Getting Things Done… and Off Your Mind
The subtitle to David Allen’s book Getting Things Done is “The Art of Stress-Free Productivity.” And that subtitle is actually just as important as the title. The value of the book is just as much in helping to reduce stress as it is in helping to improve your productivity. The book’s main title could have just as well been Getting Things Off Your Mind.
GTD gets things off your mind by getting it onto an external mind that your internal mind trusts. Your external mind consists of
- various collections of information (stacks, lists, files, etc),
- habits of revisiting those collections in the right situation and at the right time, and
- methods of processing that information in specific ways.
David Allen describes those collections, habits, and methods in Getting Things Done, and I provide a brief overview here.
If all of those collections, habits, and methods are in place, then you can get things of your internal mind by simply feeding them into your external mind. Your internal mind will be comfortable letting it go, because it trusts your external mind to not let it slip through the cracks and to help you get it done.
As a result, you will not only be more productive, but your brain won’t be burdened and preoccupied with the concern. Your mind will be clearer, your attention will be more available, your intellect will be more fully accessible, and you will have fewer worries in your head to give you anxiety flares and cause you stress.
