Beschreibung
With first-chapter allusions to martial arts, "flow", "mind like water", and other concepts borrowed from the East (and usually mangled), you'd almost think this self-helper from David Allen should have been called Zen and the Art of Schedule Maintenance. Not quite. Yes, Getting Things Done offers a complete system for downloading all those free-floating gotta-dos clogging your brain into a sophisticated framework of files and action lists--all purportedly to free your mind to focus on whatever you're working on. However, it still operates from the decidedly Western notion that if we could just get really, really organised, we could turn ourselves into 24/7 productivity machines. (To wit, Allen, whom the New Economy bible Fast Company has dubbed "the personal productivity guru", suggests that instead of meditating on crouching tigers and hidden dragons while you wait for a plane, you should unsheathe that high-tech sabre known as the mobile phone and attack that list of calls you need to return.) As whole-life-organising systems go, Allen's is pretty good, even fun and therapeutic. It starts with the exhortation to take every unaccounted-for scrap of paper in your workstation that you can't junk. The next step is to write down every unaccounted-for gotta-do cramming your head onto its own scrap of paper. Finally, throw the whole stew into a giant "in-basket". That's where the processing and prioritising begin; in Allen's system, it get a little convoluted at times, rife as it is with fancy terms, subterms, and sub-subterms for even the simplest concepts. Thank goodness the spine of his system is captured on a straightforward, one-page flowchart that you can pin over your desk and repeatedly consult without having to refer back to the book. That alone is worth the purchase price. Also of value is Allen's ingenious Two-Minute Rule: if there's anything you absolutely must do that you can do right now in two minutes or less, then do it now, thus freeing up your time and mind tenfold over the long term. It's common sense advice so obvious that most of us completely overlook it, much to our detriment. Allen excels at dispensing such wisdom in this useful, if somewhat belaboured, self-improver aimed at everyone from CEOs to football mums (who, we all know, are more organised than most CEOs to start with). --Timothy Murphy
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Kundenmeinungen
 Perfektes System zum Management der Alltags-Anforderungen, 30. Dezember 2007
"Getting Things Done" ist ein großartiges Buch - meiner Meinung nach der gelungenste "Bottom-up-Ansatz" (O-Ton Allen) eines "Personal-Information-Systems (PIM)", wobei "bottom-up" so zu verstehen ist, dass hier das Management bestehender Aufgaben und Projekte (im Sinne von Verpflichtungen) im Vordergrund steht.
Die Grundidee besteht darin, die unzähligen Dinge ("Stuff"), die auf uns einstürmen, zu sammeln und in ein System einzuordnen, um sie aus unserem Kopf (mind) zu bekommen. Die Dinge müssen dann verarbeitet werden: Was ist das Ziel bzw. Resultat? Was sind die notwendigen (nächsten) Schritte?
Um diese Idee umzusetzen, zeigt Allen einen dezidierten Workflow mitsamt der zugehörigen Tools auf. Dabei wird er sehr konkret und gibt zahlreiche hilfreiche Umsetzungsempfehlungen.
Die persönliche Herausforderung für jeden einzelnen besteht (über das Buch hinaus) darin, Allens "Bottom-up-Ansatz" mit einem "Top-down-Ansatz" (z. B. à la Coveys "First things first") zu kombinieren, und so ein ganzheitliches Selbstmanagement-System zu schaffen, das sowohl "Tagesgeschäft" (gegenwärtige Projekte und Aktivitäten) als auch die eigenen Ziele und Erwartungen berücksichtigt.
Sofortiger Gewinn!, 13. November 2007
Obwohl ich ein profunder Hasser amerikanischer Selbsthilfebücher bin, weil dort alles sooooooooo einfach ist, ließ ich mich nach einigen Internet-Recherchen zum Kauf des Buches hinreissen.
Ich hatte als "sofortigen Gewinn" spürbare Veränderungen wahrgenommen, die gleich der ganzen Familie zugute gekommen sind. Meine Frau hatte sich in letzter Zeit immer wieder über mein nächtliches Schmatzen im Schlaf und Schnarchen aufgeregt.
Allein durch die Befolgung des Ratschlages, alles sofort festzuhalten ("collect"), konnte ich meinen Kopf so freischaffen, daß ich nun nachts nichts mehr "durchkauen" muß und auch am Wochenende und in der Freizeit mich viel präsenter bei der Familie fühle.
Das allein ist schon den Kauf des Buches wert.
In diesem Buch hat einer einige Standardverfahren (Prioritäten setzen, ToDo-Listen führen) gründlich auseinander genommen und deren Nichtfunktioneren gut erklärt.
Nicht alles Vorgeschlagene wird für jeden passen.
Ich habe mich selten so erleichtet gefühlt, wie nach der Lektüre dieses Buches.
uneingeschränkt empfehlenswert.
Flow from Angst to Action . . . and Relax!, 1. August 2007
This book is for all those who are overwhelmed with too many things to do, too little time to do them, and a general sense of unease that something important is being missed.
Everyone has experienced times when everything seemed effortless, and progress limitless. David Allen has captured ways for you to achieve that wonderful state of mind and consciousness more often.
His key concept is that every task, promise, or assignment has a place and a time. With everything in its proper place and time, you feel in control and replace the time spent on vague worrying with effective, timely action. As a result, the accomplishments grow while the pressure to accomplish decreases. As a result, the book contains many insights into "how to have more energy, be more relaxed, and get a lot more accomplished with much less effort."
The key psychological insight of this book is that rapid progress occurs when you take large, unformed tasks, and break them down and organize them into smaller, sequential steps for exactly what to do and when. The book provides lots of guidance and examples for how to do this.
The book is organized into three sections. The first gives you an overview of the whole process for how to get more done in a relaxed way. The second spells out the details of how to implement that process, in a way that a personal coach might use. The third provides subtle insights that help you appreciate the benefits that follow from using the process. Like all good coaches, Mr. Allen understands that appreciating a subject from several perspectives and getting lots of practice with it are critical steps in learning.
The process advocated by this book is described with lots of systems flow charts that will appeal to all of the engineers and left-brained people. The right-brained people will find lots of discussions about emotions, feelings, and stress. So both types of thinkers should do well with this material.
The essence of the process is that you write down a note about everything when you take on a new responsibility, make a new commitment, or have a useful thought. All of this ends up in some kind of "in" box. You then go through your "in" box and decide what needs to be done next for each item. For simple issues, this includes identifying the action you should take first and when to take it. For tougher issues, you schedule an appropriate time to work the problem in more detail. You organize the results of this thinking, and review your options for what you should be doing weekly. Then you take what you choose to do, and act. Think of this process as the following five steps: (1) collect (2) process (3) organize (4) decide (5) act.
For the tougher problems, you start with identifying your purpose and principles so you know why you care how it all turns out. Then you imagine the potential good outcomes that you would like. Following that, you brainstorm with others the best way to get those outcomes. Then you organize the best pathway. Finally, you identify the first actions you need to take. Then you act, as in step 5 above.
From this outline, I hope that you can see that this is not rocket science. It is simple common sense, but with discipline. The critical part is the discipline because that is what focuses your attention where it will do the most good. For example, rather than sitting on something you have no idea how to get started, you can decide right away to get ideas from others on what the purpose and principles are that should be used in selecting a solution. So, you are in motion, and you have saved much time and anxiety.
What I learned from this book is that many people allow a lot of time to pass without taking any useful steps because they cannot imagine what to do next. This process should usually overcome that problem by showing you what to work on, providing methods to accomplish that step in the process, and guiding you to places where you can get appropriate help. As a result, this book should help overcome the bureaucracy and communications stalls that bedevil most organizations.
This fits from my own experience in helping people solve problems. If you simplify the questions and make them into familiar ones, everyone soon finds powerful alternatives drawn from a lifetime of experiences and memories. Keep things broad, abstract, and vague, and peoples' eyes glaze over while they struggle for a place to begin.
After you have finished reading and applying this book, I suggest that you share your new learning with those you see around you who are the most stressed out. By helping them gain relaxed control of their activities, you will also be able to enjoy the benefits of their increased effectiveness in supporting your own efforts.
May you always get the tools you need, understand what to do next, and move swiftly through timely actions!
 PROTYPICAL SELF HELPER, 18. Mai 2007
Here's another book designed to show us how to organize our lives. How to make "to-do" lists, how to schedule our time, how to maximize our time, how to qualify our time, how to work to our potential in a short amount of alloted time - there's that word again, TIME. I heard "time" so much in this book when I finished I felt like breaking every clock in my house.
The book is not all bad. There are certainly some valuable time management tips. But the author has a tendency to lecture and I didn't find that tone to be conducive to learning. But this is standard m.o. for self helpers nowadays.
For a very funny parody/send up of self help books like this check out Martha Bolton's "Maybe Life's Just Not That Into You." It had me in tears. Hilarious.
As for "Getting Things Done" I think reading this book is a poor use of your time.
Nützliche Tipps für den Alltag, 19. März 2007
Zu Beginn geht der Autor auf das sehr simple Grundprinzip seiner Methoden ein. Es geht darum das Gehirn mit einigen Kniffen frei zu bekommen, um seine volle Konzentration in die Arbeit stecken zu können.
Stets geht es um den Ansatz- was man sicher in seiner persönlichen Box weiß, spukt einem nicht mehr im Kopf rum. Dies ist weder neu, noch bei wirklich allen Dingen 100% umsetzbar- aber bei konsequenter Anwendung spürt man wirklich eine Erleichterung im Alltag. Plötzlich scheint man mehr Zeit zu haben.
Das Buch ist in 3 Bereiche aufgeteilt, mit jeweils einigen Kapiteln. Zunächst wird mit vielen Beispielen und der ausführlichen Erläuterung der Grundprinzipien das Ganze erklärt. Dann geht es an die praktische Umsetzung, wobei der Autor stets Alternativen aufzeigt. Etwa wenn es um die Frage Papier <-> PDA geht. Das geht soweit das eine ganze "Einkaufsliste" zusammengestellt wird. Keine Angst, nur Dinge des Büro-Alltags. Allen wiederholt immer wieder, das Konsequenz das wichtigste an der Umsetzung ist. Nur so schöpft man Vertrauen zum System. In zahlreichen Tipps und Kommentaren wird dann im letzten Bereich des Buches auf offene Fragen und die Praxis des Systems eingegangen. Oft verschwimmen die Kategorien beim sortieren miteinander- Allen zeigt Wege dies zu vermeiden.
Persönlich geht mir bei manchen Dingen das System zu weit und ich habe meine eigenes System gefunden. Den bei den versprochenen Sekunden die pro Tag nur aufgewandt werden müssen, wird es bei den wenigsten bleiben. Gerade bei den ganzen Unterordnern und Kriterien, die Allen vorgibt.
4 Sterne, ein gutes Buch zu einem sehr günsitgen Preis. Der Autor zeigt Wege aus dem Chaos, ohne das Rad neu zu erfinden. Dies ist aber gleichzeitg auch ein Manko, schließlich ist das anlegen von Listen nach einem bestimmten System, oder etwa der Grundsatz- Dinge die man gleich erledigen kann, auch gleich zu erledigen nicht wirklich etwas neues. Auch ist es ein wenig nervig, wie im Buch ständig das System hochgelobt wird, auch wenn es mächtig ist.
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