Book · 2001 · Business & Economics
Getting Things Done
The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
#246 of 15,601 books, ranked by how many different people bring it up on podcasts
- mentions
- 27
- people
- 11
- podcasts
- 8
- episodes
- 23
- recommendations
- 7
Getting Things Done by David Allen is about as good as you can get.
Chris Williamson · The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett · Dec 2025 Listen at 54:22 What they say about it
- Created legendary productivity process“most legendary productivity process of all time”2
- Brings Zen-like peace“moments of Zen-like peace”2
- Highlights the two-minute rule2
The best things said about it
Even if you don't use the system, the book is really good.
I highly recommend that people become totally obsessed with personal development and productivity and David Allen's Getting Things Done.
Chris Williamson Modern Wisdom · May 2026 You get to 2004 David Allen's Getting Things Done and now it's how do we even find like some moments of Zen-like peace among the onslaught.
The big book of the early 2000s is David Allen's Getting Things Done.
David Allen, who created the most legendary productivity process of all time, GTD, right? Getting Things Done.
Chris Williamson Modern Wisdom · May 2026 And then the same for things like the deep workbook or digital minimalism or getting things done like stuff like that is like an entire like operating manual for us.
Where and when it comes up
Mentions per year
5
2
7
3
2
1
3
1
3
How it comes up
Most mentions, by podcast
11 people who brought it up
Why people recommend it
Getting Things Done by David Allen is a widely influential productivity manual that outlines a systematic method for organizing tasks, clearing the mind, and achieving stress-free efficiency. Chris Williamson recommended the book on Modern Wisdom and The Diary Of A CEO, describing it alongside titles like Atomic Habits as a foundational text for personal development and praising its next-action strategy as top-tier productivity advice. Ben Thompson also brought up the book on Cheeky Pint, noting that its system provides immense value even for those who adapt it loosely. John Zeratsky referenced Allen's methodology on ChooseFI to explain how breaking down large projects prevents overwhelm, while Tiago Forte mentioned the framework's famous two-minute rule on Modern Wisdom. Additionally, the author himself appeared on Modern Wisdom to discuss his stress-free productivity methodology, and other hosts have characterized the book as an essential operating manual for modern life. Across multiple platforms, guests and hosts consistently return to Allen's principles as the gold standard for personal organization, task management, and regaining control over an increasingly overwhelming workload.
Every mention
Chris Williamson You do what's called a next action from – getting things done, David Allen's productivity strategy. People… 7
Discussed
“David Allen, who created the most legendary productivity process of all time, GTD, right? Getting things done.”
Recommended
“And this is why I highly recommend that people become totally obsessed with personal development and productivity and David Allen's Getting Things Done and James Clear's Atomic Habits and Morgan Housel's Psychology of Money and The Subtle Art of Not Giving a … for like probably between three and six years.”
Recommended
“You do what's called a next action from – getting things done, David Allen's productivity strategy. People want a really – really great productivity strategy. Getting things done by David Allen is – is about as good as you can get.”
Discussed
“apparently there's there's a number of books there are all systematic programs of how you clean your house it's like if you took David Allen's getting things done framework for productivity but applies it to housework”
Discussed
“so you mentioned it earlier on the the first edition of your book getting things done came out 2001 nearly 20 years ago”
Discussed
“the updated version of getting things done which was done in 2015 I think”
Discussed
“David Allen's getting things done his two-minute rule I'm a pretty big fan of that”
Ben Thompson Like, great book Getting Things Done. Even if you don't use the system, the book is really good. 1
Recommended
“Like, great book Getting Things Done. Even if you don't use the system, the book is really good.”
David Allen well that'd be the debit getting things done calm you'll see an overview of what we've created as a company… 1
Recommended
“well that'd be the debit getting things done calm you'll see an overview of what we've created as a company right now”
John Zeratsky and that's an idea that that comes from at least in terms of my awareness comes from getting things done th… 1
Recommended
“and that's an idea that that comes from at least in terms of my awareness comes from getting things done the book by David Allen”
Tiago Forte David Allen's getting things done his two-minute rule 1
Recommended
“David Allen's getting things done his two-minute rule”
Cal Newport you get to 2004 David Allen's getting things done and now it's how do we even find like some moments of zen… 4
Discussed
“you get to 2004 David Allen's getting things done and now it's how do we even find like some moments of zen-like Peace among the onslaught”
Discussed
“then we get to the 2000s and this where the shift happens so the the big book of the early 2000s is David Allen getting things done being on the show he's a modern wisdom alumni he's a legend exactly now if you go back and you read getting things done”
Discussed
“Yeah, you go back and read David Allen, what you get, what's his goal? Occasional moments of Zen-like peace, among the mind, like there's nothing to turn you into a processing machine and a survival process you, right?”
Discussed
“by the early 2000s you're starting to see the pushback by getting things done”
Chris Bailey People that are listening will probably be familiar with Getting Things Done. Oh, have you Have you had Dav… 1
Discussed
“People that are listening will probably be familiar with Getting Things Done. Oh, have you Have you had David on the show? David's been on the show. Uh He's great. He's absolutely fantastic. He was the one that introduced me to a vertical bookcase. So he's got in his office He's got a vertical bookcase um which has a copy”
Russ Roberts they were pomodoroing 25 minutes on and five minutes after getting things done yes yeah they were David all… 1
Discussed
“they were pomodoroing 25 minutes on and five minutes after getting things done yes yeah they were David allening their way through the world”
Shaan Puri When we owned TeuxDeux, there was this one guy, an author, I think he wrote a book Getting Things Done. Wha… 1
Discussed
“When we owned TeuxDeux, there was this one guy, an author, I think he wrote a book Getting Things Done. What's it called? Uh GTD. Yeah. David Allen.”
Tim Campos i had david allen the author of getting things done and grandfather i guess of the modern productivity move… 1
Discussed
“i had david allen the author of getting things done and grandfather i guess of the modern productivity movement on a couple of months ago and i asked him i was like you know you do you tell me do you use omnifocus or do you use things three or have you got like a what's you”
Warren Cass I think definitely when you if you read David Allen's getting things done it it almost becomes laborious to… 1
Critiqued
“I think definitely when you if you read David Allen's getting things done it it almost becomes laborious to convert”
Mentioned on the show without a named speaker7
Discussed
“and that's that's for anyone who's read getting things done that is just how david allen explained it 30 years ago whenever the book was read it's only we've just come across it now”
Recommended
“and then the same for things like the deep workbook or digital minimalism or getting things done like stuff like that is like an entire like operating manual for us”
Discussed
“it's designed for gtd getting things done and if you've been if you've done what chris said and has written to listen to all the episodes leading up to this you'd have heard david allen talk about getting things done and why”
Discussed
“I found it more difficult to relate David Allen's getting things done to nowadays because he's talking about pages and filer faxes and stuff”
Discussed
“so find the one that I'm going to use is a tactic called working from zero now I think I'm right in saying that this is David Allen's getting things done right I think that's where it comes from”
Discussed
“Now I think I'm right in saying that this is David Allen's getting things done Right I think that's where it comes from”
Discussed
“so that's David Allen's getting things done right”
Also mentioned in the same episodes
Other mentions (5: passing, ad reads, own books)
Passing
“I'm coming into this office filled with 18, 19, 20 year old kids and I'm going, I just learned about the David Allen getting things done.”
Passing
“Maybe it's an email, but like along the lines of David Allen and getting things done.”
Passing
“so there are a gazillion different you know there's seven habits for highly effective people there's you know day planners there's getting things done there's tons of systems you can develop your own system”
Passing
“It's like if you took David Allen's getting things done framework for productivity but applies it to housework”
Passing
“whatever your for instance whatever your capture for articles off a tasks offer for brain dumps and then your review system David Allen's getting things done or a two-minute rule or whatever version of the Wolfram language approach I'm gonna guess you have if you don't have that there is so much latent potential just sitting behind you”