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The ancestor of every action is a thought. —Ralph Waldo Emerson

David Allen

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More quotes by David Allen

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There are no interruptions, only mismanaged inputs
David Allen
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'I need milk' and 'I need to decide whether to buy this company' both tie up space in psychic RAM. The solution is simple. Write it down. Look at it. Do it or say to yourself 'not now'.
David Allen
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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.
David Allen
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Distracting reactions about anything undermine a clear mind about anything else.
David Allen
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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.
David Allen
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Things rarely get stuck because of lack of time. They get stuck because the doing of them has not been defined.
David Allen
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There is no reason ever to have the same thought twice, unless you like having that thought.
David Allen
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Virtually every problem that would show up in your business can be traced back to communications somebody didn't talk to somebody about something.
David Allen
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A lot of people have nothing very well organized, and a lot of people have nothing, very well organized.
David Allen
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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.
David Allen
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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.
David Allen
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Much of the stress that people feel doesn't come from having too much to do. It comes from not finishing what they've started.
David Allen
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The reason that deadline actually can work very well for you is what it forces you to do is make decisions.
David Allen
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If you don't pay appropriate attention to what has your attention, it will take more of your attention than it deserves.
David Allen
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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.
David Allen
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You can fool everyone else, but you can't fool your own mind.
David Allen
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You can do anything, not everything
David Allen
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Sometimes the biggest gain in productive energy will come from cleaning the cobwebs, dealing with old business, and clearing the desks—cutting loose debris that's impeding forward motion.
David Allen
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Most people move actually into high performance in a crisis because that creates the kind of focus that creates high performance.
David Allen
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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.
David Allen