Who Let the Dogs Out? - New Video Blog by Edward Lamont

Hi,

One of the things that GTD is famous for is that it recommends that you clear out your inboxes, once a day if possible. So, a lot of people are kind of interested in that because not many people are actually doing it, unless they’ve done something like GTD. You might, however, ask yourself ‘well why would I want to do that?’, and here is one of the reasons that we think you would like to empty out your inbox.

I need to bring in my dog here to explain to you why I think it’s a good idea. Many years ago I had a dog called Tuhla, beautiful Welsh Terrier, not the smartest dog on the planet but a very beautiful dog. It took Tuhla about 2 years to understand that when I threw the ball she was to go and get it and to bring it back. So for the first two years I got lots of exercise and from then on, once she understood that it was a good idea to go get the ball and bring it back, she got lots of exercise.

And so, once she learned that, I could throw the ball in any direction I wanted to. In that direction – she’d go get it; in that direction – she’d go get it; back here – she’d go get it. She never thought (once she got the game)‘if the ball goes I have got to get it and I bring it back, occasionally I get a treat’. She didn’t think, she just went. And she went, and she went. One day while I was playing with her, I realized: as long as I am stuck in my inbox, I am my dog. I’m just chasing balls that other people have thrown. So that’s one of the reasons that I think it’s useful for you to get out of your inbox. It’s not that you have to do everything every day, but it is useful to think through what each of those emails mean for you and put the results of your thinking in a place that you trust,so that once you have finished looking at everything that is new on a particular day, then you just go over your lists and then you prioritize. As long as you are stuck in the inbox, you’re just reacting, reacting, reacting to what other people are doing, the balls that they’re throwing. Once you’re on the lists, you’re deciding what it is that you want to do with your time. And that is reason 4,067 for you to clean out your inbox, once a day.