Top positive review
4.0 out of 5 starsSteps are in the wrong order, but worth the clarity
Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2020
The ideas are great, but the steps are in the wrong order, same as in the book. I'd recommend reading it all in order to understand the motivation, but setting up a basic implementation of the Organize step before trying to Clarify.
This is because the Clarify steps can't actually be done without any place to receive all the things that are not trashed. Since they can't go back in the inbox, they're stuck with nowhere to go, and the result is still a disorganized mess. In fact, this prerequisite is obvious on page 86, where one of the explanations of how to Clarify refers to a resource given on page 121. A reader who does the book in the order presented can't have known that.
This said, each individual step and the approach does lend a much more concise value than the long form book. There is plenty of space to jot down notes and circle and highlight things. The different fonts and sizes help me find where I wrote things.
The book is made of cheap novel print paper, which is perfect for writing in and pencil scratches sound nice on the paper. It is slightly see-through (see pic), which kind of sucks since the book was over twenty bucks and I was hoping it would be nice to look at while in use. I would probably value the print quality far lower than the sticker price, but I bought it for ease and to save me time trying to break the long form book down into actions and getting them in the right order. This format helped me realize the misordering and fix it for myself because the original book had me stuck for a few weeks, so it did the job I bought it for.
If you already have a good grasp of the GTD process, aren't stuck on a stage, and don't need the steps broken down for you, then this book will not be of any value to you.
