David Allen - Getting Things Done | Page 2

subse quent purchaser.

For Kathryn, my extraordinary partner in life and work

viii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Finally, deepest thanks go to my spiritual coach, J-R, for
being such an awesome guide and consistent reminder of my real
priorities; and to my incredible wife, Kathryn, for her trust, love,
hard work, and the beauty she has brought into my l ife.

Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Welcome to Getting Things Done xi
Part 1: The Art of Getting Things Done 1
Chapter 1 A New Practice for a New Reality 3
Chapter 2 Getting Control of Your Life:
The Five Stages of Mastering Workflow 24
Chapter 3 Getting Projects Creatively Under
Way: The Five Phases of Project Planning 54
Part 2: Practicing Stress-Free Productivity 83
Chapter 4 Getting Started: Setting Up the Time,
Space, and Tools 85
Chapter 5 Collection: Corralling Your "Stuff" 104
Chapter 6 Processing: Getting "In" to Empty 119
Chapter 7 Organizing: Setting Up the Right Buckets 138
ix

X
CONTENTS
Chapter 8 Reviewing: Keeping Your
System Functional 181
Chapter 9 Doing: Making the Best
Action Choices 191
Chapter 10 Getting Projects Under Control 211
Part 3: The Power of the Key Principles 223
Chapter 11 The Power of the Collection Habit 225
Chapter 12 The Power of the Next-Action
Decision 236
Chapter 13 The Power of Outcome Focusing 249
Conclusion 257
Index 261

Welcome to Getting Things Done
WELCOME TO A gold mine of insights into strategies for how to have
more energy, be more relaxed, and get a lot more ac complished
with much less effort. If you're like me, you like getting things
done and doing them well, and yet you also want to savor life in
ways that seem increasingly elusive if not downright impossible if
you're working too hard. This doesn't have to be an either-or
proposition. It is possible to be effectively doing while you are
delightfully being, in your ordinary workaday world.
I think efficiency is a good thing. Maybe what you' re doing is
important, interesting, or useful; or maybe it isn't but it has to be
done anyway. In the first case you want to get as m uch return as
you can on your investment of time and energy. In
the second, you want to get on to other things as fast
as you can, without any nagging loose ends.
And whatever you're doing, you'd probably like to
be more relaxed, confident that whatever you're doi ng
at the moment is just what you need to be doing—tha t
having a beer with your staff after hours, gazing at your
sleeping child in his or her crib at midnight, answ ering
the e-mail in front of you, or spending a few infor mal
minutes with the potential new client after the meeting
is exactly what you ought to be doing, as you're doing it.
Teaching you how to be maximally efficient and
relaxed, whenever you need or want to be, was my ma in purpose
in writing this book.
xi
The art of resting
the mind and the
power of
dismissing from it
all care and worry
is probably one of
the secrets of our
great men.
—Captain].
A.

xii
WELCOME TO GETTING THINGS DONE
I have searched for a long time, as you may have, f or answers
to the questions of what to do, when to do it, and how to do it.
And after twenty-plus years of developing and apply ing new
methods for personal and organizational productivity, alongside
years of rigorous exploration in the self-development arena, I can
attest that there is no single, once-and-for-all solution. No soft-
ware, seminar, cool personal planner, or personal m ission state-
ment will simplify your workday or make your choice s for you as
you move through your day, week, and life. What's m ore, just
when you learn how to enhance your productivity and decision-
making at one level, you'll graduate to the next accepted batch of
responsibilities and creative goals, whose new challenges will defy
the ability of any simple formula or buzzword-du-jo ur to get you
what you