I recently read “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity” after hearing Merlin Mann speak about Inbox Zero at a corporate event. The philosophy presented by David Allen in his GTD book has transformed my work process.
The basis of The Art of Stress-Free Productivity is the notion that there are 5 categories of things that we do:
- Collect
- Process
- Organize
- Do
- Review
I’d like to explain these in my own words. The instructions I give below are not the author’s words, but rather inspired by. I suggest that you read this article, read David Allen’s Getting Things Done book, then make changes to your own system. I must admit, before I read this book, I thought I had a pretty good system for workplace efficiency. I was reluctant to read it, but after a few recommendations from co-workers, and finally hearing Merlin Mann refer to it, I had to give it a shot. I got a lot out of it. After reading it, last weekend, I immediately made significant changes to my working system. I’ve only had the changes in place for one week, so hard to say this is perfect. But, read on to see how much I got out of it so fast!