Getting Things Done – David Allen – Book Summary

Book Summary: Getting Things Done

Getting Things Done is a classic among productivity books. David Allen breaks down his system for stress free productivity so that you can face the overwhelming amount of things we all tackle everyday while still remaining calm, productive and creative as you go.

Related Book Summaries:

Mindset – Carol Dweck – Book Summary

7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen Covey – Book Summary

Philosophy For Life – Jules Evans – Book Summary

Quotes:

Your mind is for having ideas not holding them.

You can do anything, but not everything.

Book Summary Notes: Getting Things Done

• When we encounter stressful situations they often end up controlling us by provoking much stronger reactions than is needed.

• Getting Things Done (GTD) is used to regain a sense of control over your work.

• Built around simple systems a Getting Things Done process can help free up your brain and keep all your projects moving forward.

• Fundamentally your brain is excellent at thinking but terrible at remembering. Trying to remember everything can lead to not being able to concentrate one the work at hand as well.

• These can be considered ‘open loops’ incomplete things that your brain will continue to monitor and remind you about since it is unsure of the next action to take for that particular thought.

• A Getting Things Done system is a 5 stage workflow to help manage and close these open loops.

• Capture your thoughts, instead of keeping ideas, to-dos and whatever else in your head, use some sort of external system to capture them. Pen and paper or digital can both work fine.

• Clarify each item, what it is and what you want to do with it.

• Organise the outcomes into a structure of lists.

• Reflect on what is important to you and review the items in your system.

• Engage the items in your system, find the next action step and take it.

• To fully implement the system you need to take care of your workspace, tools and filing system.

• Set yourself up a general reference filing system. This can be both physical and digital, this will serve as a place to sort and store all your important documents, articles, notes and everything else. Filing cabinets work well for this purpose. Make sure to schedule a purge at least once a year so as to keep it clear, clean and up to date.

• Use external tools to capture any incoming ideas, thoughts, requests, questions, tasks and invites. Consider this your in-pile. Make sure to keep these tools close and capture everything.

• Be sure to empty all your collection tools weekly. If you fail to get into the habit of emptying then your brain will eventually revert back to hanging on to everything. You need to use the system to get the benefits.

• When we start to empty the system we need to clarify what everything is. This is essentially a two step process, clarifying what the item is and organising it into the right place.

• When we are deciding what something is, we need to determine if it’s actionable or not. If not then it’s either trash and can be binned, something that may require action later like say an invite or it could be reference material and needs to be filed. If the item is actionable we need to establish what end result we want for it. Does it have multiple steps required then it’s most likely a project and we need to identify the concrete next actions to take for it and make sure the are specific and closed ended.

• Once you’ve identified next actions you have 3 options:

• If it takes less than 2 minutes do the thing immediately.

• If it takes more than 2, can it be delegated?

• If you are the one that needs to do it then defer it.

• For the organise stage we focus on emptying our tools and putting everything in its correct place.

• If an item is actionable but requires more than one step it becomes a project and goes on a project list.

• If it’s a single step that has been delegated then keep it on a ‘waiting for’ list.

• If it’s a single action that you defer it goes into your calendar or a ‘next action’ list.

• Your calendar should be for time or date specific activities only.

• Next action lists can be broken down by category if needed but essentially contain all of your ‘to-dos’.

• If an item is not actionable but might be later you can start a someday/maybe list. For anything you don’t have time for right now but may come back to in the future. Book lists and movie lists fall into this category.

• Anything to keep as reference can be filed away for later.

• The project list should also be reviewed weekly and updated as needed. Each project should always have a clear and concrete next step. Once a next step is identified it should also be stored in either the calendar or next action list.

• The 5 step planning process:

• Why are you undertaking the project? What is it’s purpose? This will help you to identify boundaries to work within.

• What will the project look like when it’s completed? As specifically as possible to give you an idea of what your end goal will be as you move towards it.

• Brainstorm and capture ideas on how to achieve your goal.

• Organise your ideas, identify and sort the best ones.

• Define the action that will move the project forward. If there are multiple points to move forward, consider if you should delegate some or all of them as well.

• Instead of a daily todo list consider maintaining a calendar and ‘next action’ list.

• A calendar should only contain time specific actions like appointments, day specific actions like a work schedule and day specific information like any files needed for an appointment. Anything else simply diluted the info contained on the calendar.

• All other concrete tasks or actions go to the next action list.

• Don’t forget to track delegated tasks with a waiting for list. Review the list once a week and any items that become past due create a reminder activity on the next action list to follow up and remind the person it involves.

• A someday/maybe list contains everything that doesn’t qualify for next action or project lists. Anything that hasn’t been translated to a next task or concrete idea goes here.

• Additionally you can assign time durations, energy requirements or priorities to your tasks to help you know what you currently should work on from your list.