Getting Things Done

PRACTICING STRESS-FREE PRODUCTIVITY I PART TWO

of phone numbers. It's instructive to note that this is purely and

simply reference material. No action is required—this is just

information that you might need to access in the future.

So there's no big mystery about how to organize it, aside

from the logistics for your individual needs. Again, the only prob-

lem comes up when people try to make their Rolodexes serve as

tools for reminding them about things they need to do. That

doesn't work. As long as all the actions relative to people you

know have been identified and tracked in your action reminder

lists, there's no role for telephone and address systems to fill other

than being a neutral address book.

The only issue then becomes how much information you

need to keep and where and in what equipment you need to keep

it in order to have it accessible when you want it. Nothing's per-

fect in that regard, but as the small digital tools become easier to

use and connect to larger databases, you'll be able to have more

information at hand with the same or less effort.

Libraries and Archives: Personalized Levels Information that

might be useful lives at many levels. You could probably find out

pretty much anything if you were willing to dig deep enough. The

question of how much to keep, how close, and in what form, will

be a changing reality, given the variables of your needs and your

particular comfort levels with data. Relative to your personal

organization and productivity, this is not a core issue,

so long as all of your projects and actions are in a

control system that you work with regularly. Refer-

ence material in all its forms then becomes nothing

more or less than material to capture and create

access to according to your particular proclivities and

requirements.

Some degree of consistency will always make

things easier. What kinds of things do you need with you all the

time? Those must go into your ubiquitous planner or PDA. What

do you need specifically for meetings or off-site events? That

If material is purely
for reference, the
only issue is
whether it's worth
the time and space
required to keep it.