As you have already read, probably earlier errors in the implementation of the GTD system for their own good can occur at any stage, including a rather trivial at first glance collection of information. You can choose an unsuccessful tool that will be inconvenient and discourage you from collecting, for example. But as I promised earlier, I will tell you why I think it's a mistake to automatically organize incoming information.
First of all, what do I mean by this automatic organization? You probably set up rules in both Outlook and GMail in order to move emails to folders or just tag them based on any signs, right? There are no problems with tags — is it just a label? moreover, it helps «to place » the same record in different places, without copying anything at the same time, but I think it's a big mistake to automatically move an email from inbox to the project folder, for example. Why?
Because it breaks the system and at the same time you produce inboxes, unloading, as it seems to you, the only inbox. But think for yourself, during the processing phase you will now have to not only check one electronic inbox, PDA and diary. You will need to check each folder in the hierarchy where, if you wish, the system could move the letter immediately upon arrival.
The amount of work and worry, and whether I missed something, immediately increases. That is why I recommend that you only mark emails automatically, and the movement should be conscious and performed at the processing stage, which we will talk about next time.
