Easily one of the most genuinely helpful self-help books I’ve ever read. Huge fan of this book’s simple takes on organizing complex systems; only writing down next steps is genuinely life-changing, and I love my someday/maybe list. One or two parts are slightly outdated as occurs with any productivity books in this era, but I really liked this one!

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David Allen's smirking face on the cover of this book may convince that he's successful...but the man should reserve his smirk for one on one business dealings. The biggest issue with this book is, I couldn't get it done. n  Getting Things Donen is written for a non-existent audience: a procrastinator with enough motivation to actually plow through Allen's dry instruction manual.

Note: Didn't finish it, it was too boring.

I'm about a third into the book and David Allen still hasn't introduced very practical methods to get things done. There is no step by step to anything and each section is super long-winded. He also doesn't use clear, concise, or understandable and practical examples and stays really, really vague. There are however a couple of things he mentions that I find useful:
1) Capturing everything — the idea that every task needs to be recorded somehow otherwise it will take up space in your brain.
2) the two-minute rule — if it takes two minutes or less to get it done, do it right away as it comes in.

The other things he mentions are things I already implement:
1) having a stable archiving system (both digital and analog)
2) having a physical and digital space for incoming things to process
3) doing a weekly review

While his methods might be interesting, the book itself is badly written (at least so far) so I would recommend instead reading a short digital version or overview of his approach like this: https://hamberg.no/gtd

This was an audio reread for me of a book that literally changed my life when I first read it several years ago.

It revolutionized the way I view time management and allows me to accomplish an incredible amount of things in my life. Not that my life is perfect or that I am perfect!!! There are plenty of unproductive days in my life! But when I am following this system, I can literally have 150 things on my to do lists and still feel in control of things and be relaxed and calm. Part of the reason why I'm sure I'll top 150 books this year on top of being a wife, mom, homeschooling 2 children, being a gymnastics meet director, volunteering at our church, traveling a lot (we took a total of 9 trips last year), keeping up with all the housework, organizing lots of activities and trips for other homeschooling families and keeping up with the other dozens of life details, is because Getting Things Done.

Needless to say, I believe this is a must read for everyone.

I need all the help I can get!

I'm a big geek, and here's proof (if you needed it). I learned about GTD from Merlin Mann's 43 Folders site, and became an instant convert. Because I love folders, lists, diagrams, flow charts, of course, but most of all because with GTD, you have to have a labeller. I love my labeller. I love making labels for my files, and admiring them in their serried ranks, all neat and labelly.

And I do actually seem to be getting more done, even when I factor in all the time I spend labelling.

This is my go-to productivity book. Since reading it a few years ago, I’ve followed GTD in much of my professional and personal life. I highly recommended it to those who want to regain control of their time and become efficiently productive.

It teaches how to be “maximally efficient and relaxed” by avoiding “the so-called urgent and crisis demands of any given workday.” Allen says that “if we planned more about our projects and lives, we’d relieve a lot of pressure on our psyches and produce enormous creative output with minimal effort.”

Summary of GTD:
1. Get things out of your head and into a trusted system.
2. Clarify exactly what your commitment is and decide what you have to do.
3. Set reminders for the actions you need to take.

Notes
A New Practice for a New Reality
“[M]ost of the stress people experience comes from inappropriately managed commitments they make or accept.”

“Things rarely get stuck because of lack of time. They get stuck because the doing of them has not been defined.”

5 Stages of Mastering Workflow
1. Collect things that command your attention
2. Process what they mean and what to do about them
3. Organize the results
4. Review as options for what you choose to do
5. Do

Workflow Diagram - Processing

Image from frankcrum.com

Use your calendar only for things that absolutely must be done that day. Putting things that don’t have to be done that day is distracting and demoralizing.

Use the Weekly Review to “clean house.” Don’t try to stay “squeaky clean” all the time, as it distracts from work at hand.

5 Phases of Planning
When a project is stuck, think of your purpose. Think of specifically what a successful outcome would look like. Brainstorm potential steps. Organize your ideas. Decide on the next action.

The “why” of a project: Ask “why” to understand the purpose of what you’re doing. What are you really trying to accomplish?
The “what” of a project: what will this project really be like when it’s successfully completed?

Processing
Is it actionable?
- No: trash or keep for reference
- Yes: decide what the next action is:
-- Do it if it takes less than 2 minutes
-- Delegate it if others can handle it
-- Defer it if you must do it, but it will take more than 2 minutes
-- Identify and list any projects (more than 1 action step)

The action step needs to be the next physical, visible activity.

Organizing
Create an email folder named “Action” for emails you must act on. Create an email folder named “Waiting For” for emails you need to track because others are acting on them.

Collection
End every meeting, discussion, and interaction with asking, “What’s the next action?”

Надзвичайно нудна й марудна книга. Всю її суть можна звести до одного речення: випишіть все, що мозолить вам мозок, проаналізуйте це й вирішіть або забийте :) Нащо розписувати це на цілу книгу - мені незрозуміло. Проте це Америка, треба заробляти гроші, продавати свою методику, тож в з такої точки зору - чом би й ні. Але я би такого вдруге не читав.

Classic for learning how to life easy and finish things. Most of us drag so hard on our everyday lives that we cannot even think about the big and important life goals. This creates stress, resentment and chaos. The GTD system helps you regain control of your life - both privately and professionally. With his help you can master significantly more tasks than now, and in the end you will be much more relaxed (Blinkist, 2020).

26.08.2021: sehr leichter Fahrplan um eine Prioliste zu erstellen.

Klassiekertje over zelforganisatie. Erg nuttig voor iedereen die 's nachts in bed nog aan het werk is of voor van nature ongeordende geesten zoals ik. De strekking van dit boek is inmiddels zo wijd verbreid dat ik de kern al te pakken had voordat ik een paar cursusdagen Getting Things Done volgde en ook dat is alweer een paar jaar geleden, maar het boek doorakkeren haalt al die weggezakte tips net weer wat scherper naar boven.

Als je moeite hebt met het inrichten van je agenda en je takenlijstjes is dit boek een goed startpunt. De strekking één zin: noteer alles wat je moet doen, sorteer het en plan het, maar probeer het niet in je hoofd op te slaan want dat is zonde van je hersencapaciteit. Een no-brainer natuurlijk, maar het boek biedt dan ook nog een overzichtelijke methode om dat aan te pakken. Soms zo overgeorganiseerd dat het mij iets te rigide wordt, maar dat is een logisch gevolg van de systematische aanpak. Gewoon eruit halen wat voor jou nuttig is en werkt.

Kortom: uitstekende handleiding voor een goed georganiseerd werkleven.

Taken in the right spirit, this book can change your life. Don't get stuck in the weeds. Take away the things you need and leave the rest. In particular there are many apps and pieces of software (Omnifocus is one of the best, but ther eare others) that can do the work that Allen used to do with folders, papers, index cards.

Here's my takeaway, based on some thinking from Merlin Mann and other productivity experts/writers:

1) Sit down every week and write down all the stuff you need to do. In every aspect of your life. A giant huge list. Go into great detail. If there is a project, write down each critical thing you need to do. This can be applied to anything from painting your apartment (select color, buy paint, get brushes, etc) to a task at work (set budget, name staff, talk to boss, etc.) This is the capture stage.

You will feel immediate relief to have emptied your mind of all these things bothering you.

2) Sit down every week or day and process this list. You can't possibly do it all. So figure out the things you need to do next, the things you want to do after that, and the stuff you hope to do some day. A to-do list app can help you to rank these things and set some deadlines on each item. This is processing.

3) For work, come in each day and check your list. Do the things that need doing. Leave work happy even if you don't accomplish anything, knowing that you have put the time you had available to good use.

There's a lot more than that to take away, but this was the first cut, for me.

The listmaking and processing are one way to be sure you are working to your goals, not the goals that others are trying to impose on you through calls, meetings, e-mail, or other random factors. When you take on assignments from others, you do so consciously and for a good reason (you share the goal, your boss wants it, your spouse wants it, whatever.) You become less reactive and more effective.

Objectives

(1) Capturing all the things that need to be done

(2) Disciplining yourself to make front-end decisions

Problem

The Problem: new demands, insufficient resources

People have enhanced quality of life but at the same time they are adding to their stress levels by taking on more than they have resources to handle

Work

Work no longer clear boundaries

20th century work is knowledge work

In the old days it was clear when the work was finished, or not finished

Anxiety

Anxiety is caused by a lack of control, organization, preparation and action — David Kekich

The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators — Edward Gibbon

Think "Big Picture"

Lack of Attention

Life is denied by lack of attention, whether it be to cleaning windows or trying to write a masterpiece — Nadia Boulanger

Mind like Water

Your ability to generate power is directly proportional to your ability to relax

If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything, it is open to everything — Shunryu Suzuki

We can be completely present. We can be all here. We can give all our attention to the opportunity before us — Mark Van Doren

Get back to "mind like water" with all your resources and the faculties functioning

Open Loops

You've made many more agreements with yourself than you realize being tracked by less-than-conscious part of you which I define "incompletes" or "open loops" anything pulling at your attention that doesn’t belong where it is

Collection Bucket

They must be captured in a trusted system outside your mind which I call a collection bucket

Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought — Henri Bergson

Knowledge Work

In knowledge work thought is not given, it has to be determined

It is a question that demands risky decisions

There is usually no right answer. There are choices instead. And result have to be clearly specified

The ancestor of every action is thought

Outcome thinking is one of the most effective means available for making wishes reality

Brain

Your brain can't give up the job

You can fool everyone else, but you can't fool you own mind

The constant, unproductive preoccupation with all the things we have to do is the single largest consumer of the time and energy — Kerry Gleeson

Stuff

Anything you have allowed into your psychological and physical world that doesn’t belong where it is, but for which you haven't yet determined the desired outcome and the next action

As long as it's still "stuff", it's not controllable

We need to transform all the "stuff" we're trying to organize into actionable stuff we need to do

Key to managing your "stuff" is to managing your actions

The beginning is half of the every action — Greek Proverb

Clarity

Lack of time is not the major issue. Problem is a lack of clarity

Starting with most mundane, ground-floor level of activities and commitments

Vision is not enough, It must be combined with venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps, we must step up the stairs — Vaclav Havel

Horizontal and Vertical Control

Horizontal control maintains coherence across all the activities in which you are involved

Vertical control manages thinking up and down the track of individual topics and projects

Conscious Mind

Your conscious mind, like the computer screen, is a focusing tool, not a storage place

(1) Collect things that command out attention

(2) Process what they mean what to do about them

(3) Organize the result

(4) Review as options for what we choose to

(5) Do

Eliminate holes in the bucket

As soon as you attach a "should", "need to", or "ought to" to an item, it becomes an incomplete

Minimize the number of collection buckets

Your best ideas about work will not come to you at work

Empty the buckets regularly

Processing workflow

(1) Stuff In-Basket

(2) What is it?

(2) Is it Actionable

(a) Yes -> What's the next Action? -> [Organize]

(b) No -> [Organize]

It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires a great deal of strength to decide what to do — Elbert Hubbard

Do it, delegate it, or defer it once you've decided on the next action

Organizing workflow

(1) Stuff is not actionable

(a) Trash

(b) Someday / Maybe

(c) Reference

(2) Stuff is actionable -> What's the next action

(a) If it takes two minutes -> Do it

(b) else, Delegate it -> wait till someone completes it

(c) Defer it -> Calendar, Next Action

I define a project as any desired result that requires more than one action step

(1) Time specific actions

(2) Day specific actions

(3) Day specific information

Reviewing

Review the whole picture of your life and work at appropriate intervals and appropriate levels

Weekly Review

(1) Gather an process all your "stuff"

(2) Review you system

(3) Update your lists

(4) Get clean, clear, current, and complete

Do

You can move from hope to trust in your actions, immediately increasing your speed and effectiveness

Every decision to act is an intuitive one

Choosing Actions

(1) Context

(2) Time

(3) Energy

(4) Priority

Evaluating Daily Work

(1) Doing predefined work

(2) Doing work as it shows up

(3) Defining your work

Reviewing your Own Work

(1) Current actions

(2) Current projects

(3) Areas of responsibility

(4) One-to-two year goals

(5) Three-to-five year vision

(6) "Big Picture" view

Mission statement

Why does your company exist?

Why do you exist?

Planning

You yourself are a planning machine

Most experienced planner is your bran:

(1) defining purpose and principles

(2) Outcome visioning

(3) Brainstorming

(4) Organizing

(5) Identifying next actions

Natural Planning

Purpose -> Why

Celebrate any progress. Don’t wait to get perfect — Ann McGee Cooper

Principles -> How

Simple, clear purpose and principles give rise to complex and intelligent behavior. Complex rules and regulations give rise to simple and stupid behavior — Dee Hock

Purpose -> Direction

Principles -> Parameters and Criteria

You must have a clear picture in your mind of what success would look, sound, and feels

Vision -> Blueprint of Final Result

Imagination is more important than knowledge — Albert Einstein

Paradigms -> Internal Belief System and Contexts

Clear Outcomes

I always wanted to be somebody. I should have been more specific

Visions -> View the project from beyond the completion date

The best way to get a good idea is to get lots of ideas — Linus Pauling

When you identify with some picture in your mind that is different from you current reality, you automatically start filling the gaps. Or brainstorming

Ideas begin to pop into your head in somewhat random order

Mind Mapping

In mind-mapping the core idea is presented in the center, with associated ideas growing

Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it is the only one you have — Emile Chartier

Only he who handles his ideas lightly is mater of his ideas — Lin Yutang

Brainstorming

(1) Don’t judge

(2) Challenge

(3) Evaluate, or criticize

(4) Go for quantity, not for quality

(5) Put analysis and organization in the background

Organizing

(1) Significance

(2) Sorting

(3) Sequence

(4) Priority

Next Action

Allocation and re-allocation of physical resources to actually get the project moving