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-do's 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 organized, 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 saber known as the cell phone and attack that list of calls you need to return.)

As whole-life-organizing 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"

Time Tested Principals

I attended one of David's seminars in 1986. As a result, I was able to successfully manage 101 concurrent projects, finishing on time and under budget. Fast forward to 2001. I keep this book by my side at all times (David publish it in Ebook form so it's easier to carry!). The company I'm with now wonders how I get the "impossible" projects done. Using David's techniques in the book, it seems like I can complete a full work day in fewer hours because I know what all my "next actions" are, and do them promptly. Gives me a lot of worry free time.

This is a book you "DO" not just read. Be prepared to work when you start out, but when the initial work is done, that's when the fun begins.

I cleaned my inbox and email box of 300 items in less than 15 minutes, filtering out the junk, the things that needed immediate attention, and the "someday maybe" things (like buying my first Harley).

This works for my personal life too. No more missed anniversaries, birthdays, phone calls, errands, etc.

Do you ever think about work projects at home? Do you ever think about home projects when you're at the office? Ever worry about that phone call you need to make or that errand you need to run? Forget it! Get the book. It's awesome. Get the book - period. If you don't, you deserve your stress.

Manage the Vertical and the Horizontal

Along with other reviewers, I must give this book an enthusiastic endorsement. Here are my reasons. (1) This system is flexible for EVERY person-not just desk jockeys (of which I happen to be). (2) It helps you manage the horizontal--multiple projects as well as the veritical--those discrete action steps that must get executed to move forward. (3) It recognizes that lofty goals are an impossibility when your nose is scraping the ground due to your buckling under the burden of "undone's" that is riding on your shoulders. (4) It doesn't feel like proselytizing like other systems. (5) It works. Many of the concepts are not groundbreaking--I wouldn't consider time management a field of breakthrough thinking--but it does take time tested time management principles and packages them in a way to meet the needs of the digital age. The reader must do a little work and think about what his/her buckets are to make the system most meaningful to their individual work and work style. Additionally, the system requires on-going maintenance, and his discussion about the weekly review is critical to the system's ongoing success. But again everyone knows that; it's that pesky problem of just doing it that requires on-going investment of time and discipline. But if your peace of mind, greater productivity (meaning having more time to do the stuff you love to do, even if that is goofing off!)then reading the book and executing the principles is well worth the effort. I'm going to the seminar in November as I liked the book so well (I've gone through it three times). For those of you on Microsoft Outlook, feeling like your e-mails are coming at you at warp speed like so many stars in a galaxy, I would recommend your purchasing as a companion to the book his PDF download on setting up Outlook tasks to mirror the "buckets". (No, I'm not affiliated with David Allenbin any way).

DAM! (David Allen Method).

The real gist of this book is this;

First, tangibly ALL your thoughts to do something must be somewhere in order for you to PHYSICALLY apply it. Hence, you must write them down or put them all (stuff) somewhere, notes, post-it, napkins, etc., ANYTHING, just make it physically tangible. This is the only way for us to now LOGICALLY apply it. Because we are physical creatures, we must see our thoughts physically also. Down one.

Number two: when all of this is done, get the little ones out of the way, hence the "two-minute rule". Anything under two minutes DO IT NOW. DAM! (David Allen Method) yeah!!!

That's basically the "d.a.m." (pardon the pun) method. For details and even a better understanding buy or borrow the book.

When you think about it, it's all about logic. Delineate the process, divide, then conquer. Sort of like eating a big steak, you have to cut it to make it chewable, then taste, and decide to swallow, chew, or just spit it out, and before you know it, it's gone! It's funny we never applied this logic to our business, maybe below will explain why!

One thing that bugs me is that if something takes 2 minutes and we now need to do it now, there is one section about a guy going through 800 e-mails. If each one took two minutes, the e-mail "project" then took more than 26 hours!!! He didn't mention that in the book! Should he then delegate it, defer it, dump it, or simply call the waiter??? Note: vomiting is NOT an option!