Chapter 4 described the basics for collecting all my work. Chapter 5 really provides much more detail about the process of gathering all my incompletes, all my “stuff,” into one place. David talks about why it is practical to gather everything in one place prior to trying to process it. By doing so I will have a sense of how much stuff I have to deal with. I should be able to determine where the end of the tunnel is. Finally, I won’t have to be distracted wondering if I have gathered everything into one place.
To say the least, trying to gather everything into one spot will be daunting. One thing I was trying to figure out when I first started reading this chapter is how to I gather all the big things into one place such as computer monitors, old computers, etc. David says to deal with items like that, I should write the item name on a piece of paper then put it in the inbox.
I did laugh out loud a little bit while reading this chapter. David specifically uses the example of how a “thing” may be a printer that needs to be moved to a new location. I thought this was quite humorous as I actually do have a printer in an upstairs office that I have been meaning to move to the downstairs office for quite some time. Every time I use the printer I become a bit frustrated that I have not done anything to get it moved. So printer, your name is going on a piece of paper and will be placed in my stack of gathered items! The idea of going through everything and gathering it in one spot seems like an impossible task for me. So I am really going to have to set aside the time to do this and allow myself the time it will take to complete.
-Diane Halweg