Making It All Work: Winning at the Game of Work and Business of Life

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Binding: Hardcover Dewey Decimal Number: 650.1 EAN: 9780670019953 ISBN: 067001995X Label: Viking Adult Manufacturer: Viking Adult Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 256 Publication Date: 2008-12-30 Publisher: Viking Adult Studio: Viking Adult
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Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: Effective Holistic View of "Productivity" Habits & Principles! Comment: I'm anticipating criticism of this book on the grounds that it is a warmed-over rehash of the 2001 book, "Getting Things Done" and that there really is nothing new here. I disagree but understand where such critics are coming from. "Making it All Work" is a good and effective amplification of original GTD strategies and concepts more than new, ground-breaking material. David Allen goes into much more detail regarding the "horizons of focus" and ways to approach each in a thoughtful, mindful way. He expands upon the original tenets of GTD, getting it all out of your head, having good" capture" tools and habits, the importance of a weekly operational review, etc. GTD has become almost a cult and David Allen an icon. You can get so caught up in the blogs, discussion groups and tweaking your systems - what I call "productivity porn" - that you have little time in which to actually get things done. This is not a criticism of GTD though, just of GTD fetishists. "Making It All Work:" is a worthy investment of your time and a book that is worthwhile as a companion volume to "Getting Things Done"! Customer Rating: Summary: Not quite the next level I was hoping for Comment: The original GTD is a modern masterpiece of its kind. Well paced, focused on details and intensely practical with just enough theory to put Allen's simple yet unique system in context. His second book, "Ready for Anything", had less immediate appeal and direct applicability but grows on repeated reading, providing more insights behind the basic processes of GTD. I keep both books to hand and dip into them frequently, and they have had a profound impact on how I now manage my work and life. In trying to make "Making It All Work" a stand-alone volume, David Allen ends up repeating, in some cases less pithily, too much of the earlier material, and there are extended passages that are little more than a rewording of the original GTD book. This new book does provide a broader context and an enhanced perspective on the GTD system, and makes the system fit together more neatly along the two dimensions of control and perspective, although these two dimensions were evident enough in "Getting Things Done". For that alone, the book is worth reading, especially for GTD advocates looking to obtain further insights into the system (although members of GTD Connect, the GTD community, will be familiar with most of the material). I am sure it will provide further value on additional readings. That said, there is relatively little new ground covered here. There is some fine tuning of earlier terminology, but this smacks rather too much of mere relabeling. Collection becomes "capturing", processing becomes "clarifying", reviewing becomes "reflecting" and doing becomes "engaging". The new terms sound more sophisticated but I feel the original terminology was more concrete and to the point. The "six-level model for reviewing your work" is now the "Horizons of Focus". This phrase has been adopted in David Allen's materials for some time now, but does not quite jive for me as: 1) "horizons" for most people convey horizontal distance, rather than the altitudes that these "horizons" refer to (30,000 ft, 40,000 ft etc.). In adjacent paragraphs he refers to "upper altitudes" and "elevated horizons" -- some mixed metaphors here; 2) it again suffers a little from being rather abstract, which the original GTD book largely avoided. Perhaps tellingly, the original "Getting Things Done" was seen to focus primarily on the "getting control" dimension of self-management. "Making It All Work" again spends 125 pages on "getting control", double the 65 pages on "getting perspective". I had hoped the latter would have received more space and attention in this new book. I also find the style in some places too long-winded, in a couple of cases inappropriate (does the phrase "anally retentive" really belong in a serious management book?) and the terminology inconsistent (his twenty thousand foot level refers to what he calls "Areas of Focus". However, while this appears to be the standard phrase, he also refers to it as "areas of responsibility and interest" and "areas of focus and responsibility", the latter in the title of a chapter. The use of title/heading styles also does not appear consistent, which makes the structure of some sections a little difficult to follow. In some places he also repetitively redefines terms he has already defined earlier. None of these stylistic issues impact the meaning or the value of the underlying concepts, but leaves one wishing the editor had spent more time tightening up the style and terminology, as they do detract from the reading experience. "Getting Things Done" was solid in this respect. Terms are clearly and concretely defined and then used consistently, without unnecessary stylistic variations. It is still necessary in my view to read the original "Getting Things Done" to get the the most of this book, which is primarily a useful companion volume, an elaboration of the earlier book's key concepts and frameworks and a refresher for those interested in Allen's ideas and methods. Customer Rating: Summary: doesn't work that well as a supplement to the original book Comment: Like many people, I've read the original Getting Things Done book but haven't really implemented the system fully. I was hoping this book would help me do a better job of using the system. And that's what the book promises on page 7. But there aren't enough examples and tips to make it that much more worthwhile than the original GTD book; in fact, I don't think the time I've spent reading this book was even worth it. (And to respond in advance to comments I've seen on other reviews -- I paid for the book, so I read each and every page.) For the person who's never read the original book I could see reading this and then skimming the GTD book to get some practical details of the system. But IMHO I wish Allen had just revised the existing GTD book, adding a new section to each chapter because I think that's all the new material amounts to. And one other thing -- the prose in this book reminded me of those english papers you'd write as a college sophomore where you string together big-sounding words to try to make what you're saying seem profound and insightful. Here's a typical example of what you're going to be wading thru in this book (pg 102): "When the task was broken down into one item at a time, it automatically triggered positive engagement with what had previously been an amorphous source of stress and procrastination." I think this means if you have a bunch of things you've been putting off, you'll feel better as soon as you do even one of them. Customer Rating: Summary: Fills in details of GTD for higher level planning Comment: Have used GTD principles for a few years now. This book provides a follow on perspective of GTD from David Allen's consulting experiences over the last decade. Read GTD first. This book is good for filling in more of the theory. Customer Rating: Summary: Save yourself some money and re-read Getting Things Done Comment: It became evident early on that Making Things Work had nothing new to offer. Allen's first book, Getting Things Done, was life-changing: this one is yawn-inducing. It refers to GTD so often that it seems silly to waste time reading this rehash when it would serve you better to revisit the original. I was hoping for new GTD tips and techniques; I was sorely disappointed. More Reviews
Editorial Reviews: The long-awaited follow-up to the New York Times bestseller Getting Things Done. David Allen’s Getting Things Done hit a nerve and ignited a movement with businesses, students, soccer moms, and techies all the way from Silicon Valley to Europe and Asia. Now, David Allen leads the world on a new path to achieve focus, control, and perspective. Throw out everything you know about productivity-- Making It All Work will make life and work a game you can win. For those who have already experienced the clarity of mind from reading Getting Things Done, Making It All Work will take the process to the next level. David Allen shows us how to excel in dealing with our daily commitments, the unexpected, and the information overload that threatens to drown us. Making It All Work provides an instantly usable, success-building tool kit for staying ahead of the game. Making It All Work addresses: how to figure out where you are in life and what you need; how to be your own consultant and a CEO of your life; moving from hope to trust in decision-making; when not to set goals; harnessing intuition, spontaneity, and serendipity; and why life is like business and business is like life. This eagerly awaited follow-up to Getting Things Done is guaranteed to find an audience in today’s competitive business environment and among David Allen’s many fans.