David Allen Quotes

The cognitive scientists have now proven the reality of “decision fatigue” — that every decision you make, little or big, diminishes a limited amount of your brain power.

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

Thought is useful when it motivates action and a hindrance when it substitutes for action. — Bill Raeder

It is a tricky business to know when you should set goals and objectives in order to achieve a focus, and when you would be better off dealing with the acceptance and management of your current reality so you can later step into new directions and responsibilities with greater stability and clarity. Only you will know the answer to that, and only in the moment.

Don’t just do something. Stand there. — Rochelle Myer

Get a purge for your brain. It will do better than for your stomach. — Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

The value of goals is not in the future they describe, but the change in perception of reality they foster.

(1) collect things that command our attention; (2) process what they mean and what to do about them; and (3) organize the results, which we (4) review as options for what we choose to (5) do.

The better you get, the better you better get.

THE PURPOSE OF this whole method of workflow management is not to let your brain become lax, but rather to enable it to move toward more elegant and productive activity. In order to earn that freedom, however, your brain must engage on some consistent basis with all your commitments and activities. You must be assured that you’re doing what you need to be doing, and that it’s OK to be not doing what you’re not doing.

Вы не можете выиграть игру, правил которой не знаете

We need to transform all the “stuff” we’ve attracted and accumulated into a clear inventory of meaningful actions, projects, and usable information.

I would not give a fig for the simplicity on this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity. — Oliver Wendell Holmes

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.

Anything that causes you to overreact or underreact can control you, and often does. Responding inappropriately to your e-mail, your thoughts about what you need to do, your children, or your boss will lead to less effective results than you’d like. Most people give either more or less attention to things than they deserve, simply because they don’t operate with a mind like water.