8. Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
Rating: ☆☆
Recommended by:
Author: David Allen
Genre: Non-Fiction, Self-Improvement
Info: 288 pages, published January 1, 2001
Format: Book
Summary
Getting Things Done (“GTD “) is a time-management method which rests on the idea of moving planned tasks and projects out of the mind by recording them externally and then breaking them into actionable work items. This allows one to focus attention on taking action on tasks, instead of on recalling them.
Allen instructs the reader to pick an “incomplete,” i.e. what most annoys, distracts, or interests you? Write down a description of the successful outcome in one sentence. What is your definition of “done”? Write down the next action to move toward the desired outcome. Notice how you feel after the exercise compared to before it.
He claims stress can be reduced and productivity increased by putting reminders about everything you are not working on into a trusted system external to your mind. In this way, you can work on the task at hand without distraction from the “incompletes.” The system in GTD requires you have within easy reach an inbox, a trash can, a filing system for reference material, several lists (detailed below), and a calendar.
These tools can be physical or electronic. As “stuff” enters your life, it is captured in these tools and processed with the following workflow.
Quotes
“If you don’t pay appropriate attention to what has your attention, it will take more of your attention than it deserves.”
“Most people feel best about their work the week before their vacation, but it’s not because of the vacation itself. What do you do the last week before you leave on a big trip? You clean up, close up, clarify, and renegotiate all your agreements with yourself and others. I just suggest that you do this weekly instead of yearly.”
“Everything you’ve told yourself you ought to do, your mind thinks you should do right now. Frankly, as soon add you have two things to do stored in your RAM, you’ve generated personal failure, because you can’t do two things at the same time. This produces an all-pervasive stress factor whose source can’t be pin-pointed.”
“Use your mind to think about things, rather than think of them. You want to be adding value as you think about projects and people, not simply reminding yourself they exist.”
My Take
Compared to The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, which I read just previous to this book, Getting Things Done paled in comparison. There just wasn’t many useful take-aways from the book.
For a variety of reasons, I’m also not going to ever implement Allen’s GTD system, so the book was of little use to me.
