David Allen Quotes

sort of planning activity: (1) those that still have your attention even after you’ve determined their next actions, and (2) those about which potentially

Lots of people have been making lists for years but have never found the procedure to be particularly effective.

(1) capture what has our attention; (2) clarify what each item means and what to do about it; (3) organize the results, which presents the options we (4) reflect on, which we then choose to (5) engage with.

Anything that causes you to overreact or underreact can control you, and often does.

Great news about lots of email is how consistently it forces you to get clear what's really meaningful to your work/life.

Use your mind to think about things, rather than think of them. You want to be adding value as you think about projects and people, not simply reminding yourself they exist.

The greater your confidence w/how to achieve control & focus, as needed, the wilder & crazier you can be.

A commitment kept only in your head will be given too much or too little attention.

Freedom to give full attention to what you want (vs. It being held hostage by unmanaged stuff) is the GTD promise.

Productivity requires expansiveness & spontaneity as much as structure & control.

It's hard to say no when you're not aware of everything you've said yes to.

Engaging in complexity is a key to simplicity. Fear of it will haunt your inner recesses.

When you "have to get organized," you're probably not appropriately invested yet in what you need to get organized for.

Start by doing what’s necessary, then what’s possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible. — Saint Francis of Assisi

Interestingly, one of the biggest problems with most people’s personal management systems is that they blend a few actionable things with a large amount of data and material that has value but no action attached.