David Allen

"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."

"Here's how I define "stuff": anything you have allowed into your psychological or physical world that doesn't belong where it is, but for which you haven't yet determined the desired outcome and the next action step."

"Before you can achieve... you'll need to get in the habit of keeping nothing on your mind... not by managing time, managing information, or managing priorities. ...Instead, the key ...is managing your actions. ...[T]he real problem is a lack of clarity and definition about what a project really is, and what the associated next-action steps required are."

"The short-term-memory part of your mind—the part that tends to hold all of the incomplete, undecided, and unorganized “stuff”—functions much like RAM on a personal computer. Your conscious mind, like the computer screen, is a focusing tool, not a storage place. You can think about only two or three things at once. But the incomplete items are still being stored in the short-term-memory space. And as with RAM, there’s limited capacity; there’s only so much “stuff” you can store in there and still have that part of your brain function at a high level. Most people walk around with their RAM bursting at the seams. They’re constantly distracted, their focus disturbed by their own internal mental overload."

"The big problem is that your mind keeps reminding you of things when you can't do anything about them. It has no sense of past or future."

"If you're waiting to have good ideas before you have any ideas, you won't have many ideas."

"[I]f it's just you, attempting to come up with a "good idea" before defining your purpose, creating a vision, and collecting lots of bad ideas is likely to give you a case of creative constipation."

"The goal is to get projects and situations off your mind, but not to lose any potentially useful ideas."

"[Y]ou must have a clear picture in your mind of what success would look, sound, and feel like."

"How much of this planning model do you really need..? [A]s much as you need to get the project off your mind."

"In order to... have nothing on your mind, you've got to know where all your actionable items are located, what they are, and that they will wait. ...[I]n a few seconds, not days."

"The organizing system merely provides placeholders for all your oprn loops and options so your mind can... make the necessary intuitive, moment-to-moment strategic decisions."

"It's great to clear your psychic decks so you can go into the weekend ready for refreshment and recreation, with nothing on your mind."

"Ask any psychologist how much of a sense of past and future that part of your psyche has, the part that was storing the list that you dumped: zero. It's all present tense in there. ...[A]s soon as you tell yourself that you should do something, if you file it... in your short-term memory... part of you... thinks that you should be doing it all the time. ...[Y]ou've created instant and automatic stress and failure ..."

"[A]nything that is held only in "psychic RAM" will take up either more or less attention than it actually deserves. The reason to collect everything is not that everything is equally important, it's that it's not. Incompletions, uncollected, take on a dull sameness in the sense of the pressure they create and the attention they tie up."

"I suggest that you use your mind to think about things, rather than to think of them. You want to be adding value... not simply reminding yourself they exist."

"When you "have to get organized," you're probably not appropriately invested yet in what you need to get organized for."

"What people call an "Interruption" is simply new input inappropriately managed."

"Freedom to create a mess is proportional to your ability to know what "no mess" is and how to get there."

"Does something have your attention because you want it to, or because you're avoiding it?"

"Your attention will continue to be grabbed by anything until you give it the appropriate attention."

"A big surprise is coming toward you. How clear do you want to be about all your current commitments, when it hits?"

"Your mind is for having ideas, not for holding them."

"Valuable thought occurred today to share. Obvious in the moment. Can't retrieve now. Didn't capture. I teach this. Damn."

"GTD essence: attention cleared of residue & distraction, pointed at the right thing."

"The coolest things I do usually aren't on my lists, but because of them."

"There is never enough time to do what you really don't want to do. Time managemet is really value management."

"Good ideas are infinitely available. We've just limited our availablitly to them. The music's not in the radio."

"Your mind receives, remembers, & reminds, & sucks at all 3, compared to an objective external system a la GTD."

"Secret to finding, quickly, the corner pieces, then the outside edges, to the jigsaw puzzle of life: GTD"

"Over-prepare. Then go with the flow."

"Defaulting to ur psyche as ur system instead of an objective one makes maintaining the system too much trouble."

"I've never had to go very far to learn everything I have learned. I just had to care about something & pay attention."

"Get things under control first, then get focused. If your ship is sinking, you don't care where it's pointed."

"Trying to ignore secondarily meaningful things gives them more meaning than they deserve."

"Making decisions requires energy, but not deciding about whether to decide requires even more energy."

"Every thought deserves its own place in the universe. How & where do you capture yours?"

"Eternal #GTD paradox: when you get the principle, the tool doesn't matter. But simultaneosly it matters so much more."

"Clearing the deck is great, but sailing adventurous waters is the real game. (Just can't do it w/out a clear deck.)"

"Great news about lots of email is how consistently it forces you to get clear what's really meaningful to your work/life."

"GTD gives freedom to the right, structure to the left (brains, that is!)"

"Organizations' problems can all be traced to someone not telling the right someone what had their attention, when it did."

"If you figured out why making a list reduces overwhelm & confusion, you'd keep nothing in your head the rest of your life."

"GTD supplies the reset button for all parts of life & work."

"If you admit your wildest dream & uncover why you want it, you have a big key to make tomorrow a better day."

"Simply ask & answer: if we were being wildly successful in fulfilling our purpose, what would it look, sound, & feel like? #SmallBizChat"

"You talk to yourself 50,000 times a day. What's 300 emails? #SmallBizChat"

"If u can't see everything you've committed to, at all levels, you'll be driven by latest and loudest. #SmallBizChat"

"A commitment kept only in your head will be given too much or too little attention."

"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."