Book Review- How To Get Things Done in Life!

Get Things Done by David Allen. The first book I completed in 2023 and it changed my life. I would attribute a lot of credit to this book’s learning for my improved performance at the office, which helped me bag a coveted promotion.

🔥 🚀 The Book in 3 Sentences

This book helps in managing the knowledge work.
It helps free up the mental space and makes you feel in control of the otherwise invisible work items
It helps your mind to be free, to think about what should be your next action to complete the project/tasks at hand.
it helps in slicing and dicing the actions to a level where we get to see only what is the next action.

🎨 Impressions It’s a book that I started for designing my Notion (a planning tool I use to manage my life) workflows better but ultimately helped me set up my office task dashboard which has been a tremendous help. This book has a concept that either you work when things blow up or when things are in motion, i.e. proactively. so we should always be proactive in work so we are in control of the situation. How to plan your larger than 2-minute actions and how the workflow moves around for knowledge work.

👤 Who Should Read It? Everyone in IT. Anyone interested in increasing productivity Anyone who is stressed about work and always worried if some actions will be left out

☘️ How the Book Changed Me

Sure as hell it improved my notion setup and more importantly the task dashboard in the office. I have not only created an awesome template but also a way to manage the tasks. Usually, I forget some of the life tasks such as investing in Life insurance policies, paying the bills on time, etc. This book made me design a system that helped me set reminders for the entire year. Now I am not at all worried about remembering these things.

The 2-minute rule i.e. if anything is required just 2 minutes to close, you just do it rather than procrastinate or plan for it. Just do it.

🔥 ✍️ My Top 3 Quotes

Men of lofty genius when they are doing the least work are the most active. —Leonardo da Vinci

It takes little strength to do things, but it requires a great deal of strength to decide what to do. —Elbert Hubbard
Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape. —Michael McGriffy, M.D.
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.—Albert Einstein

⚙ Chapter-wise summary of the book

What needs to be managed?

Anything that does not belong where it is, the way it is, is an “open loop” pulling on your attention.
To deal effectively with all of that, you must first identify and collect all those things that are “ringing your bell” in some way, and then plan how to handle them.
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 system outside your mind, or what I call a collection bucket, that you know you’ll come back to regularly and sort through.
Second, you must clarify exactly what your commitment is and decide what you have to do, if anything, to make progress toward fulfilling it.
Third, once you’ve decided on all the actions you need to take, you must keep reminders of them organized in a system you review regularly.

How to write your tasks?

Now describe, in a single written sentence, your intended successful outcome for this problem or situation. Now write down the very next physical action required to move the situation forward
‘What are the expected results from this work?’ is . . . the key question in making knowledge workers productive. And it is a question that demands risky decisions. There is usually no right answer; there are choices instead. And results have to be specified if productivity is to be achieved.”
It’s extremely difficult to manage actions you haven’t identified or decided on. The real problem is a lack of clarity and definition about what a project is, and what the associated next-action steps required are

There are five discrete stages that we go through as we deal with our work.

(1) collect things that command our attention;
(2) process what they mean and what to do about them; and
(3) organize the results, which we
(4) review options for what we choose to
(5) do.

The most experienced planner in the world is your brain.

| Defining purpose and principles
| Outcome visioning
| Brainstorming
| Organizing
| Identifying next actions

This is the workflow I follow (designed in the Notion tool) to manage the stuff I want to get done.

You have the urge to make something happen; you image the outcome; you generate ideas that might be relevant; you sort those into a structure; and you define a physical activity that would begin to make it a reality. And you do all of that naturally, without giving it much thought.
Choose one project that is new or stuck or that could simply use some improvement. Think of your purpose. Think of what a successful outcome would look like: where would you be physically, financially, in terms of reputation, or whatever? Brainstorm potential steps. Organize your ideas. Decide on the next actions. Are you any clearer about where you want to go and how to get there?
Here are three basic steps for developing a vision/output:

| View the project from beyond the completion date.
| Envision “WILD SUCCESS”! (Suspend “Yeah, but . . .”)
| Capture features, aspects, and qualities you imagine in place.

“Wouldn’t it be great if . . .” is not a bad way to start thinking about a situation, at least for long enough to have the option of getting an answer.

What if you are stuck?

Often the only way to make a hard decision is to come back to the purpose
If you’re not sure why you’re doing something, you can never do enough of it.
The question “How will I know when this is off-purpose?” must have a clear answer.
You often need to make it up in your mind before you can make it happen in your life.

How do I increase my Productivity?

You need no new skills to increase your productivity—just a new set of behaviors about when and where to apply them.
Just a new set of behaviors about when and where to apply them.

What if there is a lack of clarity?

People are often very busy (action) but experience confusion and a lack of clear direction. They need to pull out their plan or create one (organize). If there’s a lack of clarity at the planning level, there’s probably a need for more brainstorming to generate a sufficient inventory of ideas to create trust in the plan. If the brainstorming session gets bogged down with fuzzy thinking, the focus should shift back to the vision of the outcome, ensuring that the reticular filter in the brain will open up to deliver the best how-to thinking. If the outcome/ vision is unclear, you must return to a clean analysis of why you’re engaged in the situation in the first place (purpose).

To have a fulfilling life, higher goals are required that are linked to daily activities.

To make knowledge productive, we will have to learn to see both forests and tree. We will have to learn to connect. —Peter F. Drucker

The Power of the Weekly Review –

Weekly Review so valuable. It builds in some capturing, reevaluation, and reprocessing time to keep you in balance. There is simply no way to do this necessary regrouping while you’re trying to get everyday work done. 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 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

The “Bigger Picture” Reviews- Urging you to operate from a higher perspective is, however, its implicit purpose—to assist you in making your total life expression more fulfilling and better aligned with the bigger game we’re all about. As you increase the speed and agility with which you clear the “runway” and “10,000-foot” levels of your life and work, be sure to revisit the other levels you’re engaged in, now and then, to maintain a truly clear head.

In Conclusion –

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