David Allen Quotes

Making decisions when you can vs. when you have to makes for better decisions.

I’ve discovered that the greatest challenges in defining your work are (1) to think about what you’re doing and (2) to do something about what you’re thinking.

Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought.

Are you overwhelmed pulling weeds, when you really just need to replant the garden?

GTD gives freedom to the right, structure to the left (brains, that is!)

There are no problems, only projects.

The present-ness demanded by a crisis is possible w/out crisis. Understand the keys to appropriate engagement. GTD.

three different kinds of activities you can be engaged in: Doing predefined work Doing work as it shows up Defining your work Doing

give all our attention to the opportunity before us.

Top need for top professionals: psychic space. Fewer distractions & more contexts for thinking. Not more time.

Trying to ignore secondarily meaningful things gives them more meaning than they deserve.

Freedom to create a mess is proportional to your ability to know what "no mess" is and how to get there.

Many of us hold ourselves back from imagining a desired outcome unless someone can show us how to get there. Unfortunately, that’s backward in terms of how our minds work to generate and recognize solutions and methods.

(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.

The coolest things I do usually aren't on my lists, but because of them.