David Allen

The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

Getting Things Done

The Art Of Stress-Free Productivity

Christina Farkona

«The “next action” is the next physical, visible activity that needs to be engaged in, in order to move the current reality of this thing toward completion.»

 is whatever you need to do to get your head empty again and get oriented for the next couple of weeks.»

 as any desired result that can be accomplished within a year that requires 

Anything you consider unfinished in any way must be captured in a trusted system outside your mind, or what I call a collection tool, that you know you’ll come back to regularly and sort through.

«If an action will take less than two minutes, it should be done at the moment it’s defined.»

In today's world, yesterday's methods just don't work. In Getting Things Done, veteran coach and management consultant David Allen shares the breakthrough methods for stress-free performance that he has introduced to tens of thousands of people across the country. Allen's premise is simple: our productivity is directly proportional to our ability to relax. Only when our minds are clear and our thoughts are organized can we achieve effective productivity and unleash our creative potential.

Terry Benzie

This is, unquestionably, one of the most influential books that I have ever read. 

I believe that I initially read it within a few months of publication and it immediately clicked. I reorganized my Palm, grabbed an inbox to toss onto my desk and I was off. Through the years technology has obviously changed but GTD has remained fairly constant. 

Several years back, I picked up the "updated" version of the book and, through an initial skim, found that I was disappointed and believed that it wasn't really updated as much as I was led to believe. This read was my first cover to cover read of the new material and...I was wrong. 

I won't leave a longer review because volumes upon volumes upon volumes have been written about GTD, both the book and the method, but I will say that this is a good revision - despite practicing for nearly twenty years and having coached numerous people through setting up their organizational systems, I gained new insight and feel that I benefited. In fact, I now plan to re-read it each year for this particular reason.

Timeo Williams

Probably the best productivity book I've read yet. 

Despite being more than 2 decades old, I continually heard this book being mentioned by popular productivity influencers as a book that shaped their thinking on the subject. 

And I have to agree, this book doesn't disappoint. 

Key takeaways from this book: 

1. Your brain is not meant to be keeping track of To do lists. It's better at creative tasks, finding connections between disparate ideas, socializing. 

Therefore - if your goal is to have more clarity & creativity, you can't keep your RAM always packed at max capacity. You need to remove all these todo items from your storage onto somewhere else and TRUST that you will knock those tasks out. 

Whether that storage places happens to be a physical notebook or a software like Todoist is up to you. 

The most important thing - Is that you put EVERYTHING you're thinking about doing on to this software. and TRUST that you will keep this system. 

2. Some tasks are so short in time to complete - that you're bet of just knocking them out RIGHT NOW. David calls this the 2 minute rule. You may actually be wasting time adding it to your todolist software as opposed to getting the actual action done. 

3. Next actions. 
^A very powerful concept. Let's say you've got goals that you'd like to knock out, but you're facing low energy or there's too much DECISION fatigue. You've probably wrote down - Get health checkup done. 

^ This item in itself is composed of sub-tasks: Call Doctors office -> Check availability -> Create appointment -> Show up to appointment and get physical done. 

So -Instead of writing down the Item of Get Health Check up done -> write down the ACTION: Call Doctor's office

As you have tasks, the next level of accountability is to Integrate it with your calendar and start adding the time durations for when you're going to tackle these tasks.

Suat ATAN

Lord Aragorn

Finally read the book cover to cover. Now I feel ready to get things done.

The book Lifehack calls "The Bible of business and personal productivity." "A completely revised and updated edition of the blockbuster bestseller from 'the personal productivity guru'"—Fast Company 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.

Jimmy Cerone

Stunning book. Way more "life-giving" than I'd anticipated, in the sense that it was less about squeezing more productivity out of life and more about enjoying it. A pleasant surprise.

i found this book inspiring but a bit tiring to read and complicated until i got how to implement it in my life. and i also think it’s more promising than it should be. it appears as if it’s going to change your life and the relationships of yours but let’s be honest, it’s just life changing in regards to how you capture and organise your tasks, projects, etc.

it has inspired me to organise my tasks and projects as suggested, in Notion app, and since then, i have captured all my life in it. like, 

. and i came to realise that if you trust your system, you give your brain a break and doing it a huge favour.

i think it’s indeed a very useful system, the only problem is that it takes time to keep it updated and it’s where i struggle the most.

the most valuable information i got was to get clear on what’s my “next action” for my projects and i think that this makes it a whole lot easier when you’re overwhelmed and you don’t know where to start. if what you’re about to do is crystal clear in front of you, you have fewer chances to procrastinate on that.

if you love organising you’re going to love this book, if not, you might feel a bit of a resistance but you’ll do yourself a favour if you try to organise your life with the GTD system.

i found this book inspiring but a bit tiring to read and complicated until i got how to implement it in my life. and i also think it’s more promising than it should be. it appears as if it’s going to change your life and the relationships of yours but let’s be honest, it’s just life changing in regards to how you capture and organise your tasks, projects, etc.

it has inspired me to organise my tasks and projects as suggested, in Notion app, and since then, i have captured all my life in it. like, everything. and i came to realise that if you trust your system, you give your brain a break and doing it a huge favour.

i think it’s indeed a very useful system, the only problem is that it takes time to keep it updated and it’s where i struggle the most.

the most valuable information i got was to get clear on what’s my “next action” for my projects and i think that this makes it a whole lot easier when you’re overwhelmed and you don’t know where to start. if what you’re about to do is crystal clear in front of you, you have fewer chances to procrastinate on that.

if you love organising you’re going to love this book, if not, you might feel a bit of a resistance but you’ll do yourself a favour if you try to organise your life with the GTD system.

Becky A

There is a lot of jargon in this book, which makes it somewhat annoying to wade through. It also, at its core, isn't that revolutionary - you can be more productive by having a clear sense of what you need to do on each project you're working on, and by tracking all of your projects and actions.

That said, it was a very long look into a method of *how* to do that. Revolutionary, no; helpful, yes. I have always been pretty good with to-do lists, so this gave me a bunch of tips on organizing and tracking but didn't fundamentally change my method. My suspicion is that for folks like me, who already are pretty organized, it may be useful; for people who aren't, it'll either change their lives or be completely useless. 

(Also, the inbox flowchart method was worth the price of the book itself.)

Andy Sporring

The starterbook for everybody that needs an insight into organazing their lifes.

Cams Campbell

I've had this on my shelf for ages. I first got it after hearing Merlin interviewing David Allen, and soon gave up because his monotonous voice on the audiobook talking about business douchebaggery bored me to tears. In Back to Work #95 LINK, Merlin persuades Dan to read the book as prep for the next show, so I went back to it and listened to it myself. And yep, once again, monotonous voice talking about business douchebaggery. However I did bear it to the end and I didn't learn ANYTHING that I haven't already learned from hearing Merlin talk about productivity. And when I listen to Merlin talking about it, I get so much out of it it's quite ridiculous. I have implemented a lot of GTD into my workflow without having read the book and it helps me tremendously. 

So my recommendation to anyone who is not a business douchebag and is wondering whether to read this book, don't bother. Instead, read Merlin's stuff and listen to his podcasts. If you're the corporate boardroom type, maybe give the book a whirl, but if you're not into filing cabinets, golfing weekends and big cigars, Merlin's the go-to guy for you. Start with the podcast linked above, which has loads of links in the shownotes, including Merlin's article on 43folders.com: Getting started with GTD

Robin Peek

I was looking for a book helping me to get more structure in to my tasks and this book has definitely helped me with that. Since the book is actually something like a manual to the GTD method I think it would get the most result if you really use it that way. I have chosen to just take the things I wanted from it and didn't really went into making the complete GTD method my own. All things aside, I would recommend this book to everyone who struggles with keeping a clear vision on all of the incoming tasks every day.

Ivan Vega

I have tried many organizational techniques, and I have failed at every one.

I did learn a lot from each experience, and thus I think I can take advantage of the GTD system even more because of those experiences.

For some time I was particularly fond of Anthony Robbins' RPM system for life management, but it was too complex for me and I needed fast results.

GTD is proving to help me on that, because instead of starting by focusing on life's bigger issues, it starts by helping you taking control of your day to day activities, and then you can gradually move up higher (as far as your ultimate life goal if you want to) as you feel comfortable.

So it's a great system that starts very simple and you can build on that.

Femke

Unlike many other self help books, Allen actually describes which actions you need to take in order to implement his system (whereas other self help books are often painstakingly abstract). However, since it's been published over 20 years ago, some action steps are quite outdated. It says a lot that it's still much loved and applied years after its publication.

Some sections read like they've been added as fillers to up the page count, unfortunately. Overall, I loved reading it and actually felt engaged. Many of his techniques already helped me get dreaded things done. God, where has the 2-minute rule been all my life?

Annelies Van Rossen

Pro: some gold nuggets, true sayings


Con: system quite complicated


Getting things done is viewed as a staple in the productivity field. It left me wondering what benefit I could get from the book so I decided to pick it up. I love the way the author tells us to process things and think of the next physical action. This has benefitted me. Big things seem way to difficult or scary and this tip helps divide these in portions. However for me personally this system is too complicated for a system to simplify your life. I do recommend the book so you can take some things out of it that benefit your life.

Ivaylo Durmonski

I was disappointed. Getting Things Done is quoted by online gurus around the world and mentioned in different sites about productivity. The GTD method is considered the best approach to become ultra-productive. A way to transition from a lazy snail to a blazing doer. Unfortunately, even though it was revised and updated, I can’t say that Getting Things Done is even close to being the best book about organizing your life and becoming more productive.

The book gravitates – too much – around arranging your desk and about what you should remove and about what you should put as decorations in your office. There are more than 100 pages about organizing your cabinets, your shelves, and your desktop. But in the 21st century, as you probably know, you need simply a laptop and access to the internet, you don’t need supplies or in-trays to collect paper. You new fewer things on your desk.

Overall, the main lessons of this book could have been condensed in a page or two. The major takeaway for me is about grouping things into projects. It’s much easier to do something when you have everything in one place.

Read full summary: https://durmonski.com/book-summaries/...

Kaitlyn Krna

Highly recommend this book for anyone looking for help with productivity for a few reasons:
1)	Realistic approach: Allen explains that “…most people are so embroiled in commitments on a day-to-day level that their ability to focus successfully on the larger horizon is seriously impaired. Consequently, a bottom-up approach is usually more effective.” Can I get an amen? I needed something to help me get things accomplished right where I am. I already do quite a bit of big-picture thinking, but the nitty-gritty everyday details and tasks? I needed help with dealing with those! 
2)	Practical: This book is pretty straight-forward and focused on implementation.
3)	Fast read: While I read the whole thing cover to cover, you don’t need to do so. Allen has designed the book so that you really only need to read the first few chapters to understand how to get things done. 
In short, GTD may be a way to give yourself a clean mental slate whether you want to accomplish tasks for your corporate job, your own business, your personal house upkeep, or creative work.

'The Bible of business and personal productivity' Lifehack 'A completely revised and updated edition of the blockbuster bestseller from 'the personal productivity guru' Fast Company 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.

The Art of Stress-free Productivity

estefania sanchez sanz

“Getting things done” is the book that explains the organizational method by David Allan.

The “Getting things done” method consists in having things out of your brain, so you can use it to execute instead of having all those thoughts in your mind. The method he develops seems fairly logical and easy to maintain. Even if you have to put effort to implementing at the beginning.

I liked the method he explains in the book; however, I did not find the book helpful. Instead on focusing in the how’s he tells a lot about his clients and the change it has been for them to implement the system. Nonetheless, I found myself having to search a lot on YouTube and blogs how to put the system to work, since it does not really explain how to do it.



Overall, I think the book is too long, eve if the system is quite interesting. To be honest, I recommend watching YouTube videos instead of reading the book.

Judy Hudgins

reread after 7 years, the 2015 addition. it now fits in with my planning methods and liked it much more

Halsted Mencotti Bernard

Writing "this book changed my life" can be a cliche, but in this case, it's true. I'm a sucker for organizational schemes, and have tried many over the years, but this one works best for me.

Based on the premise that productivity is directly proportional to one's ability to handle tasks in a relaxed manner, the author offers strategies for self-management that minimize stress and enhance one's focus and efficiency. Original.

Getting Things Done The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

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