Table of Contents
Praise for Getting Things Done
The Seasons Best Reads for Work-Life Advice... my favorite on organizing your life: Getting Things Done... offers help building the new mental skills needed in an age of multitasking and overload.
Sue Shellenbarger, The Wall Street Journal
I recently attended Davids seminar on getting organized, and after seeing him in action I have hope... David Allens seminar was an eye-opener.
Stewart Alsop, Fortune
Allen drops down from high-level philosophizing to the fine details of time management. Take a minute to check this one out.
Mark Henricks, Entrepreneur
David Allens productivity principles are rooted in big ideas... but theyre also eminently practical.
Keith H. Hammonds, Fast Company
David Allen brings new clarity to the power of purpose, the essential nature of relaxation, and deceptively simple guidelines for getting things done. He employs extensive experience, personal stories, and his own recipe for simplicity, speed, and fun.
Frances Hesselbein, chairman, board of governors, The Drucker Foundation
Anyone who reads this book can apply this knowledge and these skills in their lives for immediate results.
Stephen P. Magee, chaired professor of business and economics, University of Texas at Austin
A true skeptic of most management fixes, I have to say Davids program is a winner!
Joline Godfrey, CEO, Independent Means, Inc. and author of Our Wildest Dreams
Getting Things Done describes an incredibly practical process that can help busy people regain control of their lives. It can help you be more successful. Even more important, it can help you have a happier life!
Marshall Goldsmith, coeditor, The Leader of the Future and Coaching for Leadership
WARNING: Reading Getting Things Done can be hazardous to your old habits of procrastination. David Allens approach is refreshingly simple and intuitive. He provides the systems, tools, and tips to achieve profound results.
Carola Endicott, director, Quality Resources, New England Medical Center
PENGUIN BOOKS
GETTING THINGS DONE
David Allen has been called one of the worlds most influential thinkers on productivity and has been a keynote speaker and facilitator for such organizations as New York Life, the World Bank, the Ford Foundation, L.L. Bean, and the U.S. Navy, and he conducts workshops for individuals and organizations across the country. He is the president of The David Allen Company and has more than twenty years experience as a management consultant and executive coach. His work has been featured in Fast Company, Fortune, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications. Getting Things Done has been published in twelve foreign countries. David Allen lives in Ojai, California.
For Kathryn, my extraordinary partner in life and work
Acknowledgments
Many mentors, partners, colleagues, staff, and friends have contributed over the years to my understanding and development of the principles in Getting Things Done. George Mayer, Michael Bookbinder, Ted Drake, Dean Acheson, and Russell Bishop played key roles along my path of personal and professional growth. Ron Medved, Sally McGhee, Leslie Boyer, Tom Boyer, Pam Tarrantine, and Kelly Forrister contributed in their own ways to my work as it matured.
In addition, tens of thousands of clients and workshop participants have helped validate and fine-tune these models. Particular thanks go to the senior human resource strategists who early on recognized the significance of this material in changing their corporate cultures, and who gave me the opportunity to do thatin particular: Michael Winston, Ben Cannon, Susan Valaskovic, Patricia Carlyle, Manny Berger, Carola Endicott, Klara Sztucinski, and Elliott Kellman. The administrative and moral support that Shar Kanan and Andra Carasso gave me over many years was priceless.
This book itself could not have happened the way it has without the unique energies and perspectives of Tom Hagan, John and Laura McBride, Steve Lewers, Doe Coover, Greg Stikeleather, Steve Shull, and Marian Bateman. And much credit is due my editor, Janet Goldstein, who has been a marvelous (and patient) instructor in the art and craft of book writing.
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 life.
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 accomplished with much less effort. If youre 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 youre working too hard. This doesnt 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 youre doing is important, interesting, or useful; or maybe it isnt but it has to be done anyway. In the first case you want to get as much 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 youre doing, youd probably like to be more relaxed, confident that whatever youre doing at the moment is just what you need to be doingthat having a beer with your staff after hours, gazing at your sleeping child in his or her crib at midnight, answering the e-mail in front of you, or spending a few informal minutes with the potential new client after the meeting is exactly what you ought to be doing, as youre doing it.
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 J. A. Hatfield
Teaching you how to be maximally efficient and relaxed, whenever you need or want to be, was my main purpose in writing this book.
I have searched for a long time, as you may have, for 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 applying 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 software, seminar, cool personal planner, or personal mission statement will simplify your workday or make your choices for you as you move through your day, week, and life. Whats more, just when you learn how to enhance your productivity and decision-making at one level, youll 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-jour to get you what you want, the way you want to get it.
But if theres no single means of perfecting personal organization and productivity, there
