Getting Things Done by David Allen – Book Review
Allen, David: Getting Things Done – The Art of Stress Free Productivity
David Allen is at this point the leading time management guru. His efficiency oriented Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology is widely used, admired, criticized, and it is commonly used as a benchmark against all other time management systems. This is especially true for the USA, but holds also for the rest of the world. Mr. David Allen has a cult status – at least within the time management community – and there exists many sites based on his approach to time management. Some of these sites are almost fan pages.
David’s philosophy materializes strongly around his Getting Things Done process. I have sketched the process in the introduction to time management section of this site. The process admittedly captures effective working very well. It is suitably generic but still divides itself into clear, easy-to-follow stages.
David Allen emphasizes the importance of collecting actions and ideas on different categorized lists. Categorization in GTD is done according to contexts. Examples of task list subjects are therefore: At Work, At Phone, At Computer, At Home, etc. For contrast let it be mentioned that other methods use different approaches, like a single list, order by the due date, or organize tasks according to projects.
Having run pure GTD also myself, the most uncomfortable part for me in the GTD lists is the fact that the items do not generally have due dates. This leads to the user having many context based lists, packed with items that should be done, but no clear priority between the tasks. Defining the priorities between the tasks is left up to the user. However, for me, as real life is full of deadlines, it resulted that many of my tasks still ended up on the calendar in stead of on the task lists. For me, this blurs the difference between the calendar and task lists. I am all for separating the two.
I also found the act of categorizing every task and project a little wearisome. This is not made easier by the fact that David uses Palm’s devices. These support categorizing, as it is a built in feature (calendar entries, tasks, and notes). Windows mobile devices also support this, and that was what I was using. Nokia phones do not support this feature at all, which makes practicing GTD on a Nokia phone somewhat different.
David’s book is still very much worth reading. If you will only ever read one time management book, it should be this one. David’s book has both practical tips, but also has merits in painting the larger framework.
Time Management Books. Please have a look at my personal collection of the best books around this subject. From each one I have got at least one really useful insight
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