Exploring David Allen’s “Making It All Work”: Part 2 of 3

In the first part of this review, we looked at the central themes of David Allen’s book “Making It All Work.” We learned about the two axes of control and perspective, and how they shape our approach to productivity. Now, in part two, we’ll delve deeper into the control axis, focusing on the core aspects of Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology.

Getting Control: The Core Components of GTD

One of the reasons why Getting Things Done (GTD) has become so popular is because of its simplicity. Allen’s five-step process is easy to grasp and implement, yet it yields substantial results. GTD is based on the following core components:

Capture: This first step focuses on paying attention to whatever has our attention. Our minds are imperfect and tend to forget important things while obsessing over trivial ones. Capturing involves two levels of attention: a thorough mindsweep to inventory every possible thing that has our attention, and the incidental capture of fleeting thoughts so that we can get them into our system without interrupting our current focus.

Clarify: This step involves deciding what to do with the stuff we have captured. We need to process our inbox, review meeting notes and letters, and sort through all the notes in our Moleskine. The first question we need to ask is, “Is it actionable?” If it is, then we need to determine what action needs to be taken and add that to the relevant list or our calendar. If it isn’t actionable, we need to decide if it’s reference material, something to mull over, or nothing at all.

Organize: Organization is at the heart of the system part of GTD. It’s where all our next actions, projects, goals, reference materials, and so on are kept and made available. Allen outlines six categories of things that need organizing: outcomes, actions, incubating, support, reference, and trash.

Reflect: This step involves looking over existing commitments and generating new projects and ideas. The Weekly Review is a regular “time out” from day-to-day work to bring our system up to date and look forward into the future.

Engaging: This final step involves selecting and executing tasks from our next action lists in the appropriate context. For Allen, the purpose of all the other stages is to enable us to focus fully on the one task that, given where we’re at and the time available to us, is the single most important thing we could be doing right now.

Why Control Matters

Control is essential because it’s the foundation upon which everything else is built. Without control, we’re always in reactive mode, responding to the latest and loudest demands on our attention. By establishing a reliable system for capturing, clarifying, organizing, reflecting, and engaging, we gain control over our work and can begin to make meaningful progress towards our goals.

As Allen points out, control is not about being a control freak or micromanaging every detail of our lives. It’s about creating a system that works with us, not against us, to achieve the results we desire. This system is designed to help us manage the never-ending flow of inputs in a way that’s sustainable, without sacrificing our wellbeing or our ability to pursue what truly matters.

The Engage Step: Making Things Happen

The Engage step is where the rubber meets the road in GTD. It’s where all the preparation and planning come together to enable us to take effective action. The Engage step is also where Allen addresses a common criticism of GTD: that it spends a lot of time helping us prepare to do stuff but doesn’t provide much guidance on actually getting things done.

For Allen, the Engage step is all about priorities. The whole purpose of capturing, clarifying, organizing, and reflecting is to ensure that, at any given moment, we can focus entirely on the one task that’s the most critical given our circumstances. We’ve already done the work of defining, scheduling, assessing, and preparing for the actual action, so we’re free to pursue the particular action that’s most appropriate for that moment.

The key to successful engagement is to maintain momentum. We need to keep moving forward, tackling one task after another, without getting bogged down in indecision or second-guessing. Allen provides plenty of practical tips and strategies for staying on task and maintaining our momentum throughout the day.

Conclusion

In part two of this review, we’ve explored the core components of GTD and seen how they help us gain control over our work. We learned about the importance of the Engage step and how it helps us make things happen. In the next and final part of this review, we’ll delve into the other axis, that of perspective, and see how it complements our control-oriented approach to productivity. By combining control and perspective, we can achieve true mastery over our work and create lasting results that align with our greater life goals and purpose.