Getting Things Done — David Allen

The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

Quick Summary

Are you overwhelmed by your to-do lists at work and at home? The GTD method (Getting Things Done) or the art of efficiency without stress is a method that allows you to increase your organizational skills, your efficiency and your creativity without multiplying your efforts.

My Thoughts

I’ve heard a lot about this book, and I was already using some variation of the GTD method before I read it, so I dove in.

Like many books in this genre, the content is quite good and the method can be effective, but the writing style is heavy and the whole book can be summarized in a few lines. In fact, one always has the impression that authors need to fill this kind of books with useless anecdotes and quotes, because otherwise the book could fit on 10 pages.

In short, it is not necessarily useful to read this book because most of what you find in it is very well summarized by many articles or YouTubers on the internet.

As for the method, I find it good although a bit heavy. It feels like the kind of method where you spend more time planning than acting.

To sum it up simply:

• If a task takes you less than 2 minutes, do it now because it takes longer to add it to your system than to do it.
• Review your lists regularly or your system is useless, and act accordingly (do your tasks, delegate, archive).
• Have an overview of your life, which is broken down into tasks (life -> areas of work -> responsibilities -> projects -> tasks etc…)

And other principles, which are useful to know but not necessarily applicable in practice.

To Read or Not to Read

As I said, the book can be summarized very well in a few lines. On the other hand, there are some subtleties and tricks that are a little less known and interesting, for which the book may be worth reading. On the other hand, be prepared to skip some parts that may be a bit long.

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