I'd love your viewpoint on a book by book basis if you care to share.
I don’t think I have anything profound to say, but at the risk of offending some people, I’ll share.
Before I discovered David Allen, which was around the time MAP became GTD (book #2), I had read a good bit of the older literature on time management and productivity, including Lakein, Hyrum Smith (Franklin Planner), and Covey. The Seven Habits said some genuinely new things, but Covey never had a next actions and projects process. Still, I’m surprised The Seven Habits was not included in this list. At the time I discovered GTD, I already knew a lot of things that didn’t work well.
There have been several more recent books on habits, of which #1, Atomic Habit by Clear, is perhaps the best known. If someone wanted help with habits, I would recommend this book and the book by Duhigg. However, neither book did much for me. I respond primarily to intrinsic motivation, and the psychological insights of both books, while interesting, did not help me. I haven’t read #5, “Drive” by Pink. I have read some of his shorter stuff, and some interviews. I think his ideas seem congruent with GTD, but I don’t see much extra value for me there. I don’t need a book to motivate me to find my motivation.
There are several books on the list, #3 by Tracy, #4 by McKeown, and #8 by Newport, that advocate focusing on “the most important things” as a life strategy. By and large, I think these books lack the nuanced understanding of multi-level priorites which GTD has. I think Tracy tends to write whatever he thinks he can sell, while Newport clearly thinks of productivity in terms of discipline. Deep work, as he calls it, is what university professors are paid to do. He and I are both university professors, so that’s what we do. He makes a bigger deal of it than I would.
I don’t think I’ve looked at #6 and #7. A lot of books and articles have been written which recycle ideas like the 80/20 rule, SMART goals, the Eisenhower matrix, you name it. I don’t think you can construct a coherent system by elevating tactical ideas into strategic doctrine. A lot of authors of books about productivity are basically saying either “This worked for me” or even “This should work”, followed by “It will work for you.” Of course, if you find value in a book, then it has value for you, and that’s fine.