Product Description
In today's world, yesterday's methods just don't work. In Getting Things Done, veteran coach and management consultant David Allen shares the breakthrough methods for stress-free performance that he has introduced to tens of thousands of people across the country. Allen's premise is simple: our productivity is directly proportional to our ability to relax. Only when our minds are clear and our thoughts are organized can we achieve effective productivity and unleash our creative potential. In Getting Things Done Allen shows how to:
€ Apply the "do it, delegate it, defer it, drop it" rule to get your in-box to empty
€ Reassess goals and stay focused in changing situations
€ Plan projects as well as get them unstuck
€ Overcome feelings of confusion, anxiety, and being overwhelmed
€ Feel fine about what you're not doing
From core principles to proven tricks, Getting Things Done can transform the way you work, showing you how to pick up the pace without wearing yourself down.
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Amazon.com Review
With first-chapter allusions to martial arts, "flow," "mind like water," and other concepts borrowed from the East (and usually mangled), you'd almost think this self-helper from David Allen should have been called Zen and the Art of Schedule Maintenance. Not quite. Yes, Getting Things Done offers a complete system for downloading all those free-floating gotta-do's clogging your brain into a sophisticated framework of files and action lists--all purportedly to free your mind to focus on whatever you're working on. However, it still operates from the decidedly Western notion that if we could just get really, really organized, we could turn ourselves into 24/7 productivity machines. (To wit, Allen, whom the New Economy bible Fast Company has dubbed "the personal productivity guru," suggests that instead of meditating on crouching tigers and hidden dragons while you wait for a plane, you should unsheathe that high-tech saber known as the cell phone and attack that list of calls you need to return.) As whole-life-organizing systems go, Allen's is pretty good, even fun and therapeutic. It starts with the exhortation to take every unaccounted-for scrap of paper in your workstation that you can't junk, The next step is to write down every unaccounted-for gotta-do cramming your head onto its own scrap of paper. Finally, throw the whole stew into a giant "in-basket" That's where the processing and prioritizing begin; in Allen's system, it get a little convoluted at times, rife as it is with fancy terms, subterms, and sub-subterms for even the simplest concepts. Thank goodness the spine of his system is captured on a straightforward, one-page flowchart that you can pin over your desk and repeatedly consult without having to refer back to the book. That alone is worth the purchase price. Also of value is Allen's ingenious Two-Minute Rule: 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. It's commonsense advice so obvious that most of us completely overlook it, much to our detriment; Allen excels at dispensing such wisdom in this useful, if somewhat belabored, self-improver aimed at everyone from CEOs to soccer moms (who we all know are more organized than most CEOs to start with). --Timothy Murphy
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 Great Book
GTD is a great book. I've read it cover to cover. Now, I'm re-reading it slower and implementing many of David Allen's tips. I highly recommend the book for anyone struggling to keep up with their busy lives. This book will pay off for you. Buy it, read it, do it.
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 My two-cents
This is a very poorly written, poorly edited, dare I say disorganized book that contains some very good ideas. It will make your head hurt to read. However, some of the information is very useful.
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Brilliant action management book ( rick17298 )
David Allen did something very different with Getting Things Done. One the surface, it is just like any other productivity system. You have things to do (Next Actions) and you need to do them. David's system gives you mental hints on when/where you should be doing them, and which thing you should be doing next.
It's less about what is the highest priority item, it is more about what is the highest priority item at this exact moment, with the tools you have at hand, and in the mood you are in.
I enjoyed the paperback version so much that I also bought a eBook copy to keep on my phone, for review at all times.
I'm looking forward to his next book coming out this winter.
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Very Helpful
I have had my department expanded and really needed to "get organized". This book was a great help in getting started. It has some simple ways to get through the daily "stuff" we all deal with. My daily routine has become more organized and I have a clearer idea of my plan of action.
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will help you radically reduce the clutter and 'must do' projects in your life
Why Bother?: Maybe you will find it as useful as I have and throw out your todo lists, day planners and scraps of paper on your nightstand. This simply-titled book started something of a revolution in the tame world of personal organization. In the words of an article in Wired, Allen inspired a "new cult for the information age".
Core ideas: The inspiration for this book was a realization by Allen that until the `information age' most people worked at jobs where achieved tangible outcomes such as building a house, cooking a meal or healing a patient. Today, the typical information worker rarely gets that feeling of accomplishment. Even people working in traditional occupations suffer from this malise: a vague and constant feeling that there is something you need to get done though you are not sure where to start, nor if you are making progress once you do.
Allen devised a simple system that allows people to get all of that stuff out of their head. He discourages priority based todo list. A lot of the stuff we worry about is the little stuff, such as the birthday present to buy for a relative or a library book to return. The first step is to throw all of that "stuff", no matter how minute or mundane, into a "bucket". These are then filed into folders with tangible, well-defined outcomes, thrown away or saved for reference. There is a lot more to his system and Wikipedia does a fairly good job of explaining it. Or if you prefer a hands-on introduction to his system over reading about it, install ThinkingRock.
Visit my site for more reviews: http://softwareandresearch.com/blog/?cat=16
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