Getting Things Done The Art of Stress Free

Getting Things Done The Art of Stress Free Productivity PDFDrive com Table of Contents Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Acknowledgements part 1 The Art of Getting Things Done Chapter 1 A New Pract.

Table of Contents Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Acknowledgements part 1 - The Art of Getting Things Done Chapter 1 - A New Practice for a New Reality Chapter 2 - Getting Control of Your Life: The Five Stages of Mastering Workflow Chapter 3 - Getting Projects Creatively Under Way: The Five Phases of Project Planning part 2 - Practicing Stress-Free Productivity Chapter 4 - Getting Started: Setting Up the Time, Space, and Tools Chapter 5 - Collection: Corralling Your “Stuff” Chapter 6 - Processing: Getting “In” to Empty Chapter 7 - Organizing: Setting Up the Right Buckets Chapter 8 - Reviewing: Keeping Your System Functional Chapter 9 - Doing: Making the Best Action Choices Chapter 10 - Getting Projects Under Control part 3 - The Power of the Key Principles Chapter 11 - The Power of the Collection Habit Chapter 12 - The Power of the Next-Action Decision Chapter 13 - The Power of Outcome Focusing Conclusion Index Praise for Getting Things Done “The Season’s Best Reads for Work-Life Advice my favorite on organizing your life: Getting Things Done offers help building the new mental skills needed in an age of multitasking and overload.” —Sue Shellenbarger, The Wall Street Journal “I recently attended David’s seminar on getting organized, and after seeing him in action I have hope David Allen’s seminar was an eye-opener.” —Stewart Alsop, Fortune “Allen drops down from high-level philosophizing to the fine details of time management Take a minute to check this one out.” —Mark Henricks, Entrepreneur “David Allen’s productivity principles are rooted in big ideas but they’re also eminently practical.” —Keith H Hammonds, Fast Company “David Allen brings new clarity to the power of purpose, the essential nature of relaxation, and deceptively simple guidelines for getting things done He employs extensive experience, personal stories, and his own recipe for simplicity, speed, and fun.” —Frances Hesselbein, chairman, board of governors, The Drucker Foundation “Anyone who reads this book can apply this knowledge and these skills in their lives for immediate results.” —Stephen P Magee, chaired professor of business and economics, University of Texas at Austin “A true skeptic of most management fixes, I have to say David’s program is a winner!” —Joline Godfrey, CEO, Independent Means, Inc and author of Our Wildest Dreams “Getting Things Done describes an incredibly practical process that can help busy people regain control of their lives It can help you be more successful Even more important, it can help you have a happier life!” —Marshall Goldsmith, coeditor, The Leader of the Future and Coaching for Leadership “WARNING: Reading Getting Things Done can be hazardous to your old habits of procrastination David Allen’s approach is refreshingly simple and intuitive He provides the systems, tools, and tips to achieve profound results.” —Carola Endicott, director, Quality Resources, New England Medical Center PENGUIN BOOKS GETTING THINGS DONE David Allen has been called one of the world’s most influential thinkers on productivity and has been a keynote speaker and facilitator for such organizations as New York Life, the World Bank, the Ford Foundation, L.L Bean, and the U.S Navy, and he conducts workshops for individuals and organizations across the country He is the president of The David Allen Company and has more than twenty years experience as a management consultant and executive coach His work has been featured in Fast Company, Fortune, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications Getting Things Done has been published in twelve foreign countries David Allen lives in Ojai, California objectives, two key office actions lists office equipment office space, setting up office supplies, see work tools one-final-thing syndrome one item at a time, processing of open loops (incompletes) options, expansion of organization, in managing workflow basics of next-action categories nonactionable items planning in of projects workflow diagram for organizers organizing of action reminders of checklists of nonactionable data of project reminders seven basic categories in workflow diagram for organizing tools outcome focusing applied outcome thinking and fast track and and mastering the mundane multilevel outcome management and natural planning and positive organizational culture and outcomes, classification of outlines, planning and Ovid pagers paper and pads paper-based files paper-based workflow, management of paper-holding trays papers, loose “parking lot” for projects Pauling, Linus pending items personal digital assistants (PDAs) personal incompletion triggers lists personal notebook planners personal projects phone calls planning choosing projects in informal real-world application of support structures for tools for typical steps in see also natural planning; project planning positive organizational culture Post-its predefined work principles, in planning priorities ABC codes for process actionable do, delegate, or defer next action no action required “Projects” lists workflow diagram for processing “in,” description of guidelines for identifying projects and next action and no action required as one-directional workflow diagram for procrastinating productive state, getting into productivity professional incompletion triggers lists professional projects project planning key ingredients of relaxed control in natural model reactive model unnatural model vertical focus and projects choice of current definition of identification of informal planning and lists for subsorting of support material for triggers for actuation of, see triggers purpose, in planning random project thinking reactive planning read/review lists ready state, of martial artists reference material organization of variety of reference systems for reference storage reference systems, two types of resources, alignment of responsibility, areas of reticular activating system reviewing of bigger picture importance of lists for right time and place for six-level model for two major issues in updating your system of weekly what and when Rogers, Will Rolodexes ruthless execution Saffo, Paul Santayana, George scanning, emergency Schwab, Charles Scientific American setting up, see getting started sharing Shaw, George Bernard short-term memory Snyder, Steven software someday/maybe items lists for special categories of staplers starting, see getting started stress “stuff ”: corralling of definition of key to management of transformation of subprojects success Suzuki, Shunryu Symantec telephone calls telephones threefold model for evaluating daily work tickler files tickling time available departing from traditional management of setting aside as work factor time-specific actions to-do lists unworkable Toffler, Alvin Tomlin, Lily top item first, processing of trash guidelines for tricks of implementation triggers lists of Twain, Mark two-minute rule unnatural planning values thinking Van Doren, Mark vertical control or focus vision: planning and three-to five-year waiting-for lists wastebasket/recycling bins weekly review why, value of thinking about Wilson, Desmond Woodruff, Julia Louis work: ambiguous boundaries of definition of knowledge shifting job definitions and six-level model for review of threefold model for evaluation of workflow, five stages of mastering collect organize process review work space, setting up work tools basic list of writing instruments writing paper and pads Yutang, Lin “zone,” I consider “work,” in its most universal sense, as meaning anything that you want or need to be different than it currently is Many people make a distinction between “work” and “personal life,” but I don’t: to me, weeding the garden or updating my will is just as much “work” as writing this book or coaching a client All the methods and techniques in this book are applicable across that life/work spectrum—to be effective, they need to be If, however, you were handling the celebration for your best friend’s recent triumph, the complexity and detail that might accrue in your head should warrant at least the back of an envelope! You can also plan nonactionable projects and not need a next action—for example, designing your dream house The lack of a next action by default makes it a “someday/maybe” project and that’s fine for anything of that nature After hours is actually a good time to crank through a group of similar tasks that you wouldn’t normally do in the course of your typical workday, like filing a big backlog of papers, organizing photographs, surfing the Web about your upcoming vacation location, or processing expense receipts A great time to do this is Christmas Eve Day, or some similar near-holiday that falls on a workday Most people are in “party mode” anyway, so it’s an ideal opportunity to get funky and clean house One of your extra stack baskets is ideal for this purpose Use it temporarily during this initial processing to gather things to organize later Afterward you can use it to hold pending work-in-progress papers and physical reminders of next actions Digital list managers (like the Palm’s) or low-tech papers in separate folders have an advantage here over lists on paper because they let you easily move an item from one category to another as the action changes, without your having to rewrite anything This approach can be dangerous, however, if you don’t put those “Bills to Pay” or “Receipts to Process” in front of your face as consistently as you should Just having them “organized” isn’t sufficient to get them off your mind—you’ve also got to review them appropriately Microsoft Outlook allows users to copy or move e-mails into its “Tasks” context, which, if organized according to my recommended categories, could work equally well 10 Many Lotus Notes users don’t even realize they can do this, but in fact it’s one of the program’s most powerful features If you have Notes, check with your resident IT resource person and have him or her request system permission and show you how 11 If you’re using a group-accessible calendar, you must maintain discretion about these kinds of triggers Digital calendars usually have “private” categorization functions you can use for entries you don’t necessarily want everyone to see 12 Also referred to as a “suspense,” “bring forward,” or “follow-up” file 13 There are various ways to give it all up You can ignore the physical world and its realities and trust in the universe I did that, and it was a powerful experience And one I wouldn’t wish on anyone Surrendering to your inner awareness, however, and its intelligence and practicality in the worlds you live in, is the higher ground Trusting yourself and the source of your intelligence is a more elegant version of freedom and personal productivity 14 It has been a popular concept in the self-help world that focusing on your values will simplify your life I contend the opposite: the overwhelming amount of things that people have to comes from their values Values are critical elements for meaning and direction But don’t kid yourself—the more you focus on them, the more things you’re likely to feel responsible for taking on Your values may make it easier for you to make decisions, but don’t think they’ll make things any simpler 15 Of course, the people who are most attracted to implementing Getting Things Done are usually already on a self-development track and don’t assume that they’ll be doing the same thing a year from now that they’re doing now, anyway But they love the fact that this method gets them there faster and more easily ... Chapter 9 - Doing: Making the Best Action Choices Chapter 10 - Getting Projects Under Control part 3 - The Power of the Key Principles Chapter 11 - The Power of the Collection Habit Chapter 12 - The Power of the Next-Action Decision... aware of the pressure The only time most of them will realize how much tension they’ve been under is when they get rid of it and notice how different they feel Can you get rid of that kind of stress? ... This is a vaccination against day-today fire-fighting (the so-called urgent and crisis demands of any given workday) and an antidote for the imbalance many people bring upon themselves.” part 1 The Art of Getting Things Done A New Practice for a New Reality