 2008-11-13 - getting things done
David Allen did a good job. He guides the reader with important princples to complete a task. From the simplest task to the most complex projects, the principles are straightforward applicable.
 2008-11-09 - Fundamental change in thinking
This is part of the new story which says, you can't predict and control the future, you can only track your progress against an honest account of reality. Look into other sources like Holacracy and Agile Software development for examples of this story at different levels of scale.
2008-11-08 - A truely effective and practical time management system
Most time management books, even those well intentioned like Stephen Covey's "First Things First," are unhelpful. Most either tell you how to pile more stuff onto an already too full plate or are so elaborate to be impractical. As "Getting Things Done" points out starting from your goals and priorities often becomes so elaborate and involved most people just give up. Besides, you need to get things done and often those things are forced upon you having nothing to do with goals, passions and dreams.
"Getting Things Done" is the last book on time management and organization you'll ever need. The book isn't so much a system as a way of thinking, a way of life. It is about getting things out of your head so that you can think clearly instead of being clogged up with worries, to-dos and open items. Once you've gotten all the clutter out of your brain and onto paper you can "get them done" instead of worrying about them.
"Getting Things Done" is all about execution and productivity. It is practical, easy to use and remember, and effective. You will get more done with less stress and, for me most importantly, let go of things that were never going to get done in the first place. I've tried most time management systems and products, from Daytimer to Covey to Tracy. "Getting Things Done" works. It can be career and life changing.
2008-11-04 - Some great information
I've read (or at least tried to read) several self-help type books, and most of them are decidedly unhelpful. And I've realized that all this time the thing lacking in self-help literature was advice at the every-day, mundane, workaday level of getting things accomplished. That is what this book provides.
There is a ton of specific advice on how to organize your life so that you can operate smoothly and without (much) stress. It is certainly an oversimplification to say that simply writing things down will make it easy to live a stress-free, hyper-productive life. After reading the book and implementing most of the suggestions, I still find myself procrastinating on things from time to time, I still feel anxiety over large projects that are hanging over my head. Regardless of how much you plan things and write them down, if you have large volumes of work undone I think some stress is inevitable. So I wouldn't call my new lifestyle stress-FREE, but definitely REDUCED-stress.
To the people that see this book as being a product of our "consumer culture" or our obsession with productivity, I say that that is exactly what this book is intended to remedy. There is no escaping the new, high-tech, ever-changing culture we live in. Unless you are willing to isolate yourself from the modern world, ideas like those found in this book are becoming more and more necessary to actually get important work done and not severely damage your mind with stress. Furthermore, by becoming somewhat of a control-freak for every-day details, paradoxically you are able to live a more harmonious, relaxed, and spontaneous life. This is the message of the book that I think some people are missing, based on some of the negative reviews.
Of course, as with most books like this, there is a lot of excess verbiage and story-telling. But it is a short enough read anyways, so I don't think it's a big deal. Overall this book is packed with great advice and I highly recommend it to people who feel their lives are out of control or they want to get themselves out of procrastination and emergency mode.
2008-10-28 - Get out of the mess
I happened to find this book on amazon and decided to buy/read, but apparently this book is pretty popular.
Even as a graduate student, there are tons of things need to be done every day, and if you have a set system where you can set aside your "to dos," it makes your life much better. This book helped me set up this system and feel better for doing things AND not doing things.
In my case, feeling bad for not doing things have a huge impact and brings lots of stress, so this book improved my life significantly.
I believe this book will keep more people happier and more productive.
I highly recommend this book for anybody.
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