David Allen Quotes

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

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.

Much of the stress that people feel doesn't come from having too much to do. It comes from not finishing what they've started.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel, but the way out is through.

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

Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.

Once a week, do a thorough review of all your projects in as much detail as you need to. If you do, your systems will work. If you don't, no system will work.

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.

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

You can't manage time, you actually only manage what you do during time. So the management issue is not so much about time, it's more about how do you manage your focus, how do you manage your actions and your activities in terms of what you do.

Sometimes the biggest gain in productive energy will come from cleaning the cobwebs, dealing with old business, and clearing the desks—cutting loose debris that's impeding forward motion.

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.

You can do anything, but not everything.

Small things done consistently, in strategic places, create major impact.

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

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

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

Things rarely get stuck because of lack of time. They get stuck because the doing of them has not been defined.

It was helpful to be able to call a lawyer...it turns out, that not only did they help me, but they really helped the whole community.

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.

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.

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

Every decision to act is an intuitive one. The challenge is to migrate from hoping it's the right choice to trusting it's the right choice.

A complete and accurately defined list of projects, kept current and reviewed on at least a weekly basis, is a master key to stress-free productivity.

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

We suffer the stress of infinite opportunity: There are so many things that we could do, and all we see are people who seem to be performing at star quality. It's very hard not to try to be like them. The problem is, if you get wrapped up in that game, you'll get eaten alive. You can do anything-but not everything. The universe is full of creative projects that are waiting to be done. So, if you really care about quality of life, if you want to relax, then ... control your aspirations. That will simplify things. Learning to set boundaries is incredibly difficult for most people.

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

If the only tool you have is a hammer, it's hard to eat spaghetti.

Mosquitoes can ruin the hunt for big game.

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 can do anything, but you can't do everything

The sense of anxiety and guilt doesn't come from having too much to do; it's the automatic result of breaking agreements with yourself.

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

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

The ancestor of every action is a thought. —Ralph Waldo Emerson

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.

The right amount of complexity is what creates the optimal simplicity

'I need milk' and 'I need to decide whether to buy this company' both tie up space in psychic RAM. The solution is simple. Write it down. Look at it. Do it or say to yourself 'not now'.

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

The great secret about goals and visions is not the future they describe but the change in the present they engender.

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.

A vision of a desired future allows you to engage and identify immediately in your focus with an improved condition. It changes what you perceive and how you perform NOW. It's not about achieving something in time. It's rather about the quality of choices you are making in this moment - what you choose to perceive, feel, and do. It's about getting the most out of your experience.

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

Isn't it interesting that people feel best about themselves right before they go on vacation? They've cleared up all of their to-do piles, closed up transactions, renewed old promises with themselves. My most basic suggestion is that people should do that more than just once a year.

Most often, the reason something is "on your mind" is that you want it to be different than it currently is, and yet: you haven't clarified exactly what the intended outcomes is; you haven't decided what the very next physical action step is; and/or you haven't put reminders of the outcome and the action required in a system you trust. That's why it's on your mind.

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.

First of all, if it's on your mind, your mind isn't clear. Anything you consider unfinished in any way must be captured in a trusted system outside your mind, or what I call a collection bucket, that you know you'll come back to regularly and sort through.

There are no interruptions, only mismanaged inputs

You can fool everyone else, but you can't fool your own mind.

Most people feel best about their work the week before their vacation, but it's not because of the vacation itself. What do you do the last week before you leave on a big trip? You clean up, close up, clarify, and renegotiate all your agreements with yourself and others. I just suggest that you do this weekly instead of yearly.