Getting Things Done vs. First Things First

So... I'm actually going to talk about two books today: Getting Things Done by David Allen and First Things First by Stephen Covey.  They are both time management books, but they approach the topic of time management very differently.  First a little about what I considered to be the pros and cons of each approach.  Hopefully this will help someone else out there.

Getting Things Done
I was actually surprised at how much I liked David Allen's approach to time management.  He has a very "bottom up" approach.  Meaning, he believes in focusing on the immediate tasks at hand and then thinking about long-term stuff once you have the day-to-day things taken care of (at least that's what I got out of it).

Pros

• He emphasizes writing EVERYTHING down.  Whenever you think of something you need to do or might want to do sometime, you should write it down.  His reasoning behind this is pretty sound.  If you try to keep too many things in your head, your brain can't handle it.  You will constantly feel like you're drowning because you can never accomplish everything.  If you write it down your brain will give you permission to forget about it.  He recommends having at least 3 lists: a Next Action list (where you put the specific next action you need to take to accomplish any given task), a Someday/Maybe list (to store all those thoughts about classes you might want to take, books to read, etc), and a Waiting For list (to record packages you are waiting for or tasks you are waiting for other people to complete).  [Note: I think this applies to emotions and journal keeping as well.  If you're trying to work through a problem or you're really upset about something, I've found that writing in a journal is an incredibly powerful way to get over the issue and move on without blowing up at someone.]
• He emphasizes keeping a running to-do list.  Rather than putting non-date specific items on a to-do list for a certain day, he recommends keeping them on a separate list.  That way you don't have to keep writing them down and transferring them  when you do not accomplish that task  the day you wanted to.  Allen likes this concept because you are less likely to get discouraged by how much you don't do and you can focus on the date-specific tasks instead of putting an equal claim on the things you can do any day.  I like it for the practical reason of only writing something down once.
• Since it's a fairly new book, he has solutions for people who like to plan in any way, and he makes it simple to implement his strategies.

Cons

• He doesn't believe in putting anything down on a daily to-do list unless it is mandatory to do it on that day.  Personally, I feel like this takes away some accountability for how well I'm managing my time.  If I have "buy socks" on a list of things to do at some point in time, then I'll never buy socks unless I'm forced into the store by some other urgent task.  I'll never call anyone because they're not on my list of things to do that day.  Sometimes it's good to create artificial deadlines.  Having to re-write tasks each day creates a sense of accountability.  Each day you're having to look back on what you didn't accomplish the day before and that gives you a chance to think about how you can improve your time management skills for that day.
• He doesn't believe in putting too much of an emphasis on values or prioritizing things.  Throughout the book I got the feeling that he doesn't believe in putting priority on certain events or values.  In some spots he even says specifically that he doesn't really see the value in writing a mission statement or judging some goals or "to-do" items to be worth more than others.  I guess his thinking is that if you are able to do everything on your list then you'll hit all the important things.  The whole time I was reading this book I had the following quote from Sister Beck's talk at General Conference running through my head: "A good woman knows that she does not have enough time, energy, or opportunity to take care of all of the people or do all of the worthy things her heart yearns to do. Life is not calm for most women, and each day seems to require the accomplishment of a million things, most of which are important. A good woman must constantly resist alluring and deceptive messages from many sources telling her that she is entitled to more time away from her responsibilities and that she deserves a life of greater ease and independence. But with personal revelation, she can prioritize correctly and navigate this life confidently."  There's no way I have time to do everything I need to do, so if I put everything onto a list (whether it's a Someday/Maybe list or a to-do list) then I'm only going to do the things that seem fun that day and I'll put off doing the important things.'
• It seems like it would be easy to go overboard and have too many different lists and then you're back to where you started.  

First Things First
This book was a LOT like The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  A lot of the same stories, advice, etc.  So I skimmed it quite a bit.  If you're looking for specific strategies for how to implement things from 7 Habits, this book is a good one to read.

Pros

• Covey and team encourage you to first figure out where you want to go with your life before you start filling it up with activities.  They recommend first figuring out what your values and priorities are, then writing a mission statement which reflects those values, and then set goals for how you're going to achieve and live those values.  Then you make sure to schedule those things first before you add anything else in.
• Weekly review.  They encourage you to set aside some time each week to review your week, see what you want to do better and plan for the next week as a whole.  I think viewing the week as a whole unit would help to eliminate a lot of the need to transfer things from day to day. 
• It seems fairly easy to adapt the principals of the book into whatever phase of life you are currently in.  I was able to picture myself applying these principles as a student, a professional, and as a homemaker.  
• Very in line with gospel principles.  You can definitely tell he's LDS by the emphasis he puts on knowing what direction you want to go.

Cons

• There are no Franklin Covey planners that actually fit the format described in the book.  Which is just disappointing to me because it means they don't really practice what they preach.
• There's a lot of "prep work" before you get down to actually planning out a week.  Not good if you're looking to do this quickly.

Conclusion
Time management is a deeply personal thing for people.  No one system is going to be a perfect fit for anyone... the same is true for me.  There are definitely aspects of Covey's method that I love (having a plan for your life, planning a week at a time, reviewing the past), but there are also aspects of Allen's method that I already use and love or would love to use (writing everything down somewhere and having a running to-do list).  So what am I going to do? 

Well... that's a good question.  I'm still working on that one.  Once you have a clear idea about what you need to help you with your time management it's a lot harder to find exactly the right thing, but I'm sure that once I figure it out... it will be so, so worth it.