personal finance

Still I think "First Things First" by Stephen Covey and "Ten Natural Laws" by Hyrum Smith are the classics in Time Management by which David Allen, no matter how popular or new to the market ,can never beat.

Why? "Getting Things Done" is very dry, rational, written from the head--very left brain-driven, whereas Covey and Hyrum's books are less dry, more human touch,filled with more cases or examples, written from the heart--more right-brain driven!

In fact, David Allen should improve his writing skills first. He can be a bit wordy. He goes around in saying things that are actually very simple and common sensical. As a Time Management and Productivity Expert, he should save his time and his readers' time as well.

Personally, I don't think this book offers breakthrough paradigm in time management. I agreed that Frankin Covey's time management approach can be a bit dated in the"Idea Economy". But still Frankin Covey's approach has a more broad base usage, whereas Allen's approach is more micro---emphasizing too much on personal organization like organizing files, cabinets, etc.

Anyhow, I see Allen's book as the supplementary to Frankin Covey's books rather than the "driving force" work in the field.

Anyone who manages multiple projects or a complex individual role will find this book an invaluable help (unless you are already superbly organized). Out of the many books available on time management, priority-setting, and turning plans into action, this is one of the very best. David Allen's system takes some investment of time to implement but then speeds up decision-making and improves clarity of thought by downloading all your free floating concerns into a well-developed framework of files and action lists. This allows you to focus on your current task without worrying about forgetting something and without losing track of materials needed in the future. After explaining his view of mastering workflow and project planning, Allen shows you how to set up for the process and then has you corral all your "stuff". You then process this until your in-boxes are empty. He shows clearly how to organize materials for reference and for later action, stresses the importance of regular review, and shows how to keep projects under control. Implementing the whole program requires an investment of time (preferably two full days), though some techniques can be put to use immediately with clear rewards, such as the two-minute rule and the use of special folders for action items that will help you clear your paper and email in-boxes, freeing your mind to focus on current tasks. Highly recommended for busy executives and anyone with a complicated life.

The real gist of this book is this;

First, tangibly ALL your thoughts to do something must be somewhere in order for you to PHYSICALLY apply it. Hence, you must write them down or put them all (stuff) somewhere, notes, post-it, napkins, etc., ANYTHING, just make it physically tangible. This is the only way for us to now LOGICALLY apply it. Because we are physical creatures, we must see our thoughts physically also. Down one.

Number two: when all of this is done, get the little ones out of the way, hence the "two-minute rule". Anything under two minutes DO IT NOW. DAM! (David Allen Method) yeah!!!

That's basically the "d.a.m." (pardon the pun) method. For details and even a better understanding buy or borrow the book.

When you think about it, it's all about logic. Delineate the process, divide, then conquer. Sort of like eating a big steak, you have to cut it to make it chewable, then taste, and decide to swallow, chew, or just spit it out, and before you know it, it's gone! It's funny we never applied this logic to our business, maybe below will explain why!

One thing that bugs me is that if something takes 2 minutes and we now need to do it now, there is one section about a guy going through 800 e-mails. If each one took two minutes, the e-mail "project" then took more than 26 hours!!! He didn't mention that in the book! Should he then delegate it, defer it, dump it, or simply call the waiter??? Note: vomiting is NOT an option!