David Allen Quotes

Focusing on values does not simplify your life. It gives meaning and direction-and a lot more complexity.

You can do anything, not everything

The real issue is how to make appropriate choices about what to do at any point in time. The real issue is how we manage actions.

There's a lot of reasons why deadline-driven may actually - it's not necessarily a bad thing, it just all it does is it speeds up and makes you a little proactive about decision making.

Decision-making when things show up instead of when they blow up is actually a habit that can be developed and enhanced. The trick is to get used the clean feeling of having decided, instead of sitting on a fence.

You don't actually do a project; you can only do action steps related to it. When enough of the right action steps have been taken, some situation will have been created that matches your initial picture of the outcome closely enough that you can call it "done.

Anything that does not belong where it is, is an "open loop" pulling on your attention.

People allow themselves to get distracted; I think ultimately, probably the biggest thing that gets in the way of people doing what they ought to be doing at any point in time is distraction.

I think positive stress is actually a good thing. It's sort of the stretch goal "Wow, let me see how much faster I can run" or "Let me see how many more ideas I can generate in five minutes."

Procastination is not about not doing is about not doing and feeling crappy.

If we didn't have any stress, we'd never grow and you'd probably wouldn't test your mettle and you'd probably wouldn't come up with a lot of creative stuff that people come up with by being somewhat on the edge.

A lot of people have nothing very well organized, and a lot of people have nothing, very well organized.

If you don't fall off the wagon regularly, you're not playing a big enough game.

Anything that causes you to overreact or underreact can control you, and often does.

If you don't pay appropriate attention to what has your attention, it will take more of your attention than it deserves.

The reason that deadline actually can work very well for you is what it forces you to do is make decisions.

You won't see how to do it until you see yourself doing it.

Why do people complain that there's no time to get their work done? Because there is more work to do than the work they think they have to do.

If you don't pay attention to the things that have your attention, you'll give them more attention than they deserve.

Trust yourself to do what you really feel like doing, and what you feel like doing will change. Don't, and it will plague you.

If you’re at zero backlog, it’s a whole lot easier to change priorities.

Use your mind to think about things, rather than think of them. You want to be adding value as you think about projects and people, not simply reminding yourself they exist.

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

My opinion is that anybody offended by breastfeeding is staring too hard

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

You don't manage priorities, you have them.

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.

Everything you’ve told yourself you ought to do, your mind thinks you should do right now. Frankly, as soon add you have two things to do stored in your RAM, you’ve generated personal failure, because you can’t do two things at the same time. This produces an all-pervasive stress factor whose source can’t be pin-pointed.

You can claim that God is guiding you and revealing to you the answer or solution to your problem. Accept the truth that the nature of Infinite Intelligence is to respond to you, and you will receive an answer without the aid of any man. You can boldly affirm, “I am whole, perfect, strong, loving, illumined, prosperous and inspired.” As you continue to affirm these truths and feel and believe what you claim, without the help or cooperation of anyone, you will express what you feel to be true. Remember, whatever you attach to I AM, you become.

When we truly need to do is often what we most feel like avoiding.

Most people move actually into high performance in a crisis because that creates the kind of focus that creates high performance.

You don't actually do a project; you can only do action steps related to it.

Decide the outcome and the action step, put reminders of those somewhere your brain trusts youll see them at the right time, and listen to your brain breathe easier.

Want freedom? Get organized. Want to get organized? Get creative.

There are no interruptions, only mismanaged inputs

The right amount of complexity is what creates the optimal simplicity

The hardest thing about being productive is not the work, but the split second it takes to decide to take control.

Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.

Virtually every problem that would show up in your business can be traced back to communications; somebody didn't talk to somebody about something.

Mosquitos ruin the safari.

Frankly, I'm more of a researcher, teacher,motivat or, and coach than I am an entrepreneur.

Without a gut-level sense that you are ultimately in control of what's happening to you, you won't even consider the option that you could manage it better.

Creativity and freedom are two sides of the same coin. I like the best of both worlds.

You can do anything, but you can't do everything

It's hard to be fully creative without structure and constraint. Try to paint without a canvas. Creativity and freedom are two sides of the same coin. I like the best of both worlds. Want freedom? Get organized. Want to get organized? Get creative.

Stress such as you experience in exercise is what creates builds focus, strength, and the capability for expanded expression; and the same is true for any kind of performance.

Your brain has an in-built mechanism for finding patterns you've programmed because of where you've put your attention. Solutions, innovations, and success come not from greater intelligence or creativity but from what we notice because of where we point those attributes

What you'll tend to avoid doing is probably the most important thing you need to do because it'll probably be the most daunting and the most potentially successful thing you could be doing and that's usually out of people's comfort zone.