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

David Allen (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From 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.)
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Product Description

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.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult (December 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067001995X
• ISBN-13: 978-0670019953
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #116,719 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

156 of 165 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Supplement That Doesn't Work, January 13, 2009

By	Sacramento Book Review "Sacramento Book Review" (Sacramento, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Making It All Work: Winning at the Game of Work and Business of Life (Hardcover)

David Allen, the Getting Things Done (GTD) guru of personal time management and productivity, has released a new book on the subject. His original book created a legion of fans, all striving for empty in-boxes, email and paper, and a multitude of websites and programs, all organized around the concepts he developed. /Making It All Work/ adds some to his canon, but no real tools or techniques, but more expounds on the original concepts and promotes the system. This book is actually harder to read, and is less clear than /Getting Things Done/. Promoted as a expansion that will help you focus on the higher level of organizing your life and goals, it really just serves as a rehashing. For those needing encouragement to continue using GTD techniques, maybe it'll work for them. But, for those looking for more, it fails, and those looking at trying the GTD techniques for the first time would be better served using the original book.

74 of 81 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Skippable... Just Read GTD Again, February 2, 2009

By	Kimberly Carroll - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Making It All Work: Winning at the Game of Work and Business of Life (Hardcover)

Already have Getting Things Done (GTD)? You can comfortably skip this book and wait for one of your less-informed colleagues to buy it and borrow it for a lunch-time browse.

Making It All Work spends a lot of time explaining the how-we-got-here aspect of the GTD system, but it misses in providing tangible how-to, case studies and advice as the title implies. Too much focus on why GTD is good, why GTD works, why GTD is better than the other "priorities" systems and not enough real-world content.

I'm saddened to say I found MIAW a long-winded disappointment.
Spend your $20 on a labeler and re-read GTD.

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great refresher for anyone procrastinating on GTD, April 7, 2009

By	McKenzie Lake (Calgary) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Making It All Work: Winning at the Game of Work and Business of Life (Hardcover)

If you're looking to use GTD principles with Microsoft Outlook, this is a great companion book to a more detail-level book, Total Workday Control Using Microsoft Outlook by Michael Linenberger.

I read the first Getting Things Done book years ago but never really implemented it; I didn't find it was hands-on enough; I tried using Outlook Tasks and Categories to track "next actions" and goals, but it just didn't seem to cut it for me.

David Allen's new book repeats the same concepts but puts them in a different framework (the horizons you read about in other reviews here), but I found it did more to address some of the mental and physical obstacles toward using GTD. Essentially it gave me a good kick in the seat, to motivate me into better adopting GTD. It still is light on hands-on details for adopting this into your daily workload and tackling both the urgent and the important. But I think that's his approach, he teaches you the principles, you decide what software or methods to use to implement them.

The book inspires you to record many levels of information from your life purpose to the roles you fill every day, right down to logging a reminder to pick up a hammer at the hardware store tomorrow. It is liberating getting information out of your head and into a tracking system, but you have to be able to carry it on after a big bang of initial enthusiasm. If you never look at any of the information again, except to return phone calls or put deadlines on tasks, then you aren't getting the benefits of the system. If you have the original, but find yourself scrolling through these reviews on Amazon looking for a kickstart to get yourself into (back into) GTD, this book will help.

The Total Workday Control book gives you very detailed step-by-step instructions on how to configure Outlook and use to manage your workload. To most of us Outlook is where tidal waves of e-mail just keep crashing in day after day, but there are ways to use it to implement GTD practices, without having to buy add-on tools, although there are many out there that can take it even further. Taking advantage of Outlook tasks, categories, and e-mail handling techniques, it's possible to be very GTD-compliant.

You might get tired of hearing some phrases in Making It All Work repeated over and over, but I found the book motivated me to get back at adopting GTD, even more than the first book did originally. Together with Michael Linenberger's book, there's a good combination there of high-level and detail-level guidance.