oddpilot97 's review for:

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen

4.0

informative medium-paced

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I appreciated that this was concise. A bit outdated— some suggestions on how to use this organization system digitally would have been helpful. I would also love to hear tips on how to make this more neurodivergent friendly.

I’m exploring the Zettelkasten system and will be reading “Building a Second Brain” next.

Here are the notes I took:
-if you’re thinking “I should clean the garage” your brain has no sense that you mean “at some point”. Instead— it thinks you are failing if you are not always cleaning the garage.

-so, write down all the things you think you “should” do onto a piece of paper (or wherever you’ll look at it again later”. Then, when you look at it— either do it then, or tell yourself “not this week.”

-make sure your list has clear, small action tasks not just stuff/events 

-if you imagine taking a bite of a lemon, your mouth will salivate, because your brain can’t clearly tell the difference between imagination and reality. along the same lines— It makes sense that the most creative people will also be the most susceptible to procrastination because they can come up with a vivid sensory picture of how distressing the task will be, especially in terms of the worst case scenario.

-think “what’s my next step” assuming there is always something you can do to reach your goal.

-show yourself you can get things done to start believing you can get things done.

-always, always ask yourself “why am I doing this?” Get clear on that first.

-ask “what will it look like when I successfully complete this?”