I am interested in any feedback regarding the books 'Take Back Your Life' by S McGhee and 'Total Workday Control' by M Linenberger. Are one or both of these books worthwhile? Is the information and techniques much different between the two? Has anybody tried the Outlook add-in from Clear Context?
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Outlook Books-Feedback Please
- Thread starter altruologist
- Start date
I read both books. They suggest similar approach to schedule all the tasks in your calendar. Actually that's not in line with original GTD that suggest to schedule only those Next Actions that have to happen on a certain date or time. So I think they worth reading but not implementing 
R
ReBuild
Guest
altruologist
I'll start by noting that I have not read either book. However, your post did make me go over to Amazon and read the customer comments on both books. A trip I strongly recommend to you.
Both books received strong reviews, so take a look and if you find the arguments compelling purchase.
On your final point, I'm am Apple user so Outlook plug ins are of no use to me.
I'll start by noting that I have not read either book. However, your post did make me go over to Amazon and read the customer comments on both books. A trip I strongly recommend to you.
Both books received strong reviews, so take a look and if you find the arguments compelling purchase.
On your final point, I'm am Apple user so Outlook plug ins are of no use to me.
Yes on Clear Context and TWC
I'm using Clear Context and like it a lot. I have not read McGhee's book. I bought a copy of Leinenberger's book a few months ago, largely on the endorsement of Marc Ochant, who is no stranger to these forums. A cursory look at Leinenberger's TWC book convinced me that Outlook plus the GTD Add-In already gave me what I needed. But when Clear Context came out with a version that included Leinenberger's TWC views, I went back and read the book and found it quite useful. It caused me to uninstall the Netcentrics GTD Add-In in favor of Clear Context. Clear Context offers a free trial, so you may want to give it a try.
I'm using Clear Context and like it a lot. I have not read McGhee's book. I bought a copy of Leinenberger's book a few months ago, largely on the endorsement of Marc Ochant, who is no stranger to these forums. A cursory look at Leinenberger's TWC book convinced me that Outlook plus the GTD Add-In already gave me what I needed. But when Clear Context came out with a version that included Leinenberger's TWC views, I went back and read the book and found it quite useful. It caused me to uninstall the Netcentrics GTD Add-In in favor of Clear Context. Clear Context offers a free trial, so you may want to give it a try.
M
Mad Izzy
Guest
I actually bought Leinenberger's book with GTD. I was actually just getting Leinenberger's, but Amazon had one of those package deals where if you buy both, you get a couple bucks off. Since I'd heard a lot about GTD, I figured I'd do it. I thought that the task management part was great, and I use it everyday. He lost me some in the email part, so I haven't incorporated that yet.
S
stanleydr
Guest
Linenberger is Great
Linenberger is great. He takes the best of GTD and other methods and integrates it into an MS Office environment. Not true that he has you put everything on the calendar. In fact, he makes a point of allowing you to create tasks with no due (or "do") date. If you still tag them with categories (ie projects or GTD contexts), they show up as potential tasks. That is, a little project plan or brainstorm. If you format the task list as he suggests you have a nice sorted list of completed items (which you can turn on or off), potential next actions, and next actions that you have committed (with a date) to do. I use this view for my weekly review. It even supplants project management software for all my simple to moderately complex projects.
I highly recommend taking a look at Linenberger. Be patient and go through the step-by-step instructions on setting up a couple of views. Then, you will have learned how to get the views you want and can skip over subsequent instructions, concentrating on the principles.
Linenberger is great. He takes the best of GTD and other methods and integrates it into an MS Office environment. Not true that he has you put everything on the calendar. In fact, he makes a point of allowing you to create tasks with no due (or "do") date. If you still tag them with categories (ie projects or GTD contexts), they show up as potential tasks. That is, a little project plan or brainstorm. If you format the task list as he suggests you have a nice sorted list of completed items (which you can turn on or off), potential next actions, and next actions that you have committed (with a date) to do. I use this view for my weekly review. It even supplants project management software for all my simple to moderately complex projects.
I highly recommend taking a look at Linenberger. Be patient and go through the step-by-step instructions on setting up a couple of views. Then, you will have learned how to get the views you want and can skip over subsequent instructions, concentrating on the principles.