GTD Dictionary: Stuff

April 25th 2007

GTD Dictionary

No comments

Stuff:

Property, as personal belongings or equipment; things.
Worthless things or matter: to clean the stuff out of a closet.

Stuff is often used as a catch-all term covering everything from thoughts bouncing around our heads to letters, voicemails, notes and a multitude of other things that potentially require you to do something with them, but which are currently unorganized or unprocessed. A pile of unopened letters in your in-tray might as well be just stuff because until they are opened and you decide what to do with them, they are meaningless. They are not formed into something actionable and the desired outcome from them is far from clear. One of those letters could be a bill, which would need paying, or a bank statement, which would need filing. However, until you make that distinction, it’s all just stuff as far as your mind is concerned. And stuff – physically or mentally – is just clutter.

Stuff doesn’t just have to be actual items or objects, they can be thoughts in your head – get new batteries from the shops, go grocery shopping, pay the bills, fix the television – that induces stress and anxiety and slowly but surely bogs your productivity down. This is because they represent open loops in your mind. These thoughts will keep swirling around in your head until you make a conscious decision as to what exactly to do with them. Even then, if you can’t rely on your mind to remember all these decisions, the anxiety will continue.

GTD is useful in this situation because it encourages you get all this stuff out of your head into a trusted system, whether that be on paper or in an eleborate computer setup. Your brain isn’t good with stuff, so by noting it all down in your system and clarifying what actually needs to be done, it relieves your brain from having to remember and process it all.

Thanks for reading!

Organize IT survives and thrives because of all your support. If you liked this post, please vote it up (links on the right), retweet it and subscribe to the feed.

Share the love

What is Organize IT?

Organize IT helps everyone - from overloaded workers to those who just want a stress-free life - to work smart and play smart in the 21st century.
Read more about Organize IT