“Getting Things Done” by David Allen is a well-known book on productivity and self-organisation/management. I came across mention of it whilst exploring iPad apps designed to help you keep task lists and despite some rather mixed reviews I thought it sounded like its contents outlined the kind of self-organisation system that would appeal to me. I love a good system and I’m always on the look out for new ways to keep track of what I have to do. The basic idea of Getting Things Done, often abbreviated to gtd, is simply to store, off-memory, information on every single thing you have to do, the logic being that this then frees your mind so that it can decide what to do at any moment based on the context (e.g. whether you are a work, by a computer etc.), your physical and mental energy levels and your current evaluation of your goals.
I read the book quickly and unlike some reviewers, didn’t find it overly repetitive or annoyingly written. I could tell as I read it that the ideas ought to work and should be quite simple to implement and I managed to make a pretty good attempt at trying things out as I went along. The timing was good because I am in the middle of a big clear-out ahead of an office move. Particularly useful was that I had found an app that seemed (and still seems) to be well suited to the gtd approach, namely ‘Springpad’ and so now if have everything set up and running using my iPad as my gtd control centre. I think the idea of grouping tasks by the context in which they will be done is perhaps the most useful new element to add to what I already do.
So far, I’m not sure the results are as profound as the book likes to make out but I think that might, at least in part, be because, despite feeling a bit disorganised and inefficient at times, I was already part way along the route to gtd approach already.
Tim O'Hare 