There were many interesting points that stood out to me in the first chapter of Getting Things Done: some of the new, some of them not. However, one focus that David Allen takes that took me by surprise is the part of the process on managing action. Here the author writes:
"And the way to do that, as we've seen, is not by managing time, managing information, or managing priorities" (Allen 18).
This point took me by surprise because it was always my belief that "stuff management" was all about managing priorities and streamlining your to-do list into categories based on those priorities. Yet, Allen writes that it is instead about managing actions and, when he backed some of his points with practical examples, it really challenged me to look at my life and recognize how many times I've attempted to reevaluate my priorities BUT it didn't help me long-term with my overwhelming workload.
In reading chapter 1, I believe I'm someone who understands Allen's principles in minor events like planning a conference or a birthday party BUT is unable to figure out how to draw out these principles when I'm trying to organize my entire life into manageable chunks. I'm excited to continue reading and figure out what this magical organizational tool that Allen is baiting me with actually is.
No comments:
Post a Comment