Getting Things Done

The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

By: David Allen

Narrated by: David Allen

Length: 2 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

In today's world of exponentially increased communication and responsibility, yesterday's methods for staying on top just don't work. Veteran management consultant and trainer David Allen recognizes that "time management" is useless the minute your schedule is interrupted; "setting priorities" isn't relevant when your e-mail is down; "procrastination solutions" won't help if your goals aren't clear.

Allen's premise is simple: our ability to be productive is directly proportional to our ability to relax. Only when our minds are clear and our thoughts are organized can we achieve stress-free productivity and unleash our creative potential. He teaches us how to:

Apply the "do it, delegate it, defer it, drop it" rule to get your in-box empty.

Reassess goals and stay focused in changing situations.

Overcome feelings of confusion, anxiety, and being overwhelmed.

Feel fine about what you're not doing.

From core principles to proven tricks, Getting Things Done has the potential to transform the way you work - and the way you experience work. At any level of implementation, David Allen's entertaining and thought-provoking advice shows you how to pick up the pace without wearing yourself down.

©2002 David Allen, All Rights Reserved (P)2002 Simon & Schuster Inc., SOUND IDEAS Is an Imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio Division, Simon & Schuster Inc.

Critic reviews

"[Allen is] the personal productivity guru." (Fast Company)

I'm bummed out....

Being fairly organized myself, I think getting things done works at the minute details of how to organize your life in order to get things done. If you like to have someone babysit you through that process, then listen carefully to this book.

I think it's a fairly straightforward book, little in this book that have I not heard of before nor have I not figured out by myself. I'm bummed out that it's really no magic to Getting Things Done.

When he spoke about the 31 physical file folder system, I couldn't believe it. It's so impractical! We're in the digital age, not paper filing age. But I do like his emphasis on forcing ourselves to consolidate our organizational techniques to one centralized place. Leads me to think that I really do need a Treo handheld PDA phone.

There's really no one way to be successfully organized and getting things done. It's merely innate in any one of us and to break our habits of focusing on low priority easy fix things requires a book like 7 Habits or something. If you've read 7 Habits, it's good enough to lead you into a more organized life.

Over the Top Hype

While I am not nuts over self improvement books, time management is something that does interest me. Allen has gotten a lot of hype going on around this book. That kind of turned me off, and all the people on Amazon.com writing how this book changed their lives also made me hesitate. I gave in after all, and cannot say I was disappointed was just as bad as I thought it would be.

For me, the best book on time management is Covey's book The Seven Habits of HIghly Effective People. What that book had and Allen's does not is just how to use larger strategic orientation in order to make decisions about what exactly is actionable and not, what needs to go into a To Do list, etc. Allen spends almost all the book telling the reader to go buy folders and filing cabinets. As is normal for current business books, the author must mention how great he is and all the consulting he has done.

This bothered me in a big way because of all the stories Allen told of "High Level" managers he had helped. It seemed they did not quite understand such concepts as putting projects into folders, rather then the floor, and of making schedules! WOW, that is the state of American management--they need to hire someone like Allen to tell them how to buy folders! On the other hand, if this book could be cut down to about 20 pages, the system of thoughts, lists, actions, and projects is useful. The program ThinkingRock seems to do all this very well.

Too involved

Very boring. Only a few minutes of easy to understand advice which involved the payment of bills. The rest was painful to get through.

Blah

Really didn't care for this book. Not interesting at all and mostly just common sense stuff.

common sense advice

This book was extremely predictable and dull. The author produced no ground breaking new ways or philosophies on ?getting things done?. Instead he simply goes over common sense practical knowledge processes to accomplish everyday tasks. He basically says organize all the things you need to get done into a list and go down the list one by one. That?s it; nothing more.

very dated material....Palm pilot, VCR....?

Dated information... takes too long to get to the point....... disappointed. not what I expected...

It took him almost two hours to say nothing

I'll some up the entire book for you. Buy some manilla folders and a label maker. The end.

Confusing Concontion

Perhaps this is a rewarding title in print, but as an audiobook it is useless. This abridged version is utterly confusing and left me frustrated and gave me a headache rather than providing any enlightening.

Catchy title, but not much else

You'll probably feel good after purchasing this book, but not after listening to it. I expected something slightly creative from a book that's been a bestseller for so long, but I was highly disappointed. Usually, if feel some enthusiasm for the methods ofter reading these time-management tomes, but this one is totally lifeless. There really is very little to his methods - "Make a list" seems to be the crux of his technique. On the bright side, it was mercifully short.

Pass it up and review the notes from the last time management course you took.

Highly overrated

Unfortunately this audio book offered very little helpful advice beyond "get organized". Unless the reader is completely inept in regards to time management, the author's suggestions are too basic to be considered groundbreaking or even just insightful.
Very big disappointment.