Popular Economics : Getting Things Done. The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

Getting Things Done. The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

EUR 6,00


With first-chapter allusions to martial arts, flow, mind like water, and other concepts borrowed from the East (and usually mangled), you d almost think this self-helper from David Allen should have been called Zen and the Art of Schedule Maintenance. Not quite. Yes, Getting Things Done offers a complete system for downloading all those free-floating gotta-dos clogging your brain into a sophisticated framework of files and action lists--all purportedly to free your mind to focus on whatever you re working on. However, it still operates from the decidedly Western notion that if we could just get really, really organised, we could turn ourselves into 24/7 productivity machines. (To wit, Allen, whom the New Economy bible Fast Company has dubbed the personal productivity guru, suggests that instead of meditating on crouching tigers and hidden dragons while you wait for a plane, you should unsheathe that high-tech sabre known as the mobile phone and attack that list of calls you need to return.) As whole-life-organising systems go, Allen s is pretty good, even fun and therapeutic. It starts with the exhortation to take every unaccounted-for scrap of paper in your workstation that you can t junk. The next step is to write down every unaccounted-for gotta-do cramming your head onto its own scrap of paper. Finally, throw the whole stew into a giant in-basket. That s where the processing and prioritising begin, in Allen s system, it get a little convoluted at times, rife as it is with fancy terms, subterms, and sub-subterms for even the simplest concepts. Thank goodness the spine of his system is captured on a straightforward, one-page flowchart that you can pin over your desk and repeatedly consult without having to refer back to the book. That alone is worth the purchase price. Also of value is Allen s ingenious Two-Minute Rule: if there s anything you absolutely must do that you can do right now in two minutes or less, then do it now, thus freeing up your time and mind tenfold over the long term. It s common sense advice so obvious that most of us completely overlook it, much to our detriment. Allen excels at dispensing such wisdom in this useful, if somewhat belaboured, self-improver aimed at everyone from CEOs to football mums (who, we all know, are more organised than most CEOs to start with). --Timothy Murphy

Bestes Buch zum Selbstmanagement! - Ich habe bereits viele Bücher zum Thema Selbstmanagement gelesen, und ich muss sagen, das Getting Things Done von David Allen das mit großem Abstand das Beste ist.Nicht nur ist er der Einzige, der ein kohärentes System hat, das auch praktisch in einer Vielzahl von Fällen erprobt ist, hinzu kommt, das er die Wirkungsweise genau erklären und belegen kann.All die Sachverhalte, die andere Autoren für gegeben hinnehmen, werden hier erklärt.So erfährt man genau, wie unser Gehirn Informationen wie Termine verarbeitet, worauf dann Allens Methode basiert.Weiterhin enthält das Buch wirklich detaillierte Beschreibungen der einzelnen Schritte, der Autor hat sich sichtlich Mühe gegeben und lässt den Leser an keiner Stelle allein, mit konkreten Umsetzungsvorschlägen wird hier wahrlich nicht gespart!In jedem Fall das beste Buch zu diesem Thema. Ein großes Lob an David Allen, ein Autor, der endlich einmal das Problem von Grund auf verstanden hat und das auch an seine Leser weitergibt.

Sinnvolles ToDo-Management - Eigentlich mag ich solche Selbstmanagementbücher ja gar nicht und ich habe mich auch lange dagegen gewehrt, GTD zu kaufen - trotz diverser Empfehlungen.Dennoch wurde ich nicht enttäuscht. Man hat extrem viele Aha-Erlebnisse beim Lesen. Nichts ist komplett neu, aber es ist eine sinnvolle Methodologie, die tatsächlich weiterhilft. Außerdem läßt einem die Methodik sehr viele Freiheiten, es ist also weniger eine Religion, als einige sinnvolle Methodiken und Tools.Ich halte das Buch für Leute, die mit vielen verschiedenen Projekten - privat wie beruflich - zu tun haben für eine klare Empfehlung.Tip: Wer einen Mac einsetzt, sollte sich in dem Zusammenhang das Tool OmniFocus ansehen. Es basiert auf der GTD-Methodik und setzt die Erkentnnisse aus dem Buch perfekt in Software um. Außerdem gibt es auch einen synchronisierbaren iPhone-Client dazu.

Perfektes System zum Management der Alltags-Anforderungen - Getting Things Done ist ein großartiges Buch - meiner Meinung nach der gelungenste Bottom-up-Ansatz (O-Ton Allen) eines Personal-Information-Systems (PIM), wobei bottom-up so zu verstehen ist, dass hier das Management bestehender Aufgaben und Projekte (im Sinne von Verpflichtungen) im Vordergrund steht.Die Grundidee besteht darin, die unzähligen Dinge (Stuff), die auf uns einstürmen, zu sammeln und in ein System einzuordnen, um sie aus unserem Kopf (mind) zu bekommen. Die Dinge müssen dann verarbeitet werden: Was ist das Ziel bzw. Resultat? Was sind die notwendigen (nächsten) Schritte?Um diese Idee umzusetzen, zeigt Allen einen dezidierten Workflow mitsamt der zugehörigen Tools auf. Dabei wird er sehr konkret und gibt zahlreiche hilfreiche Umsetzungsempfehlungen.Die persönliche Herausforderung für jeden einzelnen besteht (über das Buch hinaus) darin, Allens Bottom-up-Ansatz mit einem Top-down-Ansatz (z. B. à la Coveys First things first) zu kombinieren, und so ein ganzheitliches Selbstmanagement-System zu schaffen, das sowohl Tagesgeschäft (gegenwärtige Projekte und Aktivitäten) als auch die eigenen Ziele und Erwartungen berücksichtigt.

Sofortiger Gewinn! - Obwohl ich ein profunder Hasser amerikanischer Selbsthilfebücher bin, weil dort alles sooooooooo einfach ist, ließ ich mich nach einigen Internet-Recherchen zum Kauf des Buches hinreissen.Ich hatte als sofortigen Gewinn spürbare Veränderungen wahrgenommen, die gleich der ganzen Familie zugute gekommen sind. Meine Frau hatte sich in letzter Zeit immer wieder über mein nächtliches Schmatzen im Schlaf und Schnarchen aufgeregt.Allein durch die Befolgung des Ratschlages, alles sofort festzuhalten (collect), konnte ich meinen Kopf so freischaffen, daß ich nun nachts nichts mehr durchkauen muß und auch am Wochenende und in der Freizeit mich viel präsenter bei der Familie fühle. Das allein ist schon den Kauf des Buches wert.In diesem Buch hat einer einige Standardverfahren (Prioritäten setzen, ToDo-Listen führen) gründlich auseinander genommen und deren Nichtfunktioneren gut erklärt.Nicht alles Vorgeschlagene wird für jeden passen.Ich habe mich selten so erleichtet gefühlt, wie nach der Lektüre dieses Buches.uneingeschränkt empfehlenswert.

Flow from Angst to Action . . . and Relax! - This book is for all those who are overwhelmed with too many things to do, too little time to do them, and a general sense of unease that something important is being missed.Everyone has experienced times when everything seemed effortless, and progress limitless. David Allen has captured ways for you to achieve that wonderful state of mind and consciousness more often.His key concept is that every task, promise, or assignment has a place and a time. With everything in its proper place and time, you feel in control and replace the time spent on vague worrying with effective, timely action. As a result, the accomplishments grow while the pressure to accomplish decreases. As a result, the book contains many insights into how to have more energy, be more relaxed, and get a lot more accomplished with much less effort.The key psychological insight of this book is that rapid progress occurs when you take large, unformed tasks, and break them down and organize them into smaller, sequential steps for exactly what to do and when. The book provides lots of guidance and examples for how to do this.The book is organized into three sections. The first gives you an overview of the whole process for how to get more done in a relaxed way. The second spells out the details of how to implement that process, in a way that a personal coach might use. The third provides subtle insights that help you appreciate the benefits that follow from using the process. Like all good coaches, Mr. Allen understands that appreciating a subject from several perspectives and getting lots of practice with it are critical steps in learning.The process advocated by this book is described with lots of systems flow charts that will appeal to all of the engineers and left-brained people. The right-brained people will find lots of discussions about emotions, feelings, and stress. So both types of thinkers should do well with this material.The essence of the process is that you write down a note about everything when you take on a new responsibility, make a new commitment, or have a useful thought. All of this ends up in some kind of in box. You then go through your in box and decide what needs to be done next for each item. For simple issues, this includes identifying the action you should take first and when to take it. For tougher issues, you schedule an appropriate time to work the problem in more detail. You organize the results of this thinking, and review your options for what you should be doing weekly. Then you take what you choose to do, and act. Think of this process as the following five steps: (1) collect (2) process (3) organize (4) decide (5) act.For the tougher problems, you start with identifying your purpose and principles so you know why you care how it all turns out. Then you imagine the potential good outcomes that you would like. Following that, you brainstorm with others the best way to get those outcomes. Then you organize the best pathway. Finally, you identify the first actions you need to take. Then you act, as in step 5 above.From this outline, I hope that you can see that this is not rocket science. It is simple common sense, but with discipline. The critical part is the discipline because that is what focuses your attention where it will do the most good. For example, rather than sitting on something you have no idea how to get started, you can decide right away to get ideas from others on what the purpose and principles are that should be used in selecting a solution. So, you are in motion, and you have saved much time and anxiety.What I learned from this book is that many people allow a lot of time to pass without taking any useful steps because they cannot imagine what to do next. This process should usually overcome that problem by showing you what to work on, providing methods to accomplish that step in the process, and guiding you to places where you can get appropriate help. As a result, this book should help overcome the bureaucracy and communications stalls that bedevil most organizations.This fits from my own experience in helping people solve problems. If you simplify the questions and make them into familiar ones, everyone soon finds powerful alternatives drawn from a lifetime of experiences and memories. Keep things broad, abstract, and vague, and peoples eyes glaze over while they struggle for a place to begin.After you have finished reading and applying this book, I suggest that you share your new learning with those you see around you who are the most stressed out. By helping them gain relaxed control of their activities, you will also be able to enjoy the benefits of their increased effectiveness in supporting your own efforts.May you always get the tools you need, understand what to do next, and move swiftly through timely actions!




Getting Things Done. The Art of Stress-Free Productivity