Paperback, 267 pages
English language
Published Nov. 19, 2008 by Penguin Books.
In today's world, yesterday's methods just don't work. In Getting Things Done, veteran coach and management consultant David Allen shares the breakthrough methods for stress-free performance that he has introduced to tens of thousands of people across the country. Allen's premise is simple: our productivity is directly proportional to our ability to relax. Only when our minds are clear and our thoughts are organized can we achieve effective productivity and unleash our creative potential.
Genuinely good organizational advice wrapped in an obnoxious self-helpy presentation, all explicitly written to a target audience of cishet white male executives with assistants and maids and summer houses. Useful if you can grit your teeth and push through it, totally understandable if you can't.
The methodology is simple yet effective. However, the book feels unnecessary bloated and repeats itself multiple times. If you look up a blogpost on the GTD method, you will get the same information and value just like reading the book.
I didn't have high expectations for this book. I thought it would be another cheesy, waste of time, Oprah endorsed book like so many others that promises to bring you self improvement for $19.99. In fact, I only found out about this book after seeking out better todo list management software. I settled on OmniFocus as it seemed like a mature app and was available for the Mac and iPhone with all of the syncing features I desired. Anyway, the folks who created that app recommend this book as sort of a manual for the application. I also ended up getting a bunch of personal recommendations for this book at the same time. So, I gave in and tried the book out. I downloaded the audiobook and listened to it on my commute at 2x speed (because I just can't justify listening to a self-help book at 1x). It was …
I didn't have high expectations for this book. I thought it would be another cheesy, waste of time, Oprah endorsed book like so many others that promises to bring you self improvement for $19.99. In fact, I only found out about this book after seeking out better todo list management software. I settled on OmniFocus as it seemed like a mature app and was available for the Mac and iPhone with all of the syncing features I desired. Anyway, the folks who created that app recommend this book as sort of a manual for the application. I also ended up getting a bunch of personal recommendations for this book at the same time. So, I gave in and tried the book out. I downloaded the audiobook and listened to it on my commute at 2x speed (because I just can't justify listening to a self-help book at 1x). It was a lot more interesting than I expected. A lot of the tips he gave seemed pretty obvious after the fact, but obviously not obvious enough to not need a book to put it all together for me in a form that I can apply. I'm only a week into implementation of the strategy and I already see huge improvements in myself (that sounds sooooo cheesy). I'll have to reread this book again in a few months to see what I didn't pick up on the first round. The book could have been shorter, but I know how these things work
