For awhile now, I’ve kept hearing about David Allen’s Getting Things Done. It seems to be taken as a given that this ought to be required reading for, well… getting things done™. Yesterday, I decided to pick up a copy.
I’ve only read the first two chapters, but I have to admit: I’m hooked. Like you, I have a lot to do, sometimes more than I think I can actually accomplish in the time allotted. Allen’s ideas make a lot of sense, and I’m all in favor of anything that makes it easier to… uh, get things done™.
One of Allen’s points in the very first chapter is what connected; I won’t look up the actual quote, but essentially he said that we don’t actually manage time, projects, or priorities; we can only mangage actions. That is, I can’t manage five minutes, and wind up with six minutes; and so on. But I can manage my actions; the idea, then, is to transform your projects and priorities from vague “to do” blobs, to specific, doable actions.
Makes a lot of sense to me. I’m going to go get something done, now.
