Over the past one year, my workload had stacked up, stacked up so high that it would resemble a mountain of unchecked files from a typical 1980s Government office. I couldn't cope with this kind of pressure and I had difficultly organizing my priorities in a clear and logical fashion. As a result, my personal life suffered because I put too much emphasis on completing official stuff and not meeting up with friends often enough. In other words, my work-life balance was so skewered to the side of work that I felt more disconnected with the real world.

 

Enter Getting Things Done by David Allen.

 

I had heard of this book a couple of years back through a couple of my friends and had been meaning to purchase it but never got around to doing it because, you've probably guessed it... I was too lazy! Luckily my brother had highly recommended this book as well, so I borrowed it from him. 

 

It has made a huge difference to my productivity.

 

How does it work?

We live in an era where time is a scarce commodity and information is overloading our brains with needless crap. So we ask - how can we manage ourselves better?

The book describes a relatively simple methodology for dealing with the "stuff" in your life, where "stuff" may be things to do, people to talk to, appointments to keep or projects to manage and complete.

 

The book really centers around one key idea: you will be more productive if you take the set of things you need to get out of your head and put them down on paper (or some other written form). After that’s done, focus on the tasks at hand. This would enable you to focus better, get individual tasks done faster, and then move right on to other key tasks without skipping a beat.

 

It seems incredibly simple, but it isn't unless you are totally committed. There are many ways of dealing with "stuff" and they are very well explained in the book. It is up to you to decide which suits you the best.

 

To summarize, the book helps you to:

 

Some people would prefer using technology to deal with "stuff", such as Blackberry to keep track of appointments, or pen/paper to keep track of things to do for a particular day, or using their memory to remember things. There are so many ways of doing things and dealing with "stuff" and it is upto you to find out which is the best way.

 

This book made me realize the importance of prioritizing stuff on a piece of paper as I tended to forget easily. For instance, I set my cellphone alarm every hour to remind me to look at my moleskine (I'm an old-fashioned pen/paper type) to review the "stuff" that needs to be done for a given time.

 

Being more productive also requires change in mindset and attitude. It also requires de-addicting yourself of certain things and creation of newer and better habits. I did a complete overhaul of myself and initiated a lot of changes.

 

Take the Internet for instance. By cutting down the Internet by 80%, I have 80% more time devoted to important things. I asked myself - Is the Internet important? The answer was pretty clear. This helped me to realign my priorities in life to more important things, such as working out and eating healthy. My life is so much better without the Internet, just when most people are gravitating towards a 'virtual' life!

 

I also cultivated a habit of taking down notes, ideas, appointments, things to do for a particular day, just about anything on my moleskine. This helped me gather all thoughts in one single place and action them on a priority basis.

 

However, this book is completely useless if you aren't willing to commit yourself to change. There are some ideas which may or may not work, but it is up to you to test them out. While this book sounds terrific on theory, it works even better if you can work it out yourself in the real world.

 

Also, this is a dense book, filled with lots of ideas and methods, perhaps too dense for an average person to consume! But it caters to all types of personalities and people.

 

If you are having a problem prioritizing, dealing with time and getting things done (i.e. procrastinator) , then this is the book for you.