When comparing Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-free Productivity vs The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, the Slant community recommends Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-free Productivity for most people. In the question“What are the best books on Productivity?” Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-free Productivity is ranked 1st while The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is ranked 6th. The most important reason people chose Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-free Productivity is:
A lot of different techniques are introduced (such as a filing system and planner) which can be overwhelming. The author breaks everything down into smaller steps that can be completed immediately.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Breaks everything down into steps
A lot of different techniques are introduced (such as a filing system and planner) which can be overwhelming. The author breaks everything down into smaller steps that can be completed immediately.
Pro Teaches to mage focus rather than time
Pro Holistic concept from capturing to doing stuff
Pro A lot of free talks available about GTD
Pro Teaches you to avoid wasting time on figuring out what to do next
A fair bit of time gets spent either switching between tasks, or figuring out what to work on. Getting Things Done teaches you the importance of narrowing your focus and having a plan of where to spend your time.
Pro Teaches habits that can be applied in all situations
The author emphasizes the importance of creating habits that can be applied in all aspects of life, rather than specific to productivity in specific situations.
Cons
Con Does not consider technology
Getting Things Done, including the most recent update (2015), includes very little about incorporating technology into the process (such as tracking apps) that could speed up the process.
Con Repetitive, infomercial-like writing style
A large majority of the book is filler writing, repeating the few initial lessons in various different wordings.
Con Verbose and overly complex
The author has taken fairly simple concepts, and explained them in ways that are complex and unnecessarily intellectualized.
Explanations are stretched out by using a verbose and repetitive writing style.