A set of notes from “Getting Things Done” by David Allen, from Alexandra Bloom:
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. the secret of getting started is breaking complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.” ~Mark Twain
“The downside of collaborative cultures is that no one wants to nail down who is responsible for what.”
“Getting things done of your own accord, before you are forced to by external pressure and internal stress, builds a firm foundation of self-worth that will spread into every aspect of your life. You are the captain of your own ship; the more you act from that perspective, the better things will go for you.”
“Asking “what’s the next action?” undermines the victim mentality. It presupposes that there is a possibility of change, and there is something you can do to make it happen.”
“Process things one after the other without skipping. You’ll tend to skip and leave unprocessed things that take more work, or several steps.”
“It has to be easy, fast, and fun to file, or else you will stack.”
“When people with whom you interact notice that without fail you receive, process, and organize in an airtight manner the exchanges and agreements they have with you, they begin to trust you in a unique way.”
“When you don’t deal with tasks (procrastinate) your self-trust disintegrates. You are breaking agreements you made with yourself.”
“People often make agreements just to win others approval. Sometimes its best to just say no.”
“Most of the stress people experience comes from inappropriately managed commitments they make or accept.”
“Your mind is like water — you throw a pebble in the water and it reacts totally in proportion to the force and mass of the input– then returns to calm. Most of us over or underreact.”
“Overreacting or underreacting lead to ineffective results.”
“Most people give either more or less attention to things than they deserve, simply because they don’t operate with a mind like water.”
“Think about the last time you felt highly productive — you probably had a sense of being in control; you were not stressed out, you were highly focussed on what you were doing; time tended to disappear, and you felt you were making noticeable progress toward a meaningful outcome.”
“Your mind stays working on unresolved things.”
“It’s a waste of time to keep thinking about something that you make no progress on. It adds to your anxiety.”
“You can train yourself (like an athlete) to be faster, more responsive, and more focussed on knowledge work.”
“Things rarely get stuck because of lack of time. They get stuck because the doing of them has not been defined. It’s the lack of clarity and definition about what a project really is, and what the associated next-action steps are.”
“If your inbox isn’t clear its hard to do higher focussed thinking– it’s like swimming in baggy clothes.”
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