Tag: “Decision Making”

Don’t you have the feeling that the world is getting more and more complicated, that you have more and more responsibilities and things to do, and that you don’t have the resources to cope with all these things adequately?

A couple of decades ago I made the worst financial decision of my life. I invested almost all of my savings in a company that went bankrupt a few months later. Although at the time it seemed like a fairly rational decision (although not without risk), the truth is that it wasn’t. I made that decision in a moment of euphoria, just after I had made a small amount of money with a similar investment shortly before.

Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Getting Things Done is probably David Allen’s least known book. It was published in 2003 and consists of a compilation of 52 articles that delve into different aspects of the GTD methodology. Aspects such as having a clear vision to be more creative, approaching work in a productive way, creating structures that work and knowing how to relax despite being on the move.

Decision making has a direct impact on your effectiveness. From the simplest to the most far-reaching decisions, every choice you make influences the direction your life takes. Effective decision making requires careful evaluation of options, consideration of short- and long-term consequences, and a willingness to take responsibility for our choices. This process requires significant mental effort, which in turn consumes much of our willpower.

In his book Making it all work, David Allen, creator of GTD (Getting Things Done), claims that there are two key elements in personal management: control and perspective. Or, as he called them in his first book, horizontal control and vertical control.