It is not the intention of this post to explain what processing your stuff means in the GTD jargon or how to process. If you’re a GTD practitioner, then you already know that. If you’re a beginner, I strongly recommend you reading the Getting Things Done book. You can also read here a brief summary of the process stage, and many articles online on the subject, such as this one (SimpleProductivityBlog).

The purpose of this post is to present a best practices guide to help you to process things efficiently:

1. Block a specific time for processing. Process is a separated stage that requires a different mental attitude. It’s much more efficient to set a “processing” time every now and then than to constantly interrupt what you’re doing to process what comes to your mind.
2. Minimize your inboxes. Processing means emptying your inbox. Therefore, the more inboxes you have, the more difficult to handle your system is. Reduce the number of email accounts and personal management applications you use. One of each is enough.
3. Don’t spend too much time. Processing doesn’t mean doing the job, but deciding what each item is and what you’re going to do with it. Processing each item takes 30 seconds on average.
4. Process at least once a day. Unprocessed stuff are indeterminated tasks, ideas or thoughts that will be hitting your head until you shape them. Process as often as you need to have the feeling that you control them.
5. Process stuff in isolation. Process one item at a time and don’t let the other stuff distract you. You need to be focused in order to make good decisions.
6. Process your lists in sequential order. Top-down or bottom-up, whatever you pick is fine. All items are equally important. If you prioritize, you’ll begin to leave things unprocessed.
7. Empty your inboxes. Actually, this is the purpose of processing. Complete every “processing” time with your inboxes emptied. Don’t leave any item inside, no matter how difficult to make the decision is.
8. Don’t put anything back into the inbox. Once you’ve processed something, don’t turn back. This is wasting time and falling into unproductive habits. Go ahead.
9. Clearly define the next action step, if any. This is the next physical activity needed to move toward completion. If something requires more than one action to be completed, add a project to your Project List as a reminder that there are still things to do here.
10. If the defined action requires less than two minutes, just do it. Giving more time to it doesn’t worth it.
11. If you delegate an action to a third party, write down the name of the responsible and the date you handed it off, in order to do a good follow-up.

Processing a bunch of things you have piled on your desk or a myriad of emails in your inbox is a task that, a priori, can be a little scary. However, at this stage lies one of the great psychological strengths of GTD. Once you decide the next action step for each incomplete thing in your life, you get a sense of relaxed control that completely worth the effort.

What do you think? Can you give some more tips to complete this list?