Guru Ratings
David Allen
Meh.
Remember my ratings criteria. I’m not judging these gurus on “global” or moral values, but very specific criteria. Many of my favorite books would be rated “bad” by my criteria for self-help (probably, because they are not self-help books). My ratings don’t reflect how well an author met his own goals, but how well they met my criteria for useful, accurate self-help.
In addition to his books, Allen wrote lots of articles. You can get them here, for free.
Getting Things Done (2002)
Getting Things Done (GTD) is a popular productivity system. It works for some people, and is too stressful for others.
His system works like this:
- Collect everything.
- Grab the first thing.
- Is it actionable? If not, throw it away or put it in a tickler file.
- If it is actionable, can it be done in 2 minutes? If yes, do it now.
- If it will take longer than 2 minutes, delegate or defer it.
- If you defer it, consider it a project. Break all projects down into tiny, actionable parts.
- Grab the next thing, and go back to step 3.
Instead of buying the book, you could just as well read this summary. Or, use a modified system like Zen to Done.
Ready for Anything (2004)
Ready for Anything offers 52 more productivity tips, similar to the GTD blogs that spawned in the wake of his first bestseller.