"When we truly need to do is often what we most feel like avoiding."
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Quote collection
David Allen quotes (page 3 of 5)
87 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"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."
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"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."
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"If you’re at zero backlog, it’s a whole lot easier to change priorities."
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"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."
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"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."
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"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."
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"Anything that causes you to overreact or underreact can control you, and often does."
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"You don't actually do a project; you can only do action steps related to it."
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"The problem is, is when your focus is created by a crisis, then the frontal lobe shuts down essentially, the frontal cortex which is your intuitive intelligence. So you get very clever and very stupid in a crisis. Also, you pump adrenalin into your body from what you - physiologically you'll crash."
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"Mosquitos ruin the safari."
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"The balance you have between drive and patience may be your master key to success."
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"Review your list as often as you need to get them off your mind."
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"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."
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"You can fool everyone else, but you can't fool your own mind."
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"There are no interruptions, only mismanaged inputs"
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"It's easier to change directions if you are in motion."
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"The hardest thing about being productive is not the work, but the split second it takes to decide to take control."
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"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."
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"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."
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