David Allen famous quotes

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.
-- David Allen

#Strong #Believe #Men

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.
-- David Allen

#Blow #Decision #Feelings

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.
-- David Allen

#Details #Needs #Week

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.
-- David Allen

#Stress #Exercise #Expression

My opinion is that anybody offended by breastfeeding is staring too hard
-- David Allen

#Breastfeeding #Opinion #Staring

Some people have to move, physically, to "get" something. But if you're stuck in a chair, that's not your limitation - it's simply not an optimal condition for you.
-- David Allen

#Moving #People #Chairs

Your ability to generate power is directly proportional to your ability to relax
-- David Allen

#Inspirational #Relax #Ability

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.
-- David Allen

#Life #Motivational #Happiness

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...
-- David Allen

#Community #Able #Helping

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

#Inspirational #Encouraging #Encouragement

You can do anything, but not everything.
-- David Allen

#Inspirational #Wisdom #Powerful

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

#Mind #Fool #Productivity

You can do anything, but you can't do everything
-- David Allen

#Focus

Procastination is not about not doing is about not doing and feeling crappy.
-- David Allen

#Feelings #Favourite

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

#Inspirational #Needs #Avoiding

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.
-- David Allen

#Inspirational #Vacation #Agreement

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

#Steps #Action #Projects

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

#Stress #Commitment #People

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.
-- David Allen

#Agreement #Anxiety #Guilt

The right amount of complexity is what creates the optimal simplicity
-- David Allen

#Simplicity #Complexity #Optimal

Want freedom? Get organized. Want to get organized? Get creative.
-- David Allen

#Creative #Want #Organized

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.
-- David Allen

#Choices #Decision #Challenges

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.
-- David Allen

#Brain #Outcomes #Steps

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

#Doe #Causes

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.
-- David Allen

#Thinking #People #Mind

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.
-- David Allen

#Cutting #Energy #Cobwebs

Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.
-- David Allen

#Procrastination #Ideas #Mind

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.
-- David Allen

#Responsibility #Acceptance #Reality

There are no interruptions, only mismanaged inputs
-- David Allen

#Input #Interruptions

At at any point in time, knowing what has to get done, and when, creates a terrain for maneuvering.
-- David Allen

#Knowing #Done

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

#Fall #Games #Wagons

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.
-- David Allen

#Stress #Keys #Lists

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

#Inspirational #Goal #Secret

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.
-- David Allen

#Time #Stars #Stress

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
-- David Allen

#Creativity #Innovation #Brain

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

#Action #Waldo Emerson #Ancestor

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

#Stuck #Lack Of Time

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.
-- David Allen

#Thinking #People #Complaining

There is usually an inverse proportion between how much something is on your mind and how much it´s getting done!
-- David Allen

#Mind #Done #Proportion

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

#Reason

A Keyring? Achievements? These are not WoW-specific things. They are common sense. They exist in the real world.
-- David Allen

#Real #Common Sense #Achievement

The better you get, the better you better get.
-- David Allen

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

#Teacher #Entrepreneur #Coaches

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

#Splits #Hardest #Productive

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

#Zero #Priorities #Easier

Mosquitoes can ruin the hunt for big game.
-- David Allen

#Games #Mosquitoes #Ruins

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.
-- David Allen

#Mind #Different #Want

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

#Hammers #Tools #Spaghetti

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.
-- David Allen

#Stress #Thinking #Two

A successful executive is one that solves bigger problems than he/she creates.
-- David Allen

#Successful #Problem #Bigger

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

#Tunnels #Light #Entrepreneur

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

#Motivation #Impact #Done

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.
-- David Allen

#Taken #Done #Outcomes

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.
-- David Allen

#Vacation #Years #People

Distracting reactions about anything undermine a clear mind about anything else.
-- David Allen

#Mind #Reactions #Clear

In Ireland we have a very old saying, When you can see the mountains it's going to rain and when you can't see the mountains it's raining.
-- David Allen

#Rain #Entrepreneur #Mountain

Change - even change meant to improve our lives - creates stress. We can get comfortable with our problems.
-- David Allen

#Change #Stress #Problem

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.
-- David Allen

#Real #Issues #Choices

You don't manage priorities, you have them.
-- David Allen

#Priorities #Manage

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

#Giving #Focus #Doe

The balance you have between drive and patience may be your master key to success.
-- David Allen

#Patience #Keys #Balance

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.
-- David Allen

#Positive #Choices #Focus

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.
-- David Allen

#Creativity #Two Sides #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.
-- David Allen

#Mind #Buckets #Way