a system that can be trusted, by scheduling collect & process stages to ensure that nothing escapes, ensuring that projects are associated with sensible next actions, pruning action lists of irrelevant actions, and looking over sometime/maybe lists for new spurs to action.
5. Finally, through the working day, the Do stage uses the organised task lists to get things done.”