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Summary: I Don't Care Who You Are, You Need This Book!
Review: Although I've never been to any of his workshops, I have been following David Allen's principles through his web site and newsletter. His book collects it all. His idea of putting things together and managing them through a workflow is both simple, elegant and possibly the most powerful productivity concept I've run across. This book is written in a no non-sense and conversational style with plenty of ideas and ways to implement them. I honestly believe I have freed between eight and ten hours a week of time and completely cleared my desk of clutter in large part because of his suggestions.
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Summary: A breath of fresh air!
Review: Over the years I have been looking for a practical approach to manage both my personal and professional life. With David Allen's approach the mystery has been solved. In easy to understand terminology, David helped me to make sense of all the information I need to manage and how to keep track of it so that I can more effectively complete what is important to me. I feel like I have more control over my life. Until now, I didn't realize how simple it could be to feel so great!
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Summary: I love this book!
Review: I'm not even that far into the book and with each chapter I advance light years in understanding why everything I've been doing in regard to "organization and time management" can't and won't work.Helps me ask the right questions, summarize and finalize. I realize how far behind I am when I get organized, but at least something is being done in the right direction. Even if that's all I end up getting out of this book, it's worth the price of admission!
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Summary: He's right, this is a new practice for a new reality.
Review: Wow! The power of next action decision making and David Allen's extraordinary next action techniques makes this book a true winner. The simple power of his key principles about how to get things done really make sense to me. I loved chapter 9 about Making the Best Action Choices. Do yourself a favor, treat yourself to this one. You will thank yourself and when you give this to anyone else they will thank you.
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Summary: Make it Up and Get it Done
Review: Is the methodology from Getting Things Done the silver bullet? Does David Allen's system really differ from other "time management" systems? I would say an unqualified yes based on my experience with the GTD process so far. In the one week since the book's been out I have made more progress with regard to collecting my stuff than previous attempts I have made in the past 6 years. I have actually started a filing system. More importantly, I am starting to deal with the "stuff" in my life faster and more efficiently. Just learning how to deal with "stuff" is a pretty big deal to me. My problem is that I have obsessive compulsive disorder, and it shows up in my life as compulsive hoarding. Couple the hoarding with attention deficit disorder and you have the ingredients for potentially disastrous living. In short, I have a damn difficult time staying on top of things and tend to struggle at times. David's method offers a practical yet elegant solution to staying on top of things. It starts with collecting the stuff, or as David calls it the "incomplete" and getting them out of your head into an external system that can be trusted. Then you process what's collected and then you organize it. Trust me, collecting and processing stuff is tough, really really tough for someone like. me. I am not used to making decisions on things that I collect. Now I am collecting the clutter and making decisions on it. More importantly, I am learning to let go of stuff I don't need and taking action on things I need to deal with. I have a long road to travel, but thanks to the common sense wisdom David Allen shares, I am on the road to a more sane way of living.
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Summary: The Best Advice You'll Ever Receive . . .
Review: David Allen's approach to managing yourself and your world may well be the best advice you'll ever receive on how to be more productive and satisfied. This book is filled with practical, hands-on ideas, tips, tools, and techniques for more effective self-management. His ideas just plain work! Many of us feel overwhelmed and out of control in today's fast-paced world. This book is a great way to get a handle on all that "stuff" in our lives and figure out how to better manage the flow of information that never seems to stop. If you read only one book this year, this is it! Five stars all the way!
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Summary: The Best Advice You'll Ever Receive . . .
Review: David Allen's approach to managing yourself and your world may well be the best advice you'll ever receive. Practical, realistic, hands-on, and superbly focused tips, tools, and techniques for improving personal productivity and individual satisfaction. I found his approach to managing your "stuff" and actually getting things accomplished to be worth its weight in gold. This book is no re-hash of time-worn prinicipals that don't work in today's fast-paced world; "Getting Things Done" is perfect for anyone who is busy, feels a bit out of control or overwhelmed, and wants an approach that really works! Five Stars for sure!
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Summary: I looked like I was OK but my cupboards were full of junk
Review: I was one of those people who looked like I had things under control, and wasn't far from it, but my cupboards, drawers and email files were full of junk and felt like a ball and chain. I heard about this book at an Optimal Thinking seminar and decided to buy it. I knew it was in my best interest to clean up the junk and proceeded with Dave Allen's system. If anything took less than two minutes to resolve, I did it on the spot. I have to say that almost everything is in place now. I feel free of a huge load and am proud that I took control of it. This is a terrific book. I recommend it if you want a simple system to get things done. If you want to learn how to make the most of your thinking to achieve emotional mastery and get the most from every situation, read Optimal Thinking-How To Be Your Best Self too.
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Summary: DAM! (David Allen Method).
Review: The real gist of this book is this; First, tangibly ALL your thoughts to do something must be somewhere in order for you to PHYSICALLY apply it. Hence, you must write them down or put them all (stuff) somewhere, notes, post-it, napkins, etc., ANYTHING, just make it physically tangible. This is the only way for us to now LOGICALLY apply it. Because we are physical creatures, we must see our thoughts physically also. Down one. Number two: when all of this is done, get the little ones out of the way, hence the "two-minute rule". Anything under two minutes DO IT NOW. DAM! (David Allen Method) yeah!!! That's basically the "d.a.m." (pardon the pun) method. For details and even a better understanding buy or borrow the book. When you think about it, it's all about logic. Delineate the process, divide, then conquer. Sort of like eating a big steak, you have to cut it to make it chewable, then taste, and decide to swallow, chew, or just spit it out, and before you know it, it's gone! It's funny we never applied this logic to our business, maybe below will explain why! One thing that bugs me is that if something takes 2 minutes and we now need to do it now, there is one section about a guy going through 800 e-mails. If each one took two minutes, the e-mail "project" then took more than 26 hours!!! He didn't mention that in the book! Should he then delegate it, defer it, dump it, or simply call the waiter??? Note: vomiting is NOT an option!
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Summary: It changed my life
Review: David Allen is considered to be one the top five Management consultants in North America according to a Forbes article. I now understand why. The basic concepts in his book are simple enough and are represented by a flow chart, but there are so many other golden nuggets of "best practice" information within this book that you have to study it to get them all. I've read the book and listened to his second (audio) book "Ready for anything" four times in a row just to reinforce the great points within this book. The result of implimenting his structure of workflow has suprisingly allowed me to act with more freedom and creativity in my job and a reduction in stress. I can even find stuff easily since setting up my folders and buying a label making machine (his recommendation). He's really on to something big with his "next action" thinking approach (chapter 11) and his two-minute rule. One of the best books I've read in the last three years.
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