Quotes from David Allen

The big problem is that your mind keeps reminding you of things when you can't do anything about them. It has no sense of past or future. That means that as soon as you tell yourself that you need to do something, and store it in your RAM, there's a part of you that thinks you should be doing that something all the time.

There are no interruptions, really—there are simply mismanaged occurrences.

Interestingly, one of the biggest problems with most people's personal management systems is that they blend a few actionable things with a large amount of data and material that has value but no action attached.

Your Brain is for having ideas not storing them.

But if you don't decide what needs to be done about your secretary's birthday, because it's "not that important" right now, that open loop will take up energy and prevent you from having a totally effective, clear focus on what is important.

Almost every project could be done better, and an infinite quantity of information is now available that could make that happen.

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

Getting things done requires two basic components: defining (1) what "done" means (outcome) and (2) what "doing" looks like (action).

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.

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

When people know they have a process in place to handle any situation, they are more relaxed. When they're relaxed, everything improves. More gets done, with less effort, and a host of other wonderful side effects emerge that add to the outcomes of their efforts and the quality of their life.

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

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

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

Your life and work are made up of outcomes and actions. When your operational behavior is grooved to organize everything that comes your way, at all levels, based upon those dynamics, a deep alignment occurs, and wondrous things emerge. You become highly productive. You make things up, and you make them happen.

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.

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.

The better you get, the better you better get.

Every now and then go away and have a little relaxation. To remain constantly at work will diminish your judgment. Go some distance away, because work will be in perspective and a lack of harmony is more readily seen.

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

Merely having thoughts is one thing. Consciously feeding them is quite another. You are powerful all the time, by way of your attention and intention. The question is, Toward what are you pointing that power?

Imagination is more important than knowledge. —Albert Einstein

We fought so hard against the small things that we became small ourselves. —EUGENE O'NEILL