CHAPTER 2 | GETTING CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE: THE FIVE STAGES OF MASTERING WORKFLOW
Whether high-tech or low-tech, all of the tools described above
serve as similar in-baskets, capturing potentially useful informa-
tion, commitments, and agreements for action. You're probably
already using some version of most of them.
The Collection Success Factors
Unfortunately, merely having an in-basket doesn't make it func-
tional. Most people do have collection devices of some sort, but
usually they're more or less out of control. Let's examine the three
requirements to make the collection phase work:
1| Every open loop must be in your collection system and out
of your head.
2 | You must have as few collection buckets as you can get by with.
3 | You must empty them regularly.
Get It All Out of Your Head
If you're still trying to keep track of too many things in your RAM,
you likely won't be motivated to use and empty your in-baskets
with integrity. Most people are relatively careless about these tools
because they know they don't represent discrete, whole systems
anyway: there's an incomplete set of things in their in-basket and
an incomplete set in their mind, and they're not getting any payoff
from either one, so their thinking goes. It's like trying to play pin-
ball on a machine that has big holes in the table, so the balls keep
falling out: there's little motivation to keep playing the game.
These collection tools should become part of your life-style.
Keep them close by so no matter where you are you can collect a
potentially valuable thought-—think of them as being as indis-
pensable as your toothbrush or your driver's license or your glasses.
Minimize the Number of Collection Buckets
You should have as many in-baskets as you need and as few as you
can get by with. You need this function to be available to you in