Making It All Work: Winning at the Game of Work and Business of Life (original 2008; udgave 2008)

I am back to re-reading Getting It All done and I really feel like I have a much better sense of how to make it work. I tried before, but I'm going to try again. Wish me luck! ( )

Imagine David Allen got to write his doctoral thesis on the topic of... David Allen. And suppose no one told him he needed an editor... or concrete examples. What would you have?

You'd have Making it All Work, of course: a very insightful, very in-depth exposition of Getting Things Done stuff in which Allen never says "use" when he could say "utilize" (or at least it feels that way). It's for serious scholars of his philosophy. If you pretend you're walking into Allen's graduate seminar and don't mind strapping on your abstract hat, you might be inspired. ( )

At the turn of the millennium, David Allen released his landmark work Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity and changed how many of us managed our time and work environment. Striving for the "mind like water", Allen, urges readers to use straightforward filing systems and trusted systems, like calendars and useful lists, freeing the mind to focus on the needs of the moment. The "mind dump," unloading all the things that are on our mind, organizing them into meaningful lists of what we can do now, what are projects that need multiple actions, and what can, or should be, delayed until some future date we can develop focus to decide what is the next action to perform and stay "in the moment" with that task knowing that the other work is not forgotten and has its place. Part of my approach to Focus and Flow...

I would recommend Making It All Work instead of the classic volume that introduced us to Allen, Getting Things Done. Making It All Work provides a mature analysis of the philosophy of his organizational approach and better focus on the horizon view of planning. Much of the criticism of his work arises from a misconception that Allen is not solving the task overload problem, only organizing it. Making It All Work is clearer, though GTD explained it as well, the framework includes determining what needs to be done, what can wait, and what should be ignored. ( )

Now I've read Getting Things Done and implemented the GTD process. I though this book would help explain some things I may have not focused entirely on and help me reach the mind like water stage. Not only did it explain those areas, it helped me focus on every area I was weak in but didn't realize it. This book re-energized the entire process and I thought I was already excited for the process before that. thank you, thank you, thank you! ( )

I love the book, particularly because it develops even further different aspects of the GTD method. The audiobook is a good reminder at times but this book deserves to be studied carefully and slowly. ( )