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Welcome to the Auto Insurance News and Resource Center Brought to you by Auto Insurance Planners, in association with Amazon.com! Search from thousands of articles. books and materials and shop online in our secure online storefront. In addition to great prices, you'll find reader reviews on many of your favorite titles. |
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Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-free Productivity
written by David Allen
Studio : Piatkus Books
by Piatkus Books
Publisher : Piatkus Books
Released : 2002-01-24
EAN : 9780749922641
List Price : $22.70
Our Price : $13.01
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Product Description |
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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. 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. |
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Autoinsuranceplanners.com Review |
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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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A pamphlet would have sufficed. |
David Allen's Getting Things Done system is actually quite useful, but you certainly don't need to read this book to implement it. In fact, reading the book might turn you away from the methodology as it did me.
There are definite, glaring problems with Allen's style. For example, he relies heavily on hypothetical cases, often providing examples that are very similar. This makes for a dull, repetitive read, and the simplicity of the examples makes the repetition seem a little offensive.
Also, the illustrations in the book are practically useless. There's only one useful figure (a flowchart) in the whole book. In fact, Allen recognizes the significance of this flowchart by presenting it in three different places (see pp. 36, 120, 139 of the paperback)!
In short, save the $15. If you're serious about developing a methodology, go to your friendly local bookstore, grab this book off the shelf, look at page 36 (or 120, or 139), memorize the flowchart, replace the book, and leave. If you feel guilty not purchasing the book after gleaning this insight, then head over to Autoinsuranceplanners Marketplace and buy my Used-Like New copy for a great price (with super fast shipping!). |
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A great self-help book for those who want to knock off one of their new year resolutions |
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This is a great book. I was skeptical of these self-help books but after I got it as a gift for the new year last year, I found it to be very helpful in changing the way I handle my work. I found myself happier and less stressed and having more free time from the advice in this book. Well worth it! |
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Goodbye Franklin Covey and Daytimer |
Finally, the one true organizational system that focuses on outcome (productivity) instead of process. It actually clears your mind.
Throughout the years, I have received formal and recurring employer sponsored training in both Daytimer and Franklin Covey organizational and time management system. These were primarily paper based approaches. While clearly capable and expansive (if not expensive) systems (when properly trained), they engage you in processes that can be overwhelming. Simply assembling the planner systems can be a chore that seems to never end (folders, sections, paper based contacts, project management tabs, task tabs, delegated tabs, A-Z filing system, calendar, goals tabs, priorities tabs, personal vs. business tabs, the list goes on). I often found myself more engaged in assembling and reassembling the system more than anything else. By my conservative calculations, I must have spent at least $3,000 on various paper based systems over the last 5 years; not including software integration attempts (all failed).
The GTD system breaks through the aforementioned paradigms and views everything in your life as "stuff" without regard to whether it is personal or business. Essentially you have one intake point for everything. From there, you decide where to place your "stuff" until it is actionable. I will not bother getting into all the details in this review as there are many websites dedicated to the GTD philosphy that can do a much better job.
Suffice it to say that the GTD system is analagous to an ever changing task list. I use toodledo.com to manage my task list using the folder system in David's book. Toodledo.com integrates with my Iphone so that I always have my task list with me everywhere I go. It is important to note that appointments and meetings are treated as tasks and placed in the Agenda folder.
The book is an easy read and there is an incredible amount of supplementary material on the web. Just Google GTD. |
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Some useful information, but not that great of a book |
This book is about organization. It says very little about prioritization and time-management. It contains nothing about actually *planning* or *doing* anything. The system boils down to making elaborate "what I need to do next" lists for every project you want to accomplish in your life, and to review and update these lists often. For every item on your list, either trash it, delegate it, save it for later, or just do it. It's good advice if you find yourself stuck at a roadblock or overwhelmed by a sheer number of tasks.
According to the book, pretty much every project consists of an endless string of simple tasks such as "call X", "email Y", and "attend meeting with Z". Unfortunately the book barely discusses the planning required for difficult jobs that involve significantly more time and forward thinking than accomplishing the most immediate step. It's all about "go go go" and "do do do". If you have five minutes to spare, it's time to check your list for a call you could make or an email you could write. The resulting productivity strikes me as borderline manic. If you need to keep a folder of Post-It notes in a filing cabinet to deal with your spouse (as the book suggests), you've got problems.
Regarding the actual text, the book is too long (only Chapters 4-9 are needed, the rest is self-referential filler), too general, and written condescendingly in an annoying office-speak lingo that will make anyone who actually *does* work for a living (ie: not management) cringe.
If your path to inner bliss involves relying on your CPA to remind you when to purge your tax archives so you can free up your mind to relax with a glass of chardonnay by your koi pond at sunset, then you'll love this book. |
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I am organized and this even helped me |
I've been told that I am really organized, at work - not at home!
Introduction
This is a great book and gives anyone who needs to be better organized practical advice on how to do it. Even though I am fairly organized I found several tips that helped. Specifically having "one in box" instead of having Voicemail, email. cell phone voice mail, to do lists, etc. Create 1 list that you live by. Great advice that I can't give justice to so go read the book
The Good
1. Excellent pragmatic advice
2. Step by step approaches to organize your life - not just work
3. Simple ways to determine if you can be more organized and is it worth the extra work - sometimes it's not.
4. The organization of the book was very helpful so that you could skip chapters that might not apply to you
5. For me his writting style made it easy to read and reference over and over.
The Bad
1. Some things were like "Duh"
2. He did not cover how to get others to get organized - I have several staff that I would like to be better at this but reading a book on it won't work.
Overall
If you want to get better organized buy the book it will help - and heck it's only 10 bucks! |
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