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David Allen
120 quotes
“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 (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Here's how I define "stuff": anything you have allowed into your psychological or physical world that doesn't belong where it is, but for which you haven't yet determined the desired outcome and the next action step.”
David Allen (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Before you can achieve... you'll need to get in the habit of keeping nothing on your mind... not by managing time, managing information, or managing priorities. ...Instead, the key ...is managing your actions. ...[T]he real problem is a lack of clarity and definition about what a project really is, and what the associated next-action steps required are.”
David Allen (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
David Allen (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you're waiting to have good ideas before you have any ideas, you won't have many ideas.”
David Allen (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[I]f it's just you, attempting to come up with a "good idea" before defining your purpose, creating a vision, and collecting lots of bad ideas is likely to give you a case of creative constipation.”
David Allen (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The goal is to get projects and situations off your mind, but not to lose any potentially useful ideas.”
David Allen (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[Y]ou must have a clear picture in your mind of what success would look, sound, and feel like.”
David Allen (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“How much of this planning model do you really need..? [A]s much as you need to get the project off your mind.”
David Allen (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In order to... have nothing on your mind, you've got to know where all your actionable items are located, what they are, and that they will wait. ...[I]n a few seconds, not days.”
David Allen (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The organizing system merely provides placeholders for all your oprn loops and options so your mind can... make the necessary intuitive, moment-to-moment strategic decisions.”
David Allen (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's great to clear your psychic decks so you can go into the weekend ready for refreshment and recreation, with nothing on your mind.”
David Allen (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ask any psychologist how much of a sense of past and future that part of your psyche has, the part that was storing the list that you dumped: zero. It's all present tense in there. ...[A]s soon as you tell yourself that you should do something, if you file it... in your short-term memory... part of you... thinks that you should be doing it all the time. ...[Y]ou've created instant and automatic stress and failure ...”
David Allen (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[A]nything that is held only in "psychic RAM" will take up either more or less attention than it actually deserves. The reason to collect everything is not that everything is equally important, it's that it's not. Incompletions, uncollected, take on a dull sameness in the sense of the pressure they create and the attention they tie up.”
David Allen (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I suggest that you use your mind to think about things, rather than to think of them. You want to be adding value... not simply reminding yourself they exist.”
David Allen (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When you "have to get organized," you're probably not appropriately invested yet in what you need to get organized for.”
David Allen (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What people call an "Interruption" is simply new input inappropriately managed.”
David Allen (born 1945) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 19 June 2009
“Freedom to create a mess is proportional to your ability to know what "no mess" is and how to get there.”
David Allen (born 1945) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 15 July 2009
“Does something have your attention because you want it to, or because you're avoiding it?”
David Allen (born 1945) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 31 August 2009
“Your attention will continue to be grabbed by anything until you give it the appropriate attention.”
David Allen (born 1945) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 18 September 2009
“A big surprise is coming toward you. How clear do you want to be about all your current commitments, when it hits?”
David Allen (born 1945) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 19 October 2009
“Your mind is for having ideas, not for holding them.”
David Allen (born 1945) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 13 November 2009
“Valuable thought occurred today to share. Obvious in the moment. Can't retrieve now. Didn't capture. I teach this. Damn.”
David Allen (born 1945) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 18 November 2009
“GTD essence: attention cleared of residue & distraction, pointed at the right thing.”
David Allen (born 1945) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 20 November 2009
“The coolest things I do usually aren't on my lists, but because of them.”
David Allen (born 1945) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 23 November 2009
“There is never enough time to do what you really don't want to do. Time managemet is really value management.”
David Allen (born 1945) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 2 December 2009
“Good ideas are infinitely available. We've just limited our availablitly to them. The music's not in the radio.”
David Allen (born 1945) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 3 December 2009
“Your mind receives, remembers, & reminds, & sucks at all 3, compared to an objective external system a la GTD.”
David Allen (born 1945) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 7 December 2009
“Secret to finding, quickly, the corner pieces, then the outside edges, to the jigsaw puzzle of life: GTD”
David Allen (born 1945) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 13 December 2009
“Over-prepare. Then go with the flow.”
David Allen (born 1945) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 28 December 2009
“Defaulting to ur psyche as ur system instead of an objective one makes maintaining the system too much trouble.”
David Allen (born 1945) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 14 January 2010
“I've never had to go very far to learn everything I have learned. I just had to care about something & pay attention.”
David Allen (born 1945) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 19 January 2010
“Get things under control first, then get focused. If your ship is sinking, you don't care where it's pointed.”
David Allen (born 1945) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 25 January 2010
“Trying to ignore secondarily meaningful things gives them more meaning than they deserve.”
David Allen (born 1945) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 30 January 2010
“Making decisions requires energy, but not deciding about whether to decide requires even more energy.”
David Allen (born 1945) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 4 February 2010
“Every thought deserves its own place in the universe. How & where do you capture yours?”
David Allen (born 1945) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 7 February 2010
“Eternal #GTD paradox: when you get the principle, the tool doesn't matter. But simultaneosly it matters so much more.”
David Allen (born 1945) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 16 February 2010
“Clearing the deck is great, but sailing adventurous waters is the real game. (Just can't do it w/out a clear deck.)”
David Allen (born 1945) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 10 March 2010
“Great news about lots of email is how consistently it forces you to get clear what's really meaningful to your work/life.”
David Allen (born 1945) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 23 March 2010
“GTD gives freedom to the right, structure to the left (brains, that is!)”
David Allen (born 1945) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 12 April 2010
“Organizations' problems can all be traced to someone not telling the right someone what had their attention, when it did.”
David Allen (born 1945) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 12 May 2010
“If you figured out why making a list reduces overwhelm & confusion, you'd keep nothing in your head the rest of your life.”
David Allen (born 1945) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 12 May 2010
“GTD supplies the reset button for all parts of life & work.”
David Allen (born 1945) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 19 May 2010
“If you admit your wildest dream & uncover why you want it, you have a big key to make tomorrow a better day.”
David Allen (born 1945) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 28 May 2010
“Simply ask & answer: if we were being wildly successful in fulfilling our purpose, what would it look, sound, & feel like? #SmallBizChat”
David Allen (born 1945) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 3 June 2010
“You talk to yourself 50,000 times a day. What's 300 emails? #SmallBizChat”
David Allen (born 1945) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 3 June 2010
“If u can't see everything you've committed to, at all levels, you'll be driven by latest and loudest. #SmallBizChat”
David Allen (born 1945) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 3 June 2010
“A commitment kept only in your head will be given too much or too little attention.”
David Allen (born 1945) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 23 June 2010
“Your system is not your tech - it's the nature of the content & the behavior w/which you engage with it.”
David Allen (born 1945) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 26 June 2010