Daily Archives:September 18th, 2004

Getting things done

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I’ve spent the last couple of days sorting, tidying and generally getting things in order. Those who know me will tell you that this is a newsworthy item!

It’s inspired, I must confess, by David Allen’s book, “Getting Things Done“. I normally abhor these ‘Self-Improvement’ books, (mostly because I hate to admit that I find some of them useful), but I had started to see quite a few references to this one around the web, not least through Merlin Mann’s 43 Folders blog. Try a Google search on ‘getting things done’ and you’ll see that Allen has definitely put his mark on the phrase. So I went to Amazon, where I noted the rather large number of 5-star ratings in the readers’ reviews. Amazon was sold out, so I went to a UK online bookshop and ordered the book.

Later that evening, John came round and said that he’d been wanting to download the audio version (via iTunes) but couldn’t because it was only available from the US bit of the iTunes Music Store. Rose has a US credit card, so I was able to download it for him, and I’ve been listening to it on my iPod in the car ever since.

Now, here’s the bizarre thing. Despite the book being shipped fairly promptly, the Royal Mail, a poor shadow of it’s former self, has failed to get it to my door yet. However, thanks to my iPod, I’ve already ‘read’ it before it even arrives. Oh, and it gets 5 stars from me, too!

© Copyright Quentin Stafford-Fraser