The book covers just about the same material that I learned in the tape series. The tapes have more anecdotes and 'real-life' examples in them, but the book has a few new pearls and tricks that tells me David's been refining and polishing this system since the tape series.

Two last quick points: first, it requires no special binders or refills. You could use a cheap spiral notebook if you want. Personally, I use a palmpilot, which works well. Second, (IMHO) the Weekly Review is the cornerstone of making this system work, and its worked for me for two years. Remember that; it'll make sense once you read the book :) Now if I could only get David to come up with a system for procrastination....


Flow from Angst to Action . . . and Relax!   January 16, 2001
 658 out of 683 found this review helpful

This book is for all those who are overwhelmed with too many things to do, too little time to do them, and a general sense of unease that something important is being missed.

Everyone has experienced times when everything seemed effortless, and progress limitless. David Allen has captured ways for you to achieve that wonderful state of mind and consciousness more often.

His key concept is that every task, promise, or assignment has a place and a time. With everything in its proper place and time, you feel in control and replace the time spent on vague worrying with effective, timely action. As a result, the accomplishments grow while the pressure to accomplish decreases. As a result, the book contains many insights into "how to have more energy, be more relaxed, and get a lot more accomplished with much less effort."

The key psychological insight of this book is that rapid progress occurs when you take large, unformed tasks, and break them down and organize them into smaller, sequential steps for exactly what to do and when. The book provides lots of guidance and examples for how to do this.

The book is organized into three sections. The first gives you an overview of the whole process for how to get more done in a relaxed way. The second spells out the details of how to implement that process, in a way that a personal coach might use. The third provides subtle insights that help you appreciate the benefits that follow from using the process. Like all good coaches, Mr. Allen understands that appreciating a subject from several perspectives and getting lots of practice with it are critical steps in learning.

The process advocated by this book is described with lots of systems flow charts that will appeal to all of the engineers and left-brained people. The right-brained people will find lots of discussions about emotions, feelings, and stress. So both types of thinkers should do well with this material.

The essence of the process is that you write down a note about everything when you take on a new responsibility, make a new commitment, or have a useful thought. All of this ends up in some kind of "in" box. You then go through your "in" box and decide what needs to be done next for each item. For simple issues, this includes identifying the action you should take first and when to take it. For tougher issues, you schedule an appropriate time to work the problem in more detail. You organize the results of this thinking, and review your options for what you should be doing weekly. Then you take what you choose to do, and act. Think of this process as the following five steps: (1) collect (2) process (3) organize (4) decide (5) act.

For the tougher problems, you start with identifying your purpose and principles so you know why you care how it all turns out. Then you imagine the potential good outcomes that you would like. Following that, you brainstorm with others the best way to get those outcomes. Then you organize the best pathway. Finally, you identify the first actions you need to take. Then you act, as in step 5 above.

From this outline, I hope that you can see that this is not rocket science. It is simple common sense, but with discipline. The critical part is the discipline because that is what focuses your attention where it will do the most good. For example, rather than sitting on something you have no idea how to get started, you can decide right away to get ideas from others on what the purpose and principles are that should be used in selecting a solution. So, you are in motion, and you have saved much time and anxiety.

What I learned from this book is that many people allow a lot of time to pass without taking any useful steps because they cannot imagine what to do next. This process should usually overcome that problem by showing you what to work on, providing methods to accomplish that step in the process, and guiding you to places where you can get appropriate help. As a result, this book should help overcome the bureaucracy and communications stalls that bedevil most organizations.

This fits from my own experience in helping people solve problems. If you simplify the questions and make them into familiar ones, everyone soon finds powerful alternatives drawn from a lifetime of experiences and memories. Keep things broad, abstract, and vague, and peoples' eyes glaze over while they struggle for a place to begin.

After you have finished reading and applying this book, I suggest that you share your new learning with those you see around you who are the most stressed out. By helping them gain relaxed control of their activities, you will also be able to enjoy the benefits of their increased effectiveness in supporting your own efforts.

May you always get the tools you need, understand what to do next, and move swiftly through timely actions!


Time Tested Principals   January 9, 2002
 232 out of 243 found this review helpful

I attended one of David's seminars in 1986. As a result, I was able to successfully manage 101 concurrent projects, finishing on time and under budget. Fast forward to 2001. I keep this book by my side at all times (David publish it in Ebook form so it's easier to carry!). The company I'm with now wonders how I get the "impossible" projects done. Using David's techniques in the book, it seems like I can complete a full work day in fewer hours because I know what all my "next actions" are, and do them promptly. Gives me a lot of worry free time.

This is a book you "DO" not just read. Be prepared to work when you start out, but when the initial work is done, that's when the fun begins.

I cleaned my inbox and email box of 300 items in less than 15 minutes, filtering out the junk, the things that needed immediate attention, and the "someday maybe" things (like buying my first Harley).

This works for my personal life too. No more missed anniversaries, birthdays, phone calls, errands, etc.

Do you ever think about work projects at home? Do you ever think about home projects when you're at the office? Ever worry about that phone call you need to make or that errand you need to run? Forget it! Get the book. It's awesome. Get the book - period. If you don't, you deserve your stress.


The cult of efficiency   April 10, 2005
 183 out of 244 found this review helpful

In December of 2004, I joined a cult. No, it did not involve dressing in orange or waiting for Armageddon, and as far as I know a collective suicide is not yet planned. Yet, the degree in which a new modus operandi pervaded every aspect of my life, as apparently pervades the lives of others, was simply astonishing.

Simply put, the New Year resolutions were approaching, and I decided that in 2005 I would get things done. The goal: reduce the overwhelming and reportedly life-shortening stress that rules my life. Like you, I had tried them all: twelve-step groups, yoga every Friday and even meditation, workday mornings; then positive affirmations, biofeedback and Metamucil. I even tried weaning myself off that quarter to half a gallon of afternoon coffee, which kept me buzzing until midnight with quite unpractical management ideas, and running precipitously to the bathroom down the hall while thinking about the next snappy email retort.

I had looked at other methods. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey just did not take, I think mostly because, unlike the author, I'm really lazy, petty, and morose. And that's my good side. Rather, I needed something that could really exploit the one thing I can do: plan. I can plan endlessly, I could have outplanned Rommel. I constantly fill out lists of tasks from the trivial to the surreally complicated, from checklists of what 5 dry cheeses to bring camping to complex plans for taking over pizza delivery franchising in small third world nations. I found my answer in Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, by David Allen, CEO coach, guru and resident of nearby Ojai, a small city that I had associated with good hiking and mediocre tourist restaurants rather than management bliss.

The principles of "Getting Things Done" are simple and intuitive: keeping too much in mind is source of stress. Therefore, one must periodically download the entire mind content in some support, any support. Paper works as well sophisticated electronic gadgets. Then, break down each life plan or business transaction into projects, and again break out each project into actions, and decide what the next action is going to be. Once a week or so, review what you are doing and make sure you still cam see the forest for the trees. This works using basic skills we are all bound to have, if we have any competence at all to carry out our daily business, personal or work-related.

The GTD phenomenon has generated at least three high traffic mailing lists (http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Getting_Things_Done/, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GtD_Palm, http://googlegroups.com/group/43Folders/) and countless websites dedicated to applications of Allen's philosophy to the most diverse environment, from effective filing in law offices to achieving the mastery of the grocery list.

As it often happens, the mailing lists serve as gathering and hangout of at list four kinds of genially flawed characters:

The hacker: the GTD hacker is usually a male geek, pushing the boundaries of technology to achieve the perfect efficiency in implementing efficiency. He is the master of the latest software applications, and mysterious codes seem to track every aspect of his life. Even his underwear has embroidered secret wiki codes that almost inexplicably speed up the laundry chores. Aside from the mentioned embroidery work It's easy to recognize hackers by the "manbag" or "murse", an essential tool that besides putting the GTD hacker in touch with his feminine side, allows space and multiple pouches for all the gadget, devices, and batteries dedicated to Get Things Done.

The hipster: the hipster can do (or claims he can do) on paper everything we do on our electronic gadgets. They shuffle pieces of paper and rubber bands, invest in prestigious brand notebooks; claim the supremacy of long hand versus keyboards. It's easy to recognize GTD hipsters by the fountain pen spots on their shirt and the packs of index cards bulging in their pockets. Did you just have weekly review or are you happy to see me?

The mystic: the mystic is looking beyond managing task, rather seeking enlightenment and revelation. They spend time discussing and analyzing the Word of David, looking for purity of meaning beyond any individual practical application. The GTD mystic will have all categories of tasks starting with "@", like "@work" or "@tack!"

The depressed: often a terminal procrastinator, the GTDepressed are looking for the meaning of life in structure rather than content, seeking group solidarity and a way to finish the manuscript of their 80s dissertation. Some GTD depressed become incredibly accomplished celebrity stalkers.

The way of the GTD samurai is not without its side effects. GTD is a hungry dog, a mutant virus, a mother in law continuously looking for something worn to wash and iron, a structure looking for loose ends to organize. It can follow you in the most intimate and non business-related parts of your life, including relationship, recreation and of course sex. Weekly reviews, where the GTD adept evaluates the meaning of life and work in context are often painful experiences, in which the results of the brain dump of the previous seven days have to be fit back into the big picture, all the life goals, the noble intentions. Buy toilet paper, cure AIDS in Africa. Was Sartre correct? If Man is not the sum of what he has already, but rather the sum of what he does not yet have, of what he could have, can weekly reviews extend well into the weekend?

Then there are those relationship-related side effects: my wife is getting unnerved, her womenfriends commenting on my personal case study of digital folly. "He won't do anything if she doesn't send him an email with a classifiable subject line" they say. In fact, not only I have mastered the art of the Google mail filter, but I also offered to synch our Palm Pilots together.

But perhaps the biggest drawback is the sudden disappearance of empty time, as every space between non-contiguous events in the agenda gets filled with very efficient entertainment processes. Serendipity vanishes as well, with boredom on the verge of extinction, being limited to those cases of system malfunction when you are not sure of what one should decide the "next action" should be.

But again, like Jean Paul said, it is only in our decisions that we are important. By terminating procrastination forcing several hundred decisions a day, my importance must have increased tenfold. Now if just someone would notice...


Ignores the larger issue   August 17, 2006
 121 out of 154 found this review helpful

David Allen's _Getting Things Done_ continues to sell well. Obviously, people are stressed with all they have to do, so they look for any help they can get.

They may not find it here.

Books like Allen's always start with the same little conceit: "My book advocates something new; it provides real solutions by not being just another _______." For this book, fill in that blank with "simple to-do list."

Great, you think, I've had enough of to-do lists. What you'll soon discover, though, is that Allen advocates a COMPLEX to-do list, incorporating a series of distinct FLOWCHARTS, of all things.

Ugh. Robots are meant to operate off flowcharts, not people.

The other conceit in this book plays into the American lifestyle of accumulation. Allen suggests the best way to keep track of all your stuff is to buy even MORE stuff to organize it all in. Buy more filing cabinets, more Post-It notes, more folders, more labelers, more, more, more!

Our problems with organization are systemic. They need systemic answers. A person who is suffocating should expect a doctor to treat the airway issue, not call for some makeup to fix their blue skin color. Sadly, Allen applies foundation and blush to people who are drowning.

We have too much stuff. Our lives are too hectic. That's all because the system we live in is broken. A smart man like Allen should be teaching business leaders how to make work easier for their employees rather than employees how to deal with the massive load of work their company leaders dump on them. He should be telling us how to drop out of buying more and more stuff that requires more and more of our time to manage rather than endorsing a consumptive lifestyle.

_Getting Things Done_ addresses only the symptoms. That's a shame because the disease isn't in the symptoms, it's in the system. Fix the diseased system and the symptoms clear up.

Beyond that, there are a couple helpful hints here:
1. If you have little jobs you can do quickly, do them.
2. Break the big jobs down into little jobs you can do quickly.

That's about all there is to _Getting Things Done_. Doesn't seem worth the cost of buying yet another book to add to the pile already overflowing your desk, does it?