71 of 76 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
I took my life back!, October 22, 2007
This review is from: Take Back Your Life!: Using Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 to Get Organized and Stay Organized (Paperback)
I was a disorganized mess. My desk was piles and piles of clutter and things (important, time sensitive materials) got lost! It took me about a good year to get where I am now. I started with Michael Linenberger's Total Workday Control. Not a good place to start so I tried David Allen's book 'Getting Things Done'. It was a great start and gave me foundation. I then moved on to Sally McGhee's book Take Back Your Life! for Outlook 2003. Awesome! That helped me integrate everything into my real world computer life. Then I went back and reread Michael Linenberger's Total Workday Control, which now made a lot more sense and I used some of his ideas to create a 'custom' system for myself.
Finally, I bought this updated book of Sally McGhee's because I am using Outlook 2007 now. The material is basically the same, but tuned for Outlook 2007.
Now some people claim this book is a rip off of David Allen's book or that these books are all the same or they are boring. YES! and NO!
What you have to realize is that there are several ways of getting things done. All roads lead to Rome. I prefer the Sally McGhee method because it does not depend upon a plugin or extra software. It works with Outlook the way it is when you buy it and her methods translate over to my desk at home and work and since I am on the road...in my car. YES, the material is dry at times but so is work! lol
David Allen offers custom software as an add in for Outlook 2003 and 2007 that is Windows XP and Vista compatible and his extra software will cost you an EXTRA $70 folks! This could be very nice and efficient for some people. yet, there is a downside...the plug in only works with Outlook. If you use another email client, you have nothing. Another downside, you are now dependent upon that software instead of doing it yourself. If he stops making that software or it causes troubles and you have to remove it, you are now back to square 1 with no method of organizing. In other words, David Allen caught the fish for you, but McGhee wants to teach you to catch the fish yourself.
So, that is why I like McGhee's method. Yes, she basis it on Outlook but since there is no extra custom software involved to integrate into Outlook, you can translate the system to other mail clients. I also run Linux and I can use her methods in Evolution, Thunderbird, Kontact, etc. Also, it is NOT a 'blatant copy' of David Allen. They worked together and she openly discusses, reveals and discloses that info. She even quotes Mr. Allen in her book.
If you have Take Back Your Life! for Outlook 2003 and have been using it and are skilled in her methodology, you can make the transition to Outlook 2007 on your own probably. If you are new to this, and have Outlook 2007, this is a definite buy. Here on Amazon, it is only $17! What a deal! I bought a current copy for myself and to help others in my family.
She will probably come out with a SPECIAL EDITION like she did with her previous book that will include a CD, some pull out charts, etc. I would say, do not wait. Buy this book and get organized. I would also recommend the other books I have listed in my review too. I don't think just 1 book is enough! And this will take effort on your part. It took me a solid year to get really good. I fell off the wagon, got frustrated, reread the book, tweaked, learned, quit, failed, tried again, screwed up but eventually succeeded. I doubt many of you will get it going well in your first month...so don't quit! Keep trying and it will happen!
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27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Take Back Your Copy, August 10, 2008
This review is from: Take Back Your Life!: Using Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 to Get Organized and Stay Organized (Paperback)
As I mentioned in my review of Take Back Your Life (TBYL) Special Edition, this book is a derivative work - basically a loosely-gathered compilation of ideas and techniques ranging from David Allen to Stephen Covey. It may be useful for people looking for a friendly, lightweight, introductory text to personal information management (PIM) centered on Outlook.
Since I was disappointed with the first edition, I sat down with this new edition to see if there were any improvements. I will say that a major flaw of first edition, the glaring lack of information concerning Meaningful Objectives (a core part of the system), has been addressed in this edition. This is handled by demoting Meaningful Objectives and adding something called Unifying Goals, which themselves are supported by Areas of Focus. Meaningful Objectives now roll up to Areas of Focus, which in turn support Unifying Goals.
This is certainly an improvement and perhaps it will be useful to you. However, the book does a poor job of helping you define any of these things, so the system kind of collapses under its own weight, in my opinion.
Other than this, and some other updates required because the authors are now working in Outlook 2007, the book is largely unchanged. Therefore, my opinion is largely unchanged. TBYL is a chatty volume with a low signal-to-noise ratio and a variety of vignettes designed to "humanize" the material. More often, they come across like testimonials and contribute more to padding the book than illustrating the point. TBYL also has the irritating habit of taking simple, workable terms (like those from GTD) and renaming them as part of the author's proprietary system. Contexts become Planning and Action Categories, Next Actions become Strategic Next Actions (SNAs) with no real advantage to the reader. Finally, compared to Micheal Linenberger, the authors have a mediocre understanding of how to use Outlook to its full potential.
As I wrote in my previous review, if you are serious about PIM or are a businessperson, I think the source material would serve you better. Start with Getting Things Done (GTD) to get a brilliant overview of how to address the overload in your life, followed by Total Workday Control 2nd edition (for Outlook 2007; use the 1st edition for earlier incarnations of Outlook) to fine tune that understanding. Finally, pick up 7 Habits of Highly Effective People to get the big picture, or as Allen calls it the "50,000 foot view level."
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23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Show me how to fish instead of talking about fishing, October 2, 2007
This review is from: Take Back Your Life!: Using Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 to Get Organized and Stay Organized (Paperback)
As you may know, Sally McGhee and David Allen developed the productivity concepts together, and she decided to adapt it to Microsoft's Outlook. I'm very familiar with both David Allen's and Sally McGhee's work (having seen them both in person) and the main difference and value that I see in "Take Back Your Life!" is that instead of TALKING about what is productive, TBYL actually SHOWS YOU HOW TO USE OUTLOOK--it's akin to the difference between someone TALKING about the different ways you can go fishing (Deep-sea, fly-, bottom-, spear-) and someone ACTUALLY SHOWING YOU HOW TO USE YOUR Fishing Pole (Outlook in this case).
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