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Summary: Free at Last - Free at Last!
Review: Free at last - I am finally free of the stress induced confusion caused by holding every minute detail associated with my work and my life in my head - David Allen has finally given me the context I needed to clear my head, make my systems and technology useful and free me to be productive, proactive and my work profitable - I am no longer a slave to reactivity... Buy the book, buy the video (yes! there is a video coming out for corporations and small business which is available ...)- you too can free yourself - go for it!
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Summary: Truly the guide to stress-free productivity
Review: I manage a team of twenty, in a very stress-filled IT environment. We juggle multiple projects with overlapping deadlines all the time. This book taught me far more than the well known time management guides and gurus. I learned to put EVERYTHING - my work life, personal life, dream life (to be a millionaire without being the weakest link or swallowing bugs!) into one place, and organize it all based on me - my life, current job, etc. I also used it to help my team. We now breeze through our deadlines, with lots of productivity and very little stress. We are able to work long hours when needed, and take time off when needed. Hopefully, future releases will bring a companion workbook and this book unabridged on tape or CD. FYI - Mr. Allen has a wonderful web site ... where you can sign up for his free weekly newsletter and continue to learn and grow. He also lists lots more helpful tips, etc. on the web site that you can download and share with your peers and staff members. I urge anyone who is feeling overwhelmed in their life and career to give this process a try. You will be very glad you did.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent, immensely practical book
Review: Anyone who manages multiple projects or a complex individual role will find this book an invaluable help (unless you are already superbly organized). Out of the many books available on time management, priority-setting, and turning plans into action, this is one of the very best. David Allen's system takes some investment of time to implement but then speeds up decision-making and improves clarity of thought by downloading all your free floating concerns into a well-developed framework of files and action lists. This allows you to focus on your current task without worrying about forgetting something and without losing track of materials needed in the future. After explaining his view of mastering workflow and project planning, Allen shows you how to set up for the process and then has you corral all your "stuff". You then process this until your in-boxes are empty. He shows clearly how to organize materials for reference and for later action, stresses the importance of regular review, and shows how to keep projects under control. Implementing the whole program requires an investment of time (preferably two full days), though some techniques can be put to use immediately with clear rewards, such as the two-minute rule and the use of special folders for action items that will help you clear your paper and email in-boxes, freeing your mind to focus on current tasks. Highly recommended for busy executives and anyone with a complicated life.
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Summary: It works
Review: I read a lot of business and personal productivity texts. A lot of ideas sound good but my difficulty has always been integrating them into my daily routine. I took a few concepts from this book and those are to put "everything" in one list, review it frequently, classify tasks into a small number of categories, never leave anything in your inbox, do anything that can be done in two minutes immediately and most importantly, ensure that every list item is a specific action.It is now about a month since I read the book and I'm still using the system and it is still successful. I feel very at ease with what I need to do because it is on a list and things have stopped slipping through the cracks. This book has given me some very useful advice and it has worked very well for me. It does take quite a time committment up front to get the simple system in place.
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: I've read similar advice in other books. But what is great about his one, to me, was that Allen analyses WHY we should do what he recommends. He has analysed how the human mind thinks, and what it will respond to. He sets forth a lot of "simple" things, that once they are pointed out to you you think, "of course!" but that you never figured out on your own. It's a refreshing and optimistic and hopeful and helpful book.
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Summary: Best I've read
Review: I really can't add that much to what has been said already. THIS SYSTEM WORKS AND IT WORKS WELL. I have used several "organizing systems" in the past and they simply didn't work or were too hard to keep track of. This system worked right into my personal way of keeping track of all I do. I use this with Microsoft Outlook. Update: I'm still using this system more than ever even after two years or so. While minor changes have occured, the system is still pretty much the same.
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Summary: The best book of its type
Review: David Allen is one of those synthetic (no, not artificial but putting things together) geniuses who seem to arise every now and then to remind us how wonderful we could be if only we did a little more and how easy it is to do it. Well, it's not quite easy because it requires attention (a rare and expensive commodity), but boy does it pay off!! What this book does is tell you (simply and clearly)how to take control of the effort and attention that you normally spread out over time and tasks. It then shows you how to use your time in a way that guarantees that you will get (much) more done with (much) less effort and will sya goodbye forever to those loose ends of undone and barely-remembered tasks that gnaw away at the edge of consciousness. The system set forth in this book is elegantly simple and, if you are willing to discipline yourself enough to do it, foolproof. When I discovered David Allen a few years ago, the simplicity, elegance, and deep truth of his teaching stunned me. Applying it to my life was even more of a shock. It showed how shallow and fragile the (many) other time management systems I had applied were by comparison. If you are ready to take control of your life and build it to a higher level of efficiency and ease, this is an indispensable tool. If you read it carefully and act on it, you will be amazed at what you accomplish and how easy those accomplishments are. The book is written in an easy to read style, almost as if the warm-hearted narrator were speaking to you in person. Its layout is crisp and inviting with pointed quotations and headlines placed alongside the text. Buy it. Read it. Turn it into action.
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Summary: This System Will Revolutionize Your Life -- Personal + Work
Review: Wow!!! I just heard David Allen lecture at a conference I attended. Amazing stuff! If you want to truly reduce your stress by having a practical way to "organize" your life and work there is no better way to do it than David's system. It is unique--I've never heard anything like it before. As a result I'm going to buy this book and recommend it to everyone. This is a MUST read!
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Summary: Clearing The Clutter
Review: I have read several books on getting and staying organized and worked with a number of paper based and computer based solutions. I've attended more than one seminar. Some "systems" have helped me be more focused and productive with important or essential tasks. But none provided a way to handle all of the clutter and masses of information and secondary tasks that often overwhelm my desk, my mind, and my life. This book not only showed me effective ways to organize masses of info and the many sectors of my life, but perhaps even more importantly it showed me how to get started - which as anyone who has ever taken a stab at self-improvement knows - is often the most difficult step.
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Summary: A book that delivers!
Review: I have worked with David Allen, and I have attended his seminar. I assumed that reading the book might be difficult because I might know too much about the content. Not so - the book reinforced what I knew of his principles. However, it also delivered many new insights. Even if you only take away one of David's philosophies from the book, the "next action" decision, it will justify reading the entire book. I highly recommend the book for anyone who wants to improve their productivity.
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