Getting Things Done with “Delete”

Sometimes it is so hard to delete stuff. However sometimes it maybe the only ways to get things done.

To-Done has written an article called Getting Things Done with “Delete” which built around this theme. To be simple and easier to organize, you need to remove anything that you don’t need. He extended this idea to examples on email, then hard drive and his home.

The best work-a-day example I can come up with is e-mail. If I can’t say for sure that I’ll need to keep a message (to be taken care of, filed, or whatever) I delete it and never look back. I’ve been doing this for years and it’s worked just fine. I find that if I ever really need to take care of something important and have “lost� the e-mail relating to it, a simple phone-call or follow-up e-mail will usually sort that out. The one place I don’t use this method is with sent items. I usually keep those for quite awhile, you know, to cover my ass. As well, this doesn’t mean I don’t keep and file e-mails, I just try to be pretty heavy handed in deciding what I actually need to keep.

For me, I was pretty sloppy on my home’s and office’s desk. After I realized I need to be tidy to be effective, I removed all those things I do not need from my desk. It really changed the way I am working and effective on finding files and materials.

Do you have any tips regarding on this topic?