At Lotusphere, I had the opportunity to hear David Allen speak twice – once during his session „IBM Lotus Notes and Me: Maximizing Personal Productivity with Lotus Notes” and also during the Birds of a Feather session „Getting Things Done with IBM Lotus Notes”. He is a very charismatic speaker who radiates – or better oozes, as „radiate” would take to much active energy – relaxation, confidence and humor.

In case you don’t know David, he is the author of „Getting Things Done. The Art of Stress-Free Productivity” or short „GTD”, a methodology or framework to get more done with less stress. This method got quite a big following, especially in the IT crowd. Google for „GTD” and you will know what I mean.

„Making It All Work: Winning at the Game of Work and Business of Life” is his third book on that topic and – in true fanboy tradition – I took the opportunity during Lotusphere to get a signed copy. :)

Content wise, „Making It All Work” does not offer much new content in comparison to „GTD” and the followup „Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Work and Life”. David reiterates on the topics of GTD and how to apply them in practice, adding more examples and putting more focus on the „altitudes” – his metaphor as to where your focus is at any time.

For me, it was a nice motivator to get back on the GTD bandwaggon, but I wouldn’t recommend it as your first GTD book. I wouldn’t even go o far as to recommend it as your second GTD book.
If you can find them, I would recommend the „Getting Things Done Fast: The Ultimate Stress-free Productivity System” CD. They give a very thorough inside view into GTD and overlap with „Making It All Work” quite a lot.

But if you need a litte „nudge” to get your GTD implementation up and running again or want or need a little bit more information on the „altitude” modell of Allen, do buy the book.

Tagged as: books, david allen, gtd, review | Author: Martin Leyrer
[Samstag, 20090221, 22:44 | permanent link | 0 Kommentar(e)