David Allen
David Allen
Notable for his self-help books Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (2001) and Making It All Work: Winning at the Game of Work and Business of Life (2008), Allen formulated a method of time management called "Getting Things Done" and founded both Actioneer, Inc. and the David Allen Company.
ProfessionEntrepreneur
Date of Birth28 December 1945
stress people creative
If we didn't have any stress, we'd never grow and you'd probably wouldn't test your mettle and you'd probably wouldn't come up with a lot of creative stuff that people come up with by being somewhat on the edge.
agreement anxiety guilt
The sense of anxiety and guilt doesn't come from having too much to do; it's the automatic result of breaking agreements with yourself.
taken done outcomes
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.
inspirational wisdom powerful
You can do anything, but not everything.
successful people important
What you'll tend to avoid doing is probably the most important thing you need to do because it'll probably be the most daunting and the most potentially successful thing you could be doing and that's usually out of people's comfort zone.
inspirational encouraging encouragement
If you don't pay appropriate attention to what has your attention, it will take more of your attention than it deserves.
positive choices focus
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.
thinking people mind
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.
simplicity complexity optimal
The right amount of complexity is what creates the optimal simplicity
causes doe getting-things-done
Anything that causes you to overreact or underreact can control you, and often does.
mind fool productivity
You can fool everyone else, but you can't fool your own mind.
brain outcomes steps
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.
inspirational vacation agreement
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.
clever stupid focus
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.