## The GTD Organizing Categories Source URL:: <https://facilethings.com/blog/en/gtd-organizing-categories> To be organized, you must determine what every thing means to you and put it in the category where it belongs ### Highlights > [!quote]+ %%Updated on Wed Sep 13 2023 09:50:23 GMT-0400%% > > Purpose: It is convenient to have a written version of your life purpose, or your business mission statement, so that you can go over it when significant changes occur and new challenges show up. &gt; Principles: A lists of principles you rely on, a personal or professional declaration, will help you reaffirm your values in those moments when you need inspiration. &gt; Vision: Your long term goals can also be a simple list or they can include a visual representation that supports that vision. &gt; Goals: A dozen of mid-term objectives can also be easily managed with a simple list. &gt; Areas of focus: These are some aspects of your life and work in which you need to keep a high implication level. You only need a list for them. &gt; Projects: As we lower our horizon you are going to need a structure that can hold a bigger amount of information. Here we are talking about a project index that you have to bear in mind though; planning and details of each project belong to another organizational category, that I will explain further on. &gt; Outcomes which other people have to do. You will also need another list with these reminders, so that you can keep track of those high-level tasks. > [!quote]+ %%Updated on Wed Sep 13 2023 09:50:23 GMT-0400%% > > Calendar: It’s a basic tool that contains the actions or events which have to happen in a particular day or time. It’s very important, since this will be the first place you will pay attention every day. You will therefore, have to adjust the rest of your work in regard to these critical commitments. Do not use the Calendar to write down things you would “like to do” that day, or it will lose all its value. &gt; Actions you must do ASAP: You will write down here the vast majority of your actions—those that don’t need to get done at a specific date—and you will look at this list every time the Calendar allows you to. For this list you will need a system that allows you to subdivide it into contexts, so that you can only focus in what you can do right now based on your situation (calls, computer, house, office, errands, in any place, etc.) &gt; Actions other people must do: A reminder list with anything you might be waiting for: delegated actions, an order that hasn’t arrived, lent objects, etc. > [!quote]+ %%Updated on Wed Sep 13 2023 09:50:23 GMT-0400%% > > Elements you might want to review regularly. Things you would like to do, places you would like to visit, books, movies, courses, personal projects, etc. Logically, these elements have to be somewhere you check frequently. the Someday/Maybe list is perfect to remember this things—as long as you have the habit of including it in your Weekly Review. &gt; Things to do, or think about, in a given date in the future. They are committed actions that you won’t need to have in your Calendar until the moment in which you have to get them started. For this you will need a system which shows, activates or reminds you about these actions at the right moment, such as a Tickler file, a special calendar or a scheduled emails service. > [!quote]+ %%Updated on Wed Sep 13 2023 09:50:23 GMT-0400%% > > plans, strategies, technical information, administrative data, details, related articles, links to related material, etc.