David Allen: Getting Things Done

Allen's Getting Things Done is something of a legend in the field of productivity consulting. The book is a major best-seller that has sold an obscene amount of copies in several languages. And why not? The book is definitely a reasonable guide to being more productive in work and life in general. Modern information workers have problems with the boundaries of work: instead of concrete objects, they deal with neverending projects and information flows. Too much energy is spent to figuring out what needs to be done and when. Inboxes flood with things to deal with.

Allen offers a solution. His method is simple, but efficient. It involves creating a simple organisation system and using it to resolve matters as soon as they arrive: as soon as something hits your desk, you file it to the correct place in your organisation system or get rid of it. Large projects are looked at from the point of view of next action. The purpose of the system is to free the mind to focus on creative thinking instead of worrying about missing things.

The system seems sound. The book convinced me enough to give a reduced version of the system a go: I now have a bunch of lists on my computer to keep me up to date with all of my projects - hopefully! Getting Things Done is an inspiring and pleasantly concrete book that avoids the philosophical meanderings and focuses on simple and easy-to-implement devices and methods. If you're in trouble managing your projects, read this book! (Review based on the Finnish translation.) [ Getting Things Done: How to Achieve Stress-free Productivity at Amazon.co.uk ] [ Getting Things Done at LibraryThing ]