Get Things Done

I spent the labour day weekend on a book which really impressed me. It is "Ready for Anything" by David Allen. It is basically a book on time management with an emphasis on getting small things out of your way so you can prepare the space for a big take-off. I would like to share some of the take aways from the book.

Some points which caught my attention

• The process consists of 5 distinct processes : Collect,Process,Organize,Review and Do (Action).
• Clear your head for creativity , get small actionable items out of the way. Mosquitoes can ruin the hunt for a big game.
• It is most often the small things done at strategic places that make the most difference.
• Your mind does not remember or remind very well, compared to what a good system can manage. What it does well is review options and available information and then put together how-to's. If it's not free to do that if it is trying to remember and remind. Without an airtight system, it must work at a lower level than it should and become a misused resource.
• Keeping uncaptured,unclarified and unprocessed things in our minds creates unnecessary stress.
• On about creating task list and reviews: "The palest ink is clearer than the fondest memory"
• You have got to think about big things while you are doing small things so that all the small things go in the right direction.

The core belief in the book as it came across to me was that everyone needs to have a good system of collecting action items and have a way of processing them in such a way that you do not need to have your mind ( which can treated as a limited resource) remember the same, the mind is better of working at a higher level. Also the other important point which came across was that all activities if stored in the mind are stored with no time reference, what is called the psychic RAM of the brain, so both action items will fight for attention and induce stress.

I am definitely going to read the other book written by the same author which explains this system in more details.