GTD Quotes: Send Us Yours
April 12th, 2008Categories | David Allen | Humor | inspiration
David Allen has come up with some remarkable, quotable statements about GTD. Personally I like “The better you get, the better you better get” a great deal because it holds true not just in business but in sport and many other life-arenas.
Just the other day I read this quote about GTD: “Don’t think, let your list think for you.” This fine remark courtesy of Mike Saint Pierre of the Daily Saint blog.
One more - I know David likes this one and so do I: “Make things as simple as possible, but no simpler”. This one of course came from Albert Einstein.
So, what are your favorite quotes that are from or can be related to GTD? Come on, be creative - check your books, your notes or make something up. The best quotes will get something fun from GTDtimes so send those quotes in today!
Related to getting stuff out of your head?
Ray Douglas Bradbury: “Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things.”
Well it has “getting things done” in it
Lin Yutang: “Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is a noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of the nonessentials.”
Clarifying the next action?
Seneca: “Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.”
Not directly (or deliberately) related to GTD but I think you can see the connections
“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald.
I often fall back on the GTD Natural Planning Model in meetings where a topic is ’stuck.’ It helps people to work with opposing ideas and sometimes come up with new and better approaches.
My favourite is “Make it up, Make it happen.” David says that there are only two types of problems, knowing what you want, but not how to get it, and not knowing what you want. So, if there are only two problems, you only need two solutions.
“If you don’t know what your “job” is, it will always feel overwhelming.”
I share this in GTD classes around Horizons of Focus. The way David means “job” is your job (roles/attention/commitments/attention) in all areas of your life, personally and professionally, not just what you get paid to do.
This is a powerful one for me.
Another classic, not from DA, but one we show in all GTD classes:
“I’m much like a mosquito in a nudist camp–I know what to do, I just don’t know where to begin!”
A next action is only a next action if someone can watch you doing it.
These are great you guys! Please keep them coming!!!
Thank You!
Oliver
I LOVE the one from Derek Scruggs, above.
One of my DA favorites: “Never think the same thought twice unless you love having that thought.”
From Lao Tzu, the Tao te Ching (I use these on my stationery):
“Clarity and tranquility set the whole world in order.”
“Cultivate order before confusion sets in.”
“A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
-Antoine de Saint-Exup’ery
I find this quote quite elegant.
I have no idea who to attribute this to, but a friend of mine who recently went through a project management course shared this with me and it makes me smile every time I read it:
“The advantage of a lack of planning is that a total disaster is not preceded by a period of worry.”
One of my favorite quotes is from Paulo Coelho’s “The Alchemist”:
…when each day is the same as the next, it’s because people fail to recognize the good things that happen in their lives every day that the sun rises.
I’ve always liked the not-planning quote Meghan refers to, which is by John Harvey Jones: “Planning is an unnatural process, it is much more fun to do something. And the nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression.”
And there’s always John Lennon’s counter:
“Life is what happens to you while you are making other plans.”
David quoted this in the Ready For Anything CD, but don’t know who said it originally (and not sure I’m quoting word for word) :-
“A Man with one watch knows the time, a man with two watches is never quite sure.”
Superb.
More, More, More!!!
I am loving these everyone. They are great. Please send in more.
Oliver
PS: here are a few more of my own favorites:
“You’re alive. Do something. The directive in life, the moral imperative was so uncomplicated. It could be expressed in single words, not complete sentences. It sounded like this: Look. Listen. Choose. Act.”
- Barbara Hall
“Never mistake motion for action.”
— Ernest Hemingway
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”
- Leonardo da Vinci
One of my favourite: “Its the habits, not the tools.” - Gretchen Cawthon
Two more favorites:
“I never give up. I either get what I want, or I change my mind.”
- from the movie ‘Dream for an Insomniac’
Another one, from maybe an unexpected source (unamerican.com), but has been a favorite for over 10 years. I keep it posted in my office:
“Don’t forget your potential to transform your own life into something that inspires other people into action.”