We have a lot of stuff. Stuff is anything that is hanging around (on your desk, in your head, your e-mail in basket,..) where no action has been defined yet.

When you have collected the stuff, you must do something with it. Actually, this is a continuous process, and you process stuff all the time.
Processing means you determine what to do with it.

First of all you need to decide if the stuff is actionable. If it isn’t , there are three possibilities.

• Trash it (many people forget to use a great key on their computer called DEL), or
• put it on a someday/maybe list (incubate), or
• file it for reference material

If it is actionable, you have to decide what the Next Action is. And please note that the answer to the question “Is it actionable” can only be 2 things. YES or NO.

If the Next Action takes less then 2 minutes to execute, DO IT (NOW)!

If the action takes more then 2 minutes to execute, you have to put it on a list and delegate or defer it. When you delegate it, don’t forget to add it to your Waiting For list so you can track it later. If you defer it, you might put it on your calendar, if it is a day specific action, or put it on your Project list as a Next Action.

Oh yes, some other rules you should really follow :

• Don’t get distracted by other stuff when you process stuff. Take care that you handle it one at the time, item per item.
• Don’t (ever) put anything back in In.