Classic works, in any genre, give you words for truths you already knew but didn’t know how to articulate.
In the world of productivity literature, Getting Things Done by David Allen is just that: a classic.
Allen admits early on that he didn’t reinvent the wheel here. The GTD Method is what he calls the “natural planning process.”
We’ve all used it. If you’ve ever written something down on a napkin to remember it so that your brain didn’t have to, if you’ve ever put something in a place where you knew you’d see it later to deal with it, if you’ve ever written out next actions so you had a set plan for what to do next, you’ve used GTD in some form.
So what’s the point of the book if we all “know” the process?
Well, like every other classic truth, you still needed to hear it. You still needed the words, and you needed it affirmed in your mind so that you could trust yourself and your process and that you were doing the right thing.
Even then you might well avoid or forget it.
Getting Things Done… Your Way
GTD takes its own advice and clarifies this natural planning process. Allen helps you think through the tools you’ll need and how to use them in order to optimize the workflow. It also tells you the “why” – why do I need to write things down, why do I need the calendar exactly?
If nothing else, this solidifies the process and encourages you to stick with it and make the process your own. That’s an added plus, by the way: Allen isn’t really telling you exactly how to do things. He’s giving you the general principles and process – you pick the tools and whatever else that suit your lifestyle.
Add in some protips from years of experience, and you have yourself a book you’ll likely go back to again and again for reference as you hone your workflow and life organization.
Life only gets busier as you get older, sad to say. Marriage, kids, work. As Allen’s favourite phrase goes, “the better you get, the better you’d better get!” With power comes great responsibility… so you ought to improve yourself so you can handle what’s coming your way! (Thankfully, you’ll be more inclined to some structure as you age.)
Since you’ll likely come back to it, it’s a good thing that GTD structures itself well. Headings and subheadings are clear and make memorable sections easy to return to.
The actual writing of the book varies in quality. On one hand, Allen’s style is detailed and full of examples. At the same time, he does ramble. This book is nearly 300 pages and probably didn’t need to be so long.
That’s why I’ve recommended Tim Challies’ Do More Better before, as a GTD-Lite with a Christian twist. You could also do some Google searching and find a few helpful blog posts or podcasts to get you started with some GTD processes before jumping up to Allen’s thorough and detailed overhaul.
Unlike Challies’ book, and to my surprise, GTD doesn’t devote space to figuring out your big picture life vision stuff.
Allen makes a good point in the book that you have to be able to manage your day-to-day before you have the privilege of being able to think through something bigger picture. He aims to free you up for that bigger picture thinking. The rest is up to you.
I respect that.
Over time, you’ll hone both your day-to-day and high-level processes. Allen will help you get wherever you’re hoping to go.
May it bless you!