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 enlarge | Author: David Allen
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
Buy Used: $6.50
You Save: $8.50 (57%)
New (79) Used (43) Collectible (1) from $6.50
Rating:  467 reviews
Sales Rank: 163
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 267
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.6
ISBN: 0142000280
Dewey Decimal Number: 646.7
EAN: 9780142000281
ASIN: 0142000280
Publication Date: December 31, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Some great information November 4, 2008
I've read (or at least tried to read) several self-help type books, and most of them are decidedly unhelpful. And I've realized that all this time the thing lacking in self-help literature was advice at the every-day, mundane, workaday level of getting things accomplished. That is what this book provides.
There is a ton of specific advice on how to organize your life so that you can operate smoothly and without (much) stress. It is certainly an oversimplification to say that simply writing things down will make it easy to live a stress-free, hyper-productive life. After reading the book and implementing most of the suggestions, I still find myself procrastinating on things from time to time, I still feel anxiety over large projects that are hanging over my head. Regardless of how much you plan things and write them down, if you have large volumes of work undone I think some stress is inevitable. So I wouldn't call my new lifestyle stress-FREE, but definitely REDUCED-stress.
To the people that see this book as being a product of our "consumer culture" or our obsession with productivity, I say that that is exactly what this book is intended to remedy. There is no escaping the new, high-tech, ever-changing culture we live in. Unless you are willing to isolate yourself from the modern world, ideas like those found in this book are becoming more and more necessary to actually get important work done and not severely damage your mind with stress. Furthermore, by becoming somewhat of a control-freak for every-day details, paradoxically you are able to live a more harmonious, relaxed, and spontaneous life. This is the message of the book that I think some people are missing, based on some of the negative reviews.
Of course, as with most books like this, there is a lot of excess verbiage and story-telling. But it is a short enough read anyways, so I don't think it's a big deal. Overall this book is packed with great advice and I highly recommend it to people who feel their lives are out of control or they want to get themselves out of procrastination and emergency mode.
 Get out of the mess October 28, 2008
I happened to find this book on amazon and decided to buy/read, but apparently this book is pretty popular.
Even as a graduate student, there are tons of things need to be done every day, and if you have a set system where you can set aside your "to dos," it makes your life much better. This book helped me set up this system and feel better for doing things AND not doing things.
In my case, feeling bad for not doing things have a huge impact and brings lots of stress, so this book improved my life significantly.
I believe this book will keep more people happier and more productive.
I highly recommend this book for anybody.
Great ideas! October 27, 2008
I wish I had read this book years ago. Sure, it's not for everyone and isn't laid out as well as it could be (no reason to slam it though, like some reviews do), but I've taken it to heart and IMO it has helped me immensely. I'm even modifying the application I use in Lotus Notes to incorporate the GTD philosophies. I wish there were better reviews, and I can't stand all the little distracting margin notes, but I read it, then skimmed it, then started working with his ideas and I feel a dramatic improvement in the control I have over all my oustanding "stuff." Definitely a worthy read.
 Good material, but a difficult read October 25, 2008
This book was written in 2001, so unfortunately it covers none of the cool new web and software tools that are available to us today.
The meat of the book is the first half. And it's good stuff, so take notes. The last half is very windy, going on and on with no overall structure (my main complaint with the book).
The main points of the book could be written in 10 pages, so be prepared to sit down and really get into this book to glean the best material. **This book is a hard read.** And after reading for 2 hours, you'll find so much information in your head that you'll be craving for a Review or Here's What You've Learned summary. But he doesn't offer it. You're on your own to distill the essential items to remember and implement.
Buy the book, but TAKE NOTES of the things that ring with you and things that you want to now do with Allen's suggestions. Otherwise you'll get lost, as this book is all over the place organizationally.
3 stars, for solid material, but overly complex material, lack of structure/organization, bad readability, and only two graphics.
 GTD based on misguided assumptions October 21, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
After reading through this book a few times, subscribing to several blogs related to GTD, and trying several GTD applications I came to the following conclusion: The problem isn't so much that we have a lot of things to do. The problem is figuring what your life goals and priorities are. When you decide what the important things are in your life, work, and at home, you'll find that you'll be able to manage life as you'll see that there are less things to do. This will cut out the 'fat' and life won't seem so overwhelming. My main criticism of the GTD method is that it is very passive and defensive. What I mean by this is that it encourages passivity as you are bombarded by things that you have to do. Some of those things are important; some are not. Nonetheless, you are at the center of life, passively receiving things that you need to do. In essence, you are not in control of your life but life itself controls you; thus, you are never in the offensive mode, controlling your life. Having said that, there are some good points to the book, but one should keep what I said in mind as you read/implement the tenets of this book. Hopefully, I will have saved you a lot of time so that you wouldn't take the path that I took and thereby having more time in getting some important things done.
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