Feeling Overwhelmed And Not That Much Productive?

I’m super stressed; I’m super overwhelmed.

– Noah Centineo

This is what the Art of Stress-Free Productivity is about. It is a philosophy that goes way beyond the Pareto Law and the 20/80 rule. Like Illich’s Law who highlights the importance of wellbeing and the importance of rest to stay productive, the productivity guru David Allen adopt a similar approach in his beautifully written book  “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity“. Productivity and well-being are definitely not incompatible. According to Illich’s Law, optimal productivity is reached with an appropriate balance between working time and resting time. As a result, it is recommended to not do everything to accomplish more although it may sound counterintuitive. This is what this productivity book is about.

The author David Allen shows how to organise a busy life, overcome bad habits and still be able to function calmly and effectively.

Getting Things Done – The Book Review by Amazon.com

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”

That’s where the processing and prioritizing begin; in Allen’s system, it get a little convoluted at times, rife as it is with fancy terms, subterms, and sub-subterms for even the simplest concepts. Thank goodness the spine of his system is captured on a straightforward, one-page flowchart that you can pin over your desk and repeatedly consult without having to refer back to the book. That alone is worth the purchase price. Also of value is Allen’s ingenious Two-Minute Rule: if there’s anything you absolutely must do that you can do right now in two minutes or less, then do it now, thus freeing up your time and mind tenfold over the long term.

It’s commonsense advice so obvious that most of us completely overlook it, much to our detriment; Allen excels at dispensing such wisdom in this useful, if somewhat belabored, self-improver aimed at everyone from CEOs to soccer moms (who we all know are more organized than most CEOs to start with). —Timothy Murphy

What They Say About David Allen Productivity Book ‘Getting Things Done’

Getting Things Done describes an incredibly practical process that can help busy people regain control of their lives. It can help you be more successful. Even more important, it can help you have a happier life!

– Marshall Goldsmith

Anyone who reads this book can apply this knowledge and these skills in their lives for immediate results

– Stephen P. Magee