Loadsn

Getting things done the art of stress free productivity Nov 13, 2020 Posted By Robert Ludlum Library TEXT ID e55c87d1 Online PDF Ebook Epub Library experience to provide our services understand how customers use our services so we can make improvements and display ads getting things done the art of stress free. David Allen’s Getting Things Done describes a very powerful system for controlling the long list of to-do items we all carry around in our heads. I have been using parts of this system since 1985. The basic principle is straightforward – write down everything you want to do – or might want to do – and keep those lists orderly.

Getting Things Done (GTD) is a process for increasing your own productivity. In his book the author states that it is not a time management system but instead is a process for bringing order and action to our typically chaotic and random individual worlds. The system and process for achieving this is described in the book of the same title^[1] by productivity consultant David Allen.

The GTD method rests on the idea of moving all items of interest, relevant information, issues, tasks and projects out of the mind by recording them externally and then breaking them into actionable work items. This allows attention to be focused on taking action on tasks, instead of recalling them.^[2]

First published in 2001, a revised edition of the book was released in 2015 to reflect the changes in information technology during the preceding decade.

Themes[edit]

Allen first demonstrates stress reduction from the method with the following exercise, centered on a task that has an unclear outcome or whose next action is not defined. Allen calls these sources of stress 'open loops', 'incompletes', or 'stuff'.^[1]:13

1. The most annoying, distracting, or interesting task is chosen, and defined as an 'incomplete'.
2. A description of the successful outcome of the 'incomplete' is written down in one sentence, along with the criteria by which the task will be considered completed.
3. The next step required to approach completion of the task is written down.
4. A self-assessment is made of the emotions experienced after completing the steps of this process.

He claims stress can be reduced and productivity increased by putting reminders about everything you are not working on into a trusted system external to your mind. In this way, you can work on the task at hand without distraction from the 'incompletes'.^[1]:14 The system in GTD requires you to have the following tools within easy reach:

• An inbox
• A trash can
• A filing system for reference material
• Several lists (detailed below)
• A calendar.

These tools can be physical or electronic as appropriate (e.g., a physical 'in' tray or an email inbox).^[1]:88 Then, as 'stuff' enters your life, it is captured in these tools and processed with the following workflow.^[1]:27

Workflow[edit]

The GTD workflow consists of five stages: capture, clarify, organize, reflect, and engage.^[3] (The first edition used the names collect, process, organize, plan, and do; the descriptions of the stages are similar in both editions). Once all the material ('stuff') is captured (or collected) in the inbox,^[1]:106 each item is clarified^[1]:122 and organized^[1]:141 by asking and answering questions about each item in turn as shown in the black boxes in the logic tree diagram. As a result, items end up in one of the eight oval end points in the diagram:

• in the trash
• on the someday/maybe list
• in a neat reference filing system
• on a list of tasks, with the outcome and next action defined if the 'incomplete' is a 'project' (i.e., if it will require two or more steps to complete it)
• immediately completed and checked off if it can be completed in under two minutes
• delegated to someone else and, if you want a reminder to follow up, added to a 'waiting for' list
• on a context-based 'next action' list if there is only one step to complete it
• on your calendar^[1]:27

Empty your inbox or inboxes daily or at least weekly ('in' to empty).^[1]:122 Don't use your inbox as a 'to do' list. Don't put clarified items back into the inbox.^[1]:27 Emptying your inbox doesn't mean finishing everything. It just means applying the 'capture, clarify, organize' steps to all your 'stuff'.^[1]:27

Next, reflection (termed planning in the first edition) occurs. Multi-step projects identified above are assigned a desired outcome and a single 'next action'.^[1]:191 Finally, a task from your task list is worked on ('engage' in the 2nd edition, 'do' in the 1st edition) unless the calendar dictates otherwise. You select which task to work on next by considering where you are (i.e., the 'context', such as at home, at work, out shopping, by the phone, at your computer, with a particular person), time available, energy available, and priority.^[1]:204

Implementation[edit]

Because hardware and software is changing so rapidly, GTD is deliberately technologically-neutral. (In fact, Allen advises people to start with a paper-based system.^[4]) Many task management tools claim to implement GTD methodology^[5] and Allen maintains a list of some technology that has been adopted in or designed for GTD. Some are designated 'GTD Enabled', meaning Allen was involved in the design.^[6]

Perspective[edit]

Allen emphasizes two key elements of GTD — control and perspective. The workflow is the center of the control aspect. The goal of the control processes in GTD is to get everything except the current task out of your head and into this trusted system external to your mind. He borrows a simile used in martial arts termed 'mind like water'. When a small object is thrown into a pool of water, the water responds appropriately with a small splash followed by quiescence. When a large object is thrown in the water again responds appropriately with a large splash followed by quiescence. The opposite of 'mind like water' is a mind that never returns to quiescence but remains continually stressed by every input.^[1]:12 With a trusted system and 'mind like water' you can have a better perspective on your life. Allen recommends reflection from six levels, called 'Horizons of Focus':^{[1]:215–219}

• Horizon 5: Life
• Horizon 4: Long-term visions
• Horizon 3: 1-2 year goals
• Horizon 2: Areas of focus and accountability
• Horizon 1: Current projects
• Ground: Current actions

Unlike some theories, which focus on top-down goal-setting, GTD works in the opposite direction. Allen argues that it is often difficult for individuals to focus on big picture goals if they cannot sufficiently control the day-to-day tasks that they frequently must face.^[1]:54 By developing and using the trusted system that deals with day-to-day inputs, an individual can free up mental space to begin moving up to the next level.^{[citation needed]}

Allen recommends scheduling a weekly review, reflecting on the different levels. The perspective gained from these reviews should drive one's priorities at the project level.^[1]:50 Priorities at the project level in turn determine the priority of the individual tasks and commitments gathered during the workflow process. During a weekly review, determine the context for the tasks and put each task on its appropriate list. An example of grouping together similar tasks would be making a list of outstanding telephone calls, or the tasks/errands to perform while out shopping. Context lists can be defined by the set of tools available or by the presence of individuals or groups for whom one has items to discuss or present.^{[citation needed]}

Summary[edit]

GTD is based on storing, tracking, and retrieving the information related to the things that need to get done. Mental blocks we encounter are caused by insufficient 'front-end' planning. This means thinking in advance, generating a series of actions which can later be undertaken without further planning. The mind's 'reminder system' is inefficient and seldom reminds us of what we need to do at the time and place when we can do it. Consequently, the 'next actions' stored by context in the 'trusted system' act as an external support which ensures that we are presented with the right reminders at the right time. As GTD relies on external reminders, it can be seen as an application of the theories of distributed cognition or the extended mind.^[7]

Reception[edit]

In 2005, Wired called GTD a 'new cult for the info age',^[8] describing the enthusiasm for this method among information technology and knowledge workers as a kind of cult following. Allen's ideas have also been popularized through the Howard Stern Show (Stern referenced it daily throughout 2012's summer) and the Internet, especially via blogs such as 43 Folders,^[9]Lifehacker,^[10] and The Simple Dollar.^[11]

In 2005, Ben Hammersley interviewed David Allen for The Guardian article titled 'Meet the man who can bring order to your universe',^[12] saying: 'For me, as with the hundreds of thousands around the world who press the book into their friends' hands with fire in their eyes, Allen's ideas are nothing short of life-changing'.

In 2007, Time Magazine called Getting Things Done the self-help business book of its time.^[13]

In 2007, Wired ran another article about GTD and Allen,^[14] quoting him as saying 'the workings of an automatic transmission are more complicated than a manual transmission.. to simplify a complex event, you need a complex system'.

A paper in the journal Long Range Planning by Francis Heylighen and Clément Vidal of the Free University of Brussels showed 'recent insights in psychology and cognitive science support and extend GTD's recommendations'.^[7]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^{abcdefghijklmnopqr}Allen, David (2015). Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (2 ed.). Penguin Books. ISBN9780143126560.
2. ^Fallows, James (November 2012). 'Busy and Busier'. The Atlantic. Retrieved December 28, 2018.
3. ^David Allen (2001). 'Getting Things Done: Five Simple Steps That Apply Order To Chaos'. gettingthingsdone.com. Retrieved 2019-07-27.
4. ^Forrister, Kelly (2010-08-02). 'Which list manager should I use for GTD?'. GTD Times. The David Allen Company. Archived from the original on 2010-08-06. Retrieved 2015-01-04.
5. ^Forrister, Kelly (2009-05-04). 'Simply GTD with Kelly: Getting Started'. The David Allen Company. Archived from the original on 2010-08-29. Retrieved 2010-08-22. If you're at all familiar with GTD you know that David Allen does not tell you which tools to use--GTD is tool agnostic--so those choices are up to you. Not saying all tools, software programs, paper planners work seamlessly with GTD, but where you organize your stuff is up to you.
6. ^'Common Tools & Software'. Getting Things Done website. David Allen Co. Retrieved 2014-05-30.
7. ^ ^abHeylighen, Francis; Vidal, Clément (December 2008). 'Getting Things Done: The Science behind Stress-Free Productivity'(PDF). Long Range Planning: International Journal of Strategic Management. 41 (6): 585–605. CiteSeerX10.1.1.161.441. doi:10.1016/j.lrp.2008.09.004. ISSN0024-6301.
8. ^Andrews, Robert (2005-07-12). 'A new cult for the info age'. Wired.com. Condé Nast. Retrieved 2020-05-02.
9. ^Mann, Merlin (2004-09-08). 'Getting started with 'Getting Things Done''. 43 Folders. Retrieved 2020-05-02.
10. ^Robinson, Keith (2006-03-21). 'Best of GTD'. Lifehacker. Retrieved 2020-05-02.
11. ^'Review: Getting Things Done'. The Simple Dollar. 2020-04-09. Retrieved 2020-05-02.
12. ^Hammersley, Ben (2005-09-28). 'Meet the man who can bring order to your universe'. The Guardian. London: Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved 2010-03-05.
13. ^'The Oracle of Organization'. Time. 2007-03-12. Retrieved 2010-03-05.
14. ^Wolf, Gary (2007-09-25). 'Getting Things Done Guru David Allen and His Cult of Hyperefficiency'. Wired.com. Retrieved 2010-03-05.

Further reading[edit]

• Allen, David (2001). Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (1 ed.). Penguin Books. ISBN978-0-14-200028-1.
• Allen, David (2003). Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Work and Life. Viking Books. ISBN978-0-670-03250-1.
• Allen, David (2008). Making it All Work. Viking Books. ISBN978-0-7499-4103-1.

External links[edit]

David Allen in his book Getting Things Done: The art of stress-free productivity has devised a method to help managers and anyone else who feels overwhelmed by an ever-increasing workload to stay afloat at work. The aim of this method is to free time for you to concentrate on things that really matter and to achieve greater work.

Getting Things Done is ideal for workers in the new economy not only because it enables them to increase their productivity, but also because it allows them to do so with minimal stress.

The book is divided into three main parts:

Part 1: The Art of Getting Things Done

In this section, Allen describes the problems of the modern working world and the solutions that are usually applied to them, before outlining his method and explaining how it differs from other approaches.

He then briefly describes the various processes that make up his project planning system. The real question is how to choose what to do at any point in time. The real question is how we manage actions.

The methods presented in this book are all based on two key objectives:

1) Capturing everything you need to do

2) Disciplining yourself to make front-end choices about all my 'inputs' you're letting into your life

The Basic Requirements for Managing Commitments

Managing commitments requires the implementation of some basic activities and behaviors:

1. If it's on your mind, your mind isn't clear. Everything you find incomplete in any way must be captured outside of your mind in a trustworthy framework, or what I call a collection bucket which you know you will come back periodically to sort through.

“If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything.” Sbunryu Suzuki

2. You have to clarify exactly what your commitment is and determine what to do, if anything, to make progress in achieving that commitment.

3. Once you have agreed on all of the steps you need to take, you need to keep systematic reminders of them in a framework that you frequently check.

Why Things Are on Your Mind

Most often, the reason something is 'on your mind' is because you want it to be different from what it is at the moment, and yet:

- You have not quite clarified what the intended result is;

- You have not decided what the very next physical action move would be; and/or

- You have not put in a framework that you trust reminders of the result and the action required.

Horizontal and Vertical Action Management

During these fertile and turbulent times, the desire to be productive, confident and in charge requires new ways of thinking and working. Obligations, programs, and acts need to be regulated in two ways — horizontally and vertically.

- 'Horizontal' control maintains coherence across all the activities in which you are involved.

- 'Vertical' control, in contrast, manages thinking up and down the track of individual topics and projects.

Horizontal GTD Method

Getting Control of Your Life: The Five Stages of Mastering Workflow

The key process presented to master the art of calm and guided knowledge work is a five-stage method for an effective flow management. This constitutes the 'horizontal' aspect of our lives — incorporating whatever has our concern at any moment.

1) COLLECT stuff demanding our attention

2) PROCESS their meaning and how to deal with them

3) ORGANIZE the outcomes

4) REVIEW all actions and choices you have

5) DO

It's important to understand what needs to be collected and how to better collect it so you can process it properly. You cannot arrange what's coming in — you can just collect it and process it.

Instead, you plan the steps that you'll need to take based on the choices you've made about what to do.

The entire deal — both the processing and organizing phases — is described in the decision-tree model's center 'trunk' as shown above.

You must be able to review the entire picture of your life and work at reasonable times and at proper levels.

“Review your lists as often as you need to, to get them off your mind.” David Allen

The fundamental goal of this workflow-management process is to enable good choices about everything you do at any particular time.

“Most people feel best about their work when they've cleaned up, closed up, clarified, and renegotiated all their agreements with themselves and others. Do this weekly instead of yearly.” David Allen

If you have collected, processed,organized and reviewed all of your current obligations, with some insightful and rational thought about your work and principles, you will incite your rational judgement.

David Allen had developed three models that will be helpful for you to incorporate in your decision-making about what to do.

The Four-Criteria Model for Choosing Actions in the Moment

1. Context

2. Time available

3. Energy available

4. Priority

The Threefold Model for Evaluating Daily Work

1. Doing predefined work

2. Doing work as it shows up

3. Defining your work

The Six-Level Model for Reviewing Your Own Work

1. • 50,000+ feet: Life

2. • 40,000 feet: Three- to five-year vision

3. • 30,000 feet: One- to two-year goals

4. • 20,000 feet: Areas of responsibility

5. • 10,000 feet: Current projects

6. • Runway: Current actions

Ft-60 programming software for mac. What the author calls horizontal focus and considered the key factors of a comfortable control are:

- clearly defined results (projects) and the next steps needed to move them towards completion

- reminders put in a trustworthy system which is periodically checked

“You've got to think about the big things while you're doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction.” Alvin Toffler

Vertical GTD Method

The Natural Planning Model

Unlike the horizontal approach, which includes the analysis of all the elements of your daily world, the vertical approach seeks to take a closer look at each project. This part of the method is less restrictive and more creative so it allows you more freedom to follow your intuition and opens up a broader range of optionsand outcomes.

It goes through five steps to accomplish virtually any task:

1. Defining purpose and principles

“People love to win. If you're not totally clear about the purpose of what you're doing, you have no chance of winning.” David Allen

2. Outcome visioning

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Albert Einstein

3. Brainstorming

“The best way to get a good idea is to get lots of ideas.” Linus Pauling

4. Organizing

“Organizing usually happens when you identify components and subcomponents, sequences or events, and/or priorities.” David Allen

5. Identifying next actions

“If the project is still on your mind, there's more planning to do.” David Allen

Part 2: Practicing Stress-Free Productivity.

This is the longest section of the book, and is focused on the GTD method, which Allen describes as horizontal because it allows users to see all the elements that make up their immediate horizon. The method is complemented by a system that he refers to as vertical because it allows users to go into their project in depth.

In this part the author takes us from a conceptual framework and restricted workflow knowledge method to full-scale implementation and best practices. Working through this method also gives people a degree of comfortable control they may never have achieved before, but the trigger of step-by-step procedures is usually required to get there. To that end, Allen provides a logical order of things to do so that you can get on board as easily as possible and derive the most benefit from these tactics.

Part 3: The Power of the Key Principles.

The third, shortest section outlines the effects that the approaches and principles set out in the previous sections can have on the user’s personal and professional life.

The Power of the Collection Habit

When people with whom you interact notice that without fail you receive, process, and organize in an airtight manner the exchanges and agreements they have with you, they begin to trust you in a unique way. Such is the power of capturing placeholders for anything that is incomplete or unprocessed in your life. It noticeably enhances your mental well-being and improves the quality of your communications and relationships, both personally and professionally.

The Power of the Next-Action Decision

We are all responsible for determining what, if anything, we're committed to doing as we communicate with ourselves and others. And at some point, we must make the decision about the next physical action needed for any result that we have an internal obligation to achieve.

“Without a next action, there remains a potentially infinite gap between current reality and what you need to do.” David Allen

'What's the next action?' as an operational norm of any organizations could be transformative in terms of practical performance outcomes. It changes their culture permanently and significantly for the better. The question forces:

· clarity

· accountability

· productivity

Getting Things Done The Art Of Stress-free Productivity Pdfl New York Times

· empowerment

“When you start to make things happen, you really begin to believe that you can make things happen. And that makes things happen.” David Allen

Getting Things Done The Art Of Stress-free Productivity Pdfl Newspaper

The Power of Outcome Focusing

Just the same results happen when you stick to the discipline of defining the actual results that you want and, more precisely, the tasks that you need to determine to achieve them.

Everything is related. You can't really determine the right action until you know what the outcome is, and if you're not clear on what you need to do physically to make it happen, the outcome is disconnected from reality.

Your life and your work is composed of results and acts. Once your organizational behavior is grooved to manage everything that comes your way, a deep alignment emerges at all levels, based on those dynamics, and marvelous things happen. You become highly productive. You make up stuff and you make it happen.

Getting Things Done The Art Of Stress-free Productivity Pdfl News

“People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, - make them.” George Bernard Shaw

You'll agree that Allen's Getting Things Done system will allow you to work out your worries and uncertainty, and turn them to your benefit to help you work and face challenges day after day.