I would only recommend this to a person who has NEVER read a blog post or a book on how to be productive. Otherwise, you pretty much know all the stuff here. It emphasizes the simplification of your productivity system.

Since I have loads of tasks to do that have deadlines (from school), I have no problem being organized. I use the iPhone app iStudiez Pro for scheduling all school work/exams/courses/lectures...etc. That's it. No calendars, no notepads, nothing. But whenever the weekend comes and I need to do personal errands/tasks, things get messy. I am currently working on a project and I need to organize my time and be efficient and effective, which is why I read this book in the first place. A friend of mine recommended I use asana.com, and I am currently using it. It's great and easy to use. Let's hope I stick to it!

Best advice this book has:
Keep things simple.

If you're comfortable with a notebook and a pencil, use that only. Don't be attracted to constantly trying out new systems, since that will waste your time.

Set 1 goal a year, or 2-3 max, and don't set goals that you do not really want to achieve. That will only distract you from your real goals.



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A simple system and a lot of excellent ideas.

But I'm unconvinced by "Find your passion." What if the things you love to do are enjoyable precisely *because* you don't *have* to do them to keep your family housed and fed? What if the thing you're most moved to do is something that you're unlikely to earn a living wage doing? (Homemaker? Stay-at-home parent? Lay ministry for your church? Mentoring children from troubled homes?) What about the jobs that few people love but that need to be done?

I also find the "one goal at a time", "do your MITs first", etc. approach unrealistic for someone who has both work and home interests and responsibilities. So, if one of your kids is having issues that call for parental help, you should either forget about setting any goals at work because you're focusing on the goal of helping your kid through their problems, or you should ignore your kid, have your spouse deal with it all, and focus on a work goal? The example ZTD day is that of a guy who works at home, has children, and appears to do only one thing with his entire day that involves housework/family -- make his kids' lunches; is his wife handling every single other thing involved in keeping their household running and their home maintained?? This extreme level of focus seems to depend on having someone else in your life whose job is to be unfocused and to handle the myriad little things that can't be simplified away.

Which is not to say that the book's ideas are worthless; Babauta raises many good points, and it's certainly a compact and easy read. ( )

Repetitive for such a short book (basically gives a brief description of the system, which was quite good on itself, and then expands on it needlessly). Only good if you've never read a book or tips of the sort before. Imho, you're better off just reading his blog, much better than the ebook. ( )

Good ideas, mostly a simplification of GTD, but really he doesn't say more about each of the steps in the later secions than he did in the overview, so he repeats himself a lot. ( )

Becoming very interested in GTD (Getting Things Done), wanted to read a book, and wasn't quite taken by the GTD book reviews. This an excellent book, quick read, and many great, practical, and practicable ideas. Read on a return commuter train ride so a fast read. ( )