Book Review by Navina Anand

I tend to be a bit of a sucker for the ‘self-help’ genre of books(Maybe because I know I need a lot of help 🙂  ). So when this book was recommended by my friend Vivek Venugopalan as a game changer, I had to read it. If you are a productivity-hack junkie and looking for ways to “Get things done” or get more out of your 24 hours, this is a must read. David Allen , the author of ‘Getting things done- The Art of Stress-free productivity’(GTD) is repeatedly quoted by many of the productivity gurus today and the central theme of this book is “Your head is meant to have ideas, not to hold them”.

Most of us these days ,always seem to be swamped with a gazillion things to do on the work and personal front and we find ourselves either dropping the ball here and there, or strictly running our lives on a firefighting mode, engaging only with the “urgent” on a daily basis. The Getting things done strategy, is beyond just getting the bills paid on time or not missing your deadlines. As one gets familiar with the system, it also brings into sharp focus what we are choosing to pay attention to in life. And as we know, what we focus on, we get more of.

I have to admit, the book is a bit of a tedious read and if you have lost the ability to read a non-fiction book(as many of us are), you could look up David Allen’s talks on YouTube, book summaries by many people , discussion of the GTD methodology, and there is even a GTD podcast. If your attention span has been downgraded to a comic book level, you can also try the “Getting things done for Teens” version with a lot more graphics and pictorial representations. It is also a great gift to give your teenager to get them started early on being organized with their life. So if you are constantly feeling that you would love to have 48 hours to do everything that your heart desires, check out the iconic book GTD !