Quotes from David Allen

And if it's just you, attempting to come up with a good idea before defining your purpose, creating a vision, and collecting lots of initial bad ideas is likely to give you a case of creative constipation. The

What behavior might undermine what I'm doing, and how can I prevent it?

If your boat is sinking, you really don't care in which direction it's pointed!

Boy, that was an amorphous blob of undoability!

The ever-new communication technologies have exponentially magnified the lack of clear limits to our commitments and our lives.

most of the stress people experience comes from inappropriately managed commitments they make or accept.

Minute-to-minute and day-to-day you don't have time to think. You need to have already thought. Obviously

Think of what a successful outcome would look like: where would you be physically, financially, in terms of reputation, or whatever? Brainstorm potential steps. Organize your ideas. Decide on the next actions. Are you any clearer about where you want to go and how to get there?

It's likely that you also have more internal commitments currently in play than you're aware of.

Getting Things Done is not simply about getting things done. It's about being appropriately engaged with your work and life.

Between the time you woke up today and now, did you think of anything you needed to do that you still haven't done? Have you had that thought more than once? Why? It's a waste of time and energy to keep thinking about something that you make no progress on. And it only adds to your anxiety about what you should be doing and aren't.

In order to deal effectively with all of that, you must first identify and collect all those things that are "ringing your bell" in some way, and then plan how to handle them.

Most people let their reactive mental process run a lot of the show, especially where the too-much-to-do syndrome is concerned.

As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble. —Ralph Waldo Emerson

In knowledge work . . . the task is not given; it has to be determined. 'What are the expected results from this work?' is . . . the key question in making knowledge workers productive. And it is a question that demands risky decisions. There is usually no right answer; there are choices instead. And results have to be clearly specified, if productivity is to be achieved.

Vision is not enough; it must be combined with venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps; we must step up the stairs. —Vaclav Havel

There are few people who can (or even should) expect to code everything based upon its priority, or who can maintain some predetermined list of to-dos that the first telephone call or instant message or interruption from their boss or spouse won't totally

Imagine throwing a pebble into a still pond. How does the water respond? The answer is, totally appropriately to the force and mass of the input; then it returns to calm. It doesn't overreact or underreact.

If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open for everything. —Shunryu Suzuki

distributed cognition

The Weekly Review is the time to: Gather and process all your stuff. Review your system. Update your lists. Get clean, clear, current, and complete. You have to use your mind to get things off your mind. Most

Your ability to generate power is directly proportional to your ability to relax. Water

It's not what we have in our life, but who we have in our life, that counts. —J. M. Laurence

An idealist believes that the short run doesn't count. A cynic believes the long run doesn't matter. A realist believes that what is done or left undone in the short run determines the long run. —Sydney J. Harris