Getting Things Done

It’s summer 2009. I am sure that your New Year’s resolution is long forgotten. Each January, like most people, I promise myself that this will be the year that I get organized. Organization has been a life-long struggle for me, but finally, it seems, there is hope on the horizon. An acquaintance of mine recently encouraged me to read David Allen’s Getting Things Done. I agreed, mentally getting ready to slam it in this book review and toss it into my “Half Priced Books” pile when I was done with it. I was wrong.

Mr. Allen changed my mind. He has a clear and concise approach to organization and effectiveness that leads to a stress free life. Notice that I didn’t say work life. Mr. Allen’s approach to organization includes ALL of the thoughts, tasks, and lists that are floating around in your head.

The Zone
In The Art of Getting Things Done, David Allen details the steps you need to take in order to get into what he describes as the “zone”. The zone is the optimal place in which you are getting things accomplished effectively and with clarity. Mr. Allen suggests that we can enter the “zone” by moving past the symptom and getting to the root problem: our own minds. He encourages us to get our “stuff” (any list, thought, idea) out of our cluttered minds and onto paper in order to get organized and to think clearly. The concept of physically writing and organizing every thought sounds a little overwhelming, but it could bring relief.

As I was reading, I couldn’t help but think of Chef Machiba on Iron Chef. If you have not seen it, Iron Chef is a TV show in which top chefs have exactly an hour to create a full menu of courses for judges to taste. Iron Chef Machiba was skilled in calligraphy, and used precious minutes at the beginning of each competition to write a menu. He explained that he wrote out his menu to clarify what he wanted to present and to communicate with his team. With his menu on paper, he was able to clear his mind and win. In fact, one time he forgot to write a menu and he lost.

Application
The most intense section of the book is about Practicing Stress Free Productivity. Notice that he calls it practicing. This is not a magic system to pick up overnight and skip away to organizational Nirvana. It is a process. It is teaching your mind a new way of living and organization. You start out with gathering every piece of paper in your office and home and sorting them into different piles. It will be a little overwhelming, but this process is essential to your mind shift and to your lifestyle change. Sorting clears the way for clear thinking. Mr. Allen says it best: “You increase your productivity and creativity exponentially when you think about the right things at the right time to capture your value-added thinking”.

Onward and Forward
Finally, in The Power of Key Principles, you learn how to keep the system that you have worked to develop in place. Much like maintaining a weight loss goal, it has to be a way of life. You must press forward with positive thinking and a mindset that is always looking for the next action. This style of thinking will keep you moving forward and focused, in essence, training your brain.

Getting Things Done in 2009
At the end of this book I felt refreshed and motivated; I think I will actually be successful this time in the organization of my life by applying David Allen’s methods, with some modifications. This book was written in 2001, and since then, there have been major advances in technology that have changed the way we work. Today, many of us work completely from our smart phones and laptops. So instead of having your filing system at work on paper alone, it may be best to store your system electronically. Today, your system needs to be as mobile as you are. For now, my system is a blend of both; only storing the most urgent things on my computer and phone. I can see though, eventually, I will store most everything electronically, and I am working toward that goal.

It’s 2009, and it’s imperative that we sort through the chaos in our minds. Not only that, but today we have to do it quickly and incorporate the technology that has replaced the paper we used in 2001. I look forward to getting clear this year, and getting things done with David Allen’s principles.

Amanda Stark is an Executive Recruiter with Delta Dallas. Reach her at astark@deltadallas.com or 972-788-2300.