Getting Things Done
The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
David Allen

Book Review

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen - Buy Now From Amazon

Reviewed by Marty Vanags

Several months ago, after answering all my email, reading my favorite Web sites, responding to my voicemail and clearing off my desk, I sat staring at my computer screen wondering what to do next. I know I had at least a dozen projects and issues—maybe more—that needed my immediate attention, and if I peered behind me I could see several arranged file folder systems and file drawers with a plethora of information in them that would inform me of the tasks at hand. But, even with all that information, I wasn’t sure which project I should start next and which item needed my immediate attention. I’m sure there are others who share my dilemma occasionally, perhaps even daily.

I needed help, and one day not so long after my effectiveness mini-crisis, I came across an article in Business 2.0, a magazine published by the folks that bring you BusinessWeek magazine. An article about a book with a simple title by a business guru named David Allen caught my eye. Oh yes, I rode the Stephen Covey bandwagon in the early Nineties and prided myself on having read many of the business and personal productivity  tomes about peak performance, leadership, efficiency and other business topics over the years. I knew them all, but none of them really pointed to the crisis I was having that day several months ago, sitting at my desk wondering “what now?”

David Allen published a book called Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. In the article, I was intrigued by the simplicity of the book title and the fact that it took David Allen several years to come to the realization that we are all busy and we need to empty our minds of the tons of data and information that come to us on a constant basis. Allen referred to this data with a very technical term: “stuff.” Emptying our minds, Allen said, will make you more efficient, calm and productive as an employee, leader or simply as a human being.

The basic premise of the book is a mantra Allen introduces at his Roadmap Seminars he holds throughout the country. “Mind like water” is his overarching idea when it comes to being productive. Getting things done means always being prepared for whatever might come your way and having a systematic way to deal with every bit and byte of information in whatever form it comes in. Allen uses the analogy (and, in fact, his products use the logo) of a pond of water being interrupted by a leaf dropping slowly from a tree above—a quaint and serene scene if there ever was one. When this leaf hits the water, it creates a ripple of waves, albeit small waves. Take a pebble and the same ripple effect occurs, this time a bit larger. A bigger rock, again, creates a similar event, even larger. What does this say to us? Your mind, like water, must be prepared to react in the same calm way no matter what gets thrown at you—a leaf, pebble or rock. Your mind, Allen argues, can be trained to deal with all the issues of the day in a prepared state at the moment it occurs.

That all sounds like high-minded philosophy, but the truth is the book is a little more mundane than the Zen-like “mind like water” principles I’ve just described. It reads somewhat like a textbook, yet if you can get through the 267 pages (and I did over the course of a weekend) you can go back and look over the various chapters to start implementing the system. 

The premise of the system is that everything you do—every piece of paper or data that represents something you may give thought to—should be collected in one spot. This “bucket,” as Allen calls it, should be a physical location like an in-basket or a pile on the corner of your desk. This includes any thought or project you are thinking about. Place that thought on a piece of paper (I found this to be a good use of the piles of scrap paper we generate) and put it in your bucket. Going through this process can be exhausting, frustrating and time-consuming, but it is the first step in a truly liberating process. Allen promotes the use of a very low-tech idea of writing things down as they occur on a notepad you carry around.

Following the collection process, you now go through the bucket and begin taking some action. This is the critical step in Allen’s process and the hardest part of the game. This step involves a very simple question of “what is it?” Once you have determined what it is, you next ask, “is it actionable?”—In other words, does it require action? If it does require action, and if you can do it in two minutes or less, then you do it. If you can’t achieve it in less than two minutes, you either delegate the item or defer it to another day.

If it is actionable and is part of a multi-step process, then it is considered a project and goes into a project planning folder to be reviewed on a weekly basis for any action steps required. If the item is not actionable, then you eliminate it (the proverbial “round-file”), incubate it for possible future action or place it in a file for future reference.

According to David Allen, it is really that simple. The book has all types of instructions on how to implement the system, including what seems to be an antiquated idea of using a tickler filing system. When I first read this I was skeptical and scoffed at the idea. However, I am here to tell you that the tickler system has saved me many times recently when I was searching for a travel file or some other project that had been deferred. Allen also says you should have a weekly (at least) session with all your files, projects and ideas to keep yourself up to date and moving towards productivity nirvana. In my own experience I have found that the best way to use Allen’s system is to implement it fully and specifically the way he has designed it. Doing less will throw the entire process out of sync.

Getting Things Done is a book for everyone. I really wasn’t searching for this system when I came across it, but I would admit it has changed my perspective on how I operate on a daily basis. With the amount of information and the level of productivity we are expected to maintain each day, it is foolish to think that one cannot improve their abilities through the introduction of the ideas found in this book.

Allen, of course, has turned this book into an industry. There are GTD (the aficionado’s term for Getting Things Done) software programs and Web sites, and Allen has a very interesting Web site with “gear,” as he likes to call it, and the book. You can find the book anywhere, including local bookstores, for about $15, but it can also be found online for less. I have purchased copies for my entire staff and several other people, one of whom I gave a copy to after he was amazed or complimented me (I am unsure which it was) on the cleanliness of my desk.

Read David Allen’s Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity and get productive, have peace of mind that you are getting all that you want to achieve completed and transform yourself into a state of “mind like water.”

More information about David Allen and his books can be found at these Web sites:

www.davidco.com

 

www.wired.coml

 

www.43folders.com