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 Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
ASIN: 0670899240
Customer's Rating: 5
Summary: Best I've found.
Comments: OK, first I have to admit I picked up the book at a local Border's where I had a copy on reserve. Having said that... I think I've tried every 'system' for organizing yourself out there. In the 80's it was Day-Timer and Day-Runner. Good calenders and address books, but not much else. 90's was Covey, and Franklin planning. Now we have 'roles and goals' which helps with long term planning but both systems were very inflexible when it came to planning your day to day stuff. I can remember Covey wanting me to plan out my entire week in advance. Nice in theory, but nowhere near reality for those of us whose jobs tend to be more 'crisis-oriented'. I've also tried Agenda, Ecco, Outlook, etc. but its hard to lug around your PC or laptop all the time. About two years ago I came across David Allen's tape seminar and I have to say its the best system I've ever found for organizing 'all' of your life. I can't say it's changed my life (I still have the same job, wife and kids and I still procrastinate too much ) but its certainly made all the difference in me being finally, actually organized on day-to-day basis. I'm now the only one in my office with a clean desk :) The book covers just about the same material that I learned in the tape series. The tapes have more anecdotes and 'real-life' examples in them, but the book has a few new pearls and tricks that tells me David's been refining and polishing this system since the tape series.
Two last quick points: first, it requires no special binders or refills. You could use a cheap spiral notebook if you want. Personally, I use a palmpilot, which works well. Second, (IMHO)
the Weekly Review is the cornerstone of making this system work, and its worked for me for two years. Remember that; it'll make sense once you read the book :) Now if I could only get David to come up with a system for procrastination...
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 Focal Point: A Proven System to Simplify Your Life, Double Your Productivity, and Achieve All Your Goals
ASIN: 0814471293
Customer's Rating: 5
Summary: Plenty of Wisdom---and a System
Comments: Personal development, in years past, has been a primary interest among people of all ages. We don't hear as much about the topic today as we used to. Nevertheless, the need is still present . . . perhaps even more than ever before. With so many people today focused on their computers, some have forgotten about the fine art of balanced personal growth. Brian Tracy is a master in the field of personal and professional development. His speeches, seminars, and consulting around the globe have contributed to Tracy's reputation. He is highly respected and quite influential, particularly among the thousands who attend his presentations each year. As Tracy lived his life, then taught others his system, his approach was continually refined. In Focal Point, it all comes together for anyone who reads the book. Focal Point explains how users of this tool (you'll do more than just read the words in this book to get its powerful total value)
can unlock their full potential. At the same time, using the system will enable you to double your productivity and simplify your life. Of course, this sounds like the makings of a fine motivational speech; Tracy is a motivator. But, this book invests most of its pages in the how-to. The chapters are filled with the knowledge of the sages in this field. Many teachings will sound familiar-good! In Focal Point, all that advice is pulled together into one place, one system to learn and apply. A listing of the chapter headings will reveal what you will explore in these pages: Tap Your Most Precious Resource, Practice Personal Strategic Planning, Supercharge Your Business and Career, Improve Your Family and Personal Life, Achieve Financial Independence, Enjoy Superb Health and Fitness, Become Everything You Are Capable of Becoming, Make a Difference in Your Community, and Spiritual Development and Inner Peace. Note that these are how-to chapters, filled with things like "Six Steps to Doubling Your Income and Doubling Your Time Off" and "Seven Keys to Higher Productivity." Each chapter includes challenging questions to help you see where you still have some work to do. Tracy's Focal Point process consists of seven steps to be applied in each area of concern, values, vision, goals, knowledge and skills, habits, daily activities, and actions. The whole valuable system is explained so you can use the book as a tool to make a substantial difference in yourself, your success, and your personal satisfaction. The book concludes with a chapter on Seven Lessons for the Twenty-First Century, a List of Values, a Recommended Reading list, and an index. If you want to strengthen your life, your effectiveness, and your happiness, you'll discover a great friend in Focal Point. And you'll probably recommend it to your friends. It's just that kind of a book: it bothers you, makes you uncomfortable, but shows you how to make the improvements you want to need and desire. Go for it!
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 The Loyalty Effect: The Hidden Force Behind Growth, Profits, and Lasting Value
ASIN: 0875844480
Customer's Rating: 5
Summary: The most valuable business book I've read in years!
Comments: The Loyalty Effect takes a long, detailed look at the economics of loyalty, providing concrete examples to support the conclusion that the goal of a business must be the creation of sustainable value for customers employees and investors.
Reichheld takes that which many of us hold as "intuitively correct" and adds substance to our intuition. By translating loyalty into the language of accounting and finance, for example, he proves over and over again, that loyalty is a pre-requisitie for proitability. He doesn't argue against profitability...he merely clarifies the order of priorities for management.
I'm a former IBMer and I now run my own management consulting firm. Reichheld's firm is in fact a competitor, and yet I strongly recommend this book to any decision-maker who is interested in breaking through the fluff and securing real-world advice regarding specifc ways to sustain the health of any company.
Rather than reading the "visionaries", the turnaround specialists and the various and assorted geniuses read this. Reichheld, offers a straightforward summary of empirical evidence that correlates high retention rates (of customers and employees) with long-term profitability. While many other authors seem to be pushing their own agendas (and egos), Reichheld is summarizing the collective experience of numerous companies around the world.
Read this book. It will guide you to better business performance whether you're in marketing, finance, engineering, operations, HR or window-cleaning. If you're tired of losing customers and employees, this book may help save your butt! (if you're patient and willing to ask some difficult questions).
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 The 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management: Proven Strategies for Increased Productivity and Inner Peace
ASIN: 0446670642
Customer's Rating: 4
Summary: This book is like a good piece of advice from Grandpa.
Comments: I used to think that Hyrum W. Smith was a rough and tumble, hard line executive type whose first and only lust was the bottom line.
I was so wrong. This is a pleasant book with a conversational tone, along the lines of Dale Carnegie. I wish my other books were so simple, and were plainly written and plainly taught. Shakespeare mentions "Simple truth miscalled simplicity," (Sonnet 66) and that "Brevity is the soul of wit." (Hamlet, Act 2, sc. ii), and Mr. Smith demonstrates his ability, again and again, to plainly teach the ten natural laws. In fact, the tone of this book is almost grandfatherly.
The book is divided into two halves, the first half dealing with your time, the second half dealing with your life.
The first laws are (Don't get mad-you could Xerox these from a library copy!):
1. You control your life by controlling your time.
2. Your governing values are the foundation of personal fulfillment.
3. When your daily activities reflect your governing values, you experience inner peace.
4. To reach any significant goal, you must leave your comfort zone.
5. Daily planning leverages time through increased focus.
The laws regarding controlling your life are:
6. Your behavior is a reflection of what you truly believe.
7. You satisfy needs when your beliefs are in line with reality.
8. Negative behaviors are overcome by changing incorrect beliefs.
9. Your self-esteem must ultimately come from within.
10. Give more, and you'll have more.
I think that the central principles are first, controlling your life and not being controlled, and second there is an objective reality, despite all the braying and bleating of the relativists. The issue, then is one of organizing and prioritizing, and not just being a forty-year old teenager living from stimulation to stimulation. As has been observed, this book is geared for the big business executive, but I have found that I can adapt the principles to my less busy and less hectic life. That may be another underlying factor: wanting to want something. You must want the principles to work for them to be effective. "Stick-to-itiveness" I think is the word. There has also been comment about the values and the similarities of this book to other books, specifically Covey's "Seven Habits." It shouldn't be surprising, since all the arrows of moral laws hit one target. We do not have a male and a female law of gravitation, and the electrons do not drive on the wrong side of the road in the UK. We are all talking about the same thing. C. S. Lewis in "The Abolition of Man," traces the similarity of moral laws across many cultures and time. True, manifestations and understanding of truth may differ; it is all fundamentally the same. You can do math by Roman numerals, but Arabic numerals are far easier.
Moreover, Franklin and Covey merged a few years ago, so the two books have really become one in the hands of the company. As to the hidden agenda, what can I say? If you are smart enough to spot any hidden agenda, then you are also smart enough to know how to avoid any entanglements. As always, the hardest part of any self-help book is the implementation of the ideas.
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