Implementing GTD: "Collection"

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Implementing "Getting Things Done"
I spent all day yesterday in the first phase of GTD implementation. Now I've been using parts of GTD for over a year, but I failed to do the first step, that is putting absolutely everythng that is somewhere it doesn't belong into my "in-box." It took almost six hours, and there are many things left behind, for which I am supposed to make a "placeholder" by writing them down, each on a single piece of paper, and put into my in-box so I have them included in the pile of things to be done. I have created a monster, and there are still plenty of placeholders. I think my pile is about 3 feet high and four feet by four feet wide. This is an incredble amount of "stuff" as David Allen calls it. I was then supposed to sit down and do a "mindsweep" getting everything I have to do, want to do, am supposed to do, and everything that has my conscious attention, putting it all on paper. I froze. I've done mindsweeps recently, maybe I can use those lists. I sat staring at this mountain of papers (things like "clean bathroom cabinet drawers" I delegated to a place holder, I couldn't see dumping the bathroom drawers on top of what is the most formidable collection of papers I've ever been privy to. I could do no more. Today, while I'm still fresh and have not yet gone down to my living room which is housing this so-called in-box so I haven't been startled and upset yet, I'll do yet another mind sweep. Then I plan to dive right into the clarification process, where I begin the process of "processing" this awesome collection. I can't see how I am going to do this in anythign under a week, and I have other obligations. Oh well, here it goes.