David Allen
Focusing on values does not simplify your life. It gives meaning and direction-and a lot more complexity.Collection: Giving
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.Collection: Thinking
The hardest thing about being productive is not the work, but the split second it takes to decide to take control.Collection: Splits
At at any point in time, knowing what has to get done, and when, creates a terrain for maneuvering.Collection: Knowing
Change - even change meant to improve our lives - creates stress. We can get comfortable with our problems.Collection: Change
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."Collection: Running
If you’re at zero backlog, it’s a whole lot easier to change priorities.Collection: Zero
Mosquitos ruin the safari.Collection: Safari
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.Collection: Stress
Distracting reactions about anything undermine a clear mind about anything else.Collection: Mind
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.Collection: Levels
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.Collection: Creativity
The great secret about goals and visions is not the future they describe but the change in the present they engender.Collection: Inspirational
When we truly need to do is often what we most feel like avoiding.Collection: Inspirational
The reason that deadline actually can work very well for you is what it forces you to do is make decisions.Collection: Decision
The right amount of complexity is what creates the optimal simplicityCollection: Simplicity
Review your list as often as you need to get them off your mind.Collection: Mind
Anything that causes you to overreact or underreact can control you, and often does.Collection: Doe
You don't manage priorities, you have them.Collection: Priorities
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.Collection: Trust Yourself
You don't actually do a project; you can only do action steps related to it.Collection: Steps
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.Collection: Brain
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.Collection: Thinking
Procastination is not about not doing is about not doing and feeling crappy.Collection: Feelings
If you don't fall off the wagon regularly, you're not playing a big enough game.Collection: Fall
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.Collection: Time
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.Collection: Choices
The ancestor of every action is a thought. —Ralph Waldo EmersonCollection: Action
There is usually an inverse proportion between how much something is on your mind and how much it´s getting done!Collection: Mind
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.Collection: Community
There is a light at the end of the tunnel, but the way out is through.Collection: Inspirational
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.Collection: Blow
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 attributesCollection: Creativity
Anything that does not belong where it is, is an "open loop" pulling on your attention.Collection: Doe
If you don’t pay appropriate attention to what has your attention, it will take more of your attention than it deserves.Collection: Encouraging
You can fool everyone else, but you can’t fool your own mind.Collection: Productivity