Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #463 in Books
• Published on: 2002-01-24
• Binding: Paperback
• 282 pages

Amazon.co.uk 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-dos 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 organised, 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 sabre known as the mobile phone and attack that list of calls you need to return.)

As whole-life-organising 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 prioritising 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 common sense 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 belaboured, self-improver aimed at everyone from CEOs to football mums (who, we all know, are more organised than most CEOs to start with). --Timothy Murphy

Synopsis
Is your workload overwhelming? Does it just keep mounting up while your stress levels reach fever pitch? In "Getting Things Done" David Allen teaches you how to keep a clear head, relax and organise your thoughts while implementing the methods that he has introduced at organisations like Microsoft, Lockheed and the US Department of Justice: Learn the 'do it, delegate, it, defer it, drop it' principle to empty your in-tray; Handle e-mail, paperwork and unexpected demands in a system of self-management; Plan and progress projects; Reasses goals and stay focused in changing environments; Apply the two minute rule when deciding what to do now and what to defer; Overcome feelings of anxiety and being overwhelmed; With clear and specific methods and advice, David Allen's tried and trusted formula for business efficiency could transform the way you operate and your experience of work.

Customer Reviews

The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
If you don't have time for one more thing in your life, read Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. While that advice may seem counterproductive, and a little crazy, (where will you find time to read it?) this book will assuredly give you some realistic advice about getting all those projects completed while staying sane.

This first thing that's apparent about this book is the author's enthusiasm. He presents workable solutions with this contagious "can-do" attitude. He uses a basic premise that everything we do--whether it's an assignment or work-related task--has a specific place and time. Once that's understood, it's easier to put those activities into the right slot in our lives. This provides a sense of freedom even though deadlines are mounting. Time is no longer the enemy; it's merely the container.

By having all these tasks in their proper places, it's almost like opening a filing cabinet, working on a specific project, then replacing the file and closing the drawer. There is a start and finish time and everything gets done. That terrible overwhelming feeling vanishes.

Another interesting aspect the author develops is how to achieve those wonderful moments when we are so in tune with our work, that it's really effortless. His strategies for managing time actually open up the unconscious mind by freeing it of negative stress. In other words, when our work is properly scheduled, we are cut loose of time constraints and are able to grab hold of maximum creativity and productivity. Even though there are still deadlines to meet, we would have already dealt with them before starting the project. Time is put in its proper place as well.

While author David Allen's advice is really on the mark, at times his system gets a little complicated. He coins some fancy terms and sub-terms that make these principles seem complex. But the gist of his ideas is presented on a one-page flowchart that makes the price of this book worthwhile. This single page is a terrific review of the key concepts.

Although some of his ideas may seem like good old-fashioned common sense, the author takes these thoughts and puts them within a system that operates in the contemporary workplace. Readers should be prepared to actually try out these ideas and not just read the book and put it on a shelf. Have a notebook handy to start organizing your thoughts and begin prioritizing your actions based on the advice presented.

One of the best pieces of advice, and one that can be immediately put into action, is the Two-Minute Rule. This states that if you need to do something and you can do it in two minutes or less, do it now, and therefore free up your mind and time. Ultimately, by completing these smaller, quicker tasks, you will gain an enormous amount of time and freedom of thought for those larger assignments. It works!

These pages have the power to unlock you from the chains of time that limit your actions and thinking. When you are finished reading this book, you will have learned some genuine principles that can be put into your life right now. The investment of time you put into reading this book will increase your productivity level and decrease your stress.

Raymond Le Blanc. Psychotherapist & economist
author: Achieving Objectives Made Easy! 978-9079397037

The Emperor's new clothes of time management
This book should be sub-titled "How to Make the Simple Complicated". After I read it I had to lie down in a dark room to recover from the mind-numbing headache it gave me.

This really is the emperor's new clothes of time management. Very quickly you begin to realize that this is total nonsense passed off as cutting edge wisdom. After setting out its grand life changing aims,it quickly settles down into tired, jaded and well worn formula.

The writing style is plain awful, it's hard to read and is totally confusing. Its style is mechanical and lacks any flow, forcing you to plod through a meandering rats maze. Not surprisingly you wind up at a dead end, re-reading chapters and still scratching your head.

If you have the energy to labour through this cure for insomnia, you will eventually come across a Wizard of Oz type moment when you pull back the curtain and realize this guy has nothing of substance to say.

It's unintentionally funny (if you're a fan of black comedy) talking about "emptying buckets" when in fact the book should be flushed down the drain. At this stage anger sets in when you realize time management has turned into time wasted.

The author clumsily mentions invented high-powered situations where he's used these " proven techniques " successfully. A child would see through these tissue thin stories. They are cobbled together in a cheesy attempt to add weight to this book.

If your life is already complicated this will tip you over the edge, turning your thought process into mangled spaghetti. I questioned if David Allen believed in the rubbish he has written, one positive in Allen's book is the accidental creation of a new english dialect which I affectionately called Garble.

Think about a disappointing Christmas morning where you tore off the fancy wrapping paper only to discover an empty box, there is no happy ending here. Instead of a book an A5 sheet of paper could have housed its "key ideas" and still left plenty of space.

After finishing the book I came up on my own personal meaning for GTD ( Garbage Trash Dire ) Trust me, be nice to yourself, your time is better spent reading anything except this nonsense!

Time management that makes sense
I have to be honest only been using it a little while, however it works. It's a simple process to follow and without trying achieved tons of things that have been lying around for ages. I've cleared the decks, tidied the desk at work and made by home office spotless. Everything is where is should be and I know what there is to do and when it needs to be done.