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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.
...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.
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
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); }
I find find it hard to imagine you have ever personally worked in the fast food industry.
I did. When I turned 14 I got a job at the local McD's. Later I added Burger King during lunch rush (I'd skip out of class early, run to BK, work, scarf, get to class a tad late).
Believe me when I say this is the most stressful job I've ever had. Your manager may or may not speak the same language as you. Your customers ditto. When the store owner comes in to bust someone's butt, it ALWAYS rolls downhill.
Slick greasy floors (no matter how many times you mop them). A constant barrage of noise. Loading and unloading crate after crate of frozen material in the walk-in. 400F grease splattering nearby.
Your manager knows you're replacable. The customers don't have time to look you in the eye. You'll get yelled at by every 10 year old who forgot to tell you not to put mayo on your burger. YOU know you're in one of the absolute worst dead-end jobs that exist, and you only take it because it's the only one available.
Try it sometime (for 2 years or so) and then come talk to me about how easy we pimple-faced teens could kick back and enjoy our idyllic lifestyle.
-theGreater Ranter.
www.43folders.com
Sure, we could do that.
We could give you a 33% pay increase. For no reason other than you'd like more time to play.
Or, we could give your job to someone less lazy.
What a bunch of whiners people are these days. Shit, your grandfather probably could only dream of a 40 hour work week.
I find my time at work much more rewarding than sitting on the couch watching daytime TV. I get to accomplish something, I get respect from my peers, I get to spend the day discussing things I find interesting with like-minded people.
Is it stressful having to design, code, install, and support software for police and fire stations? Fuck, yeah. When my pager goes off at 2AM because some dispatching workstation froze in the middle of a natural disaster, and lives could literally be on the line, that's some fucking stress, let me tell you. But I wouldn't have it any other way.
McDonalds can provide you the 30 hour work week you want so bad. Some of us actually like working, even if we don't necessarily like our jobs.
We're indoctrinated with work=hard=stress=bad, play=fun=relaxing=good since we're kids. It's not cool to study hard in school, it's cool to smoke and drink beers out back behind the football field. I'm living proof you can do both.
Want to relieve stress? Just log in to slashdot, politely remind people there that only a fucking moron would spend 500 dollars on an mp3 player, even if it does fit nicely in your anal cavity. Read the replies. Instant stress relief.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
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.
That's a little unreasonable. Companies don't have unlimited funds for labor costs. The only way it would be economically feasible to pay the same for less work is if that work was more productive, i.e. you do the same work in 30 hours that was previously done in 40. If each employee did less work per week, the company would have to hire more workers to achieve the same level of productivity, and if they paid you the same as if you had done the full 40 hours worth of work, they would have to hire 25% more workers. However, that would also increase their labor costs by 25%. The only way it is feasible for your employer to cut your hours by 25%, pay you the same, and not have to dramatically increase their labor costs, is if you can increase your productivity by 25%.
I work a 100 hour week easily and i'm very motivated and productive. Its all about the job and how much you know about how to motivate yourself.
For me its all about comfort while working. I treat myself to a powerful mac and a 23" screen while I program in a language I compleatly adore (ruby).
Productivity problems are the results of disagreement with your work environment. If the environment is inspiring you can stand it for much much longer than 30 or 40 hours.
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 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.
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.