You MUST read and implement the ideas in this book! Based on the principles of David Allen's GTD (Getting Things Done - as I perceive it), this book is a toolkit for using Outlook as a productivity tool.
I have implemented the ideas and concepts of this book more than any other book on productivity or time management.

I have integrated the concepts of this book in my leadership and management workshops and seminars and have always gotten great feedback from my participants on the ideas and techniques to increase productivity and reduce their stressful lives.

I recommend this book to all my students and I recommend it to you. If you don't get 10X'x the value for the price of the book, call me and I'll give you an hour of FREE coaching to clear where you are stuck using Sally's system. (I don't work for McGhee and never have, I just love the book that much - $300 Value to you).

Get the Dang Book!
Dominic Carubba, CPT
Director
Center for Performance Solutions
Atlanta, GA

This book was very helpful. The book tells you much more than just how to use Microsoft Outlook. It also tells you how to completely organize your life at work and at home. Very practical advice. I highly recommend this book.

This book was very helpful. The book tells you much more than just how to use Microsoft Outlook. It also tells you how to completely organize your life at work and at home. Very practical advice. I highly recommend this book.

Yes it is sales pitch for outlook, and yes Microsoft could improve the Category function in their Mobile software (I have a HP IPaq and reviewing single category SNA's or looking up contacts is all you really use it for.) But, in my opinion now that I have my life fully around this personal management system, it is a tool that will change your life. The high priorty top of the mind things still do not make it into my IMS system, but all the to-do's and call backs that used to fade into nothing can get prioritized and completed. But it will take you a awhile before you are disiplined enough to immediately enter tasks once a topic comes up. Keep trying, once you get it, this system is a life changer.

Yes it is sales pitch for outlook, and yes Microsoft could improve the Category function in their Mobile software (I have a HP IPaq and reviewing single category SNA's or looking up contacts is all you really use it for.) But, in my opinion now that I have my life fully around this personal management system, it is a tool that will change your life. The high priorty top of the mind things still do not make it into my IMS system, but all the to-do's and call backs that used to fade into nothing can get prioritized and completed. But it will take you a awhile before you are disiplined enough to immediately enter tasks once a topic comes up. Keep trying, once you get it, this system is a life changer.

For a long time, I believed Microsoft Outlook® to be a powerful yet highly underutilized time management tool, but was frustrated because the courses I took covered only the basics, and none of the books I read went sufficiently in depth to satisfy my desire to use this program to its full capacity. Then I discovered Sally McGhee's book, Take Back Your Life! which outlines steps for creating a system to help you to maximize productivity and take control of your personal and professional life.

Some of McGhee's recommendations are similar to those found in other time management books; for example:

* Implement personal boundaries to allow scheduled, uninterrupted work time.
* You can't create more time; you can only make the most of the time you have by setting priorities.
* Process and organize your e-mail (and paper mail) by following the four D's for decision making (Delete/Do/Delegate/Defer)

For me, the most valuable part of the book explains that to effectively use the Outlook Task list, it is helpful to create planning categories to keep track of objectives and supporting projects, and action categories to keep track of the individual tasks to be completed. Instead of using Outlook's default categories such as "Client" and "Personal," McGhee suggests placing all telephone calls in one category so you can quickly and easily make those calls when you have time between appointments. Similarly, having all errands in one category will make it easier to keep track of them and reduce the number of trips you have to make.

Ms. McGhee understands that technology facilitates increased productivity only when users know how to use its features to full advantage, and are willing to let go of ineffective habits. Willingness to make behaviour changes is a key component of her system, as some of the strategies she describes will be quite foreign to many, particularly those who struggle with structure and details.

One drawback is that to rely fully on Outlook for time management requires the use of a Pocket PC or similar device, and I have met many people who are not prepared to give up their paper planners. Nonetheless, although Take Back Your Life! is primarily about using Outlook, it offers many helpful time management tips that may be adopted even by non-Outlook users.

Take Back Your Life is a great book providing real tools to help you become organized in Microsoft Outlook. Now, my inbox is always clear because I do something with incoming emails right away. If I cannot answer or delete an email in two minutes I move it into Task folder. All my tasks are in one folder so I do not have to search through my inbox for an email requesting an action from me. The book gives directions to manage your email on many levels. Great!

Amazon tells me I bought this in October 2004. Paradoxically, it doesn't seem like I've been using McGhee's system that long and at the same time it seems like I've been using it for years and years. It's very natural, simple, and easy to do. I have a windows mobile device and this system is perfect for it.

It does seem like it was derived from Allen's Getting Things Done book, but McGhee ports the idea to use in Outlook, without the need for another application.

This helpful book cannot be adequately summarized except by comparison and contrast with David Allen's Getting Things Done. This is so for two reasons. First, McGhee claims in her acknowledgements to have co-developed the system that Allen has gone on to disseminate with extraordinary results. Second, the family resemblance between the two authors' work is obvious and suggests shared genetics, even down to the marginal quotations that are meant to inspire but which I found irksomely clich?.

Yet for all their similarities, McGhee and Allen have written two very different books. Allen is the poet, painting a verbal canvas in compelling tones and persuading his readers that there is a better life to be had if only one courageously confronts the changes that beckon. McGhee is the schoolteacher, detailing the nuts and bolts that take her readers to a pragmatic depth at least one level below the altitude where Allen is at his best.

If your goal is to effect real change in how you manage your life, I recommend reading both books. Start with Allen for inspiration and theory. Then move on to McGhee for the tips and how to's. There's a reason, after all, why there's room in the world for both poets and schoolteachers.

McGhee gives us ten chapters of nicely formatted prose, broken down into four sections that demonstrate her indebtedness to the bottom-up approach championed by Allen: `Laying the Foundation' (pp. 2-45), `The Collecting Phase' (pp. 48-95), `The Processing and Organizing Phase' (pp. 97-218), and `The Prioritizing and Planning Phase (pp. 220-248).

The author starts us off with ten common claims of the busy hordes for why they are victims rather than participants in their own information-inundated demise (chapter one, `Change Your Approach, Change Your Results', pp. 2-17). She dismisses each one of them, but not without warning that her readers will need to be ready to change if they want to achieve the better outcomes that await them.

In her second chapter (`What is Personal Productivity', pp. 18?-34), McGhee introduces `meaningful objectives' and `strategic next actions'. These correspond to Allen's `projects' and `next actions'. In McGhee's scheme, `meaningful objectives' are one's North Star. She will insist throughout the book that they should be limited in number and that all activity that is worthwhile will be linked to a meaningful objective. This emphasis makes McGhee's book a welcome addition to the kinds of life management moments of crisis and opportunity that, for example, Stephen Covey, has helpfully mapped out. My own experience of mid-life re-prioritization has been aided by McGhee's tenacity on this point. However, `meaningful objectives' are not things you do; `strategic next objectives' are, and they must be actionable, that is to say free of dependencies. McGhee's SNA is a thing you can sit down and do now if this is the right time to do it. By this point in the book, McGhee is already introducing Microsoft Outlook as her tool of choice for tracking these items. What else would you expect from a Microsoft Press publication? I say this without sarcasm, for if there is such a thing as a justified monopoly, the Bully of Redmond-as some would have it-has pulled one off. Outlook is indeed hard to beat. Unlike Allen and Covey, McGhee has not yet sold us a proprietary design for an Outlook add-in. Perhaps that would be to insinuate Outlook's inadequacy. Stay tuned.

When it comes to `The Three Phases for Creating an Integrated Management System' (chapter three, pp. 36-45), McGhee is positively Allen-esque. But this emphasis of limited `collection points' and getting things out of your brain so you can think is the spinal chord of the Allen and McGhee systems and the secret of their effectiveness. McGhee is more eager than Allen for a paper-less life and a little more belligerent about taming one's colleagues (chapter four, `Setting Up Your Approved Collection Points', pp. 48-75). Other than that, their systems are overlapping and will make you wonder how you've survived your stumbling through life up to this point without thinking of doing things this way. Chapter five drives home the result we're chasing after (`Clearing the Mind', pp. 76-95). I find McGhee's slightly more disciplinarian approach refreshing over against Allen's occasionally New-Agey rhetoric. One can almost hear the schoolteacher asking over her glasses, `Do you really want to do this?'

In her chapter six, McGhee gets down to brass tacks, including software-manual-esque numbered points to set up Outlook her way (`Introducing the Planning and Action Categories', pp. 98-109). She's not kidding around. Did you know Outlook has a `Master Category' task list? Well, it does, and Ms. Sally has a plan for it. And for you.

Next McGhee goes much deeper than Allen into the detail she calls `Processing and Organizing Your Task List' (chapter seven, pp. 110-154). This chapter is golden. But like gold, you're going to have to get your hands dirty or your feet wet to get it into your possession. Probably you'll want to return multiple times to this part until-if you decide to travel with Sally down to this level-the level of planning it requires becomes second nature to you.

If you've stuck with this review up to this point, you may have the impression that I prefer McGhee's approach to Allen's. If so, I've given you the wrong impression. The results I've achieved with Allen's `Getting Things Done' have made me a raving fan. If I had to choose one over the other, it'd be Allen and GTD. Happily, that's not a choice that's forced upon us unless budgetary considerations do so. I just like the way McGhee offers you more grit and grime if that's what you want in matters that Allen leaves for you to work out on your own. Chapter eight (pp. 156-179, `Setting Up Your Reference System') is a good example. I'm writing this review on a plane to Hong Kong, but I can hardly wait to land and set up my folders Sally's way. It's so obviously superior to my own that-again-I wonder how I've managed without it. The real strength of her approach is that her folders are all linked to a `meaningful objective', which looks like adding tremendous motivation to get rid of a lot of email I'd otherwise save and also to align one more work area with the personal vision and mission statements and the objectives I've recently worked out in the process to which I alluded just a few paragraphs ago.

Chapter nine (`Processing and Organizing Your E-Mail', pp. 180-218) is full of tips and protocols for restoring civility and effectiveness to the tempestuous chaos that is E-Mail. I'll implement some of them now and return for more after I dry my face from the fire hose. But I still haven't found a best practice for handling `sent mail'. Come on, Sally, we were counting on you ...

The fact that McGhee saves `Planning and Prioritizing' until the end (chapter ten, pp. 219-248) is a reflection of her conviction-shared with Allen-that we do our best work after we've cleared up the unfulfilled promises and open loops (Allen's term) from our desks and our lives. Conceptually, planning and prioritizing come first. But in practice, we do best with them when our inbox is empty and our mind uncluttered.

Microsoft Press and the author have given us a handy orientation to a great tool without messianic trumpeting of how life depends upon a piece of software. Both deserve thanks.

This helpful book cannot be adequately summarized except by comparison and contrast with David Allen's Getting Things Done. This is so for two reasons. First, McGhee claims in her acknowledgements to have co-developed the system that Allen has gone on to disseminate with extraordinary results. Second, the family resemblance between the two authors' work is obvious and suggest shared genetics, even down to the marginal quotations that are meant to inspire but which I found irksomely clich?.

Yet for all their similarities, McGhee and Allen have written two very different books. Allen is the poet, painting a verbal canvas in compelling tones and persuading his readers that there is a better life to be had if only one confronts the changes that beckon with courage. McGhee is the schoolteacher, detailing the nuts and bolts that take her readers to a pragmatic depth at least one level below the altitude where Allen is at his best.

If your goal is to effect real change in how you manage your life, I recommend reading both books. Start with Allen for inspiration and theory. Then move on to McGhee for the tips and how to's. There's a reason, after all, why there's room in the world for both poets and schoolteachers.

McGhee gives us ten chapters of nicely formatted prose, broken down into four sections that demonstrate her indebtedness to the bottom-up approach championed by Allen: `Laying the Foundation' (pp. 2-45), `The Collecting Phase' (pp. 48-95), `The Processing and Organizing Phase' (pp. 97-218), and `The Prioritizing and Planning Phase (pp. 220-248).

The author starts us off with ten common claims of the busy hordes for why they are victims rather than participants in their own information-inundated demise (chapter one, `Change Your Approach, Change Your Results', pp. 2-17). She dismisses each one of them, but not without warning that her readers will need to be ready to change if they want to achieve the better outcomes that await them.

In her second chapter (`What is Personal Productivity', pp. 18?-34), McGhee introduces `meaningful objectives' and `strategic next actions'. These correspond to Allen's `projects' and `next actions'. In McGhee's scheme, `meaningful objectives' are one's North Star. She will insist throughout the book that they should be limited in number and that all activity that is worthwhile will be linked to a meaningful objective. This emphasis makes McGhee's book a welcome addition to the kinds of life management moments of crisis and opportunity that, for example, Stephen Covey, has helpfully mapped out. My own experience of mid-life re-prioritization has been aided by McGhee's tenacity on this point. However, `meaningful objectives are not things you do; `strategic next objectives' are, and they must be actionable, that is to say free of dependencies. McGhee's SNA is a thing you can sit down and do now if this is the right time to do it. By this point in the book, McGhee is already introducing Microsoft Outlook as her tool of choice for tracking these items. What else would you expect from a Microsoft Press publication? I say this without sarcasm, for if there is such a thing as a justified monopoly, the Bully of Redmond-as some would have it-has pulled one off. Outlook is indeed hard to beat. Unlike Allen and Covey, McGhee has not yet sold us a proprietary design for an Outlook add-in. Perhaps that would be to insinuate Outlook's inadequacy. Stay tuned.

When it comes to `The Three Phases for Creating an Integrated Management System' (chapter three, pp. 36-45), McGhee is positively Allen-esque. But this emphasis of limited `collection points' and getting things out of your brain so you can think is the spinal chord of the Allen and McGhee systems and the secret of their effectiveness. McGhee is more eager than Allen for a paper-less life and a little more belligerent about taming one's colleagues (chapter four, `Setting Up Your Approved Collection Points', pp. 48-75. Other than that, their systems are overlapping and will make you wonder how you've survived your stumbling through life up to this point without thinking of doing things this way. Chapter five drives home the result we're chasing after (`Clearing the Mind', pp. 76-95). I find McGhee's slightly more disciplinarian approach refreshing over against Allen's occasionally New-Agey rhetoric. One can almost hear the schoolteacher asking over her glasses, `Do you really want to do this?'

In her chapter six, McGhee gets down to brass tacks, including software-manual-esque numbered points to set up Outlook her way (`Introducing the Planning and Action Categories', pp. 98-109). She's not kidding around. Did you know Outlook has a `Master Category' task list? Well, it does, and Ms. Sally has a plan for it. And for you.

Next McGhee goes much deeper than Allen into the detail she calls `Processing and Organizing Your Task List' (chapter seven, pp. 110-154). This chapter is golden. But like gold, you're going to have to get your hands dirty or your feet wet to get it into your possession. Probably you'll want to return multiple times to this part until-if you decide to travel with Sally down to this level-the level of planning it requires becomes second nature to you.

If you've stuck with this review up to this point, you may have the impression that I prefer McGhee's approach to Allen's. If so, I've given you the wrong impression. The results I've achieved with Allen's `Getting Things Done' have made me a raving fan. If I had to choose one over the other, it'd be Allen and GTD. Happily, that's not a choice that's forced upon us unless budgetary considerations do so. I just like the way McGhee offers you more grit and grim if that's what you want in matters that Allen leaves for you to work out on your own. Chapter eight (pp. 156-179, `Setting Up Your Reference System') is a good example. I'm writing this review on a plan to Hong Kong, but I can hardly wait to land and set up my folders Sally's way. It's so obviously superior to my own that-again-I wonder how I've managed without it. The real strength of her approach is that her folders are all linked to a `meaningful objective', which looks like adding tremendous motivation to get rid of a lot of email I'd otherwise save and also to align one more work area with the personal vision and mission statements and the objectives I've recently out in the process to which I alluded just a few paragraphs ago.

Chapter nine (`Processing and Organizing Your E-Mail', pp. 180-218) is full of tips and protocols for restoring civility and effectiveness to the tempestuous chaos that is E-Mail. I'll implement some of them now and return for more after I dry my face from the fire hose. But I still haven't found a best practice for handling `sent mail'. Come on, Sally, we were counting on you ...

The fact that McGhee saves `Planning and Prioritizing' until the end (chapter ten, pp. 219-248) is a reflection of her conviction-shared with Allen-that we do our best work after we've cleared up the unfulfilled promises and open loops (Allen's term) from our desks and our lives. Conceptually, planning and prioritizing come first. But in practice, we do best with them when our inbox is empty and our mind uncluttered.

Microsoft Press and the author have given us a handy orientation to a great tool without messianic trumpeting of how life depends upon a piece of software. Both deserve thanks.

Similar to Getting Things Done and Seven Habits, this is a book about getting your life in order and making the best use of your time. I felt that McGhee, unlike Allen of GTD, did a great job of calling out the need to prioritize personal time and on saying "no" to tasks that don't fit into your schedule or would infringe on personal time.

However, McGhee's focus on Outlook and specific configurations of it felt like a mixture of an ad and very basic how-to. I would've preferred a much smaller book that focused on how to use her framework and then add-on software from her site or something that plugged into Outlook and gave guidelines on how to apply it. A large part of why I'd recommend Seven Habits and Getting Things Done over this book is that they both provide some default tooling but they don't let those tools get in the way of their message about effectiveness. While reading this book, I felt like I was getting educated on better use of Outlook rather than learning about taking my life back.

As a personal coach, I know a lot about productivity and organization, but this book took me to a whole new level! It spans the spectrum from setting boundaries and learning to say no, all the way to little-known-but-amazing applications for using Outlook. The combination of personal plus technological approach to productivity is unique. I've applied so much from this book already...otherwise I never would have had time to write this review!

This was exactly what I was looking for. I run 3 businesses and the input of information becomes too much to handle. This is a methodology for task and time management that is designed for people that are over-saturated and spend a lot of time working with Microsoft Outlook.

Excellent, they should teach this in Universitites.

Loved this book and refer lots of my colleagues to it. McGhee identifies about a dozen key "a-ha" breakthroughs in her work helping others manage their workloads. Then she organizes the book to make them clear, effective, and mutually reinforcing (e.g. after your goal setting, set up your files, your email folders, your work folders, etc. etc. along those lines. It's incredible how such reinforcement helps get you to integrate it into your life).

Nowadays we live in ambiguity every day. This book allows through a methodology clear and simple to help us to have a better life balance. I am still on the beggining of changes and with small changes I already improved some basic things such as sleeping better because I use less collecting points.

I found this book to be a great read filled with great ideas and concepts, especially if you want to utilize Outlook and Pocket Outlook together to get organized and get ahead.

I do agree it covers many (most, if not all, actually) of David Allen's book but I liked it specifically for it's focus on using Outlook to implement the very similar ideas which David doesn't do.

Another reviewer found it verbose but I didn't think it detracted from the information presented which was done in a very conversational manner. McGhee presents the information very well.

I would hope no one would be scared away from purchasing this book and incorporating its concepts because of the time involved as stated by another reviewer. You obviously don't have to do everything in one fell swoop (unless of course you have the time) but implementing the concepts one chunk at a time will get you well on your way to a more useful implementation of Outlook and on the road to taking back your life. This way you keep your eye on the big concept (which is a Meaningful Objectives) of what you are doing (Supporting Project) and why as opposed to the how (which is a Strategic Next Action).

I started in with simply learning to better utilize my Calendar (I've got more time on my hands than I thought) then moved to better use of Tasks (getter more accomplished with less stress), then onto my e-mail Inbox (no more messages lying around) and am now working on setting up folders (finally, a place for everything AND I CAN NOW FIND IT EASILY:) as suggested. Not all at once but it has allowed me to handle new stuff 100 times better as I continue getting to the details of the system. Imagine my surprise at finding out how much I could do right from Outlook simply by implementing her concepts!

Buy the book, you won't regret it. BTW I got mine used from one of the Amazon sellers ;) but it's worth every penny if you are serious about bringing real order and productivity to you business and personal life.

I applaud Microsoft Press for the writing approach used which is the first I have seen in their how-to books. Use a productivity consultant and show how to use Outlook to address time and task management... In one week, I have definately benefitted to the best possible outcome with the off-the-shelf Outlook 2003 product. As the other posts read, the Tasks in Outlook do not let each tie to the other, or link, which is hard to keep your high level objectives tied to the individual sub projects or tasks that complete the overall objectives. This is a vitally needed improvement from Microsoft. That said, this book has allowed a traditionally unorganized person with 1500 emails in their in-bin to one who feels in control of their tasks with a comfortable work-flow, and an empty in-bin at the end of each day. I hope Microsoft increases the use of practical consultants, or best practices when writing their application how-to books.

There's a HUGE overlap of content between this book and Allen's work -- but no credit given. If McGhee did come up with these ideas first, why haven't we heard about this before now?

The pictures are prettier in this book, but that's not enough reason to support someone who seems to have borrowed so heavily from the work of another without acknowledging it.

What you need to know is that going through this entire book takes a lot of time. In order to do everything required you have to reorganize every way you store information. This includes actually going through every email you have either in the inbox or stored, all your paper files and all the documents in your folders on your computer.

You cannot just do one thing and keep working because it is a whole new system you have now commited to. One person said it took them 10 days and this is no stretch. To do this while you continue to work is like cooking in a kitchen that is being completely remodeled.

As also mentioned it's not broken down in a step by step method but as one complete package. So if you start to reorganize your inbox you better be able to do that and everything else at once.

The book also mentions stating your meaningful objectives and sub objectives. But there is no assistance in doing this. Yet this is important as everything flows from this. It even mentions setting up your email this way as folders. You are supposed to have as few folders as possible but still mentions a Personal folder for email being "Working out 4 times a week". This is only an example but of course I don't get emails on "Working out 4 times a week" That is also why some of these folders are long and don't work when you move the files to a Palm.

I wish I knew all this before I wasted a lot of time putting this together. Furthermore, the book does promote Sally's consulting services. You find as you go through it you will have questions to fit your needs and this is where you will pay for her services.

If I had to do it over again I would buy David Allen's book first. He is the originator of this type of thinking. He gives the big picture view. Then you can decide if you want to buy Sally's book.

This book is unfortunately being clobbered by some reviewers who call it a rip-off of David Allen's work. But David Alen and the author were former partners! McGhee (the author) is accused by some reviewers of not giving David Allen credit, but in the acknowledgements (I know no one reads those), it says Sally McGhee and David Allen were partners in a productivity development group in which they developed, together, the productivity principles that both their books eventually use.

In this book, Sally McGhee shows you how to be more organized and productive using Microsoft Outlook. She describes how to integrate Outlook organization with a pocket PC, your "My Documents" folder system, and your physical folder system. Her strategies for tackling e-mail led to my inbox being EMPTY for the first time ever! Her discussion of "collection points", or the places where you store your information, was really eye-opening to me -- I had over 30 places where I kept my "to-do's" and notes, way too much! After applying the lessons in this book, I managed to cut "collection points" down to 7. My folder organization system still matches the methods I learned in this book. Why? The power of this book is in step-by-step details. While principles taught in this book are similar to those in "Getting Things Done" by David Allen, this book practically guides you through every click of the mouse and every handling of a piece of paper. Too many self-help books these days give you ephemeral tips, or give you principles without giving you detailed examples of their applications, leaving the practical implementation completely up to you, which can sometimes be really confusing. It's very powerful how this book not only explains organizational principles, it also gives solid examples of actual actions to take.

As for criticisms of the book, previous reviews are right in that there are technical issues with Outlook and Pocket PCs that aren't dealt with. Suggested category names, which were great for my PC, were way too long for my PDA and had to be changed, which was quite annoying. The screen-view she suggests for outlook is great, except that outlook doesn't filter your tasks properly in this view, another Microsoft technical glitch. McGhee definitely ignores some technical glitches in this book.

Nevertheless, the true values from self-help books come from those "tricks" that manage to become habits. You might not be able to do everything the book says, but those "tricks" you get make the book worth its weight in gold. This book had several such tips that I habitualzed, including setting your own reference system, realizing collection points, and cleaning out my email inbox. The value of these make up for the technical annoyances of the technologies this book recommends. Yes, implementing this system is time-consuming -- I spent an entire two days on it -- but it was worth it.

An uncredited rip-off of Getting Things Done, almost to the letter. In addition, it's clearly not updated in any way for Outlook 2003 (where search folders make the notion of emptying your inbox obsolete.)

The framework provided by the author to gain control over the many tasks each of us it saddled with is very useful. As you're reading the first few sections of the book you get the clear sense that Sally knows what you're going through and will provide the answer that will turn things around.

However, unless you enjoy cutting-n-pasting every single morning, you're going to find this process to be very tedious. Outlook is just not ready for this type of task management. I don't want to have to jump around from Excel, Project and Sharepoint to simply manage my day-to-day tasks. I need the ability to quickly link related objectives, projects and tasks. The only way to do this and follow Sally's framework is to cut-n-paste and even then it's not always going to be clear what links to what. You'll need to be sure that you provide intuitive names for tasks.

If Microsoft is going to publish books that promote their own products, they should take steps to ensure that the product in question can actual deliver on what the author is suggesting. Using the tool the way Sally suggests should make my life easier, not harder. If anyone on the Micrsoft Outlook team actually tried to manage their objectives, projects and tasks using the tool, they would quickly see the shortcomings of the product. Hopefully, they have and will introduce the ability to more easily implement Sally's suggestions in a future release.

Ed

Great Book!

You learn organization systems & processes in addition to learning to use Outlook.

The book was very well layed out - logical steps from A to Z. I have been able to read and implement processes from this book over about a ten-day period.

The author does a good job of providing suggestions of what to do with all your existing "stuff" as you need to start somewhere.

I found the author's method of repeating information to be useful - it was done thoughtfully.

I just can't say enough good things about this book. You should definitely read it!

I was glad to read this book, it certainly gave me some ideas about using Outlook better. It soon becomes obvious that Outlook is not an "information organiser" - you have to provide the organisation with some form of process or discipline.

This is the wisdom Sally McGhee tries to impart and she provides a daily method for using Outlook better. I like the way she encourages you to look at your bigger aims and to tie your personal and business activities to these. Her focus is refreshing because she puts your outcomes first, and the tool second. What do you want to achieve this year? How does each daily task relate to my bigger objectives?

There are many basic but true ideas in this book, such as her discussion about Collection points, supporting reference materials and so on.

There are a few small problems with the book, which would be nice to see addressed in the next version.

Firstly, the book is too verbose. Inside this book there's a smaller book trying to get out. While the fundamental ideas are important, there's too much preamble and repetition of concepts. This is meant to be a practical book and I found myself struggling to get to the actions. I really think it could be half the size and more beneficial. Getting organised isn't served well by a large book.

Second, I suspect the author hasn't really used her method with the PocketPC, as she suggests. Being a Microsoft book, a lot is made of the synchronisation between Outlook and Pocket PC. However, a few things don't work as she describes. Her category names are too long, so they don't work on screen on the handheld device. So you use the category "Projects" instead of "Supporting Projects" and "Objectives" instead of "Meaningful Objectives", etc. Also, I found that things appear in the wrong order on the Pocket PC screen, so the judicious use of "." is helpful (for example, try ".SNA Call" instead of "Strategic Next Actions: Call"). These probably seem like minor niggles, but if you're really going to use Sally's method on PPC, you want it to work! There are also some technical areas which are simply not covered, for example ActiveSync only synchronises Tasks when wired to the desktop PC, but not over the air like Pocket Calendar and Pocket Inbox. No discussion on this :o(

Third, I don't know of any support in Outlook to link task items hierarchically. This means that you do more maintenance which is a pain. Sally recommends a structure of Objectives -> Projects -> Tasks, and she asks you to maintain your Objectives and Projects as 'top level' task items which you refer to like reference entries in your task list. This works, but the linkage between these is YOU and you keep it working by cutting and pasting and updating things between the levels. It would be nice to have some simple SOFTWARE to manage this three-level tree so you could see it all at a glance and only update things once. Sadly Outlook only has a list view for Tasks, it doesn't understand Task relationships or trees. Perhaps she could offer this tool from her website as a freebie? Not that hard to do.

Fourth, I feel she doesn't give enough guidance to get started progressively: she takes an "all or nothing approach", a big bang. This is a problem because it needs several hours to set the whole system up. I understand Sally is a trainer and consultant, so she gets a full day with her clients - but when working from the book, you might find it hard to commit a whole day to setting up the system. She just needs to include some progressive steps to getting started, so you can move things across from how you work today.

Fifth, I don't find Sally's recommendations on filing that helpful, and again there's no plan for moving from your current arrangements to her suggested system. When you have gigabytes of material from many aspects of your business it's hard to envisage reorganising it all.

These are fairly minor problems. I do recommend this book if Outlook presents you with information overload rather than clarity and focus. I found it very useful and I use her ideas.

Take back your Life:-Using Microsoft outlook to get organized and stay organizer's author is very innovative. It gives in-depth knowledge of youngster's needs and behavior. And it shows how to balance work life. Her techniques are very simple but very expressive.

Take back your Life:-Using Microsoft outlook to get organized and stay organizer's author is very innovative. It gives in-depth knowledge of youngsters needs and behavior. And it shows how to balance work life. Her techniques are very simple but very expressive.

Author Sally McGhee is a leader in the field of productivity management, teaching businesses how to streamline their operations for efficiency: Take Back Your Life!: Using Microsoft Outlook To Get Organized And Stay Organized uses the techniques designed by her business and implemented in many Fortune 500 companies, translating these techniques to fit the features of Microsoft Outlook to help users balance both home and work lives. Chapters cover everything from tracking agreements and task lists to organizing objectives and email alike. The tips on creating a workable folder hierarchy are particularly well done.

As soon as I got the book from our HR department, I thought to myself "when am I going to have time to read this book?", and then I put it away. I was going through a very stressful period at the time, and I had to make a hard stop and get away for a couple days to relax and not think about work.

So I took the book with he, thinking "maybe there is something I can learn"... as soon as I started to read I could not stop, I did not care if I had to work all day and read at night, I took every single free minute I had to read the book. As results, this book has changed my life. I can say "no", I think I am in control of both my personal and business life, and I am very happy with the methodology and how it is working for me.



Thanks to all the team that work on making this book

This book is the bridge between David Allen's Getting Things Done and a practical guide for most people to implement productivity techniques in their daily lives using MS Outlook. The section on Collection Points was revealing and helped to further reduce my collection points. The shift to the Calendar as the primary place where things really get done is a fundamental shift and the first that I have read to reveal this paradigm shift. The proposition that a task has a 75% chance of getting done when it's on the Calendar, speaks for the shift to the Calendar as the place where action in the real world occurs. This book has the right amount of detail, with specific instructions on how to make changes in Outlook. This book is a must-have for those who want to work on meaningful things without caving into the pressures of daily interruptions.

I've read lots of the popular books on how to organize and get things done, but found the motivational advice hard to implement with no specifics. Many of these companies charge extra for paper planners, Outlook add-ins etc. which I never tried. Daytimers and to-do lists are so yesterday and don't embrace the digital lifestyle that anyone who uses e-mail is accustomed to. Take Back Your Life combines the methodology with great detail on how to most effectively use Outlook to manage actions - which allows me to focus on the things that are most important rather than being driven by what comes in my email or other ways. For once, I have an empty inbox and a surprising feeling of freedom - now I know what the author means by Take Back Your Life!