[extropy-chat] Personal effectiveness

[Max More]

Holding off environmental entropy is always an issue for me, given the 
volumes of stuff related to personal projects, ExI projects, and work 
projects. Having looked at quite a few organizing systems, I can recommend 
without hesitation my favorite:

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
David Allen

My 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.

Max


At 09:59 AM 11/24/2003, Mike Lorrey wrote:

>The rest of my life, outside of my computer hard drives, is extremely
>disorganized, but I've always lived with less room/space than what I
>needed, just like with my early tool boxes, and, I don't have the
>organizational equipment (i.e. a drawer system) to organize my stuff.
>People don't really look at furniture as organizational technology, and
>even when they do, they don't have enough of it for everything in their
>lives. People that are really organized do realize this, I have found,
>and tend to be the types with lots of shelving, and boxes, drawers, all
>labelled, etc.