The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
0143126563
David Allen
Notes
Focusing on values does not simplify your life. It gives it meaning and direction – and a lot more complexity…
…most of the stress that people experience comes from the inappropriately managed commitments they create or accept… the sense of anxiety and guilt doesn’t come from having yourself too much to do; its the automatic result of breaking agreements with yourself.
If its on your mind, your mind isnt clear. Anything you consider unfinished in any way must be captured in a trusted system outside of your mind, or what I call a collection bucket, that you know you will come back to regularly and sort through… if you don’t process and empty the “stuff” you’ve collected, your buckets aren’t serving any function other than storage.
…the real problem is a lack of clarity and definition about what a project really is, and what the associated next-action steps required are. Clarifying things on the front end, when they first appear on the radar, rather than on the back end, after trouble has developed, allows people to reap the benefits of managing action… simply focusing on the very next action dumbs the process down
The 5 stages of mastering workflow:
- Collect things that command your attention
- Process what they mean and what to do about them
- Organize the results
- Review as options for what we choose to do
- Do
Weekly Review addresses workflow and is time to:
- Gather and process all of your stuff
- Review your system
- Update your lists
- Get clean, clear, current and complete
…you need to assess your life and work at the appropriate horizons, making the appropriate decisions, at the appropriate intervals, in order to really come clean…The 6-level model for reviewing your own work:
- Runway – current actions
- 10,000 ft – current projects
- 20,000ft – areas of responsibility key areas within which you want to achieve results and maintain standards
- 30,000ft – 1-2 year goals
- 40,000ft – 3-5 year vision
- 50,000ft – Life
Processing Guidelines Rules:
- process the top item first
- process one item at a time
- never put anything back into “in”
Typical planning steps:
- brainstorming
- organizing
- setting up meetings – decision by a senior person about the necessity of a meeting and with whom to move an important issue forward.
- gathering information
Techniques in this book are too exhaustive and lead to more guilt. Simplifying the process captures the most important thoughts / tasks and still increases productivity. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and The Effective Executive were better resources for establishing a workflow.