Books : Getting Things Done: The Art Of Stress-Free Productivity
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In association with Amazon.com
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by: David Allen
List Price: $25.00Amazon.com's Price: $17.75 You Save: $7.25 (29%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Audio CD
Dewey Decimal Number: 646.7
EAN: 9780743520348
Format: Abridged, Audiobook
ISBN: 0743520343
Label: Simon & Schuster Audio
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster Audio
Number Of Items: 3
Number Of Pages: 3
Publication Date: January 01, 2002
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Sales Rank: 51603
Studio: Simon & Schuster Audio
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
In today's world of exponentially increased communication and responsibility, yesterday's methods for staying on top just don't work.
Veteran management consultant and trainer David Allen recognizes that 'time management' is useless the minute your schedule is interrupted; 'setting priorities' isn't relevant when your email is down; 'procrastination solutions' won't help if your goals aren't clear.
Allen's premise is simple: our ability to be productive is directly proportional to our ability to relax. Only when our minds are clear and our thoughts are organized can we achieve stress-free productivity and unleash our creative potential. He teaches us how to:
- Apply the 'do it, delegate it, defer it, drop it' rule to get your in-box empty
- Reassess goals and stay focused in changing situations
- Overcome feelings of confusion, anxiety, and being overwhelmed
- Feel fine about what you're not doing
From core principles to proven tricks, Getting Things Done has the potential to transform the way you work -- and the way you experience work. At any level of implementation, David Allen's entertaining and thought-provoking advice shows you how to pick up the pace without wearing yourself down.
Amazon.com 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-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
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Great Book
GTD is a great book. I've read it cover to cover. Now, I'm re-reading it slower and implementing many of David Allen's tips. I highly recommend the book for anyone struggling to keep up with their busy lives. This book will pay off for you. Buy it, read it, do it.
Rating:  - My two-cents
This is a very poorly written, poorly edited, dare I say disorganized book that contains some very good ideas. It will make your head hurt to read. However, some of the information is very useful.
Rating: - Brilliant action management book
David Allen did something very different with Getting Things Done. One the surface, it is just like any other productivity system. You have things to do (Next Actions) and you need to do them. David's system gives you mental hints on when/where you should be doing them, and which thing you should be doing next.
It's less about what is the highest priority item, it is more about what is the highest priority item at this exact moment, with the tools you have at hand, and in the mood ... Read More
Rating: - Very Helpful
I have had my department expanded and really needed to "get organized". This book was a great help in getting started. It has some simple ways to get through the daily "stuff" we all deal with. My daily routine has become more organized and I have a clearer idea of my plan of action.
Rating: - will help you radically reduce the clutter and 'must do' projects in your life
Why Bother?: Maybe you will find it as useful as I have and throw out your todo lists, day planners and scraps of paper on your nightstand. This simply-titled book started something of a revolution in the tame world of personal organization. In the words of an article in Wired, Allen inspired a "new cult for the information age".
Core ideas: The inspiration for this book was a realization by Allen that until the `information age' most people worked at jobs where achieved tangible outcomes ... Read More
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