Overall Thoughts
This is the most practical and impactful book that I’ve read so far this year. I won’t be surprised if it ends up being the most impactful book for me in 2016. There have been lots of reviews, seminars, interviews, and explanations written about this book so I’ll summarize it briefly.
David Allen lays out a system for organizing your life around. It doesn’t matter if you’re a stay at home mom, a traveling business man, or a developer at a startup—his method of getting things done (GTD) will be useful to you. To-do lists only work so much. David explains how you can create a system that works for you no matter where you are. The goal of the system is to capture anything on your mind, organize them into projects, create next actions, and focus on getting things done.
It’s worth noting that the app Omnifocus has helped me a lot with embedding this process in my work life and although it isn’t necessary, I would highly recommend it (they built the app off of the GTD principle).
Another quick note: I hate self-help books and am always skeptical about business books that everyone recommends. This book is completely different; I will be reading it again.
David Allen Explains His Motivation for Writing The Book
“Getting Things Done is not simply about getting things done. It’s about being appropriately engaged with your work and life.”
“Teaching you how to be maximally efficient and relaxed, whenever you need or want to be, was my main purpose in writing this book.”
Impactful Quotes
“Anxiety is caused by a lack of control, organization, preparation, and action.”
It isn’t easy, but it’s worth taking time to actually think and plan your next moves before jumping into them. This can apply to the macro or micro things in life which is why the GTD mentality resonates so well with people.
“An ambient angst pervades our society—there’s a sense that somehow there’s probably something we should be doing that we’re not, which creates a tension for which there is no resolution and from which there is no rest.”
This is one of the best explanations I’ve read on why people feel so stressed. Do you ever hear people saying things like, “I’m so busy, I’m always working” but never see anything fruitful coming from that work? Chances are it’s because they’re busy with the wrong things and they are probably stressed. The constant thought of, “Did I forget to do something” doesn’t help anyone sleep at night. This is why having a system in place to capture those thoughts is worth it.
“A basic truism I have discovered over decades of coaching and training thousands of people is that most stress they experience comes from inappropriately managed commitments they make or accept. Even those who are not consciously ‘stressed out’ will invariably experience greater relaxation, better focus, and increased productive energy when they learn more effectively to control the ‘open loops’ of their lives.”
David constantly refers to this concept of “open loops” throughout the entire book. I like the phrase because it illustrates the idea well. If you think of every commitment you make as a loop that’s open until you have the next steps planned out, it will make more sense. How many open loops do you have right now? The goal is to capture these loops and close them to reduce stress and focus on actually doing good work.
“Managing commitments well requires the implementation of some basic activities and behaviors.
- First of all, if it’s on your mind, your mind isn’t clear. Anything you consider unfinished in any way must be captured in a trusted system outside your mind, or what I call a collection tool, that you know you’ll come back to regulatory and sort though.
- Second, you must clarify exactly what your commitment is and decide what you have to do, if anything, to make progress toward fulfilling it.
- Third, once you’ve decided on all the actions you need to take, you must keep reminders of them organized in a system you review regularly.
The simplest explanation of the GTD process.
“Most people have major weaknesses in their capture process. Most of their commitments to do something are still in their head. The number of coulds, shoulds, might-want-tos, and ought-tos they generate in their minds are way out beyond what they have recorded anywhere else.”
The Omnifocus iPhone app has helped me in this process a ton. Now, anytime I commit to something I can capture it instantly and I don’t have to come back and think about whether or not I did.
“A task left undone remains undone in two places—at the actual location of the task, and inside your head. Incomplete tasks in your head consume the energy of your attention as they gnaw at your conscience.”
This makes a lot of sense to me. Think about the last time you were really stressed. Chances are it was because you had too many tasks and commitments all floating around in your head demanding your attention. David talks about the concept of an extended mind (to-do list, app, etc.) that has this information stored.
“I always wanted to be somebody. I should have been more specific.”
Not sure why I like this quote so much, but I do.
“Many people lose opportunities to be productive because they’re not equipped to take advantage of the odd moments and windows of time that open up as they move from one place to another, or when they’re in off-site enviornments.”
“Your best thoughts about work won’t happen while you’re at work.”
The above two quotes fit together well and are so true. Some of the best ideas and thoughts I’ve had occur when I’m not at the office and am either working out, driving, or relaxing. It’s been extremely useful to be able to capture the thought, store it in Omnifocus, and go about my day until I’m back in the office.
“If you’re like most people, you’ve probably got some storage area at home—maybe a basement that you told yourself a while back (maybe even ten years ago!) you ought to clean and organize. If so, there’s a part of you that likely thinks you should’ve been cleaning your basement twenty-four hours a day for the past ten years! No wonder people are so tired! And have you heard that little voice inside your own mental committee every time you walk by that area? ‘Why are we walking by the basement? Aren’t we supposed to be cleaning it?'”
This is probably my favorite quote out of the entire book simply because it resonates so well with humans. I know I’ve had plenty of examples like the one David describes and although they haven’t been on my mind 24 hours a day, I do think about them often. Even if it’s something as trivial as cleaning my car or buying more staples.
Conclusion
As I mentioned above, this is a book that I will be re-reading. There are so many practical takeaways here. I’ve been using the GTD system for about 6 months now and can say it’s helped me do better work and be less stressed. Read this—it will help.
★★★★★