I’ve had the book in my possession for years. Picked it up, read a little passage and generally put it back down. During those sessions I was still more or less uncommitted but yearning. For some reason it never pulled me as deeply as it does now.

>You have created, accepted, or promoted whatever you are experiencing. That’s the great news, because you’re in charge and you can change it if you want. You are your own writer, producer, director, and yet merely an extra in everyone else’s play. […]

The book is broken into 52 sections. Each one with an observation or focused view then going into details and minutia for dealing with the perspective. Surrounded by fantastic quotes and a small question section to provoke you into a positive response or reflection.

How hard can that be to digest? Not really. What is hard is if you’re not in the right head space the book offers that classic “Are you doing what you should be doing at this time”, and for a lot of people the answer is no. That incites people into a close the book response. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere fear or the faux sense of over burden really screws with us.

>Completion of open loops, whether they be major projects or boxes of old stuff we’ve yet to purge and organize, prepares the ground for cleaner, clearer, and more complete energy for whatever shows up. […]

The book is a distillation of over a decade of [David](http://www.davidco.com)’s newsletters, talks, and observations. By this time he could probably write another 52 principles since another decade has almost slid by. The lessons are real, the truths are plain to see, and if you are ready to continue down your productivity path and need a bit more wisdom to help yourself along. The book is right up your alley.

If on the other hand you are still a novice to it all (or haven’t begun yet), stay with the [basics](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0142000280?ie=UTF8&tag=myislanandyci-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0142000280 “Getting Things Done”), continue participating and evolving your systems and pick this up as you feel your momentum stabilizing.

>Before everything else, getting ready is the key to success.
—Henry Ford

Every thought is creative.

Make the choice to be your highest and best self, regardless of the circumstances.

The language of your highest and best self is Optimal Thinking.

Accept what is out of your control, and optimize what is within your control.

Ask the best questions to invite the best answers.

Choose the best, then put the issue to rest.

Optimal thinking is the basis of Optimal results (sense of completion).

Function at your peak by thinking Optimally.

Create your best life with Optimal Thinking.

I look forward to growing more in positive ways.

-a

While I am still working through David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done, the Art of Stress-Free Productivity; I would like to go ahead and begin my recommendations of it.

That being said it requires input. If you are of the demographic that expects the world to center around you and it should be easy and carefree just because. This isn’t for you. If however, you are coming to the conclusion that paper is king (and paper can be digital), then this will put you into a higher gear of productivity.

GTD in a nutshell; Buckets for everything:
* Inbox for dumping of your brain
* Create the next action item needed to take you towards your objective
* Create projects to house next actions that are due
* Use review cycles to clean, maintain, and propagate movement

There is a much deeper granularity to this that I’ll put into words at another time. Basically the concept is very easy. Get your brain into bins, clean the bins into smaller bins, bring up required items to calendars and other functions, and then just chew down the items and keep flowing new things to do into the system.

What you find is your brain can free itself from the mundane task of remebering and forgetting. Now instead of fretting over the next things to do, or what should be, its all down on paper. Your mind can now work on just accomplishing. Accomplishing leads to movement, which adds to momentum. The system begins to feed itself, your life starts picking up pace because you are following a protocol of handling things with ease. Simple positive reinforced feedback loop. Now thats the loop I like to be in. Not worry over what I’m doing next.

If you have a Mac you might want to check out a [Tinderbox](http://www.eastgate.com/Tinderbox/) which is an addictive free form tool that allows you to build some amazing frameworks for harnessing knowledge but its not for everyone. If you do use it and want to apply GTD principles to it check out the [GTD Template](http://www.eastgate.com/bin/wiki.cgi?GTDTemplateUsage “GTD Tinderbox Template”) that [Ryan Holcomb](http://fridgedoor.net/prototyping/2003.html#note_637 “Fridgedoor”) made.

I find myself every day vesting more and more of what I am doing within Allen’s constructs. While not finished with his materials I am already sold due to what it is doing for me.

-a