I went on a personal productivity kick a while back, and along the way I read and tried to implement the system that Allen describes in Getting Things Done. I came away with the impression that his system was optimized very closely around the needs of managers. So much of his system is built around figuring out what to delegate, figuring out who to delegate it to, and then scheduling the follow-up meetings to ensure that the delegated task got done correctly.
That's great, if you're a manager. But if you're a "leaf-node" worker, then it's not really all that helpful. The one piece of advice from the book that I have stuck with is keeping my to-do list and calendar separate. Furthermore, even though I don't do formal daily/weekly/monthly reviews, I can see how they would be helpful for people who are concerned with longer-term goals. But other than that, I found Getting Things Done to be mostly a waste of time.
This is a book review of the book Getting things done by David Allen. I read it in the context of a personal literature review project on the topic of productivity and well being. If you are more interested by advice on productivity and wellbeing than by this specific book I advise you to read the project report first, which condenses the advice from multiple sources (including this book).
I started skipping many parts of this book near its middle. Mostly, I read entirely the first quarter, read by bits in the middle, occasionally skipping an entire chapter, and then read the end.
A good book packed with insight on being productive written by someone with a good track record of making people productive. Specialized in executive positions but modular and made to be adaptable. The part on decision processes is certainly the weakest for someone who already cares about rationality and decision making but that doesn't mean it cannot be a good catalyst and a source of inspiration.
Sometimes what the book says in terms of precise factual statements is false or flawed but I do not think that matters much if you keep in mind not to trust those.
If what I wrote above sounds vaguely relevant to your needs and goals I advise that you read the book. I think it is really a good book. The main flaw is probably that is wastes a lot of time. I feel it could be made shorter.