Silver Clipboard

Book Review: Getting Things Done

When I first read Getting Things Done four years ago, I didn’t know the profound impact it would have on me. I thought it was a good, though not extra-ordinary, book on organization. However, over time and through constant application of its principals, it is no hyperbole to say that Getting Thing Done has fundamentally changed the person I am for the better. I have become a better, more organized, more self-reliant, and less anxiety-prone

In his book, David Allen suggests several radical departures from traditional organizational planners. First, prioritizing is a waste of time. Listing your to-do’s with a ‘one’, ‘two’ or ‘three’ based on how important they are is useless. You end up spending a lot of time futzing over if an item should get a ‘2 — important’ or a ‘1 — vital’ next to it, rather than just doing it. Either you have a commitment to cross off that to-do and thus put it on your list, or you don’t and don’t.

Secondly, Treat your personal and work responsibilities in the same way. Don’t separate systems — it leads to needless inefficiencies. Your ‘Errands’ list should have both your personal and professional commitments on it so that you can get maximum use out of your time. All your obligations and responsibilities are filtered through the same system, and processed in the same way.

David Allen also suggests writing everything down — an idea he refers to as ubiquitous capture. You shouldn’t waste brain power trying to remember anything. Free your mental CPU cycles for creative and important work. As much as possible, set up paper and digital systems to remind you of what you need at an appropriate time.

In the Getting Things Done system, all projects must have their next actions defined. When you decide to go to the dentist about your tooth that’s been hurting, think about what the next physical thing is that you need to do. You have to make an appointment, but before you can do that you need to get the number. ‘Lookup dentist number’ is your to-do. It’s concrete, specific and the very next thing that must happen. ‘Look up dentist number’ is much clearer than the vague ‘visit dentist’, which you couldn’t do anyway until you made the appointment.

In addition to a description of David Allen’s ruthlessly efficient system, the book also serves as a productivity coach. A chapter goes through an explicit and step by step process of how to boot up into the Getting Things Done system, how to process all your current work, and how to migrate from your current system

My criticism of the book is relatively minor. Occasionally Allen’s examples of the kinds of problems that people need to solve are laughably upper class, e.g. setting up an Orchid or filling out paperwork for buying a company. The beginning of the book waffles a bit about ‘paradigm shifts’ and other content-less jargon along with the nature of ‘work these days’ and how that fancy-pants Internet will change everything — but compared to other books in the genre, it’s remarkably concise. The only real problem with the system is how to incorporate deadlines.

Nothing the book says is complicated or radically difficult: it’s mainly a collection of simple tips brought together in a well-tested, smooth system. But, more than any other book of its kind, this one can really change your life if you follow the ideas. I’ll admit that it took me about three years of on and off usage of the system before I really got it. But now I wonder how I possibly stumbled through my work before.

The book doesn’t do your work for you — no book can. There have been plenty of days when I haven’t gotten much done even when using the system — the only difference is now I know when I procrastinate that it’s my fault and I’m not missing something vital.

[Click here to buy Getting Things Done]

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Header photograph by racatumba