Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Insights, Lots of Padding
Review: Fifty years ago, having a simple to-do-list would put you at the top of the productivity charts. Thirty years ago, paying attention to time management would do the same. Today, looking at workflow gives us the next step in the evolution of effectiveness.

The book, Getting Things Done, is divided into three parts. The first is called "The Art of Getting Things Done." This is where the author, David Allen, lays out the basics of mastering workflow and getting projects creatively underway.

The key to getting control of your life is mastering that workflow. Once stuff shows up in your "inbox," what do you do with it? Allen gives you a straightforward way to process what's in your "inbox" without getting bogged down.

His key insight is to concentrate on the next necessary action for any project you might be working on. That's especially powerful. Procrastination often comes from not knowing what the next action to take should be. Using the action list that Allen recommends, you should cut down your procrastination significantly.

I should note here that action in Allen's sense doesn't mean "deciding" or any other such activity, unless it results in something visible. That keeps us out of the action list that are filled with things where you start to prepare to begin to get ready to do things, and moves you right on to the doing itself.

Allen covers this material in twenty-five pages, and it is the core and key value of this book. If you buy the book for the workflow system and the insights that Allen has into it, you'll get more than your money's worth.

Alas, on page fifty-four in my edition, Allen starts talking about getting projects creatively underway. I found this material to be pretty garden-variety stuff. No big insights. In fact, it suffers from what lots of other material on planning suffers from, the idea that planning is a straight-through process without an iterative looping around as you would adjust goals and plans.

Once the early material on project management wraps up Part One, you could move on to Part Two. Part Two is about Practicing Stress-free Productivity. Actually, it's not about that at all. What it is about, in one hundred plus pages, is how to get this entire system started. We get recommendations down to the file folder level. This may be helpful to you. I found it useless padding in the book.

At the end of this section, he loops back to the workflow diagram that he'd covered a hundred pages earlier.

Part Three takes us back to the Power of Key Principles, and it's worth reading as a review, as well for several specific tips that are embedded in it.

Now, it may seem from my comments just above, that I don't think this book is worth the money. That would be inaccurate. This is simply one of the best, and most helpful books, I've ever read on organizing. For me, the value was in the workflow process and the things around it. I didn't need the stuff on Getting Started, and I didn't like the stuff on Project Planning.

We each come to books like this with different backgrounds and needs, and so if your needs are different than mine, you may find other pieces of this book valuable. One thing I'm sure of - if you buy the book, you'll find value in it.


Rating:
Summary: Excellent productivity system
Review: I have tried many time management systems but this is the best. It works like a charm. I had a pile of emails in my in-box, a cluttered desk and was coming home at 9 pm to my family before I made the commitment to optimize my time. Now my inbox is clear, my desk is organized and I'm home at 7 pm. I discovered this great book and achieved my leap in productivity after reading Optimal Thinking: How To Be Your Best Self. I learned how to eliminate self-sabotage and make the most of every situation from Optimal Thinking. Getting Things Done showed me how to organize minutia that bogged me down at home and at work. Don't wait another second. Read both of these books and you will never settle for second rate again.

Rating:
Summary: GOOD BUT A BIT COMPLEX
Review: Author David Allen states the obvious...we will all be more productive if we are more organized, both in our work and our lives outside of work. Ok, that's not exactly earth-shaking news. It's the actualy getting organized part that leaves most people stumped.

Allen is focused on in-boxes, both literally and figuretively. Our in boxes being not only the things on our desks, but applying to anything task we need to do in our lives no matter how mundane. Allen has what he refers to as the "Two Minute Rule" wherein if there's anything you absolutely must do that you can do right now in two minutes or less, then do it now, thus freeing up your time and mind tenfold over the long term. That makes perfect sense. And that is what this book is in broadest terms: common sense. These are things you probably know but just may no know the best way to organize them.

The book is very "system oriented" with all sorts of clever phrase-ology. These books always are, but Allen provides a simple one page flowchart that you can use as a reference on your desk or maybe even the fridge that you can always refer to without having to consult the book and that flowchart is the most valuable part of the book.

Well done!

Rating:
Summary: Does Anyone Have The Time To Do This System?
Review: Anyone who has the time to do Allen's system does not have a time management problem. This approach would be attractive to productivity experts, but is simply unworkable to the average over-worked Sally or Joe. It takes three hours a week just to feed this system and keep it going! I laid awake at night trying to figure out if an e-mail goes in @computer or @work? I could never find anything after I followed his system. Maybe it's me, but I believe there is better time management advice out there.

Rating:
Summary: Good organizational concepts
Review: Getting Things Done is hot right now and with good reason. We all have too much on our minds and on our plates. This book will help you cut through the clutter. (If you want to get a taste of the author's way of thinking, check out his website. Just do a Google search for "David Allen". The flowchart that is the core of his system is provided there.)

Rating:
Summary: Roadmap for Better Sleep
Review: The bane of my existence is that I often feel that I lack the time and energy to complete everything required of me, both personally and professionally. Mr. Allen presents a fairly convincing argument that the best thing you can do is to scrap your "to-do" lists and adopt a system that allows you to process information on a ongoing systematic basis. He believes that most people bog down in their efforts to reduce their burdens because they are relying too much on their memories and not enough on a system that allows them to retrieve and process information. I've only started to put his suggestions into practice but already believe that I've become more efficient in processing the vast amount of paperwork that comes across my desk on a daily basis. I probably will never achieve the level of mastery needed to fully capitalize upon his system, but I feel better for whatever progress I make.

Rating:
Summary: mind like water!
Review: This book is a great book, a life-saver for anxious, overworked people. I now get more done, but with less anxiety ("mind like water", as David puts it). I was an obsessive list-maker, but his system and suggestions helped me control my lists (instead of vice versa). Some people might think this book covers "obvious common sense", but knowing about something and knowing how to put it into action are OCEANS apart. I highly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Coping with Information overlead
Review: I have used many time mangement resources over the years. This is definitely the best system I have come across. I recommending reading Optimal Thinking: How To Be Your Best Self as well to learn how to maintain focus on the best actions to achieve what is most important.

Rating:
Summary: I like its "Martial Art" idea
Review: I read this book in 2002/4. Now, it totally changes my life.
Before this book, I admit I have problem in organizing my projects, and I was often driven crazy by un-expected surprises in my career. After this book, I spent about 3 days to read this book, I become more organized, sensitive, & creative...and more productivity. and thereafter, I've got a new job as a marketing manager to supervise a team about 10 guys. It's so crazy, but it's true that I can remeber all the projects I assigned to my staffs, and discuss with them the projects details. I am still learning this book, I appreciate his "Martial Art" idea. I get to say, "this book is really useful", deserving read again & again.