Making It All Work: Winning at the Game of Work and the Business of Life » (Reprint)

David Allen is the internationally bestselling author of Getting Things Done and Ready for Anything. Over the past twenty years, he has developed and implemented productivity improvement programs for more than a million professionals and has been instrumental in assisting some of the world's premiere companies.

The companion to the blockbuster bestseller, Getting Things Done.

Since its publication in 2001, Getting Things Done has become, as Time magazine put it, "the defining self-help business book" of the decade. Having inspired millions of readers around the world, it clearly spoke to an urgent need in an increasingly time-pressured society. Now, in the highly anticipated sequel Making It All Work, Allen unlocks the full power of his methods across the entire span of life and work. While Getting Things Done functioned as an essential tool kit, Making It All Work is an invaluable road map, providing both bearings to help you determine where you are in life and directions on how to get to where you want to go.

Publishers Weekly

A rehashing of old-if successful-ground from his 2001 book Getting Things Done, Allen revisits his simple yet comprehensive system of organizing every aspect of one's life for career, professional and personal development-even addressing how to plan a vacation, choose a babysitter or arrange eldercare for a parent. The author's inarguable premise is that a complete and current inventory of commitments organized and reviewed in a systematic way can sharpen focus and allow for wiser decision making. Allen cautions that the book does not provide answers to tricky life choices; its methods will aid in developing the self-assurance to trust one's own solutions. Readers are guided through the process of obtaining control and perspective, organizing tasks and goals to reach the "Getting Things Done" (GTD) "holy grail" of an empty in-basket and e-mail inbox. Although the book purports to expand on the principles of GTD, there's very little new material in this latest offering, which serves more as a sales tool for the first one than for a project all on its own. Those seeking organizational nirvana would do best to invest in the original and give this one a pass. (Dec.)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Preface vii

1 Introduction: From Getting Things Done to Making It All Work 1

2 The GTD phenomenon 14

3 Making It All Work-the Process 49

4 The Fundamentals of Self-Management 60

5 Getting Control: Capturing 76

6 Getting Control: Clarifying 103

7 Getting Control: Organizing 128

8 Getting Control: Reflecting 161

9 Getting Control: Engaging 170

10 Getting Control: Applying This to Life and Work 193

11 Getting Perspective 200

12 Getting Perspective on the Runway: Next Actions 209

13 Getting Perspective at Ten Thousand Feet: Projects 216

14 Getting Perspective at Twenty Thousand Feet: Areas of Focus and Responsibility 227

15 Getting Perspective at Thirty Thousand Feet: Goals and Objectives 235

16 Getting Perspective at Forty Thousand Feet: Vision 241

17 Getting Perspective at Fifty Thousand Feet: Purpose and Principles 249

18 Getting Perspective: Gracie's Gardens Revisited 261

19 Making It All Work-in the Real World 266

20 In closing . . .

Appendix i Incompletion Trigger List 288

Appendix ii Natural Planning Model 290

Appendix iii Project Planning Trigger List 291

Appendix iv Mastering Work Flow 293

Appendix v The Weekly Review 295

Appendix vi Workflow Processing and Organizing 296

Appendix vii Horizons of Focus 297

Index 299