It's not Goals vs. Systems - it's both.

Set big goals.

But focus on creating the systems that make their achievement inevitable.

Goals are for people who care about winning once.

Systems are for people who care about winning repeatedly.

Goals are about the results you want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that lead to those results.

You'll be motivated to exercise the #GTD method to the degree you really care about what you're doing.

deeply care about your productivity goals, about why you want to become more productive.

If you really want to be great at something, you have to truly care about it. If you want to be great in a particular area, you have to obsess over it.

If you really want to be great at something you have to truly care about it. If you want to be great in a particular area, you have to obsess over it.

Let all your effort be directed towards a particular aim and keep a particular aim in sight.

What you stay focused on will grow.

If you care about something enough, you'll find a way to make it happen.

IF YOU GO TO WORK ON YOUR GOALS, YOUR GOALS WILL GO TO WORK ON YOU.

Concentrate on what will produce results rather than on the results, the process rather than the prize.

Now for the interesting question: If you completely ignored your goals and focused only on your system, would you still succeed? For example, if you were a basketball coach and you ignored your goal to win a championship and focused only on what your team does at practice each day, would you still get results? I think you would.

Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress.