Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity :: Book Review, David Allen

The book I chose to read is Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen. David Allen is considered by Forbes Magazine to be in the top five executive coaches in the United States. He has over thirty years of experience in coaching some of the highest ranking executives in some of the biggest businesses in the United States. Time Magazine called this book, â€Å"the defining self-help business book of it’s time." The book is broken down into three main parts and thirteen chapters and sub-sections. The first part is titled The Art of Getting Things Done. It contains information on societal shifts in the workplace and ways to manage work. Among his tips, he believes everyone should physically write down every task they must accomplish on a daily basis, whether they write it on paper or electronically. They must then make decisions based on length and importance and decide which tasks to accomplish and when to accomplish them. His main point of emphasis in this first chapter is that the mind becomes too cluttered and that short-term memory should be used to focus not store things. In chapter two, the author introduces his five keys or stages to controlling/managing workflow. They are (1) to collect, (2) process, (3) organize, (4) review and (5) do. He points to these five steps as a way to organizing work that needs to be accomplished and successfully completing it. The last chapter in the firs t section is about vertically focusing on the thought process to complete projects. Allen outlines five more steps to accomplish any task. They are (1) defining purpose and principles, (2) outcome visioning, (3) brainstorming, (4) organizing, and (5) Identifying next actions. The second part of this book, which is well over  ½ of the entire book, is somewhat of a repeat of the first part but a much more detailed perspective of the methodology of David Allen. He recommends taking two days at the start of his process just to get organized. Within these two days, one should set up private workspace not only at work but at home also. In chapter five and six, Allen refers back to his five keys to control workflow, he points out to accomplish the collecting phase completely before moving onto the processing and organizing stages. This will eliminate distractions. During the processing phase, a person is not really completing any items but rather identifying what needs to be done with each one.