Review

Rating: 8

This has to be the most frustrating, yet most useful book I’ve read since college (was that really 15 years ago?)

David Allen is probably a genius. He’s probably the most organized man in America. He wrote this book geared toward busy people like you and I that want tactics, strategies, and tools to get things done. This book is full of them. FULL OF THEM. 265 pages of information! (By the way, you should see my paperback copy which used to be brand new. I’ve lugged this book on airplanes, brought it to the park, read it on the beach, and even in-between soccer games — this book looks 15 years old now!)

This book is like surgery, or awful tasting medicine. Painful and unpleasant, but the only way to get to where you want to be.

So why would you ever read this book? The review so far is pretty bleak, huh? Well, like surgery, or bad tasting medicine, the end solution looks pretty good and you know the momentary pain is worth it it in the end.

Let me tell you why you need this book. If you are a person that has more things to do in a day than you have waking hours — read this book. If you are a person that makes ‘to-do’ lists — read this book. If you are person that has so much to do that you can’t seem to do anything — read this book. If you are completely a mess, can’t get organized, and can’t focus - go seek help. This book may help but won’t fix you.

Here’s my story — I’m a chronic list maker. It’s in my genes. My mom was a list maker, so am I. The problem with lists is that (1) you always worry about the ‘completeness’ of the list. Do I have everything down on my list? Did I forget anything? You spend so much time maintaining the list, you don’t get to do anything on the list! (2) You look at the size of the list and get paralyzed. You have so much to do, you don’t do anything.

Understand this book is not about making lists. This book covers a large range of organizational issues, such as how to organize your office, how to do project planning, how to brainstorm, how to unstick projects, how to assess priorities and goals — quite simply, how to be more productive.

Since my biggest problem was my obsessive relationship to my to-do lists, I read this book to get that taken care of.

My first big breakthrough from this book is the ‘Do it, Defer it, Delegate it’ . This is David’s rule, and it’s a strategy to help you assess incoming tasks and things to do. Every ‘input’ that comes across your desk (or PC, Blackberry, etc) should have a 2 minute rule applied to it. Can I take care of this right now within 2 minutes (Do-it)? If not, should someone else take care of this (Delegate It)? Or should I take this up later (Defer It)? This strategy is detailed in the book, and let me tell you, it’s awesome.

The second big strategy I now use is the notion of using a Project List, Someday List and a Next-Action List. In the past, I used to manage all my projects, tasks, and future ideas on one list. That was the cause of my paralysis. This method allows me to maintain a snapshot of all my current projects in one place. I don’t have to refer to it everyday, just one time per week. My someday list allows me to put on things that I cannot do now, or just want to do someday but don’t know when.

My bread-and-butter list for day-to-day operations is my next-action list. This is my source of “what do I do today?” I keep this open on my PC all during the work day, and when I am ready to work on something, this lists gives me a menu to choose from.

The beautiful thing is that the next action list is not a laundary list of projects like ‘Launch Client A’. We all know that launching a client project is probably about 50 steps. The next action list tells me ONLY the next thing that I need to do to make the project move forward. So the next action might be “Call John To Review List Of Keywords” or “Create Landing Page Specs and Give To Designer”. This is an ACTION, and it’s specific. It tells me what needs to happen to move the project one step closer to being done. Therefore, my day is spent handling actions and I am free from “analysis paralysis” and chronic list maintenance. I just get things done now.

Understand this book is long, and sometimes you need to read things more than once. David also repeats things for our benefit, but it’s hard to get to the end of this book because you are trying to understand his concepts, evaluate them in relation to your situation, continue to work in your ‘old’ ways of doing things, and work on changing these habits all at the same time.

It’s going to take work, and it’s not going to be easy. However, I’ll tell you it is worth it, and I’m more productive today that I have ever been. So if you value your time, sanity, and health - read the book and get more productive!–Bob