Getting Things Done: the art of stress-free productivity by David Allen
The meaning of getting things done in this book means getting your ideas out and not letting things slip your mind. David Allen’s Getting Things Done was called “the definitive business self-help book of the decade” by the New York Times. Its goal is to change how people live their everyday lives in their work and personal lives. David Allen is considered to be one of the leading authority figures in the fields of organizational and personal productivity. According to his website, “The David Allen Company, run by David and his wife Kathryn, oversees the certification academy and quality standards for Global Partners offering Getting Things Done courses and coaching around the world” (Allen). Allen now runs seminars all over the world talking about his book and how to go about applying it to your life.
Ben Hammersley, a writer for The Guardian, interviewed David Allen in an article titled “Meet the man who can bring order to your universe.” In it he stated, “For me, as with the hundreds of thousands around the world who press the book into their friends' hands with fire in their eyes, Allen's ideas are nothing short of life-changing.” Allen gave the world a new perspective on the way your mind works and staying focused on the important things.
The most famous quote from the book is when Allen says, “your head is for having ideas-not for holding them” (Allen). He says that you can only achieve your goals effectively when your mind is clear and free of clutter. His goal is to help you keep track of your ideas so that you can effectively organize your life.
Allen’s process is made up of five simple steps. The first step is capture. Capture is to take all your ideas, projects, tasks, to-do items, and other bits of information and put them in one place. The goal is to take these ideas and other things and externalize them so that they aren’t taking up space in your brain. Allen states, “You can only feel good about what you’re not doing when you know everything you’re not doing” (Allen). You can’t remember everything and when you forget something, no matter how important it is or not, it can block you from having new ideas and staying productive in reaching your goals. After getting organized, you can then sift through it all and decide what may or may not be important.
This is there the second step of processing come into play. You look at your in-pile and the first question you ask is, is it actionable? (Allen) Depending on your answer, you will then decide if it is something that needs to get done sooner rather than later, if you can discard it, if it can be delegated or deferred, and what your next action is going to be. This process is repeated for every item in your “in-pile.”
The third step is to organize. This is where you organize and prioritize your pile to see what needs to be done first. Allen says that there are three criteria to organizing, they are based on project, time, and context. These are three different categories that you take all of your ideas and order them according to the category they belong in.
The fourth step is to review. Making adjustment to your organization may be necessary. Things come up, deadlines change, life gets in the way, and things aren’t always prioritized the best way. Each week you should take your list and review it to make sure it is going to benefit you and keep you on track to complete your goals. Reviewing is important because it can help you to remember all the things you need to get done and make sure you are completing them when needed. The overall goal is to do anything to help you become successful.
The fifth and final step is to engage. This is the part of the process where you get to work. When considering your task at hand, Allen says to always consider four criteria in order, “context, time availability, energy availability, and priority.” (Allen). You should always make sure you have the time to complete your task, the energy to get it done, and that it should be the project you need to be taking on at that time.
Allen’s book is about getting you into a habit. He says, “demonstrating integrity in managing internal and external agreements optimizes all of your relationships” (Allen). He created five easy steps to follow for you to be able to keep track of your life and stay organized. We can only relax when our minds are clear and our thoughts are organized. To be successful, Allen says that “your head is for having ideas-not for holding them.”
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