REVIEW: “How to put things in order. The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, David Allen

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

At the end of 2015, the publishing house "Mann, Ivanov and Ferber" released a translation of the revised book by David Allen "How to get things in order. The art of stress-free productivity”. We figured out what new "GTD-Schnicks" will find in it.

A month ago, I thought that anyone interested in productivity is using the GTD methodology, or at least testing it for suitability. The reality turned out to be completely different. Therefore, to begin with, it is still worth talking about the David Allen system.

For beginners about GTD

In his book “How to put things in order. The Art of Stress-Free Productivity ", which has become a world bestseller, David Allen describes a system of organizing affairs that divided time management for me into classic TM and GTD (literally translated -" bringing things to completion ").

At one time, GTD saved me from a brain break and burnout. The purpose of this system is not only to organize and plan things. I would say that GTD is a time management system designed for our information age with constant incoming signals about what to do, think about, read, clarify, learn, watch …

GTD is more than a way to manage tasks and projects. This methodology addresses the fundamental issues of meaningful work, meaningful lifestyles, and psychological well-being, rather than simply proposing methods to increase productivity and productivity.

How to Get Things Done by David Allen

The main task of the Allen system is to free your brain for creativity and problem solving, to give calm confidence in the importance of the business you are doing right now. How often do you have productive and rewarding days that are not satisfying? This happens because you are doing something completely different. Or perhaps so, but you can't say for sure. At the same time, lists of unfulfilled tasks are constantly scrolling in your head, depriving you of concentration, lightness and peace. GTD will help you get rid of this ballast.

Among other things:

1. You will never miss anything.
2. You will have a system for quickly and correctly choosing the following actions.
3. Become more productive, not just more successful.
4. Get rid of the lion's share of stress.
5. Learn and love to plan your life instead of letting circumstances or other people do it.
6. Master three models for choosing the best action.
7. Take control of your projects.
8. Learn to focus on the result.

What is needed for this? Start by reading David Allen's book Getting Things Done. It has three parts.

The first part describes the general picture, provides a brief overview of the system and explains what is its uniqueness and relevance, and then describes the methods themselves in a concise and accessible form. The second part explains how to apply the principles of the system. This is your personal practice of step-by-step application of the described models in everyday life. The third part describes even more subtle and significant results that you can achieve by making these methods and models an integral part of your work and personal life.

In parallel with the book, read about GTD on Lifehacker. The articles contain a lot of useful advice from those who have been practicing this system for a long time.

What's new in the revised edition

In the preface to the book, Dmitry Inshakov, the head of the Getting Things Done representative office in Russia, writes:

The new edition of the book is an independent work. Added two new chapters and a lot of information, taking into account the current realities of the world of information technology. The translation is done anew, from scratch. Particular attention was paid to the unification of terminology. For all controversial issues when translating into Russian, we turned directly to David. The translation turned out to be as authentic as possible and close to the original in essence.

It's hard for me to say how close the translation is to the original, but otherwise it is a really good text: it is easy to read, information is presented simply and clearly.

But is this publication an independent work? Yes, the book contains a lot of new information that takes into account the realities of the digital age. But in this sense, it will be useful only for beginners and those who, while practicing GTD, experienced difficulties in adapting the methodology to computer organizers and cloud services. This is with regard to the processing of old information.

But the two new chapters change things completely.

Chapter 14. GTD Methodology and Cognitive Science

Research in social and cognitive psychology has documented the effectiveness of the principles that underpin this methodology.

How to Get Things Done by David Allen

The chapter highlights recent research in the following areas:

• positive psychology (not to be confused with positive thinking);
• distributed cognition;
• alleviating the cognitive load from open-ended questions;
• flow theory;
• theory of self-management;
• striving for a goal through the intention of implementation;
• psychological capital (PsyCap).

After reading the research, I understood why GTD works and how to improve the effectiveness of the methodology itself and life in general.

Chapter 15. The Path to Excellence in GTD

This chapter is useful for both newbies and GTD masters, as well as those who started but got discouraged and quit. David Allen explains what the cause of the failure is and how to fix it.

The chapter describes the three levels of proficiency in the methodology and explains how to pass them. I foresee objections in the style of "We need to spend time doing things, and not studying any TM systems." This is only true for those who see GTD mastering as an end in itself. For me, this is a tool, and the more perfect it is, the easier, more pleasant and faster it is to work with it. Chapter 15 inspired me to take GTD more seriously and make my practice automatic, which will allow you to experience less stress and fatigue with more efficiency.

Summary

So what we end up with:

1. Excellent translation.
2. Redesigned material for the digital world.
3. Two new chapters with valuable content.

For beginners, I recommend that you definitely purchase the book, work it out and bring the system to life. Burnt "GTD-Schnicks", I hope, on the basis of the article will be able to decide whether to buy the publication or not. I'd buy…