A selection of rare and challenging books to change your life
1 – Choice of central tool for the system – difficult
This week, as promised, I am focused on implementing GTD. The least I can say is that it’s not simple. Especially due to the number of available electronic applications, and because I want to, and must, have a system for collecting and processing that is reliable, which I can count on, and which meets my requirements. I have identified my primary requirements and needs as the following: The system must allow me to:
As i wrote in my previous article about 10 pearls of wisdom, I have decided not to read a book this week so that I can focus on implementing the GTD method. This method is, in fact, very promising and I think that I can save a lot of time in the long term, but it also quite demanding to set up. I will write an article for you later telling you how I did it.
Does this mean I have given up on the idea of reading 52 books in 52 weeks? Yes and No. In the last 7 weeks I have read 8 books, including Personal Development for Smart People. Therefore even if I skip a week I am still in the game.
Well OK, Steve Pavlina’s book is not part of my Personal MBA challenge, so I am cheating a little 
. The GTD method is supposed to save me time, therefore I am not giving up the idea of reading 52 books in 52 weeks. But just as important as the project or the books themselves, is what I will get out of them in my personal and professional life. Now, one of the major pitfalls of my project, which I have been conscious of from the outset, is that the pace I have imposed on myself is preventing me from fully putting into practice what I am learning. I chose to impose one book a week on myself because that seemed to have more benefits than drawbacks.
I envisaged this project also as an experience and not as a set of fixed rules, it is therefore possible that I will modify elements of it for purposes of making it more effective and efficient. For example, I have thought about the idea of switching off so that “one week I read a book and write a summary, then the next week I put it into practice and write an article about it, then continuing on.” But I hesitate to do that. What do you think? Do you think that would take something away from the spirit of the project? Or would I get more benefit from it? What would I lose in the end? I am just at the beginning, so should I keep it up for a while longer before asking myself that question? What do you think?
One-Sentence Summary: To be efficient, your mind must be crystal clear, like spring water; to get to that point you need to get rid of all the parasitic thoughts that permanently distract you, which you can accomplish by putting everything that you want to, or must do into an external automated system, thus relieving your brain of the need to think – which it does badly, without directed prioritization and without consciously choosing the right moment.
By David Allen, 272 pages, published en 2001.
Summary and Book Report:
Let’s get right to the point: the GTD method is famous in the United States, it is a best seller and features in numerous web-based resources, whether in the form of articles to help you get things done or software to go with it (there are over forty currently, for all platforms, and most are free!) I have also translated [into French] different articles on using it on my blog, Habitudes Zen, which allowed me to understand the method before reading the book.
The author, who has been a business management and productivity consultant for 20 years, begins by showing that the working world has evolved and that managers often have to multi-task to get several things done at once, and even if they could dedicate their whole life to it, no doubt they would not have enough time to do things as well as they would prefer. What’s more, numerous organizations have had their internal boundaries eroded, and their effectiveness rest on endless collaboration and communications using different services – and you can no longer avoid any of the many mail services in use. Executives therefore generally need to multitask more than before. This evolution by organizations must necessarily come with new tools and new work approaches.
Imagine if you could do, if you could choose to focus completely on your tasks, without any interruptions, parasitic thoughts, daydreams and other sources of distraction, while remaining alert and in full possession of your faculties. Sound like a dream? It’s possible. David Allen recommends with his method something that martial arts practitioners call “mind like water,” or athletes call “in the zone”, a state of mind that is free from worry and totally focused on the goal you want to reach. You have no doubt already experienced it at times. Were you able to perform better, feel more satisfied with yourself and your accomplishments in that moment? David Allen recommends a system to make those moments the norm. Let’s see how.