Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsNo Book I have ever read led me to MAKE as many changes as this book.
Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2023
I have read a lot of books on how to organize your life:
Love People, Use Things
Essentialism
7 Habits of Highly Effective People
One Minute manager
The Fifth Discipline
I have also read books on leadership, self-help, therapy, productivity, working through failure, and on and on.
NOTHING ELSE HAS COME CLOSE.
Now, this may be because of where I am in my life. It may be that this book isn’t any better than the others, it’s just WHAT I NEEDED at this moment.
I have 5 teenagers, 3 jobs, my own clinic, I’m writing a book, speaking publicly often, and I’m also auditioning for a play next week. Oh, and I love free time, relaxing on weekends and evenings, spending time with friends, going to plays, and reading books.
I also WANT TO BE DEPENDABLE. I want to do what I have said I will do. I want to make less agreements, and have less obligations, so that I can NAIL the ones I have made.
That’s where this book was so very helpful. Yes the author eventually asks you to think about long term goals and life values and those things, but he really starts at the day to day level.
“HOW DO YOU GET DONE, THE THINGS YOU SAID YOU WOULD?” How do you meet your current obligations? How do you finish each day with a feeling of satisfaction.
How do you better handle the things you have already agreed to do, and manage the barrage of things coming at you all day every day that are unexpected?
DOING what he suggests has made me feel RELIABLE. I know what I can do, and what I can’t. I know when I can say yes, and when I have to say no. I know when I have to adjust, or change a previous agreement because it just AIN’T GONNA HAPPEN the way I had hoped.
It is an amazing feeling of peace to know that I can reliably say yes or no to things, and I will honestly get back to them, finish them, remember them.
My first attempts weren’t perfect. My first organizational attempt from early January has already been discarded. As have my second and third attempts. But each time was BETTER than what I was doing before, and each time I like the new system more and more, and it’s easier and faster to use and more reliable.
My wife and kids know exactly when I am free, and we can do ALL SORTS of fun things, and movie marathons, and visiting family in other cities, and on and on.
GETTING THINGS DONE has changed my life in just two months.
If your life feels out of control, your mind feels scattered, and you constantly miss things you agreed to… READ THIS BOOK.
