GTD

Making It All Work: Winning at the Game of Work and Business of Life
$25.95

I have this on an audiobook. My opinion, is this book could have been greatly compressed. The audiobook is done in a monotone and it's hard to maintain focus while listening to it. I should have read the other reviews before getting this.

GTD System Guides
$15.95
When you value your time and its usage you will go to extents to discover how to accomplish a lot with your little. This Allen product is great at allowing one to get the big picture (your total time) then dice it up into manageable pieces. It is most helpful at giving the user a great big picture of his or her time in decent, bite-sized portions (your hours and minutes). If you have the hunger for effectiveness Allen's tool here will deliver the goods and provide you with a new approach to living that will take you onto efficiency. I am still fiddling with it but my initial findings are that it is effective and most helpful, practical and realistic.

The Myth of Multitasking: How "Doing It All" Gets Nothing Done
$19.95
Dave Crenshaw has reaffirmed what (I thought) we already knew to begin with; multi-tasking is counter productive. Apparently, the myth that it was a great way to get things done hasn't been debunked ages ago (I thought it had when I originally posted this review).

The premise that multi-tasking---or as Crenshaw cleverly calls it, "switchtasking"---is an ineffective way of going about one's business is certainly true. Myth? Surprisingly, a majority of us believe it's a necessary evil; there's no way around it. That statisticallly valid conclusion was personally drawn by this reviewer after surveying 25 league bowlers at Via Linda Lanes, in Scottsdale, Arizona. Hey, that's where I hang out; okay?

You may ask why I found it necessary to corroborate the findings of the author; after all, he wrote the book; he knows. Well, I thought everybody else knew that "switchtasking" was bad tasking, hence my orginal review was luke warm. I've dialed it up a notch, because not only does the author (an expert) know what he's talking about, 25 bowlers backed up his theory; I stand corrected.

Several other books also address this subject, which are worth reading as well: Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long, Talk Less, Say More: Three Habits to Influence Others and Make Things Happen, Power of Less, The: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential...in Business and in Life, The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Success by Achieving More with Less, and The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done (Harperbusiness Essentials).

Certainly, Crenshaw tells a nice story, and if it were the only book you'd read on time management issues, you wouldn't be doing yourself a disservice. The message he delivers is clear, and one that we should already know by now (but we don't); so stop kidding yourself. If you want to be more productive, stick to one task at a time. Hopefully, we're all listening now; including those 25 bowlers in Scottsdale.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Things Done
$18.95
I was decidedly unimpressed when the author proudly proclaimed that he never read instruction manuals, then goes on to describe how he builds his own document on...get this...how to do specific tasks! Isn't that the purpose of an instruction manual?

Further, he prefers to burn the time of an "expert" in the area to get them to tell him how to do certain things.

I should add that this is after several pages of describing how a little time spent up front will make many tasks ahead of you go more quickly and smoothly.

I made the mistake of buying this book, and then buying "TCIGT Managing Your Time" before I noticed they were by the same author. Ouch.

I suppose if you have no clue about how to do the most basic of aspects of getting organized and managing your time, this book will probably do you some good. But I would recommend David Allen's book "Getting Things Done", which is full of much more detailed, and to me, relevant, information.