Ever read a book on organization that left you depressed? Yeah, and then you want to say, "Thanks a lot!"
David Allen is the expert of the "underbrush" approach of personal organization. He instructs us to take control of the "funnel" of our professional and personal lives so we can first get an idea of what commitments we have.
Clearing out this underbrush actually becomes the pathway to thinking in broad strokes about who we are and where we are going in life.
I like Allen's common sense approach. It matches with my experience.
Allen believes that we become numbed by stuff we believe is there, but don't really know with certainty what we have to do about it.
Having walked the reader through capturing as many existing commitments as possible, Allen then guides you through a decision making matrix by which you determine what "actions" are to be taken on each item.
At the heart of his system is a belief that focusing on our basic tasks frees our mind up from thinking "of" our work to thinking "about" how to do it better, and with more satisfaction. He advises we get to that point by exhaustively examining the broken promises we've made to ourselves and reevaluating whether we want to keep them, or toss them.
If we keep them, then we should regularly return to them to ensure they are moving along towards completion. If we don't do this, we run the risk of getting into a productivity "log jam" that is static. Such an approach to your work only adds stress, it doesn't relieve it.
When it comes to "getting things done," Allen is not under the belief that his approach is the be-all, end-all for personal organization. But he advocates a flexible enough philosophy that just might be the catalyst you need to start getting beyond your "to-do" lists to real, integrated, high-level productivity
David Allen is the expert of the "underbrush" approach of personal organization. He instructs us to take control of the "funnel" of our professional and personal lives so we can first get an idea of what commitments we have.
Clearing out this underbrush actually becomes the pathway to thinking in broad strokes about who we are and where we are going in life.
I like Allen's common sense approach. It matches with my experience.
Allen believes that we become numbed by stuff we believe is there, but don't really know with certainty what we have to do about it.
Having walked the reader through capturing as many existing commitments as possible, Allen then guides you through a decision making matrix by which you determine what "actions" are to be taken on each item.
At the heart of his system is a belief that focusing on our basic tasks frees our mind up from thinking "of" our work to thinking "about" how to do it better, and with more satisfaction. He advises we get to that point by exhaustively examining the broken promises we've made to ourselves and reevaluating whether we want to keep them, or toss them.
If we keep them, then we should regularly return to them to ensure they are moving along towards completion. If we don't do this, we run the risk of getting into a productivity "log jam" that is static. Such an approach to your work only adds stress, it doesn't relieve it.
When it comes to "getting things done," Allen is not under the belief that his approach is the be-all, end-all for personal organization. But he advocates a flexible enough philosophy that just might be the catalyst you need to start getting beyond your "to-do" lists to real, integrated, high-level productivity
