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"How much attention have I given what really deserves my attention today?"

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

"Am working as hard as I can to find out what it's OK I'm NOT going to be dong, this weekend!"

"Resistance to deciding the next action stems from how it exposes the vulnerability of our intelligence."

"Your mind doesn't have one. If it did, it would only remind you of something when you could do something about it."

"Are you overwhelmed pulling weeds, when you really just need to replant the garden?"

"Using your head to manage your life = creativity constipation."

"How, and how often, you relate to your system is an essential part of your system."

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

"Maximizing is not optimizing. Sustainable engagement wins, in the end."

"If u magically had 0 emails, in 10 days you'd be back to what you had. Issue is not volume, but tolerance of backlog."

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

"Making decisions when you can vs. when you have to makes for better decisions."

"If you're appropriately engaged w/your life, you don't need more time. If you're not, more time won't help."

"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 w…"

"If you could stop thinking, letting go of trying control your world w/your mind, where would your attention go?"

"Even the smallest knoll to climb, to see a little more than the machine guns firing at me, is salvation."

"Perfection is graciously dealing with imperfection."

"Clearing the deck is great, but sailing adventurous waters is the real game."

"You've really done your job when what's true?"

"Appropriate focus on the right stuff gives the freedom to not have to focus on anything, on a regular basis."

"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 n…"

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

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

"Being in control isn't forceful manipulation but rather highly cooperative engagement w/ what's really going on."

"You don't have to like your life to get it off your mind. You DO have to renegotiate your agreements w/yourself about it."

"My daily meta-map lists: events coming up; major projects for me; emerging interests; my accountabilities."

"Your ability to deal w/surprise is in inverse relation to the amount of your backlog of "stuff."

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

"When you know you'll get email to zero, you're free to deal with the ones you choose, when you choose. Most productive."

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

"The less you are driven by what goes on in this material world, the more you will pay attention to its details."

"GTD 2.0 = what to do with your head, once it's clear."

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

"Great question to ask, to relax: What should I consider right now, decide what, and let go?"

"It's hard to say no when you're not aware of everything you've said yes to."

"It takes a healthy sense of self to feel OK with nothing happening in your head."

"Is what you're about to do more likely to expand or limit your ability to get what you really want? Executive intelligence."

"Engaging in complexity is a key to simplicity. Fear of it will haunt your inner recesses."

"Pay appropriate attention to what has your attention, so you can pay attention to what really has your attention."

"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."

"Organization" for most people is simply an incomplete list, or amorphous piles, of still-unclear commitments."

"The David Allen Company website"

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

"Things hold your attention hostage until you give them the appropriate attention."

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

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

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

"An overwhelming amount of potential work to do is cool. Otherwise people would never go to a gym."

"If you're already in a mess, you're not free to make one."

"Outcome/next-action thinking, before you must, prepares you for when you must. And that time will come."

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

"Your tools are only as good as they serve your intention. What do you want to have true? What Do you need to have viewable re: that?"

"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 …"

"Freedom to give full attention to what you want is the GTD promise."

"The purpose of a purpose? Tunes you to meaningful things you wouldn't be aware of, otherwise."

"When "this isn't right" changes to "this isn't optimal" in your vocabulary, you've moved up the food chain."

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

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