thinkfetti

David Allen’s book is called Getting Things Done. If you look around the web, you’ll find evidence of GTD’ers, talking and blogging about their experiences with this project-management/organization/de-stressing tool. The blog 43 Folders is named after an example in Allen’s book of a “tickler” file system, a particular way of using a set of file folders as a (nearly) foolproof reminder system.

About two weeks ago, I bought the Getting Things Done book, and about 10 days ago, over the weekend, I invested about 14 hours at my office, getting things set up to use the time-management system.

The first thing I’ll say is that even if I were to give up on the “GTD” method right now, those 14 hours have paid off by providing me with an excellent perspective on where I stand: with respect to work, with respect to my personal goals, and with respect to my previous relationship to the work I felt was hanging over my head.

The second thing I’ll say is that the subtitle of the book (working from memory here), “a guide to stress-free productivity,” is apt. I have been working very, very hard the last 10 days, because I have had to, but I am getting much more done, and done more effectively. I’m exhausted, yes, but I think that without GTD, I would have been nearly as exhausted while feeling more stressed and getting much less done. I am optimistic that in a few weeks’ time, I will be feeling even less burdened.

I’m sure I’ll write more about my experiences later, but for now, I can simply say: if you’re feeling overwhelmed, trying to be productive while holding on to indeterminate lists of everything you “have to do” in your head, you owe it to yourself to read this book.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 11th, 2006 at 8:50 pm and is filed under gtd, work. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.