Making It All Work by David Allen | Book Brief

>> The book, Making it All Work, explains how gaining control and perspective is the key to self management in life and at work. Author David Allen walks us through the process of attaining greater productivity and success by getting things done.

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>> Life, work, work, life. It's all the same thing. Whether it's buying cat food, considering housing options for an ailing parent, meeting a deadline, or evaluating a career, all of these tasks and decisions co-exist in your life, and need tending. Yes, making the right choices and acting upon them have always been key elements of success. What's been missing until now is a fundamental understanding of the process of how to make it all work. I believe it comes down to two key elements, control and perspective. Control means taking charge of your everyday commitments. And perspective means knowing where to place these commitments on the horizons of your goals and aspirations. Let's take a closer look at both.

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To most effectively utilize the fundamentals of self management, it helps to have a reference point of where to start. You don't have to look far, because what usually needs your attention the most is what has your attention. Identifying what's on your mind is the core practice, and the first of the five stages of getting control. Those stages are capturing, clarifying, organizing, reflecting, and engaging. Capturing is the practice of scanning everything that's on your mind, and writing them down, or journaling them. Clarifying means deciding more specifically what each of those captured items means, whether there's an action to take on it or not, and if so, what your desired outcome is, and figuring out the next action you must take to achieve it. Then you can begin organizing, which simply means that you start putting things where you believe they belong. Reflecting means reviewing everything that you have now externalized. And finally, engaging, which means getting started on the actionable items.

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The ultimate purpose of getting control is to be able to be clear of distraction, having a totally unencumbered psyche could be one of the most exhilarating goals you could attain. Our experience with thousands of people has taught us that the most powerful and effective way to gain control of your long list of to do's is by focusing on one horizon at a time, which brings us to perspective.

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Many business books and coaches will tell you that you should figure out your dreams and aspirations, and work down from there. I say start with the very mundane, and work your way up from there. Getting a printer fixed may be just as necessary as creating a mission statement. But these two to do's do not belong on the same level. We all need to gain perspective about where our commitments and goals belong, from the immediate or what I call the one way perspective, to identifying our purpose and principles, what I call fifty thousand feet perspective. So let's start with perspective at the runway level. This category refers to all the physical, tangible actions, like washing your car, or drafting a proposal. They are single step events that need to be taken care of. The runway may be the most challenging horizon to really master, because though it is mundane, it's also the most complex in terms of volume and variety. Next is perspective at the ten thousand feet level. These are projects that can be finished within a year. A project is essentially a miniature goal, something that can be marked off as done. These projects should all be assessed once a week, to keep them moving and in perspective to each other. At twenty thousand feet are our responsibilities. These are ten to fifteen categories that you're particularly responsible for, or interested in. For instance, to work and live comfortably, you need to keep your health and your energy at a reasonable level, so you must pay some attention to your body. Exercise, getting your teeth cleaned, eating, sleeping are typical items that sit within this arena. At thirty thousand feet are your goals and objectives. They should be goals that you're eager to accomplish within a year or two. Publishing a book, or getting out of debt would fit into this category. These goals should be revisited monthly, or at least quarterly. Now at forty thousand feet it's all about your vision. These are issues that typically have impact on multi-year time frames. Vision can include desired lifestyle and career goals. Now once a vision is set, it will undoubtedly create new short-term goals and objectives. At the uppermost level, at fifty thousand feet, you need to define your purpose, and principles. The ultimate source of perspective is at this horizon. Your purpose ultimately acts as your compass, and your principles make sure you can maintain core values on route. Winning at the game of work and the business of life isn't about maintaining everything in perfect order, but rather having the ability to regain control and perspective quickly when distractions fly your way. The principles and techniques I've discussed in my book are neither answers nor final solution. They're simply the application of a powerful process. I hope my book will provide you some useful keys to making it all work.