One of the books which made an impression on me this year was David Allen‘s Getting Things Done.

I can’t say that I’ve completely internalized the GTD system, but a lot of it makes sense. One item which resonates very strongly with me is the need to keep one’s inbox clear — rather than reading a piece of mail, then leaving it in the inbox, it’s better to move it to an “actions pending” file if it can’t be dealt with immediately. That way, the inbox is “new news”, and you don’t have to keep touching old stuff over and over again.

But even though having a clear inbox is a goal, it’s also very difficult for me to do. And once I fall off the wagon, so to speak, it’s very difficult to get clear again. But I managed to clear my work inbox before I left a week ago (I’m sure it’s loaded now, but I haven’t looked at it, so that doesn’t count). And I spent most of today clearing my Gmail inbox, which was even harder work.

Most of what I’d left in my Gmail inbox came from one of two sources: The Union for Reform Judaism‘s weekly Torat Chayim and daily Ten Minutes of Torah mailings accounted for the biggest share, along with Kolel’s weekly commentary. I’d fallen behind while travelling some time during the summer, and every time I thought about catching up, the size of the task discouraged me. And so I fell behind further every week. But today seemed like a good opportunity to make a dent in the backlog, and once I got started, I got into a rhythm. I did take a few breaks, but I finally caught up.

Of course, there’ll be new mailings next week (as well as the other stuff which arrives in the mail), but at least for tonight, I feel that I’ve accomplished something, just in time for Chanukah.

We had a long and mostly uneventful drive home from Palm Desert today; I had expected us to arrive home at 6, but we made it just after 5:30, greatly surprising our housesitters, who didn’t expect us until tomorrow. I guess communicating via blog is not the most reliable method possible.

One reason we got home early is that we decided not to have lunch at a restaurant; instead, we stopped at Trader Joe’s in Monrovia and picked up some sandwiches and salads, which we ate at the Tejon Pass Rest Area. This saved us at least half-an-hour and $20, as well as probably saving us from a pile of calories we didn’t need.

But while we were at Trader Joe’s, I was surprised to hear my phone ring; it was Diane’s dad, with the news that he’d gotten an offer on his house. This was a real surprise, since he hadn’t put it on the market yet — the offer came from a neighbor who knew he was planning to sell. I guess the market there is hot!

It was a good trip, but it’s good to be home. Tomorrow, I look forward to having the DirecTV guy show up (there was an automated message from them waiting for us on the answering machine, confirming the appointment) and fix whatever’s wrong with the system.