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opens with what I would call three 鈥渋ntroductory鈥� chapters that precede what I would call the main section of the book. This third 鈥渋ntroductory鈥� chapter is quite short and mostly just sets up a few key concepts for the rest of the book. I identified five of these concepts that really stuck out at me.

Losing Control and Direction
On page 49:

From time to time you will experience yourself either feeling out of control or lacking direction 鈥� or both. If you didn鈥檛 you鈥檇 probably be stale.

This could be true on a larger life scale, such as how you are experiencing your career, or, at a more mundane level, such as being disorganized in preparing a dinner for friends. This can (and will) happen in and with your project in the garage, your family, your team, your job, your company, your school committee, your life.

As I鈥檝e mentioned before, there are times where I feel like my life is humming along wonderfully and everything seems to be in sync. I know what I鈥檓 doing. I know why I鈥檓 doing it. I鈥檓 really productive and full of energy.

Eventually, though, something happens that knocks this off of the rails. An emotional event. A crisis that eats a lot of time and energy. A slow change in my goals and directions.

I start to feel out of control. Sometimes, I start to wonder what exactly I鈥檓 working for.

The Two Keys
On page 51:

In the simplest terms, there are only two things you or your team or company needs to do to achieve positive and productive engagement with the commitments you face and to achieve all of the desired results [...]: get organized and get focused.

Again, that seems simple. Yet virtually every common problem a person or team boils down to one of those two problems: a lack of organization or a lack of focus.

Organization problems come from not having the right resources available for the task. People problems. Information management problems. Communication problems. They鈥檙e all signs of some form of disorganization.

On the other hand, focus problems include things like simply having too much to do or being bored without enough to do or not being engaged with what鈥檚 going on.

How do we solve them? The solution really comes from putting aside time to evaluate what you鈥檙e doing and why you鈥檙e doing it on a regular basis. So often, people and groups view that evaluation as 鈥渨asted time,鈥� but I鈥檝e found it to be the most valuable time that I spend.

The Price of Creativity and Productivity
On page 55:

Loss of control and perspective is the natural price you will pay for being creative and productive. The trick is not how to prevent this happening, but how to shorten the time you stay in an unsettled state.

Why are we worried about these things? Simply put, time spent out of control and without perspective is time lost.

I know that there are sometimes days when I just sit here spinning my wheels, trying to decide what to do next or not even being sure what I should be doing. I don鈥檛 have ideas. I don鈥檛 have direction. I just idle a bit.

That is pure wasted time. When I find myself in that situation, it鈥檚 time to back off and take a larger look at what I鈥檓 doing.

What Exactly Is Work?
On page 56:

The definition of work I will use in this book is quite universal: anything you want to get done that鈥檚 not done yet.

Allen鈥檚 material is interesting because it doesn鈥檛 make any distinction between the different types of things that a person needs to get done. A task to accomplish is a task to accomplish 鈥� you treat them all in the same way.

This is a really difficult bridge for many people to walk across. For many people, a work task stays at work and a home task stays at home.

The problem is that you often find yourself thinking about work at home and thinking about home at work during downtimes at each place. In those downtimes, you should be productive in those areas. If you have a great work idea at home, write it down. If you have a great home idea at work, write it down.

No 鈥淧ersonal鈥� Versus 鈥淲ork鈥� Dichotomy
On page 58:

[...] there is an inherent fallacy in affirming that 鈥渓ife鈥� and 鈥渨ork鈥� are mutually exclusive spheres. The truth is, when you are 鈥渋n your zone鈥� 鈥� when time has disappeared and you鈥檙e simply 鈥渙n鈥� with whatever you鈥檙e doing 鈥� there is no distinction in your psyche at that moment between 鈥渨ork鈥� and 鈥減ersonal.鈥�

Allen goes so far with this as to suggest that there really is no difference between 鈥渨ork鈥� and 鈥減ersonal鈥� when you are 鈥渋n the zone.鈥� Regardless of whether you鈥檙e at home or at work, you should strive to get into that zone 鈥� and when you鈥檙e in that zone, the line between work and personal disappears. You just get stuff done.

For me, this line has completely vanished, but that鈥檚 partially because I work at home on projects that have a flexible time schedule. I find that when I do get really 鈥減roductive鈥� over a stretch of time, I intermingle 鈥渨ork鈥� tasks and 鈥減ersonal鈥� tasks without skipping a beat.

My enemy is idle downtime. I don鈥檛 mind taking a break or anything like that, but when I鈥檓 just sitting there doing nothing for the sake of doing nothing, I know there鈥檚 a problem, whether I鈥檓 active in my personal life or in my work.

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