Quotes from David Allen

capturing ideas and input will become more and more critical as your life and work become more sophisticated. As you proceed in your career, for instance, you'll probably notice that your best ideas about work will not come to you at work.

Anyone with the need to be accountable to deal with more than what he or she can complete in the moment has the opportunity to do so more easily and elegantly than in the mind.

El pensamiento es útil cuando provoca una acción, y un obstáculo cuando sustituye a la acción. —BILL RAEDER

I always wanted to be somebody. I should have been more specific. —Lily Tomlin

The world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation.

What's the assumption here? Before any evaluation of what's a good idea can be trusted, the purpose must be clear, the vision must be well defined, and all the relevant data must have been collected (brainstormed) and analyzed (organized).

Organizations must create a culture in which it is acceptable that everyone has more to do than he or she can do, and in which it is sage to renegotiate agreements about what everyone is not doing.

The game of work and the business of life are really the same thing, when it comes down to the principles and behaviors and techniques that eliminate distraction and foster beneficial focus.

Let our advance worrying become our advance thinking and planning. —Winston Churchill

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

As Peter Drucker wrote: "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."*

Things rarely get stuck because of lack of time. They get stuck because what "doing" would look like, and where it happens, hasn't been decided.

Esa preocupación permanente y estéril por todas las cosas que tenemos que hacer es por sí sola la mayor consumidora de tiempo y energía. —KERRY GLEESON

I have found that lack of time is not the major issue for them (though they may think it is); the real problem is a lack of clarity and definition about what a project really is, and what associated next-action steps are required.

Choose one project that is new or stuck or that could simply use some improvement. Think of your purpose. 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?

Most of us have, in the past seventy-two hours, received more change-producing, project-creating, and priority-shifting inputs than our parents did in a month, maybe even in a year. I

In knowledge work . . . the task is not given; it has to be determined.

We're never really taught that we have to think about our work before we can do it; much of our daily activity is already defined for us by the undone and unmoved things staring at us when we come to work, or by the family to be fed, the laundry to be done, or the children to be dressed at home.

The more confidence you have that you can actually manifest things before you have all the knowledge and resources you might need, the more you can potentially overwhelm yourself with your own possibilities.

Trusting yourself and the source of your intelligence is the most elegant lesson of experiencing freedom and manifesting personal productivity.

That's why I maintain a healthy skepticism when people want to get control of their work and life by "setting priorities." This is often just an attempt to sidestep responsibility for what they've been engaged with irresponsibly. My choice is always to go for cleaning up the garage of their work, their life, and their head. Then the priorities, the vision, and the plan emerge—grounded, with solid roots.

People love to win. If you're not totally clear about the purpose of what you're doing, you have no chance of winning.

You've probably made many more agreements with yourself than you realize, and every single one of them—big or little—is being tracked by a less-than-conscious part of you. These are the "incompletes," or "open loops," which I define as anything pulling at your attention that doesn't belong where it is, the way it is.

A task left undone remains undone in two places—at the actual location of the task, and inside your head. Incomplete tasks in your head consume the energy of your attention as they gnaw at your conscience. —Brahma Kumaris