This stage is crucial to eliminate the stress associated with our lifestyle. You have to capture everything that might represent something you have to do into a reliable system you will process and review shortly. This way, things will not be hanging around your head.

You have to collect 100% of incomplete stuff, that is, anything personal or professional, big or little, of urgent or minor importance… Everything!

You will need something to manage that list appropriately. There is a number of options, from low-tech physical in-baskets and notebooks until high-tech tools such as web-based applications and mobile devices.

The simple fact of collecting things is not decisive. For this to work you have to do the following:

1. Gather every incomplete into your collection system. They must be out of your head.
2. Do not use too many collection buckets, only the ones you really need.
3. Empty them regularly. As you will see in the next chapter, it just means you have to process the stuff without necessarily having to do the work.