David Allen is the author of Getting Things Done the book that many refer to as the productivity bible. David has 35 years experience as a management consultant and executive coach, but he is best known as the personal productivity guru behind the Getting Things Done Method. He is also known as the GTD Guy.
David believes in having a relaxed balance of perspective and control, by getting things off of your mind, so you are free of stress and can achieve a “mind like water”. The GTD work-life balance system has helped countless individuals and organizations bring order to chaos. David is considered the leading authority in organization and personal productivity. Today, we discuss the GTD approach to book writing and the power of getting things done.
You can find David here:
Getting Things Done
@gtdguy on Twitter
Books by David Allen
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
David Allen on LinkedIn
David Allen on Instagram
David Allen on Facebook
Ready for Anything
Making It All Work
Show Notes
[01:10] It took David 25 years to figure out that what he had figured out was unique.
[02:09] David decided to write the manual on what he had figured out.
[02:33] He spent a day with an advisory group. To talk about writing a book or manual.
[03:31] In 1997, he decided to get his life out of his head and write Getting Things Done.
[04:02] He had no idea the movement that his book would spark.
[04:48] He had high anticipation, but no expectation. There was still a lot of time management and organization information already out there.
[06:12] Making his vision available for the rest of the world.
[06:38] First, David did research about how to write a book. How writing the business plan for the book was agonizing and productive.
[08:56] How a publisher suggested that a broad book would offer more value. He also suggested that David get an agent. He still has the same agent today.
[10:08] David had been capturing ideas with mind mapping software. Then he wrote a business plan. Then a crude outline of the book and content which included his earlier notes organized.
[12:12] It took a year to make it a real project. The next year was writing the first draft that didn't work.
[12:58] David discovered that books and seminars are different. He also wrote reviews for his book first and raised the bar too high for what he needed to create.
[13:55] He threw away his first draft and started again. He wanted people to see the methodology sooner. Then he wrote the book in three parts: methodology, implementation, how cool the outcome could be. This took another year.
[15:06] The fourth year was spent creating the title, book cover, etc.
[15:55] One of the most impactful things David did was let a line editor clean up his work. He rewrote his book with their edits to learn to think about simplifying what he was saying.
[17:15] Editing was the art. This changed his writing from then on. He now tries to simplify and say things in the shortest way.
[18:02] How a book is a very intimate thing. You need to reach readers with an idea of nurturing and support and making things easy and fun.
[18:46] Talking with a reader as if you have your hand on their shoulder.
[19:26] Writing requires bandwidth and freedom of time. David needed at least four hours with nothing else to do to get into the flow of writing.
[20:22] Structuring time to write depends on your life, but everyone needs to block out time when they can think best. You need freedom of consciousness to write.
[22:06] Writing takes dedicated time. It can't be done between the lines.
[22:25] Get everything meaningful out of your head and clarify actions. You can only feel good about what you are not doing when you know what you are to doing.
[23:27] Have a place to capture any idea that might be relevant. From mind mapping to Word docs. Don't lose your raw data.
[24:21] Have a process for a trusted capture system to get to a rough draft. The rough draft gets things going.
[24:48] Build quality time take your raw data and blueprint and follow the path.
[25:15] Redrafting edits can teach you a lot. Using as few words as possible.
[28:31] How it was fun working with a ghost writer on David's second book Ready for Anything.
[29:35] How most business books are ghost written they aren't usually written by the guru.
[31:25] Finding a format with categories or common themes and how they tie together.
[32:56] You can't write a book without blocking quality time. Create a marketplace with the idea for your book and have one place for your ideas. Ask yourself why you want to do it.
Links and Resources:
self-publishingschool.com
Spsfreetraining.com
Getting Things Done
@gtdguy on Twitter
Books by David Allen
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
David Allen on LinkedIn
David Allen on Instagram
David Allen on Facebook
Ready for Anything
Making It All Work
SPS 239: Launching An Updated & Revised Edition After 2M+ Copies Sold (Miracle Morning Behind The Scenes)…with Hal Elrod
SPS 238: Booking More Speaking Gigs, $40k Keynote Fees, And Bulk Book Sales with Cameron Herold
SPS 237: Rise Of The Reader & How To Market Bestselling Books with Nick Hutchison
SPS 236: Startup Santa: From Toymaker & Inventor To Author with Brad Pedersen
SPS 235: $80k/year In Royalties For 6 Years From One Book…How This Teacher Did It with Rob Plevin
SPS 234: BIG ANNOUNCEMENT! Unleashing the Power of Authorship
SPS 233: Be Seen: Discovering Your Voice & Booking Speaking Gigs Grow Your Brand with Jen Gottlieb
SPS 232 How I Sold 25,000+ Copies Of My Children’s Book with Delanda Coleman
SPS 231 How To Get Famous & Sell More Books By Getting On TV with Clint Author
SPS 230 Using AI / ChatGPT To Write & Publish Your Book with Jonathan Green
SPS 229 Grow An App Using A Book And Teaching Kids About Money with Scott Donnell
SPS 228 Post Pardon Me: Writing A Book About Postpartum And Other Difficult Life Experiences with Suzanne Yatim Aslam
SPS: 227 Marketing Secrets, Affiliate Book Launches, And Gorgeous Book Funnels with Julie Chenell
SPS226: The Journey To 110,000 Copies Sold & Relaunching Your Book…How I Did It with Sean Cannell
SPS 225: Why Affirmations Don’t Work & How To Use Afformations Instead with Noah St. John
SPS 224: The Engineer Approach To Millions Of Copies Sold with Todd Sattersten
SPS 223: The 2 Week Vacation Test & Scaling From 6 To 7 Figures with Austin Netzley
SP 222: How To Host An Epic Book Launch Party with Nick Gray (The 2 Hour Cocktail Party)
SPS 221: Mastering Marketing, Book Promotion and Hypnautic Writing with Dr. Joe Vitale
SPS 220: The Story Blender: How I Sold 1 Million Copies Of My Novels with Steven James
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Commercial Edge: Unleash the Power of People
The emPOWERed Half Hour
Aligned Money Show
Gorse Culture PODcast : The H.R. Detective Agency!
HCI Leadership Revolution
The Ramsey Show
Planet Money