Excellent, excellent book. Really helped me get organized and get to the next level of productivity.
Getting Things Done (David Allen)
– Highlight Loc. 312-13 | Added on Monday, February 16, 2009, 10:50 PM
Your ability to generate power is directly proportional to your ability to relax.
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Getting Things Done (David Allen)
– Highlight Loc. 364-65 | Added on Monday, February 16, 2009, 10:55 PM
First of all, if it’s on your mind, your mind isn’t clear. Anything you consider unfinished in any way must be captured in a trusted
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Getting Things Done (David Allen)
– Highlight Loc. 432-34 | Added on Monday, February 16, 2009, 11:01 PM
Here’s how I define “stuff”: anything you have allowed into your psychological or physical world that doesn’t belong where it is, but for which you haven’t yet determined the desired outcome and the next action step. The reason most
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Getting Things Done (David Allen)
– Highlight Loc. 729-31 | Added on Thursday, February 26, 2009, 10:26 PM
time. To manage actionable things, you will need a list of projects, storage or files for project plans and materials, a calendar, a list of reminders of next actions, and a list of reminders of things you’re waiting for.
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Getting Things Done (David Allen)
– Highlight Loc. 737-39 | Added on Thursday, February 26, 2009, 10:26 PM
I define a project as any desired result that requires more than one action step. This
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Getting Things Done (David Allen)
– Highlight Loc. 760-61 | Added on Thursday, February 26, 2009, 10:27 PM
You don’t actually do a project; you can only do action steps related to it. When
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Getting Things Done (David Allen)
– Highlight Loc. 777-81 | Added on Thursday, February 26, 2009, 10:37 PM
As the Workflow Diagram makes clear, the next-action decision is central. That action needs to be the next physical, visible behavior, without exception, on every open loop. Any less-than-two-minute actions that you perform, and all other actions that have already been completed, do not, of course, need to be tracked; they’re done. What does need to be tracked is every action that has to happen at a specific time or on a specific day (enter these in your calendar); those that need to be done as soon as they can (add these to your
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Getting Things Done (David Allen)
– Highlight Loc. 1209-10 | Added on Wednesday, March 11, 2009, 06:14 PM
It all comes down to purpose. Given what you’re trying to accomplish, are these resource investments required, and if so, which ones? There’s no way to know until the purpose is clarified.
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Getting Things Done (David Allen)
– Highlight Loc. 1307-8 | Added on Wednesday, March 11, 2009, 06:24 PM
The best way to get a good idea is to get lots of ideas. —Linus Pauling
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Getting Things Done (David Allen)
– Highlight Loc. 1366-67 | Added on Wednesday, March 11, 2009, 06:32 PM
only later on. You know how shopping at a big store with lots of options lets you feel comfortable about your choice? The same
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Getting Things Done (David Allen)
– Bookmark Loc. 2218 | Added on Thursday, March 12, 2009, 02:37 PM
A note to yourself about
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Getting Things Done (David Allen)
– Bookmark Loc. 811 | Added on Thursday, March 12, 2009, 03:02 PM
calls to my to-do list, when the day gets
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Getting Things Done (David Allen)
– Highlight Loc. 827-28 | Added on Wednesday, March 18, 2009, 01:47 AM
as well as the ones that do. No-action systems fall into three categories: trash, incubation, and reference.
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Getting Things Done (David Allen)
– Highlight Loc. 1033-35 | Added on Wednesday, March 18, 2009, 06:58 PM
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
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Getting Things Done (David Allen)
– Highlight Loc. 1277-80 | Added on Saturday, February 21, 1970, 02:02 AM
Your automatic creative mechanism is teleological. That is, it operates in terms of goals and end results. Once you give it a definite goal to achieve, you can depend upon its automatic guidance system to take you to that goal much better than “you” ever could by conscious thought. “You” supply the goal by thinking in terms of end results. Your automatic mechanism then supplies the means whereby. —Maxwell Maltz
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Getting Things Done (David Allen)
– Highlight Loc. 2278-81 | Added on Saturday, February 21, 1970, 02:22 AM
You have three options once you decide what the next action really is. Do it (if the action takes less than two minutes). Delegate it (if you’re not the most appropriate person to do the action). Defer it into your organization system as an option for work to do later.
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Getting Things Done (David Allen)
– Highlight Loc. 2340-43 | Added on Saturday, February 21, 1970, 02:25 AM
Tracking the Handoff If you do delegate an action to someone else, and if you care at all whether something happens as a result, you’ll need to track it. As I will walk you through in the next chapter, about organizing, you’ll see that a significant category to manage is “Waiting For.”
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Getting Things Done (David Allen)
– Highlight Loc. 2560-61 | Added on Saturday, February 21, 1970, 02:31 AM
Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its shortness. —Jean de La Bruysre
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Getting Things Done (David Allen)
– Highlight Loc. 3025-26 | Added on Saturday, February 21, 1970, 02:43 AM
Checklists can be highly useful to let you know what you don’t need to be concerned about.
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Getting Things Done (David Allen)
– Highlight Loc. 3114-45 | Added on Saturday, February 21, 1970, 02:50 AM
What Is the Weekly Review? Very simply, the Weekly Review is whatever you need to do to get your head empty again. It’s going through the five phases of workflow management—collecting, processing, organizing, and reviewing all your outstanding involvements—until you can honestly say, “I absolutely know right now everything I’m not doing but could be doing if I decided to.” From a nitty-gritty, practical standpoint, here is the drill that can get you there: Loose Papers Pull out all miscellaneous scraps of paper, business cards, receipts, and so on that have crept into the crevices of your desk, clothing, and accessories. Put it all into your in-basket for processing. Process Your Notes Review any journal entries, meeting notes, or miscellaneous notes scribbled on notebook paper. List action items, projects, waiting-fors, calendar events, and someday/maybes, as appropriate. File any reference notes and materials. Stage your “Read/Review” material. Be ruthless with yourself, processing all notes and thoughts relative to interactions, projects, new initiatives, and input that have come your way since your last download, and purging those not needed. Previous Calendar Data Review past calendar dates in detail for remaining action items, reference information, and so on, and transfer that data into the active system. Be able to archive your last week’s calendar with nothing left uncaptured. Upcoming Calendar Look at future calendar events (long-and short-term). Capture actions about arrangements and preparations for any upcoming events. Empty Your Head Put in writing (in appropriate categories) any new projects, action items, waiting-fors, someday/maybes, and so forth that you haven’t yet captured. Review “Projects” (and Larger Outcome) Lists Evaluate the status of projects, goals, and outcomes one by one, ensuring that at least one current kick-start action for each is in your system. Review “Next Actions” Lists Mark off completed actions. Review for reminders of further action steps to capture. Review “Waiting For” List Record appropriate actions for any needed follow-up. Check off received items. Review Any Relevant Checklists Is there anything you haven’t done that you need to do? Review “Someday/Maybe” List Check for any projects that may have become active and transfer them to “Projects.” Delete items no longer of interest. Review “Pending” and Support Files Browse through all work-in-progress support material to trigger new actions, completions, and waiting-fors. Be Creative and Courageous Are there any new, wonderful, harebrained, creative, thought-provoking, risk-taking ideas you can add to your system?
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Getting Things Done (David Allen)
– Highlight Loc. 3179-80 | Added on Saturday, February 21, 1970, 02:54 AM
Your best thoughts about work won’t happen while you’re at work.
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Getting Things Done (David Allen)
– Highlight Loc. 3187-90 | Added on Saturday, February 21, 1970, 02:55 AM
Thinking is the very essence of, and the most difficult thing to do in, business and in life. Empire builders spend hour-after-hour on mental work…while others party. If you’re not consciously aware of putting forth the effort to exert self-guided integrated thinking…then you’re giving in to laziness and no longer control your life. —David Kekich
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Getting Things Done (David Allen)
– Highlight Loc. 3274-76 | Added on Saturday, February 21, 1970, 03:12 AM
At the end of the day, in order to feel good about what you didn’t get done, you must have made some conscious decisions about your responsibilities, goals, and values. That process invariably includes an often complex interplay with the goals, values, and directions of your organization and of the other significant people in your life, and with the importance of those relationships to
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Getting Things Done (David Allen)
– Highlight Loc. 3301-3 | Added on Saturday, February 21, 1970, 03:14 AM
It’s easy to get sucked into “busy” and “urgent” mode, especially when you have a lot of unprocessed and relatively out-of-control work on your desk, in your e-mail, and on your mind.
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Getting Things Done (David Allen)
– Highlight Loc. 3318-21 | Added on Saturday, February 21, 1970, 03:16 AM
Many people use the inevitablity of an almost infinite stream of immediately evident things to do as a way to avoid the responsibilities of defining their work and managing their total inventory. It’s easy to get seduced into not-quite-so-critical stuff that is right at hand, especially if your in-basket and your personal organization are out of control. Too often “managing by wandering around” is an excuse for getting away from amorphous piles of stuff.
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Getting Things Done (David Allen)
– Highlight Loc. 3351-52 | Added on Saturday, February 21, 1970, 03:18 AM
50,000+ feet: Life 40,000 feet: Three-to five-year visions 30,000 feet: One-to two-year goals 20,000 feet: Areas of responsibility 10,000 feet: Current projects Runway: Current actions
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Getting Things Done (David Allen)
– Highlight Loc. 3837-39 | Added on Saturday, February 21, 1970, 03:37 AM
Most people feel that without constant baby-sitting and hand-holding, things could disappear in the system and then blow up at any time. They don’t realize that they’re feeling this because they’ve been in this situation so consistently that they relate to it as if it were a permanent law, like gravity. It doesn’t have to be that way.
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Getting Things Done (David Allen)
– Highlight Loc. 3860-61 | Added on Saturday, February 21, 1970, 03:40 AM
You can, however, hold people accountable for outcomes, and for tracking and managing everything that comes their way.
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Getting Things Done (David Allen)
– Highlight Loc. 3875-80 | Added on Saturday, February 21, 1970, 03:41 AM
I HAVE A personal mission to make “What’s the next action?” part of the global thought process. I envision a world in which no meeting or discussion will end, and no interaction cease, without a clear determination of whether or not some action is needed—and if it is, what it will be, or at least who has responsibility for it. I envision organizations adopting a standard that anything that lands in anyone’s “ten acres” will be evaluated for action required, and the resulting decisions managed appropriately. Imagine the freedom that would allow to focus attention on bigger issues and opportunities.