Various Digital Retailers have
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen (eBook) on sale for
$1.99.
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About this title:
- Page Length: 352 pages
- Since it was first published almost fifteen years ago, David Allen's Getting Things Done has become one of the most influential business books of its era, and the ultimate book on personal organization. "GTD" is now shorthand for an entire way of approaching professional and personal tasks, and has spawned an entire culture of websites, organizational tools, seminars, and offshoots.
- Allen has rewritten the book from start to finish, tweaking his classic text with important perspectives on the new workplace, and adding material that will make the book fresh and relevant for years to come. This new edition of Getting Things Done will be welcomed not only by its hundreds of thousands of existing fans but also by a whole new generation eager to adopt its proven principles.
Top Comments
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Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank Capeto
Well, you found out you had a lot of sh...things...to do!
Did it and done!
In many Unix command line interfaces, the Ctrl+W key combination (written ^W) deletes the preceding word; thus, forums like Slashdot use this shorthand to jokingly convey saying part of a word before reconsidering and replacing it with a more unobjectionable one. You may now insert your choice of "the more you know" or Professor Frink GIFs here.
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The book covers this. They go in your physical inbox. Then you ask: What is it? Is it actionable? What is the outcome? What is the next step?
Ah, thanks for the clarification. Yeah, if you dig deeper into David Allen's business he seems to go big into the… consulting stuff and some people really get into him as a brand, but that's all secondary to the book.
Apparently I just never got around to reading it.
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GTD has overhead, make no mistake. If you already have 3 ToDo lists and that isn't sufficient organization for your needs or you are afraid to sleep at night because you'll forget something important and drop a very important task/follow up, then, and only then, GTD methods will be a huge help.
If you are overwhelmed with all the things you are supposed to do, track, handle, then adding "read a 300pg book" just sound's like 1 more thing that won't get done. Fortunately, you can "find" 20 minute videos on the internet with a summary of the basics. There's also a podcast called "getting things done fast" which, at one time, had 3-10 minute topics as MP3 files organized by the book chapters. I got them for free. So, in 6 days, 1 hour of listening (perhaps on your drive to/from work), you can get the main GTD ideas.
Anyway, I never fully used GTD, but used perhaps use 70% of it. Changed my work life. I always knew what needed handling, had prioritized things AND discussed the priorities with internal customers and my boss, so there wasn't confusion. Customers weren't always happy, but they did feel like their tasks were being handled, prioritized and not forgotten. My team was already working far too much overtime and that had been going on for years. We'd already grown the group 10x and still couldn't keep up with demand. We weren't project managers either.
Also looked at different methods and tools. In the end, decided to use GTD with a multi-tab spreadsheet for my tracking, so that I'd never trap my data/tracking inside some proprietary app. Sorting, filtering based on project, and due dates really are helpful. A low priority task due in a month will slowly have the priority raised as the deadline approaches. That's very easy to manage. "Do taxes" is one of my future tasks. As April 15 comes closer, the priority for that task will be raised. Since I don't have all the tax paperwork from financial institutions yet, I haven't worried at all, but those different forms are in the "Waiting" context list.
Having one "golden" location for holding all tasks and ensuring every task was recorded meant getting a good night of sleep. No worries.
Usually if I have more than 10 active projects and more than 50 important items on the todo list, that's when I know it is time to go full GTD. But the time you realize better organization is needed, it is far to late and taking 4 hrs to take everything you have in other methods/techniques into GTD framework seems like a waste of time, but it will make you able to sleep.
BTW, I never read this book, but if you learn by reading books, great. There are videos, podcasts, for people who learn other ways. Also, check your public library for GTD stuff.
Also, the GTD methods can be implemented using paper, todo lists, heavy computer applications and phone-apps. How is completely up to you and how you work. Took me a few weeks to finally find which worked for my needs/desires. Everyone is different. Don't feel like you need to do everything on day 1. It is a very mature system, so almost any issue with it has already been solved. Really just adding "contexts" to your existing todo lists and getting all the different lists into a single place isn't a bad way to start. It is ok to have paper tasks for a few days, if you can't get them into your "single system" on a computer. For a few days, does that really matter? Rather than using paper, I'd just send myself an email with new list items to be filed later. Main thing - get it recorded SOMEWHERE and migrate that into the main system within a reasonable time. Today, tomorrow are usually quick enough.
FWIW: forum.gettingthingsdone . com/threads/gtd-fast-anyone.16282/
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Apparently I just never got around to reading it.