Getting Things Done (David Allen)
Abstract
Getting Things Done (GTD) is a time management method for personal productivity improvement that aims to minimize stress while maximizing productivity. GTD was first presented, in 2001, in the book “Getting Things Done” by the coach and management consultant David Allen. The central idea of the “Getting Things Done” is capture and gather all that items that can potentially distract the method’s user in an external memory (file system) in order to help the user to focus on the present task and to work more productively. The material recorded in the file system will then be divided into smaller work items and analyzed.
The GTD method consists of five steps to be followed by the users:
1- Capture: the user collects what has his/her attention using in-basket, notepad or voice recorder.
2- Clarify: analyze the material collected in the previous step and assess whether an item is actionable, meaning it requires the user to perform an action. Erase the items that are not actionable and decide the next action required for the ones that are actionable.
3- Organize: create lists/categories to gather similar items and put action reminders to each of them.
4- Reflect: review the lists frequently to update and clean them.
5- Engage: Use the system to take actions. Three models are proposed to decide which action to perform.
Annotated Bibliography:
Getting Things Done - The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, First Edition
Chapter 1 – This chapter, A New Practice for a New Reality, presents the problems related to the job environment of the 21st millennium. E.g. amount of daily information, fast-changing job’s activities, no clear boundaries between work and private life.
Chapter 2 – Getting Control of your life: The Five Phases of Mastering Workflow introduces and describes the five steps method: capture, clarify, organize, reflect, engage.
Getting Things Done: The Science Behind Stress-Free Productivity, 2008
This paper argues that recent insights in psychology and cognitive science support and extend GTD's recommendations.
References
https://gettingthingsdone.com/five-steps/
David Allen, Getting Things Done - The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, Penguin Books, 2001, Print
Heylighen, Francis, and Clément Vidal. “Getting Things Done: The Science behind Stress-Free Productivity.” (2010): n. pag. Web.
