Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity pdfdrive com

The Magic of Mastering the Mundane
My clients often wonder how I can sit with them in their offices, often for hours
on end, as they empty the drawers of their desks and painstakingly go through
the minutiae of stuff that they have let accumulate in their minds and their
physical space. Aside from the common embarrassment they feel about the
volume of their irresponsibly dealt-with details, they assume I should be bored to
tears. Quite the contrary. Much to my own surprise, I find it to be some of the
most engaging work I do with people. I know the release and relief and freedom
that sit on the other side of dealing with these things. I know that we all need
practice and support and a strong, clear focus to get through them, until we have
the built-in standards and behaviors we need to engage with them as they
demand. I know how significant a change these people may experience in their
relationships with their bosses, their partners, their spouses, their kids, and
themselves over the next few hours and (we hope) days and years.
It’s not boring. It’s some of the best work we do.

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Multilevel Outcome Management
I’m in the focus business. As a consultant and coach, I ask simple questions that
often elicit very creative and intelligent responses from others (and even
myself!), which can in turn add value to the situation and work at hand. People
aren’t any smarter after they work with me than they were before—they just
direct and utilize their intelligence more productively.
The challenge is to marry high-level idealistic focus to the mundane
activity of life. In the end they require the same thinking.
What’s unique about the practical focus of 
Getting Things Done
is the
combination of effectiveness and efficiency that these methods can bring to
every level of your reality. There are lots of inspirational sources for the high-
level “purpose, values, vision” kind of thinking, and many more mundane tools
for getting hold of smaller details such as phone numbers and appointments and
grocery lists. The world has been rather barren, however, of practices that relate
equally to both levels, and tie them together.
“What does this mean to me?” “What do I want to have be true about it?”
“What’s the next step required to make that happen?” These are the corner-stone
questions we must answer, at some point, about everything. This thinking, and
the tools that support it, will serve you in ways you may not yet imagine.

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