Just like a certain mayor of a certain city whose name rhymes with Bavin Rewsome, I need to change my ways. Except my issue isn’t so, how do you say, scandalous.

Here’s my problem: I have 3 notebooks full of scribbled, jumbled globs of information. I have to-do lists on my desktop, in our CRM, in Outlook. My inbox is out of control and our collaboration tool is jammed with documents. And, in the words of Al Pacino, ‘I’m just gettin’ warmed up!’

I can’t be the only one in the world suffering from information overload……

Lately the buzz is all about David Allen, author of the national bestseller “Getting Things Done“. I have to admit that I’m always skeptical of self-help books in general and business self-help books in particular – 1) Because I think they’re usually based on general, idealistic philosophies that don’t really help and 2) Because of George Carlin’s old joke about self-help books:

And the part that I don’t understand, if you’re looking for self help, why would you read a book written by somebody else? That’s not self help…. that’s help. There’s no such thing as self help, if you did it yourself, you didn’t need help. You did it yourself.

But since I’ve heard amazing things about “Getting Things Done” from a number of our friends, I decided to put aside my aversions and swallow my pride…..and enter what I’m calling “Organizational Rehab”. After all, the first step is admitting you have a problem.

So I’m going to chronicle my metamorphosis with “Getting Things Done” on this blog. I’m a couple chapters in right now and am already impressed by David’s emphasis on ACTION… I mean, how many times do you make lists of “stuff” without actually assigning an action item to each? These are things that seem obvious and intuitive… but so many people – top executives, successful folks – forget to connect these dots.

David is speaking at Under the Radar: Office 2.0 – come check him out, read his book, and give us your feedback on his philosophy….