Getting Things Done: The Art Of Stress-Free Productivity Books In Print, Audio Books.|
Getting Things Done: The Art Of Stress-Free Productivity buy bestselling books in print, audio books |
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List Price: $25.00 Our Price: $16.50 You Save: $8.5 Features • Abridged • Audiobook |
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Getting Things Done: The Art Of Stress-Free Productivity description With first-chapter allusions to martial arts, "flow," "mind like water," and other concepts borrowed from the East (and usually mangled), you'd almost think this self-helper from David Allen should have been called Zen and the Art of Schedule Maintenance. Not quite. Yes, Getting Things Done offers a complete system for downloading all those free-floating gotta-do's clogging your brain into a sophisticated framework of files and action lists--all purportedly to free your mind to focus on whatever you're working on. However, it still operates from the decidedly Western notion that if we could just get really, really organized, we could turn ourselves into 24/7 productivity machines. (To wit, Allen, whom the New Economy bible Fast Company has dubbed "the personal productivity guru," suggests that instead of meditating on crouching tigers and hidden dragons while you wait for a plane, you should unsheathe that high-tech saber known as the cell phone and attack that list of calls you need to return.) As whole-life-organizing systems go, Allen's is pretty good, even fun and therapeutic. It starts with the exhortation to take every unaccounted-for scrap of paper in your workstation that you can't junk, The next step is to write down every unaccounted-for gotta-do cramming your head onto its own scrap of paper. Finally, throw the whole stew into a giant "in-basket" That's where the processing and prioritizing begin; in Allen's system, it get a little convoluted at times, rife as it is with fancy terms, subterms, and sub-subterms for even the simplest concepts. Thank goodness the spine of his system is captured on a straightforward, one-page flowchart that you can pin over your desk and repeatedly consult without having to refer back to the book. That alone is worth the purchase price. Also of value is Allen's ingenious Two-Minute Rule: if there's anything you absolutely must do that you can do right now in two minutes or less, then do it now, thus freeing up your time and mind tenfold over the long term. It's commonsense advice so obvious that most of us completely overlook it, much to our detriment; Allen excels at dispensing such wisdom in this useful, if somewhat belabored, self-improver aimed at everyone from CEOs to soccer moms (who we all know are more organized than most CEOs to start with). --Timothy Murphy |
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| ♥♥♥♥♥ | Intended for male executives |
| I realize a lot of people have given this book a 5-star review, however I was very disappointed in it. I have read five or six time management books in the past week as research for a class. This one in particular had several flaws, in my opinion. This is not a time management book that would be useful for everyone. It does address projects that could apply at home, but there is never the sense that the author is aware of the daily chores that take up so much time - such as laundry, dishes, grocery shopping, etc. He encourages more ways to do office work at home on and on weekends. At one point he actually says that some of his most stressed clients are the ones who work all day, then have to go home and deal with their spouse and screaming children, and they are lucky if they have a long commute. I was very disappointed and somewhat shocked to read that! Maybe that was because I had just read a different book that was much more geared toward family, and stressed getting the work done so you can focus on your true values and priorities.
The book is somewhat hard to follow, because the author offers several different methods rather than just one, and they are mixed throughout the book. On a positive note, he does address overall organizational methods in the book, as well as time management. |
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