If you want to live a productive and effective lifestyle than look no further. In ‘Getting Things Done,’ David Allen takes a look at the art of living stress free. With strategies that focus on goal setting, getting in the right mindset, and being mindful of your time; these core principles are proven to start transforming your life today. Here is a look at some of the best quotes from ‘Getting Things Done.’
“A renegotiated agreement is not a broken one.”
“Almost every project could be done better, and an infinite quantity of information is now available that could make that happen.”
“Anxiety is caused by a lack of control, organization, preparation, and action.”
“Anyone with the need to be accountable to deal with more than what he or she can complete in the moment has the opportunity to do so more easily and elegantly than in the mind.”
“Anything that causes you to overreact or underreact can control you, and often does.”
“At at any point in time, knowing what has to get done, and when, creates a terrain for maneuvering.”
“But if you don’t decide what needs to be done about your secretary’s birthday, because it’s “not that important” right now, that open loop will take up energy and prevent you from having a totally effective, clear focus on what is important.”
Dr. Oz and me…probably airing 13 NOV. Lovely, real guy to hang with, on air… pic.twitter.com/mUo0IiQiKM
— David Allen (@gtdguy) November 7, 2015
“Every now and then go away and have a little relaxation. To remain constantly at work will diminish your judgment. Go some distance away, because work will be in perspective and a lack of harmony is more readily seen.”
“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.”
“Getting Things Done is not simply about getting things done. It’s about being appropriately engaged with your work and life.”
“Having an organizational tool that allows you to easily make lists such as these, ad hoc, is quite worthwhile.”
“I am rather like a mosquito in a nudist camp; I know what I want to do, but I don’t know where to begin.”
“If you don’t pay appropriate attention to what has your attention, it will take more of your attention than it deserves.”
“Interestingly, one of the biggest problems with most people’s personal management systems is that they blend a few actionable things with a large amount of data and material that has value but no action attached.”
“It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires a great deal of strength to decide what to do. ”
“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.”
Fab dinner w/ @glynnwashington – big GTDer – “Mr. Snap Judgment” (NPR). Mutual fan-boys! pic.twitter.com/6sJXvnD8K7
— David Allen (@gtdguy) April 27, 2015
“Many of us hold ourselves back from imagining a desired outcome unless someone can show us how to get there. Unfortunately, that’s backward in terms of how our minds work to generate and recognize solutions and methods.”
“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.”
“One missed e-mail, untracked commitment, or decision avoided can have hugely magnified consequences.”
“People love to win. If you’re not totally clear about the purpose of what you’re doing, you have no chance of winning.”
“Purpose defines success.”
“The beginning is half of every action.”
“The focus we hold in our minds affects what we perceive and how we perform.”
“There are no interruptions, really—there are simply mismanaged occurrences.”
“Things rarely get stuck because of lack of time. They get stuck because the doing of them has not been defined.”
“Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought.”
“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.”
“We need to transform all the “stuff” we’ve attracted and accumulated into a clear inventory of meaningful actions, projects, and usable information.”
My new environment – top-floor apartment in old Amsterdam. Change of venue—always disturbing, always healthy. pic.twitter.com/x3x5npHg4K
— David Allen (@gtdguy) May 26, 2014
“You are the captain of your own ship; the more you act from that perspective, the better things will go for you.”
“You can fool everyone else, but you can’t fool your own mind.”
“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.””
“Your ability to generate power is directly proportional to your ability to relax.”
David Allen is featured in this TEDx Talk where he discusses the value and importance of getting in control and creating space. As a management consultant and executive coach, Allen specializes in living a stress free and productive life. His work has been featured in many top publications around the globe.
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