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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #112 in Books
• Published on: 2002-12-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 267 pages

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

From AudioFile
Productivity trainer and consultant David Allen offers a crash course in basic time management and personal organization. While Allen's reading is a little stiff, his enthusiasm for the topic and his passion for systems comes across loud and clear. Allen's message is concise: Organize yourself to free your mind for greater pursuits. And this simple production makes that daunting task seem possible. It's a quick glimpse at setting goals, clearing clutter, and staying focused. Allen's reading, although one dimensional, suits the nature of the topic, making this worth the time for the effort it will save down the road. H.L.S. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
Allen, a management consultant and executive coach, provides insights into attaining maximum efficiency and at the same time relaxing whenever one needs or wants to. Readers learn that there is no single means for perfecting organizational efficiency or productivity; rather, the author offers tools to focus energies strategically and tactically without letting anything fall through the cracks. He provides tips, techniques, and tricks for implementation of his workflow management plan, which has two basic components: capture all the things that need to get done into a workable, dependable system; and discipline oneself to make front-end decisions with an action plan for all inputs into that system. In short, do it (quickly), delegate it (appropriately), or defer it. While an infomercial for the author's consulting practice, this road map for organizational efficiency may help many who have too much to do in too little time, both professionally and in their personal lives. Mary Whaley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Helpful Read
This book was helpful when I read it with a few organizational items in my life. It's been a while since I've read it, and I can't exactly remember what I learned so I've given it a 3/5.

Absolutely phenomenal ways of managing yourself
Management begins with self! Start managing yourself and you would be able to manage everyone and everything around you. But there are times when you have lots of things to do and you are left with no choice but to get more and more confused.

The best ways I thought to manage everything starting from my desktop to the projects I was working in was (after I analyzed a lot and Googled around) to more and more equip myself with sophisticated gadgets, this is what they are meant for, isn't it?. Well after I installed good software, mindmaping applications, get good PDAs, I was, once more, to my surprise managing additional stuffs that what I already was previously. At least for few days I was feeling a little satisfied that my investment in one of the most updated software or a hand-held device is going to bring me peace. But after few weeks everything was back to square one.

I even saw this occasionally with other people, the more unorganized you feel the more devices, gadgets, etc you tend to buy, but no one was happy, eventually the more STUFF you get the more unorganized you become. Which ultimately leads to stress. That is NOT the solution. Basically, after getting myself acquainted with GTD I understood that the devices were actually built around GTD. So, once I know what the basis principles of personal productivity are I can accordingly arrange myself, my mailbox, gadgets etc.

The solution is to know and understand the CORE the basic principles that are essential to generate productivity and efficiency. You must be a person with great ideas and already very successful, however, if you are someone who is under stress of not being able to manage a lot of stuff then you need this book.

Know exactly what stress is? How your internal commintment, even when you think that you are not committing, to various things around you build more and more stress? How can you arrange, discard, delegate stuff.

This truly is, as coined by David, an Advanced Common Sense.

There is a lot of stuff about GTD over the internet including the 43 folders website. I suggest you surely visit the YouTube videos for Davids lectures at Google (authors@Google). Look at him when he is explaining things on video and then read the book.

This Book can Change Your Level of Productivity and Stress
Other than the Bible, this is probably the most impactful book I have ever read. I stumbled upon this book in a bookstore years ago and bought it on a lark. The ideas are so simple but also can change the game of how you interract with your work and life to get more important things done. While seeing David Allen in person (which I later did) is even better in the book, this is a great way to spend $10 and I often buy it for people who work for me.