Quotes by David Allen

“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 ...”

“It seems that there's a part of our psyche that doesn't know the difference between an agreement about cleaning the garage and an agreement about buying a company”

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

“When you start to make things happen, you really begin to believe that you can make things happen. And that makes things happen.”

“The greater the volume of thoughts you have to work with, the better the context you can create for developing options and trusting your choices.”

“People think a lot, but most of that thinking is of a problem, project or situation - not about it”

“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.”

“The better you get, the better you better get.”

“Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.”

“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 p...”

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

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

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

“Your Brain is for having ideas not storing them.”

“It's fine to decide not to decide about something. You just need a decide-not-to-decide system to get it off your mind”

“Your life and work are made up of outcomes and actions. When your operational behavior is grooved to organize everything that comes your way, at all levels, based upon those dynamics, a deep alignm...”

“Getting things done, and feeling good about it, means being willing to recognize, acknowledge, and appropriately manage all the things that have your consciousness engaged. Mastering the art of str...”

“At any point in time, the first thing to consider is, what could you possibly do, where you are, with the tools you have?”

“Not being aware of all you have to do is much like having a credit card for which you don't know the balance or the limit - it's a lot easier to be irresponsible.”

“Whereas purpose provides the juice and the direction, principles define the parameters of action and the criteria for excellence of behavior.”