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Getting Things Done
Allen's idea is to first look at the sources of stress. Whether you're working a cushy corporate job, are self-employed, or are still in college, what makes you feel frustrated and stressed? Unless you have had some major disasters in life, the answer will probably rotate around having too much to do and too little time to accomplish all the tasks. Moreover, people around you don't seem to realize how pressed for time you are as they keep coming up with every possible way to interrupt you.
Business people like to talk about multi-tasking. It fills one with feeling of self-importance, since it's obvious that if one multi-tasks, then he or she is involved in multiple projects, failure on most of which would probably result in the end of human civilization. But as Allen points out (his site contains a promotional WMV/QuickTime video), multi-tasking requires you to persist a bunch of projects (most of them unfinished) in your head.
If you count the time you spend on each actual project, and the time you spend switching between the projects, you'd be surprised how much time is spent on the overhead of going from one project to another. Basically (although Allen doesn't express it in these terms) we all would like to be Knoppix, with everything kept in RAM (our brains), nothing relegated to the hard drive (paper or information-management software), multi-tasking at its best. But as anyone would tell you, Knoppix can be quite resource-intensive, and you do not exactly get screaming speeds with it. We're all wired up like early DOS - single-tasking with everything else assigned to external storage, best at doing one thing at a time, if we're to do it well.
Allen develops a system to deal with projects and everyday interruptions accompanying them. Does the issue that came up require less than 2-3 minutes to respond to? Is it returning a call to confirm the dental appointment or e-mail to another developer saying you agree with his suggestion and would approve of it? If it takes you less than 2-3 minutes, do it right away. Do not file it under "Later," do not postpone it until lunch, because your brain keeps track of this stuff, and this unfinished while loop will be running in your brain, even if consciously you do not think about it every minute. In other words, keep the RAM clean.
Allen advocates the 3-D model, where the Ds stand for "Do it," "Delegate it," "Defer it" and advises all projects and small tasks to be processed in that order. The "Do it" part was described above for the tasks that take just a few minutes. The author promises you'd be surprised how much can be achieved by following this simple rule. At the same time, if the project just requires your approval, and you'd pass it to someone else after that, delegate it. But get it off your mind right away, because it's not yours and thus cannot occupy the precious RAM space. Delegate it -- send the e-mail, fax it away, or transfer it to another person in your organization. And if it's definitely a long task and it needs to be done by you, then defer it to the time slot when you're sure you can sit down and do it (by the time you get rid of all the doable and delegable, you will find yourself with plenty of time left to important projects).
Allen is pretty good at pointing out the various excuses that we come up with to excuse our lack of productivity. The rules sound simple, even simplistic, but that's the key to the efficiency of his system. I liked the author's approach, and adhering to his system seemed to bring a relaxed attitude into my daily schedule, since now I don't have a guilt trip over concentrating on a single task and refusing to multi-task. You can read an interview with an author at About.com. There's also an article about the methodology in Fast Company magazine with descriptive title You can do anything - but not everything. I would recommend this book to anyone who feels stress after work or someone who feels they are not at the top of their productivity and spend too much time doing inessential things.
In his spare time Alex enjoys reading business and technology books. He also keeps a list of free books for readers on a tight budget. You can purchase Getting Things Done from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, carefully read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
First post!
Man, that was stressful. Now if only there was some way to decrease other stressors in my life, like work...
"Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgement." Job 32:9
...is a book about how to get things started. After that, getting them done is easy.
Man is a slave because freedom is difficult, whereas slavery is easy.
Seems like a pretty callous review for a book, a web page that just says "Nothing for you to see here. Please move along."
This book is absolutely awesome. I haven't even finished it yet (procrastination), but I have already implemented a few nuggets I've picked up, with great results. I strongly suggest this text for anyone who feels they have time management issues.
Also, here's a nifty diagram related to the system that will make sense once you read the book.
dmiessler.com -- grep understanding knowledge
When you see stats that vary over 50% (for example 26% - 40%) you should pay them no heed.
And that linked web page... man, who at the gov is still using Frontpage '97 to make web pages?
- Larry the Cable Guy
Do it now, give it someone else, or do it later. This is insight? People need a book to learn this?
It's reviews like this one, a review of Getting Things Done, that make me proud whenever I read Slashdot from work all day...
I'd be stressed out too, if I were spending $5.7B a year trying to do more or better work.
Thank God there's Slashdot.
(I only cut the cheese. Don't ask me why CmdrTaco wanted to move it.)
We currently have a 40 hour work-week. If we cut 10 hours from it, get paid the same salary, we'd have more time for recreation and family. That would sure relieve stress. It would also decrease unemployment since employers would need to hire more workers.
Just read slashdot whenever you feel a bout of stress coming on. For me, that's why I'm here 24/7. No time for stress at all!
has really helped me organize myself, and reduce my stress level
:)
it was actually b/c of an earlier slashdot article on said book that prompted me to get it too
back in the day we didnt have no old school
Unfortunately, the bottom line is that management wants to get as much work out of its workers as possible. So if we increase our efficiency, they'll just pile more work on until we're stressed again.
The real problem isn't inefficiency so much as the weak bargaining power of labor.
All right, everyone together:
"when the union's inspiration through the coders' blood shall run..."
26%-90% find taking a shit to be stressful.
Hell, you whiney wimps constantly complain about how stressed out you get clicking "update" under Windows a couple times a month. OOOooooh the hard life of a sysadmin.
Whine. Whine. Whine.
There is no magic bullet. Learn to deal with it. Careers are by their very definition stressful. If you don't feel at least a little stress, you aren't working hard enough. Like the wisdom goes: Work hard, play hard.
If you really want a stress-free work environment, repeat after me: "Would you like to Super Size that for just 49 cents more?"
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
What type of definition is this?
Job stress results when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources, or needs of the employee.
In other words it is completely your employers fault, not yours.
That whole page is an absolute bunch of garbage. F'en OSHA
I have found Hog Bay Notebook (for OS X) to be a great support tool for GTD. If have OS check it out, especially the new 3.5 beta.
Git 'R Done!
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
and I probably do 30 solid minutes of stuff I could call actual WORK for each 12 hour shift.
They have their priorities so ass-backwards it's sick, lol.
All your base are belong to Google.
it's not too surprising that the business motivation and self-improvement market, which includes books, courses, training seminars, etc. generates $5.7 billion a year
What is rather surprising is just how much of the content in that market is exactly the same. It basically comes down to either "get off your ass and do something worthwhile," or "only by will power and self determination will you ever accomplish anything." Unfortunately there are certain people who will never gain any benefit from reading this stuff because it's simply not what they want to hear. More unfortunate is the evidence I have seen over the last few years that the number of people in this category is on the rise.
These are the same types of people who are duped by scammers with MAKE $XX,XXX RIGHT NOW!!! type ads. They simply don't have the desire to accomplish anything of lasting importance in life and therefore just devote their full attention to how they are going to get their next paycheck.
Probably a lot less stressful. The people I worked with in France got beaucoup time off.....
eat shiat and bark at the moon
The current ad banner at the top of this page.
It shows Windows Server 2003 outperforming Red Hat by 273% with 2 processors.
Here, this process will help you out in most cases!
I think a lot of stress comes from the pressure to do things in a different way we are not familiar with - something you've done dozens of times using procedure X gets pretty easy and routine. But when you're forced to now use procedure Z to accomplish the same task, suddenly it's unfamiliar, dangerous, uncertain, possibly will fail and what'll we do if it doesn't work, etc.
The trick is to get the right balance of old comfortable with the new & improved, and different people can tolerate different levels of each. Forcing someone who has trouble internalizing new procedures quickly will be stressed in a fast changing environment, while someone who can learn fast will quickly become bored in a repetitive, slowly changing environment.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
When it comes to doing things that I can take ownership in or that I thought of or are for my benifit, I find that I am much much more motivated than when I have to do a project for someone else's benifit.
More Heart attacks occur on Monday than any other day of the week.
I guess it means people would rather die than go to work.
a lot of people have no idea how to orginize their day, set goals and prioritize.
These books do help people. Your right, there is no magic pill, but there are things people can do to improve themselves.
Drew Cary attributes his success to motivational books.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
People who are bad at time management get stress induced by time management problems? Ingenious!
www.43folders.com
They always talk about a worker's productivity, and act like that's what a worker should be striving towards - but how is productivity measured? From the EMPLOYERS point of view - the most work accomplished for the least cost. Sounds great, eh?
The problem is that all of this is based on conning the worker into buying corporate propaganda. Thr TRUTH is, when it comes to compensation for work the relationship between a worker and employer is ADVERSARIAL.
If you are your employer's most productive worker, what does that mean for you? What does that look like if you measure productivity from the WORKER'S point of view?
Well, if you are your employer's most productive worker, then of all of your fellow workers, you are the worker with the LEAST PRODUCTIVE CAREER. You are producing more output for less money.
For once someone should write a book about how to get the MOST from your employer - how to get a productive EMPLOYER, a productive CAREER. How to get the most money for the least work.
Stop working to benefit others, and make more of your work benefit YOU.
"Put Down This Book And Get To Work, Slacker"
There is no Chapter Two.
The enemies of Democracy are
Tired of your boss bullying you around?
Worry no more! Write a self-improvement book and get rich!
[public]whoaaaaaa
And now, introducing the... (drum rolls)
"HOW TO WRITE A SELF-IMPROVEMENT BOOK AND GET RICH SELLING IT" book!
[public] WHOA!!!! *APPLAUSE* *WHISTLES*
Every manager I have ever known that read these kinds of books were the most inept and poor excuse for managers ever. You can't become a good manager by reading a book. Good managers don't need to read this trash.
I have consistently found open space environments to be the biggest stressor in my work. I'm trying to solve complex problems, involving big bucks, but my employer insists this is aided by enforced, incidental participation in every nearby cube meeting and phone call.
More or less, the loudest and the most noise tolerant are the ones who thrive. Never mind that I can shake a passle of bugs out of something that's already "passed" "testing". Because I need some peace and quiet to really hold all of the scopes, interfaces, etc. in my head, I'm at the mercy of my neighbors' schedules as far as getting this done.
People keep using my ideas. But Management won't acknowledge that a few extra square feet, some drywall, and insulation would keep them coming and coming faster. I'd probably also have some evenings and weekends to myself.
H-ll, even my alma mater, a small, well endowed school, seems to be going open space. It's kind of like taking that old joke about "designed by committee", and making it an institutional imperative.
...the author is probably going to be stresed out. Maybe he should read a good book about dealing with stressful situations.
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty.
Ben
My family runs a company called Wellcoaches that specializes in reducing stress of corporate employees. The company has some pretty good ideas - the concept is to certify coaches around the country who then schedule sessions with employees in companies to maintain better wellness/fitness/health.
The interesting part is that insurance companies are behind the methodology, so the cost for health insurance for companies using Wellcoaches is lower. The program is non-medical, instead concentrating on exercise and eating well, so it's nice to see that insurance companies put stock into what people have always known is good for your health.
This is probably the only book of this genre that I really felt good about having read. The idea of getting everything little thing you have to do written down, filed, and out of your head is very useful. Well, what was I about to do...
I was skeptical at first when I attended one of their seminars at first. Two days out of work for a seminar when I could be getting something else done. But the organizational strategies given and ways to effeciently outline my work for the benefit of my own freetime and the money savings of my company has made that two of the most valuable days of my life. I highly recommend this to anyone in any corporation who finds their employees feeling stressed and overworked. I won't go into details, would hate to steal their thunder but it's worth a look.
We'd like to be Knoppix. That just sounds TOO nerdish. Geez!
Even if you don't buy the book, skim the section on his "43 folders" idea. Basically, you take 43 folders: 12 for each month of the year, 31 for the days. Together they make a revolving calender. But unlike a traditional calender, you can place your "TO-DO"s inside. For example, rather than make a note to yourself to pay the phone bill, you put the actual phone bill inside the folder. etc...
I believe as long as there are lazy people, there will be stress at the workplace. Motivated and energetic people don't get stressed out. It's the people that don't want to do anything that piss and moan all day.
Wow, I just sounded like a republican for a second.
The central idea of this book, which was not really covered in the Slashdot review, is that you should not be using your brain to remember things about work. Every time you have a thought relevant to work -- an idea, a task to accomplish, a goal to achieve -- you should have some kind of information management system in place so that your thought gets recorded for future review and action.
I married Allen's advice with a cheap digital voice recorder and with a great piece of free Windows software called Keynote. Keynote is a tabbed outliner, where each of the main ten or so components to my life each get their own outline (in my case: speaking dates, website development, to do's, etc). It's really the only software that is keeping me using Windows. I use my Mac for nearly everything else.
Getting Things Done is perhaps the only business book that I intend to re-read. If you feel stressed about your work, and have this lingering feeling you're not as effective as you need to be, I really suggest a weekend with this book. Just know that you should be joining its advice with a software solution like Keynote, plus a (real-world) filing cabinet, as you seek to empty the stuff in your brain into its appropriate places.
Oh, and one more thing. Getting Things Done is a great piece of writing. And how often can you say that about a business book?
I'm generally "Interesting," "Insightful," and even "Funny" here. What the hell happens to me at parties?
The book is a little dated now, but still a great read and still has useful ideas.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
I checked it out from the Library, but I didn't get around to reading it before I had to return it (and I even renewed it first).
I started reading it two weeks ago. I'm still on chapter one but I'll finish it next week, I swear...
-- If god wanted me to have a sig, he'd have given me a sense of humor.
Having read this excellent review, I feel like I don't even need to buy the book any more :)
What if your source of stress is your idiot boss? How does this book address that?
There are a ton of resources for the Getting Things Done methodology. A few of the decent ones, other than the author's primary site are:
43Folders, A weblog, oriented toward the Mac - http://www.43folders.com/
GtD Palm Group - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GtD_Palm
There is a Google Group as well, and many more. Check it out!
A great read.
Tech, life, family, faith: Give me a visit
As always, Slashdot book reviews are not exactly, uh, insightful, and are far too charitable.
But I'm going to advocate for the book anyway. It actually is not simplistic at all. The power of Allen's approach is in seeing better than others have seen where productivity is lost. I did Franklin Planning for a bit and it was a bunch of bunkus -- mainly I found I could do just as well with a pad of paper and later with Ximian Evolution what they were charging an assload of money for. Allen's approach is very different -- there's a few tricks, but mainly, the focus is agnostic to the system of organization you choose, and focused on why you lose track of projects and what principles help you get those projects back on track. And the main principle is to get everything out of your head and into some organized but flexible system that you can review at various stages of your life, typically on a weekly basis. Most of the other advice stems from this principle: for example, just goddamn do things that don't take long to do, right when you get them, so that they're done and you don't have to think about them anymore. Maybe you should note that you did do them, for future reference, but just get them out of the way. I've found the principle: get it out of your head and into some kind of system (mine's just barely systematic) is much better advice than "write a list of your tasks and your priorities" because goddamn if that doesn't change every 5-10 minutes, at least where I'm working now, trying to fix an ailing IT department where everything is breaking.
Notice also that Allen's approach isn't "getting lots of things done" or "getting everything done" -- it's much more about managing one's time in a healthy way, which includes knowing what you decided to blow off instead of just forgetting about it. Allen's as cognizant as anybody that most of us are pretty overdrawn and stretched out, but the system is as much about tracking those things you decide not to do for whatever reason as those things you decide to do.
Online citizen journalism from the inner city: The View From The Ground
I had the opportunity to meet David Allen in person last year when my company brought him in for a day long seminar. He is a very good speaker, highly motivational, and really just made the day a lot of fun. His ideas and methods take some work up front, and you need to be willing to stick with "the system", but if you do the rewards can be many.
...the 26% to 40% of employees who feel their job is overly stressful work in the business motivation and self-improvement industry.
I'm not good in groups. It's difficult to work in a group when you're omnipotent. - Q
Simple people talk of people, better people talk of events, great people talk of ideas.
So I've been following such a policy myself, but this ends up having the net effect of putting the small stuff before the big stuff -- one of the big no-nos of time management. At the end of the day, I've gotten a ton of tiny tasks done and a clean to-do list except for the big one that can't be delegated, has to be done, and there isn't enough time left to do.
Does this book address that problem at all? Anybody have any strategies to share?
...just take a cold bath!
Did he inhale?
No, it probably rotates around not having any control over what you do or the conditions under which you do it.
I think the biggest flaw with this argument has to be with the idea that you can shift gears and take care of small tasks quickly without interrupting a larger task. This article on the tyranny of email pretty much sums it up. If you're in a zone, coding away, and you get a phone call, all those variables and processes, and whatever else you're holding onto and manipulating in your mind get crowded out and it takes you a lot of time to get back up to speed. Taking care of small tasks as they come up can actually take up more time than writing them down and taking care of them after you emerge from your creative cycle.
It's called "Das Kapital", you weenie.
Of course it's adversarial. It's also based on factory-thinking, that "productivity" is something you can stack like bricks.
So. Go read up on the IWW (aka the Wobblies), or get job that involves creativity, OR, suck it up.
Sometimes seventeen/Syllables aren't enough to/Express a complete
I think a lot of the value in this book is not that it presents any revolutionary ideas, but that it sets down important rules in a clear and easy way to use and implement. The book was a pretty decent read, not too much of a drudge, and I know some people who have fully implemented the strategies outlined within and have been quite happy with their success. If you're pondering buying one of these types of books, I'd say this is a pretty decent one.
The greatest value in these types of books is that they serve as reminders about what we should be doing, instead of just slogging through work using our typical bad habits.
If it's supposed to move and doesn't, use WD-40. If it moves and it shouldn't, use duct tape.
I shared with him my take on stress and relaxation. For thousands of years, man has felt stress. But this stress was geared around a necessity to survive--life or death. The stress back then was from the prosperity of crops, from hunting the beast, and in some unlucky cases, running from the beast. The stress was there to keep man from dying. More importantly, it tended to come in short bursts.
In the past hundred years, we have gotten to the point (at least in the US), where no one has to starve, no one has to hunt or run from the beast. If someone was fired from his job, the probability of starving is nearly gone (NOTE: I realize that there are people who do starve in the US, and that sickens me, but the scope of my rant is applicable primarily to the more affluent workers who have this "stress".) Instead, we have now substituted the natural stress with the unnatural stress many people feel today; the long, drawn-out, lingering stress, living in fear of if a paper winds up on someone's desk on time.
The issue goes even more deep than this with "natural" versus "unnatural" things, with people having dozens of kids less than 100 years ago to less than 1 in some areas. In short, within the past 100 years we have changed the way our kind has operated for thousands of years. On a primal and almost genetic level, we are acting counterintuitively to our nature.
After I shared this with him, he started understanding that a TPS report is not the same as a well-thrown spear or laying a fish on a few kernels of corn at the right time of the season. Hopefully, his headache will soon fade.
--Chag
One of the areas I've become fanatical in is filing my email correctly. At this moment, my inbox is empty. Quite a difference back when I still kept hundreds of them shouting out at me, and my mail volume has doubled since that time. Setting up a few Action and Archive folders is a start, and with a proper hierarchy you don't have to hunt around anymore to find those emails.
Aother area has been paperwork. I've always had large stacks on my desk, like everyone else. Knowing when to archive and when to chuck away, and having once place where to store and find everything on a certain project really helps.
Anyway, this book would certainly be a boon to all those chaotic people who, like me, felt like they could deal with all those info streams. You might, but if you can make your life a lot easier by following a few simple rules, why wouldn't you?
This sig is intentionally left blank
My impression of the book/method was that it was really focused on executives who delegate virtually all the work they're responsible for, and whose tasks tend to involve phone calls, reviewing documents and signing them, and other executive tasks.
The way it was presented, it didn't seem to be very relevant for someone whose work involves things like spending lots of time actually *working* on things, like writing code, or designing software, or writing a book.
The longest task he ever addresses in the book is the task of getting started with GTD - he advises blocking out a few days of uninterrupted time. Everything else is little bitty things like making calls.
Perhaps my impression is incorrect. But I think Allen would do himself a favor if he rewrote his book for working stiffs, rather than for executives.
September 2011: Looking for Cocoa/iOS work in Boston area Cocoa Programmer Quincy, MA
It *is* relevant, though. I've written some articles about GTD on my blog...
t y-gtd-getting-things-done.php
t y-gtd-methods-for.php
t y-gtd-pigpog-method.php
Introduction...
http://pigpog.com/michael/blog/2004/07/productivi
Methods...
http://pigpog.com/michael/blog/2004/08/productivi
The method I use...
http://pigpog.com/michael/blog/2004/08/productivi
Cutting it down *very* briefly, I don't keep a separate projects list, just have next actions with the project on the same line, sort of like...
Call Garage #Replace Tyres
It means you can only have one next action for a project, but saves a bit of overhead trying to match projects up to next actions.
PigPog.
...so you can quit your job and rake in the cash from all suckers who are still working.
Make sure your self-help book includes lots silly catch phrases for ordinary things and contains cheesy flow diagrams. Really, how is this book any different that "Seven habits..." and all the other ones? This steaming pile will end up collecting dust in the bookcases of thousands of self-absorbed wannabes along with all the others.
The real stress in today's job environment comes from job insecurity, not the difficulties of time management. Everyone I know is constantly worried that they won't have a job next month.
Here's a short list of reasons why people are worried about job security: jobs relocated to cheap labor markets, canceled projects, corporate mergers, getting replaced by cheap young workers and/or by H1Bs & L-1s workers, short-term cost cutting so the executives can get their bonuses, the incompetent schmuck in the next cubical is a better ass-kisser than you, four years of anemic job growth, etc.
Combine that with the skyrocketing cost of housing, energy and health care and you have discovered the real cause of stress in our society.
I have a simple solution when I'm given more tasks than I can complete in a particular period of time. I tell my boss I already have too much to do, so those other things will have to wait. Pretty simple, huh? Do you think I could stretch that one sentence time-management concept out to fill an entire book? I could make millions!
I know this attitude will mean I'll never be invited into executive management, but I've never had the desire to be an incompetent, soulless, ass-licking, mafioso-like dickhead anyway. Time with my kids is more important than a house on the country club golf course.
I guess that attitude is considered "un-American" in today's political environment, but screw it, I'm not wasting my one-and-only life on this planet running around like a chicken with it's head cut off so that the elite of our society can rake in more stock profits and brag about productivity gains.
-- You can't expect to wield supreme executive power, just because some watery tart threw a sword at you. --
Something flashed into the Marxist part of my brain after I read your analysis of the health insurance issue WRT employment.
I wonder if that barrier to leaving a job is exactly what the monied politicians want.
emt 377 emt 4
i can see your future and i don't even need a crystal ball
carpal tunnel, tendonitis, perhaps some of both
but nobody believes it until it happens to them
Time management is one area where employees can help themselves but most causes of stress are out of their control. The stress caused by the work is typically the least of the problems.
Sources of stress in the workplace:
Any one of these can cause excessive stress and it is not unusual to have several of them part of the typical day. The only practical way of dealing with them is just don't let it get to you. Focus on getting through day and try to find a place where things are better. Try to be a calming influence in the office instead of stoking the rumour mill and predicting the worst.
If you look at the office in a certain way, it can even be funny. Certainly, more comic than tragic.
I've gotta hand it to David Allen; Getting Things Done has transformed the way I think about work and my life. It's a great system, and I highly recommend it for people who want to get more out of life. It's not for everyone, and the results take a while to mature, but the payoff is fabulous. It's truly transformational, and I'm glad that Slashdot picked up the review. I was going to review this book, but I wasn't sure if the community would have accepted it yet. I think the computer culture and GTD go very much hand-in-hand.
Like most business books this book suffers from unneeded verboseness.
I respectfully disagree. I did read the book, cover-to-cover, last Summer. Each time I thought the author would be going off the deep end, I'd force myself to keep reading and was surprised to find he had real insight and substance all the way through.
Granted, I haven't followed his methods to the letter -- I've formed more of a variation on his theme, which better suits my circumstances. But it helped me a lot for him to give full examples, as he did.
"Given the choice at the same pay, I'll sit in my nice AC'ed office any day and get in the occasional fight w/ my manager. But probably the most important thing I have learned is, is that stress comes from you. Once you realize that its just a job, and that deadline that was missed doesn't really matter all that much in the grand scheme of things, you'll be much more relaxed. And you will also be more focused, happier, and most likely performing better as you are not dwelling on that last F'up."
Or one could simply drop a lot of the consumerism, and relieve even more stress.
you are an idiot.
100 out of 168 hours spent working sounds like a wasted life to me.
UNless you are working in an enviroment that compensates well for your effort.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
"More or less, the loudest and the most noise tolerant are the ones who thrive. Never mind that I can shake a passle of bugs out of something that's already "passed" "testing". Because I need some peace and quiet to really hold all of the scopes, interfaces, etc. in my head, I'm at the mercy of my neighbors' schedules as far as getting this done."
And yet the Japanese somehow manage to work well with their neighbours in one of the densest countries. Maybe Americans and Europeans could learn something. "Space" may not be the reason.
Guy Kawasaki started Garage.com, aka Garage Technology Ventures, a venture capital firm which proudly claims Claria, aka Gator, as part of their investment portfolio.
That's one thing he shouldn't have started.
September 2011: Looking for Cocoa/iOS work in Boston area Cocoa Programmer Quincy, MA
Priority doesn't Matter.
The truth of this fact never occurred to me until I read GTD, but what David says in the book is totally true. Read that sentence carefuly- It takes a while to sink in!
When you decide what projects you're going to take on, you need to be brutally honest about which ones you really want to and will be able to complete and then put 100% of effort into them.
At this point, your goals are broken down into bite-sized chunks (called NAs) and are then placed on a completely flat list with no hierarchy or priority and handled in whatever order you feel is most efficient.
What about deadlines, you ask? The GTD paradigm argues that almost all of them are not real deadlines, since there is almost always plenty of time to complete the task, or, the deadline is flexible- Inflexible AND ALSO soon deadlines are extremely rare and just your own imagination.
quit wasting your time on Slashdot.
I think something like Eclipse Wiki http://eclipsewiki.sourceforge.net/ - a plugin for the Eclipse IDE http://www.eclipse.org/ is open source nice alternative for having relational data organization.
Joel Spolsky (from Joel on Software), wrote an article awhile back about trying to do many things at once...which just isn't possible. You can try and context-switch, but just like David Allen states, you're wasting time and breaking your flow.
For a programmer's perspective on this issue, check out the article here.
I've read Getting Things Done as well. Highly recommend if you want to get organized and have a "mind like water" like Allen talks about.
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I get stressed out whenever I have a job that requires working for an employer or other boss, being around people for long periods of time, or stepping outside my home. I also find the biggest obstacle to getting things done is the fact that I don't want to get anything done.