Review: "Getting Things Done" by David Allen

Since becoming a mom, I had forgotten all of the organizational productivity skills that i possessed during my successful career as a manager in information technology.  My to do list was a disaster.  During the few moments I was able to have some semblance of a to do list, I didn't have the right tools in place to be able to access it easily.

Then I discovered David Allen's book "Getting Things Done."  Surfing the web, you'll find proponents and detractors of the GTD system.  While reading the book, I found numerous things that didn't work for me.  But on balance, there were more things that worked for me than didn't.

For example, some things that didn't work for me:

GTD recommends having an extensive tickler system to handle recurring events. Although I have a number of recurring events on my to do list, I found it much easier to simply use recurring events in my to do list software.
The concept of the "inbox" didn't work for me.  If something gets stuck in a folder it's "out of sight, out of mind" for me.  I need to either get something on my to do list right away or make a visible pile that will force me to deal with it in the short term.
Although the GTD approach does not encourage assigning priorities to tasks, I found that I needed to use both priorities and assigning tasks to specific days.  I had to do this because I cannot operate with a larger, amorphous to do list.  I had major problems choosing the "next" thing on the list to do and I needed for the list itself to tell me what to do next.

And here are some of the key concepts that rang true for me:

The two-minute rule has worked wonders for me.  The rule says that if something will take less than two minutes, just do it rather than putting it on the to do list.  I modify this rule from time to time. I sometimes change it to a five-minute rule. Sometimes I violate the rule if I just don't have time to do something in the moment.
The process that Allen walks through to gather all of the "stuff" that needs to go onto the to do list was very effective for me.  The bad news was that it made my to do list much bigger, but the good news is that it relieved my stress because i finally felt that I knew everything that was on my plate.
Part of my problem, as I realized while reading GTD, was that many of the items on my to do list were too ill-defined and they were actually "projects" rather than to do items.  Once I analyzed those items and followed the GTD approach of putting the "next action item" on my to do list (a smaller, specific task) my list got much more manageable.
One of the guiding principles of the GTD approach is that a large part of the daily stress that we experience is a result of trying to keep all of the tasks that are on our plate in our heads. The process of dumping all of those tasks into a list is tremendously freeing and goes a long way towards reducing stress.


I'm still in the process of refining the concept of "projects" within GTD and how to make that work within my to do lists.  I created folders and had my task lists there, but with my "out of sight, out of mind" issue, these lists got ignored.  I agree with the philosophy of projects, but haven't yet found a good solution to how to keep this work organized.

I still get overwhelmed sometimes and I'm not very good about having a regular weekly review period to update the to do list.  But I'm much better than I was a year ago and I hope to keep improving.

One of the best things about this book is that you can read it in chunks and do the organizational work as you read. I personally hate self-help books that take so long to read that I feel like I'm being prevented from working on the task at-hand.

Critics of GTD often point out that the book is very general and common sense. While I agree to some extent, there are a lot of specifics in this book that can help you rethink how you organize your tasks and your time. If you read this book and come away thinking that it's too general, then your to do list is probably pretty well organized.

I highly recommend this book if your to do list is out of control.  The principles may or may not work for you, but I encourage you to try the GTD approach and then tweak it if necessary to fit your work style.

"Getting Things Done" is available in e-book, paperback and hardback formats from all major booksellers.