Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

by David Allen

The methods I present here are all based on two key objectives: (1) capturing all the things that need to get done—now, later, someday, big, little, or in between—into a logical and trusted system outside of your head and off your mind; and (2) disciplining yourself to make front-end decisions about all of the “inputs” you let into your life so that you will always have a plan for “next actions” that you can implement or renegotiate at any moment.

A paradox has emerged in this new millennium: 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.

A major factor in the mounting stress level is that the actual nature of our jobs has changed much more dramatically and rapidly than have our training for and our ability to deal with work.

In the old days, work was self-evident.

Now, for many of us, there are no edges to most of our projects.

Most people I know have at least half a dozen things they’re trying to achieve right now, and even if they had the rest of their lives to try, they wouldn’t be able to finish these to perfection.

On another front, the lack of edges can create more work for everyone.

The disintegrating edges of our projects and our work in general would be challenging enough for anyone. But now we must add to that equation the constantly shifting definition of our jobs.

1. | The organizations we’re involved with seem to be in constant morph mode, with ever-changing goals, products, partners, customers, markets, technologies, and owners.

| The organizations we’re involved with seem to be in constant morph mode,

2. | The average professional is more of a free agent these days than ever before, changing careers as often as his or her parents once changed jobs.

The average professional is more of a free agent these days than ever before, changing careers as often as his or her parents once changed jobs.

Little seems clear for very long anymore, as far as what our work is and what or how much input may be relevant to doing it well.

Neither our standard education, nor traditional time-management models, nor the plethora of organizing tools available, such as personal notebook planners, Microsoft Outlook, or Palm personal digital assistants (PDAs), has given us a viable means of meeting the new demands placed on us.

The ability to be successful, relaxed, and in control during these fertile but turbulent times demands new ways of thinking and working.

The traditional approaches to time management and personal organization were useful in their time.

What you’ve probably discovered, at least at some level, is that a calendar, though important, can really effectively manage only a small portion of what you need to organize.

1. | There is too much distraction at the day-to-day, hour-to-hour level of commitments to allow for appropriate focus on the higher levels. 2. | Ineffective personal organizational systems create huge subconscious resistance to undertaking even bigger projects and goals that will likely not be managed well, and that will in turn cause even more distraction and stress. 3. | When loftier levels and values actually are clarified, it raises the bar of our standards, making us notice that much more that needs changing. We are already having a serious negative reaction to the overwhelming number of things we have to do. And what created much of the work that’s on those lists in the first place? Our values!

create huge subconscious resistance to undertaking even bigger projects and goals that will likely not be managed well,

Focusing on values does not simplify your life.

a system with a coherent set of behaviors and tools that functions effectively at the level at which work really happens. It must incorporate the results of big-picture thinking as well as the smallest of open details. It must manage multiple tiers of priorities. It must maintain control over hundreds of new inputs daily. It must save a lot more time and effort than are needed to maintain it. It must make it easier to get things done.

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

In karate there is an image that’s used to define the position of perfect readiness: “mind like water.”

The power in a karate punch comes from speed, not muscle; it comes from a focused “pop” at the end of the whip.

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

Anything that causes you to overreact or underreact can control you, and often does.

Anything that causes you to overreact or underreact can control you, and often does.

most of the stress people experience comes from inappropriately managed commitments they make or accept.

You’ve probably made many more agreements with yourself than you realize, and every single one of them—big or little—is being tracked by a less-than-conscious part of you.

It’s likely that you also have more internal commitments currently in play than you’re aware of.

Anything that does not belong where it is, the way it is, is an “open loop” pulling on your attention.

In order to deal effectively with all of that, you must first identify and collect all those things that are “ringing your bell” in some way, and then plan how to handle them.

• First of all, if it’s on your mind, your mind isn’t clear. Anything you consider unfinished in any way must be captured in a trusted system outside your mind, or what I call a collection bucket, that you know you’ll come back to regularly and sort through.

Second, you must clarify exactly what your commitment is and decide what you have to do, if anything, to make progress toward fulfilling it.

you must clarify exactly what your commitment is and decide w...

Third, once you’ve decided on all the actions you need to take, you must keep reminders of them organized in a system you review regularly.

once you’ve decided on all the actions you need to take, you must keep reminders of them organized in a system you review regularly.

You have to think about your stuff more than you realize but not as much as you’re afraid you might.

Thinking in a concentrated manner to define desired outcomes is something few people feel they have to do. But in truth, outcome thinking is one of the most effective means available for making wishes reality.

Most often, the reason something is “on your mind” is that you want it to be different than it currently is, and yet: • you haven’t clarified exactly what the intended outcome is; • you haven’t decided what the very next physical action step is; and/or

• you haven’t put reminders of the outcome and the action required in a system you trust.

Until those thoughts have been clarified and those decisions made, and the resulting data has been stored in a system that you absolutely know you will think about as often as you need to, your brain can’t give up the job.

Rule your mind or it will rule you.

Here’s how I define “stuff”: anything you have allowed into your psychological or physical world that doesn’t belong where it is, but for which you haven’t yet determined the desired outcome and the next action step.

We need to transform all the “stuff” we’re trying to organize into actionable stuff we need to do.

But once “stuff” comes into our lives and work, we have an inherent commitment to ourselves to define and clarify its meaning.

You can train yourself, almost like an athlete, to be faster, more responsive, more proactive, and more focused in knowledge work.

Instead, the key to managing all of your “stuff” is managing your actions.

What you do with your time, what you do with information, and what you do with your body and your focus relative to your priorities—those are the real options to which you must allocate your limited resources.

It’s extremely difficult to manage actions you haven’t identified or decided on.