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Concept

Reference Filing

Reference filing is the practice of giving every non-actionable item you want to keep, such as a warranty, a lease or meeting notes, a fixed home in one simple A–Z system, so it never sits among the things you actually need to do.

In Getting Things Done, David Allen separates what you must act on from what you merely want to keep. Reference material isn't a task. Without an address, though, it piles up on the desk and in the inbox. Every glance at the pile reopens a small question: is there something here for me? That noise erodes your trust in your task lists, because "to do" and "to keep" are now mixed together. The fix is deliberately boring. Use one general alphabetical file instead of an elaborate tree of categories, and file each item under the first word you'd think of when looking for it. If filing something takes more than about a minute, you'll soon stop doing it and the piles return. Filing fast matters more than organizing perfectly. Items you'll need on a specific date go to a tickler instead, which hands them back on the right day.

A real-life example

On Friday afternoon Maya clears her desk. She finds a laptop warranty, last month's pay slip, notes from a client kickoff and a dentist's appointment card. None of them needs action today. The warranty goes under "L" for laptop, the pay slip under "P" and the notes into a folder named after the client. The appointment card goes into the tickler for the day before. Six minutes later the desk is empty, and her task list shows only tasks again.

How to use it

  1. 1Set up a single A–Z file. This can be a drawer of plain folders or one digital folder with alphabetical subfolders. Keep blank folders within reach so a new label takes seconds.
  2. 2When processing your inbox, ask "Is this actionable?" If it isn't and you want to keep it, file it under the first word you'd search for. If you'll need it on a particular date, put it in the tickler.
  3. 3Purge the file once a year and keep drawers no more than about three-quarters full. That keeps filing fast enough that you never drift back to piles.