Quotes from Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

“If you don't pay appropriate attention to what has your attention, it will take more of your attention than it deserves.”
― David Allen, quote from Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

“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, quote from Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

“Your ability to generate power is directly proportional to your ability to relax.”
― David Allen, quote from Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

“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.”
― David Allen, quote from Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

“You can fool everyone else, but you can't fool your own mind.”
― David Allen, quote from Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

“Everything you’ve told yourself you ought to do, your mind thinks you should do right now. Frankly, as soon add you have two things to do stored in your RAM, you’ve generated personal failure, because you can’t do two things at the same time. This produces an all-pervasive stress factor whose source can’t be pin-pointed.”
― David Allen, quote from Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

“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.”
― David Allen, quote from Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

“Anything that causes you to overreact or underreact can control you, and often does.”
― David Allen, quote from Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

“Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought. —Henri Bergson”
― David Allen, quote from Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

“The world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation. The hand is more important than the eye. . . . The hand is the cutting edge of the mind. —J. Bronowski”
― David Allen, quote from Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

“Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win. —Jonathan Kozol”
― David Allen, quote from Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

“It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires a great deal of strength to decide what to do. —Elbert Hubbard”
― David Allen, quote from Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

“You’ve got to think about the big things while you’re doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction. —Alvin Toffler”
― David Allen, quote from Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

“Every now and then go away and have a little relaxation. To remain constantly at work will diminish your judgment. Go some distance away, because work will be in perspective and a lack of harmony is more readily seen. —Leonardo da Vinci”
― David Allen, quote from Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

“At at any point in time, knowing what has to get done, and when, creates a terrain for maneuvering.”
― David Allen, quote from Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

“Suffice it to say that something automatic and extraordinary happens in your mind when you create and focus on a clear picture of what you want.”
― David Allen, quote from Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small, manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one. —Mark Twain”
― David Allen, quote from Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

“Things rarely get stuck because of lack of time. They get stuck because the doing of them has not been defined.”
― David Allen, quote from Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

“Interestingly, one of the biggest problems with most people’s personal management systems is that they blend a few actionable things with a large amount of data and material that has value but no action attached.”
― David Allen, quote from Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

“You must use your mind to get things off your mind.”
― David Allen, quote from Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

“There is no reason to ever have the same thought twice, unless you like having that thought. I”
― David Allen, quote from Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

“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”
― David Allen, quote from Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

“Almost every project could be done better, and an infinite quantity of information is now available that could make that happen.”
― David Allen, quote from Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

“Reacting is automatic, but thinking is not.”
― David Allen, quote from Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

“The beginning is half of every action.”
― David Allen, quote from Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

“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. That means that as soon as you tell yourself that you need to do something, and store it in your RAM, there's a part of you that thinks you should be doing that something all the time.”
― David Allen, quote from Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

“But if you don’t decide what needs to be done about your secretary’s birthday, because it’s “not that important” right now, that open loop will take up energy and prevent you from having a totally effective, clear focus on what is important.”
― David Allen, quote from Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

“I am rather like a mosquito in a nudist camp; I know what I want to do, but I don’t know where to begin.”
― David Allen, quote from Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

“Welcome to the real-life experience of “knowledge work,” and a profound operational principle: you have to think about your stuff more than you realize but not as much as you’re afraid you might. As Peter Drucker wrote: “In knowledge work . . . the task is not given; it has to be determined. ‘What are the expected results from this work?’ is . . . the key question in making knowledge workers productive. And it is a question that demands risky decisions. There is usually no right answer; there are choices instead. And results have to be clearly specified, if productivity is to be achieved.”*”
― David Allen, quote from Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

“Get a purge for your brain. It will do better than for your stomach. —Michel Eyquem de Montaigne”
― David Allen, quote from Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

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Popular quotes

“And what? Accidentally cuts off three fingers postmortem? 'Oops, oh, no, my girlfriend just died! Clumsy me, in trying to perform CPR, I chopped off some fingers! Guess I'll just take them with me.... Oh, darn, where did that middle finger go?”
― Barry Lyga, quote from I Hunt Killers

“Where are they written?"
"In the world around us. Merely be attentive to what happens in your life, and you will discover where, every moment of the day, He hides His words and His will. Seek to do as He asks: this alone is the reason you are in the world."
"If I discover it, I'll write it on clay tablets."
"Do so. But write them, above all, in your heart; there they can neither burned nor destroyed, and you will take them wherever you go.”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from The Fifth Mountain

“Professional wrestling is simply the most modern interpretation of an ancient tradition of stylized verbal battles between enemies.  From the time that Homer recorded the Iliad, the emergence of what Scottish scholars call ‘flyting’—” “That would be a verbal battle preceding a physical one, but considered equally as important to the overall outcome,” Carwyn interjected.   “Exactly.  Throughout world myth, warriors have engaged in a verbal struggle that is as symbolically important as the battle itself.  You can see examples in early Anglo-Saxon literature—” “You’ve read Beowulf, haven’t you, English major?” Giovanni glanced at the priest, but continued in his most academic voice.  “Beowulf is only one example, of course.  The concept is also prevalent in various Nordic, Celtic, and Germanic epic traditions.  Even Japanese and Arabic literature are rife with examples.”  “Exactly.”  Carwyn nodded along.  “See, modern professional wrestling is following in a grand epic tradition.  Doesn’t matter if it’s staged, and it doesn’t matter who wins, really—” “Well, I don’t know about—” “What matters,” Carwyn shot his friend a look before he continued, “is that the warriors impress the audience as”
― Elizabeth Hunter, quote from A Hidden Fire

“Sandy and her community fought against a thing, and fought bravely, risking their sanity in resisting the actions of forces whose root causes they could not directly address. Kelly and his fought against people, leaving the actions of their enemies to others, but able to seek them out and fight directly against their foe, even eliminating them if they were lucky. One side had absolute purity of purpose but lacked satisfaction. The other could attain the satisfaction of destroying the enemy, but only at the cost of becoming too much like what they struggled against.”
― Tom Clancy, quote from Without Remorse

“You are more in control of your destiny than you have ever imagined.”
― Bill Courtney, quote from Against the Grain: A Coach's Wisdom on Character, Faith, Family, and Love

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BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.