Discussion Forum > An appreciation/review of Mark's first book on Todoist site
Good article. I bought the book, the only one I didn't have. Thanks.
August 27, 2019 at 2:44 |
Erin
Erin
Mark's first book is still my favorite and most referred to book of all his volumes. The article linked by Mike Brown summarizes all the points in the book rather in a clear and succinct manner.
August 27, 2019 at 4:23 |
Jeb
Jeb
Thanks very much for bringing this article to our attention, Mike.
As you say, an excellent summary.
When I wrote that book nearly twenty years ago I was just on the point of giving up my full-time employment and going for it on my own. That was a resounding success and the principles in the book helped me to combine coaching, writing and giving seminars into a very successful (and enjoyable) business without employing any staff at all.
As you say, an excellent summary.
When I wrote that book nearly twenty years ago I was just on the point of giving up my full-time employment and going for it on my own. That was a resounding success and the principles in the book helped me to combine coaching, writing and giving seminars into a very successful (and enjoyable) business without employing any staff at all.
August 27, 2019 at 8:38 |
Mark Forster
Mark Forster
According to my Kindle, I read 76% of it three years ago. I don't really remember what was in it, even from this summary. But I like the idea of allocating time according to important categories, since I am painfully aware of imbalances that I have in that. I should give it another shot from the beginning with that in mind.
September 3, 2019 at 4:34 |
Don R
Don R
I read _Get Everything Done_ off the recommendation in that article.
It's fantastic. Especially the exercise on allocating percentages of time to different commitments. Of course, I don't stick to the percentages given, but it did let me see how I was adding too many projects to my plate at a time. I now have only three projects on the go. The rest are in the backburner section of my project list for now!
Second fantastic tip in the book. Treating as many tasks as a possible as part of categories. I know others like to put small tasks on their main list, but for me things like 'Minor Tasks' (which are collected on a post-it in my journal) and 'Emails' is much better. I like to work on things for as much time as I can, and prefer to finish them.
Great book.
Another tip, from me this time, which has made a huge difference to anxiety. Keep your task list out of sight once you've chosen something from it to do. Having it in view while I worked kept 'cueing' me to think of all the other things I could be doing. That disrupted my focus and made me anxious.
Current system: May 9
It's fantastic. Especially the exercise on allocating percentages of time to different commitments. Of course, I don't stick to the percentages given, but it did let me see how I was adding too many projects to my plate at a time. I now have only three projects on the go. The rest are in the backburner section of my project list for now!
Second fantastic tip in the book. Treating as many tasks as a possible as part of categories. I know others like to put small tasks on their main list, but for me things like 'Minor Tasks' (which are collected on a post-it in my journal) and 'Emails' is much better. I like to work on things for as much time as I can, and prefer to finish them.
Great book.
Another tip, from me this time, which has made a huge difference to anxiety. Keep your task list out of sight once you've chosen something from it to do. Having it in view while I worked kept 'cueing' me to think of all the other things I could be doing. That disrupted my focus and made me anxious.
Current system: May 9
September 4, 2019 at 11:16 |
Michaelis
Michaelis
And her article is titled (which is how it got my attention):
Get Everything Done & Still Have Time to Play [Productivity Method]
https://doist.com/blog/get-everything-done-still-have-time-to-play/
Excerpt:
"As I describe Forster’s technique, you’ll see that it contains elements that are similar to other productivity methods, but what I found is that this technique not only covers how to get the work done, but also gave me a systematic approach to decide what should be on my to-do list in the first place.
"It’s a system that forced me to (finally) grapple with the time and energy constraints I’m working with and ensures that I’m giving each important area of my life the attention it needs."