Getting Things Done for Teens: Take Control of Your Life in a Distracting World by David Allen

Getting Things Done for Teens: Take Control of Your Life in a Distracting World Reviews

• 
  Christina Pilkington

  Actual rating 4.5 stars
  
  Ever since I read David Allen's book Getting Things Done about 15 years ago and started to faithfully follow his system, my productivity and the ability to take on a lot of things at once in my life and not constantly feel stressed or overwhelmed has skyrocketed.
  
  I've been able to homeschool my kids (boy/girl twins) while teaching other homeschooling classes, plan extended travel with my family including traveling to all 50 states, trips to 6 different countries and 3 Caribbean islands all by the time my kids turned 15. We also have extended family on both sides that we spend a lot of time with, I work hard to make sure 80% of our meals are home cooked, and I keep a routine for keeping the house clean. I've worked as a meet director for my son's gymnastics (who has to practice 20 hours per week), regularly read 180 plus books a year and write reviews for them and plan as many local trips with my family each year as I can.
  
  I say all this because I'm pretty ordinary. GTD has helped so many people accomplish so much more out of life than they ever thought possible. So, I knew that when my kids were sophomores, I would create a time management class for them using the Getting Things Done for Teens as our core curriculum.
  
  While I think the original book is better, this book especially written for teens does a great job at laying down the foundation for the entire GTD philosophy. Kids learn the steps of capture, clarify, organize, reflect and engage. I think at times the examples and language used were a little bit cringy (I wonder if they had a group of teens beta read this book), but besides it clearly being written by an older adult, it did an amazing job at clearly laying down the program in simple, easy-to-learn-steps.
  
  If you are familiar with the GTD system, have read any of David Allen's books or listening to the GTD podcast, or if you would like to give any teens in your life the ability to accomplish almost anything they set out to do, I'd highly recommend reading this book!
• 
  Karen

  Though its target audience is teens, I found this version more in line with my own productivity needs as I don't work in the corporate world. Additionally, I found this version, with its numerous visuals, highly approachable and easy to implement in the real world.
• 
  Heidi Tighe

  In many ways, this book is more accessible than the original. If you are a GTD fan or even familiar with the method and you're looking for ideas to help your teenagers get organized, I think this would be a good place to start. Of course, we'll see how it goes when I try to actually introduce it to my teenagers.
• 
  Tatyana Naumova

  Хоть я и не подросток, почерпнула много нового
• 
  Ryan

  One of my projects, which is now obviously on the backburner because of the 'Ronie, is thinking about helping 9th grade students organize themselves; specifically, how do you keep track of a writing project that lasts 3-4 weeks? When I think back to my own experience, I'm skeptical about what can work. I think the first struggle here is that getting/being organized feels personal to me and is based on perceived need. I didn't have a reason to be organized in high school, not a compelling reason anyway. Even in college, I just had a pile in the corner of my room where I tossed all my books and notebooks. Each day, depending on my schedule, I'd wade through the pile and get what I needed. And that worked fine! My first inkling that I needed to get organized because it would help me in my life was my first year teaching at 22 -- and then by 28-- I was like OK, I really need to get it together now. And now at 36, I mostly have it together. OK, so how to you convince a 14/15-year-old kid that building these executive functioning skills would be a good idea and would help you feel more in control of your life right now? I don't know.
  
  I don't know, but I don't think this book is the thing because it's pretty intensely personal and pretty robust. I like GTD, personally, but I can't imagine how we would roll it out as a system in a school.
• 
  yasmin ✨

  this book is exactly what i needed! it was really helpful to have a guide to navigate the mess that is my life and my room :) if anyone's feeling super lost during this lockdown, this would be a great read.
• 
  Sara

  I had tried to read the original GTD quite a few times, but really struggled to get through it. I just didn’t relate to the examples he was sharing, which seemed to mainly be targeted to middle-aged men that are CEOs and have a family. But I still really wanted to implement the methodology, so I kept trying. Until I found this beautiful little book!
  
  It simplified GTD into a way I could finally read and understand. The examples were more catered towards high schoolers, but I could deal with that.
  
  Whilst, a few months on, I do admit that I haven’t been successful in implementing the GTD methodology, this book did change my life in many ways.
  
  The main way it changed my life, and the technique I use almost daily, is the planning map. It entails taking some time before embarking on any project, big or small, to define why you’re doing it, the vision you have for it, brainstorm how you’ll go about doing it, organise your thoughts and select a next action. It has got me started on so many projects I was procrastinating on, regardless of how difficult they seemed.
  
  I’d 100% recommend this book to anyone looking to get their life in order.
• 
  Richard

  For those not familiar with GTD, it stands for "Getting Things Done", a productivity methodology that I've found life-changing.
  
  GTD is very popular amongst technology folk like myself, as it provides a logical, consistent way to get things done!
  
  Anyway, the original GTD book was released by David Allen in 2001 and has gone on to sell millions of copies.
  
  In 2018, GTD for Teens was released. It's aimed at both children, and people who work with/care for children.
  
  I decided to read GTD for Teens while I was attending the GTD Summit in Amsterdam.
  
  As a relatively new step-Dad to two children -- 12-years old and 14-year old boys, I was intrigued as to how GTD could apply to their world.
  
  Firstly, as a 42-year old man, life as a child has got a lot busier than when I was a kid. There is more homework, projects, peer pressure, demands and everything facing kids today than I ever faced. I'd argue that kids today need GTD to stay on top of everything, and this book can help parents to prepare their kids with coping techniques.
  
  Secondly, as a life-long GTD-er, I found this book (with its simple explanation of concepts and nice diagrams!) a really good refresher of what GTD is and how it helps.
  
  For any adult who has bought GTD but never got through it, I'd actually recommend reading GTD for Teens!
• 
  Olivia

  I checked this book out from the library on a whim to see if it could somehow help me focus for school. While the book itself obviously didn’t make my focus any better, it definitely provided some clarity and advice for how to handle things. This book is the e only self-help book that I’ve ever liked (even though I’ve only read like 2 before this one). The content is super simple but very helpful if your mind is cloudy. It’s advice on managing your life. It’s practical. I would go out and buy this even after reading it so I can take my own notes in the book. (Also it doesn’t actually require you to read. You could just skim over the headings or pictures and get the point. That’s why I like it so much)
• 
  Darin

  Surprising good even if you're not a teen. I got several good restatements of GTD theory ("stuff hunt", the concept of X "ready"), and the examples of the actual process are really clear. There are a couple of silly things about it that obviously got added to get kids and teens to understand that weren't really needed (Miggy and Cortland, primarily), but otherwise highly recommended.
• 
  Hari Saravanan

  A perfect book about productivity. every teenager must read and this could be the starter/beginner for someone who needs to be productive, even this is perfect for adults too.
• 
  Elena

  If you are planning to get organized for the semester or think life is getting to you as a teen, then this is what you read. This gives you general but mainstream and gives good advice often talked about on the internet by productivity YouTubers, bloggers, and influencers. Some even refer to this method and the original
  Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity as the "Bible of productivity" so do what you need to with that information. The illustrations that further prove the points made are quite fantastic and overall, I had a fun time reading this.
  Ps: If you do end up reading this and decided to try out the GTD system for yourself, I cannot recommend NOTION enough which is a planning, database, and note-taking app free for personal use and I personally have been using it for my school notes for about and a year. And for personal management for some months now. (Not sponsored btw)
• 
  Liz Busby

  When I was 15 or so, I purchased a book on student organization from a college bookstore while at EFY. That book changed my perspective on schoolwork and revolutionized my system for accomplishing them. Later in college I learned about GTD from a friend who carried a little notebook in his pocket as a "capture" device.
  
  Now I have a teenage son who is in desperate need of a wakeup call about being responsible. I picked up this book to see if it could be as lifechanging for him as my book was for me. I'm pleased to say that this is not only a great book for helping a teen be organized, it's a fantastic review of GTD principles for anyone. I already made a slight tweak to my productivity system since I read it.
  
  I especially love section three, which consists of little experiments to run to test out whether GTD is helpful or not. Sometimes teens won't believe you unless they do it on their own, and these provide some great options for little challenges to give them. I will return and report back on how these go over with my specific teen. Pray to the parenting gods for me.
• 
  Whitney

  I can't review the effectiveness of a system I haven't tried yet, but I can review the book itself. This book had everything I wanted out of an introduction to the GTD system without all the stuff I'd heard about the original and updated books, namely outrageous complexity, Russian nesting dolls of systems within systems, and drrrrryyyyy writing. Instead I got a couple of compelling chapters that made the case for the system and then an explanation of how GTD works in theory and practice. It's still complicated! I immediately restarted the audiobook once I finished it, this time with a notebook and pen. But it's manageable, and it's justified why I should try it.
  
  I've read reviews stating that the pictures, especially charts, are helpful and clearer than those in the other GTD books. I can't speak to that as an audiobook listener, but I can say that the narrator was excellent. Much of my actual pleasure in listening to this was from his delivery of the material.
• 
  S

  There's a lot of useful advice in here -- not necessarily unique, but useful. Get the crap out of your life. Set goals and make action plans. Reminders of things we should be doing, but probably aren't -- and forming good habits sooner (rather than later) is always a good idea. There's a few weird/awkward moments in this book, in terms of writing choices that could've been left out (you'll know them when you read them), but overall this was a nice refresher. Or, if you're a teen, a nice place to get yourself organized... for college, conquering the world, or otherwise. 3.4* (Audiobook)
  
• 
  Daniel Kilby

  What can I say, I’m not above reading a book that was designed for a younger generation. In fact it helped me learn a great deal that I would have over complicated otherwise.
  
  I really did enjoy the diagrams in the pictures and how it related to a good bit of what teens endure in daily life. In all honesty when I get stuck during my regular Life, I will probably refer to this book more often than his original works to help get me back on track.
  
  Whether you are a seasoned GTD member, or just wanting to figure out what this is about I would highly encourage you to pick up this book
• 
  Henry Suryawirawan

  I picked up this book to get the gist of the GTD method. It doesn't disappoint, though I have to use the teen perspective when reading it. The book visuals are good to summarize the whole method. This book makes me wanna dive deeper by reading the original GTD book. This book is highly suitable to teach your kids to be more organized and obviously get things done, though I believe you may need to adjust few of the steps depending on the kid's age.
• 
  Mafer Arroyo

  Me gusto, creo que tiene varios puntos excelentes en cuanto a la organización no solo fisica si no tambien mental, pero vaya la ironia, el libro no está organizado!!, al leerlo me sentía como en un escritorio de computadora en el que abría una carpeta y dentro había otras dos, al abrir una de ellas dentro había otras tres carpetas y así continuando hasta más no poder. Un poco mas de organización en el libro y seria excelente.