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: Highly Recommended!
Review: The metaphor of the stress-free mind as a still pond encapsulates the message of David Allen's best-selling book. When a stone is thrown into a pond, Allen points out, the size of the ripples correspond with the size of the stone, and getting the ripples of your mind to correspond with the size of the tasks on your to-do list is the essence of stress-free living. But you don't reach Allen's placid pond via a quiet Zen-like path. Instead, you calm the waters of your mind by building and maintaining a rigid organizational system that's so efficient that you never have to worry about any task once it's been fed into the machine. The popularity of this book probably owes as much to the stress level of the book-buying public as it does to the level of innovation to be found in Allen's organizing machine. The actual time-management techniques offered up by Allen can get lost in fancy jargon and fall short of his general observations about stress, productivity and the mind. But we [...] recommend this manual for a productive life to anyone looking for help in dealing with stress - you're sure to end up with a fresh notion or two in your in-box.
Rating: 
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!
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: Excellent organisation system
Review: Yes, the book does have someone grinning smarmily on the cover, which normally puts me right off, but it also contains an excellent organisation system, which I loved.
There were parts of the system I found far too detailed, and parts of the book were completely unnecessary for me, so I'm glad I borrowed it from the library rather than buying it. After sticking loosely to the system for a couple of months, I like being able to go to my folders and being able to grab whatever I'm looking for quickly, rather than sorting through a million piles to try and find where I've put it.
He has a pleasant, clean writing style, which is easy to read, and I think his ideas about how our minds process data are extremely interesting and accurate. Overall, reading the book and putting into use some of his ideas have vastly improved my organisation of papers, and the general cleanliness of my study. However, the book isn't brilliant or ground breaking, just common sense, so it doesn't get a life-changing 5 stars.
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