false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1158299716m/1633.jpg 1633 14 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 <I>Zen and the Art of Schedule Maintenance</I>.<p> Not quite. Yes, <I>Getting Things Done</I> 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 <I>Fast Company</I> 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.)<p> 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" <p> 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). --<I>Timothy Murphy</I> 5759 2001 Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity total:2614|5:889|4:999|3:547|2:136|1:43| 2614 10397 4705 634 4 7 false false Mon Aug 07 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Fri Aug 15 11:31:28 -0700 2008 Fri Aug 15 11:31:49 -0700 2008 more...]]> 0 4 false false Tue Sep 11 18:45:53 -0700 2007 Tue Sep 11 18:45:53 -0700 2007 Getting Things Done...more...]]> 3 2 false false Wed Jul 02 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Jun 25 07:04:05 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 02 22:05:28 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 3 true false Mon Feb 09 13:18:10 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 01 10:49:29 -0800 2009
David Allen teaches you ho...more...]]> 4 1 false false Sat Jan 03 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Dec 27 16:53:59 -0800 2008 Thu Feb 05 18:40:54 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 2 false false Mon Jul 21 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Jun 16 14:28:43 -0700 2008 Sun Jul 27 20:49:00 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sat Nov 24 09:28:58 -0800 2007 Sat Jan 19 08:01:36 -0800 2008
I didn't read the e...more...]]> 5 1 false false Wed Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Sat Sep 01 12:00:56 -0700 2007 Sat Sep 01 12:12:22 -0700 2007
The basic idea of the system is that...more...]]> 2 2 false false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Mar 20 16:12:32 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 16 11:01:59 -0700 2008
- 2 minute rule: if you remember to do something and it takes you less than two minutes to do it, just ...more...]]> 4 1 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Sep 27 17:31:05 -0700 2007 Thu Sep 27 17:31:05 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Dec 02 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Nov 21 13:46:07 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 02 12:30:28 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Sun Mar 15 15:49:55 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 20 10:28:49 -0700 2009 Getting Things Done is the best material I'm aware of to learn how to process the deluge of information coming at us on a daily basis.
...more...]]> 1 2 false false Fri Jan 30 07:50:18 -0800 2009 Tue Mar 03 14:59:43 -0800 2009
I should have known it wasn’t for me, when...more...]]> 5 2 false false Sun Jul 29 13:27:30 -0700 2007 Sun Jul 29 13:30:36 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Oct 30 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Nov 07 17:20:57 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 08 03:14:34 -0800 2009 1 43folders.com and the Get-It-Done Guy podcast, so I had to read it. The format was somewhat confusing; it starts with an overview of the main points that didn't seem high-level enough; there w...more...]]> 5 1 false false Sun Aug 09 20:42:02 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 10 12:13:59 -0700 2009
This is a long review, and I have skipped some minor points, but I think this is it in a nutshell.

**spoiler alert**

In places GTD...more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon May 04 20:25:16 -0700 2009 Mon May 04 20:48:27 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Apr 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 10 21:25:10 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 10 21:33:52 -0700 2009
1) Free up as much "psychic RAM" as possible ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Dec 21 12:09:38 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 21 12:12:43 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 0 true false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 10 11:29:43 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 10 11:30:12 -0800 2008 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=1633