Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
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Summary
This may be my most referenced book of all time - I pick it up off the bookshelf a couple of times per year when I feel like I can improve some aspect of my executive function. It shows how to manage all tasks (work, family, personal) as a series of systems in this book. It has allowed me to never forget to get things done, but also helped me prioritize and clear my head of tasks so I can actually have capacity to think. It's taught me how to prioritize what's important to me rather than have a flood of other people's problems take over my day.
It's taken me years to implement these systems (and I still make tweaks to my systems on a regular basis), but the methods described in this book have helped me. If you start trying to do what the book teaches, I recommend picking your biggest pain point and implement the techniques to solve that first. Once that's habitual, move on to the next technique.
Notes and Quotes
I don't have a ton of notes for this book because it is relatively short and I reference it regularly if I need to look up details. This flow chart is a summary of the GTD process:
"stuff"
│
▼
┌───────────┐
│ In-basket │
└─────┬─────┘
│
▼
┌───────────┐
│What is it?│
└─────┬─────┘
│
▼
┌────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────┐
│Is it actionable?│──no───▶│ Trash │
└───────┬────────┘ ├─────────────────┤
│ │ Someday/maybe │
yes │(tickler file) │
│ ├─────────────────┤
┌─────────────┐ │ │ Reference │
│ Projects │◀──────┤ │(retrievable │
│ (planning) │ │ │ when required) │
└──────┬──────┘ ▼ └─────────────────┘
│ ┌──────────────┐
┌──────▼─────┐│ What's the │
│Project plans││ next action?│
│(review for ││ │
│ actions) │└──────┬───────┘
└────────────┘ │
▼
┌──────────────────────────┐
│Will it take < 2 minutes? │
└─────────────┬────────────┘
┌──────┴──────┐
yes no
│ │
▼ ┌────┴────┐
┌────────┐ │ │
│ Do it │ ▼ ▼
└────────┘┌────────┐┌────────┐
│Delegate││ Defer │
│ it ││ it │
└───┬────┘└───┬────┘
│ │
▼ ▼
┌─────────┐ ┌────────────┐
│ Waiting │ │ Calendar │
│(for │ │(specific │
│someone) │ │ time) │
└─────────┘ ├────────────┤
│Next actions│
│(as soon as │
│ I can) │
└────────────┘