Quotes from David Allen

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 vast majority of people have been trying to get organized by rearranging incomplete lists of unclear things;

At any point in time, the first thing to consider is, what could you possibly do, where you are, with the tools you have?

If you're not sure why you're doing something, you can never do enough of it.

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.

Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought. —Henry Bergson

Es mejor estar equivocado que ser impreciso. —FREEMAN DYSON

The vast majority of people have been trying to get organized by rearranging incomplete lists of unclear things; they haven't yet realized how much and what they need to organize in order to get the real payoff. They need to gather everything that requires thinking about and then do that thinking if their organizational efforts are to be successful. The

You've got to think about the big things while you're doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction. —Alvin Toffler This

If you're not totally sure what your job is, it will always feel overwhelming.

T]he last thing a fish notices is water.

You need no new skills to increase your productivity—just a new set of behaviors about when and where to apply them.

Clarifying things on the front end, when they first appear on the radar, rather than on the back end, after trouble has developed, allows people to reap the benefits of managing action.

Your mind will keep working on anything that's still in that undecided state.

If the next action is not yours, you must nevertheless clarify whose it is (this is a primary use of the Waiting For action list). In a group-planning situation, it isn't necessary for everyone to know what the next step is on every part of the project. Often all that's required is to allocate responsibility for parts of the project to the appropriate persons and leave it up to them to identify next actions on their particular pieces.

When you start to make things happen, you really begin to believe that you can make things happen. And that makes things happen.

It is hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head. —Sally Kempton

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

The habit of clarifying the next action on projects, no matter what the situation, is fundamental to you staying in relaxed control.

Projects do not need to be listed in any particular order, whether by size or by priority. They just need to be on a master list

For many of your projects, you will accumulate relevant information that you will want to organize by theme or topic or project name. Your "Projects" list will be merely an index. All of the details, plans, and supporting information that you may need as you work on your various projects should be contained in separate file folders, computer files, notebooks, or binders.

with the proper orientation you can feel much more confident about your choices. You can move from hope to trust in your actions, immediately increasing your energy and effectiveness.

There is usually an inverse proportion between how much something is on your mind and how much it's getting done.

There is no reason ever to have the same thought twice, unless you like having that thought.