285 Quotes by David Allen

You don’t manage priorities, you have them.

There is usually an inverse relationship between how much something is on your mind and how much it’s getting done.

My mission is to create a world where there are no problems only projects.

Anything that does not belong where it is, is an “open loop” pulling on your attention.

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 attributes.

Simple, clear purpose and principles give rise to complex and intelligent behavior. Complex rules and regulations give rise to simple and stupid behavior. – Dee Hock.

Some people have to move, physically, to “get” something. But if you’re stuck in a chair, that’s not your limitation – it’s simply not an optimal condition for you.

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.

THE PURPOSE OF this whole method of workflow management is not to let your brain become lax, but rather to enable it to move toward more elegant and productive activity. In order to earn that freedom, however, your brain must engage on some consistent basis with all your commitments and activities. You must be assured that you’re doing what you need to be doing, and that it’s OK to be not doing what you’re not doing.