This week I finished reading Getting Things Done by David Allen. I thought it was an excellent book. Many of the problems and solutions he presented resonated with me.
The gist of the book is that you can be more productive if you relieve your mind of stress. Part of that is “capturing” everything you have to do, making sure you all of the inputs and pressure points in your life are in front of you. You don’t have to do them all; you just have to know what they are. Then you can choose which ones you will do and which ones you’ll delay or never do. He says you can’t enjoy a quiet walk by yourself or an evening with your friends if you don’t know what you’re saying “no” to.
Another part of relieving stress is breaking down your projects into manageable tasks. Your to-do list should only contain atomic tasks that could each be done in a sitting, especially in your current context (on the phone, on the computer, etc.) Larger items should be on a “projects list”, which you occasionally look at to decide what the next action for each project is.
For example, instead of writing “do my taxes” on your to do list, write it on your project list. (It’s unlikely someone can do his taxes in one sitting, at least for me.) Then on your to-do list write the first action that will help you finish your taxes, such as “find all my W-2s.” You’ll be much more productive if you systematically make small progress on each of your big projects.
You should also “process” your inputs as soon as they come to you. If an email comes in and it would only take 2 minutes to reply, do it now. If it will take much more thought and composition, reply saying you’ll get back to them soon, then save the message in a “follow up” folder. Keep your inbox clear.
There were several areas mentioned in this book that I need to improve in, and I thought David Allen did an excellent job of explaining how to improve.
If you want to learn more about the principles in this book from the Web, there are at least 3 websites that regularly write about Getting Things Done (GTD):