Sweeping behind the sofa of my interwebs

Living by the precepts of Getting Things Done requires sorting things into one of four piles: Delete, Do, Delegate, Defer. Which is fine, as far as it goes, although you do need to stay on top of Delegate and Defer. The problem is that Google, and in particular GMail and Reader, make it so very easy to Defer -- just press S for star -- that I end up with a great load of things that have been deferred into oblivion. Or almost. Because actually, they're still squatting there malevolently, taunting me with their undoneness. And so it was, until I failed to defer Colleen's recent how-to post about "[ridding yourself of unsightly browser tabs] http://www.communicatrix.com/2011/02/rid-yourself-of-unsightly-browser-tabs-video.html".

The funny thing is, unsightly browser tabs are not my problem. I’m good about keeping them in order. On the other hand, this thing she said resonated like a dinner gong.

My version of “save all tabs in folder”, then, mimics the time-tested decluttering practice of moving clutter you’re unsure about to a holding area for a certain period of time before pitching it completely.

The scales fell, and I saw: starred lists were for me a holding area. I’ve felt that unconsciously every time I looked at them recently, but now it was clear. So yesterday morning I plunged in to Reader and deleted a whole bunch of things that had been deferred long enough for me to get over their potential loss. Some dated back to March 2007, which may well have been when I started using Reader. And I didn’t dump them all. There are still 53 awaiting greater attention. But that’s manageable. And just for fun, here are a few that almost got away.

• Biologic. Illuminating. Levity.
• What if Garrison Keillor did bionformatics? (Sic)
• "[H]ere I am, alternately repulsed and amused by the twisted patois of nonsense that passes for communication in offices and boardrooms today." Merlin Mann on the Corporate Ipsum widget.¹
• Americans appalled at how much we spend on aid, want to spend 10 times more.
• Meet Balsamiq Mockups, our Rapid Wireframing Tool.

Next week, GMail.