14 quotes
Your conscious mind, like the computer screen, is a focusing tool, not a storage place.
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (2001)
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.
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (2001)
The goal is to get projects and situations off your mind, but not to lose any potentially useful ideas.
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (2001)
If you're waiting to have good ideas before you have any ideas, you won't have many ideas.
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (2001)
How much of this planning model do you really need..? [A]s much as you need to get the project off your mind.
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (2001)
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.
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (2001)
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.
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (2001)
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.
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (2001)
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.
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (2001)
[Y]ou must have a clear picture in your mind of what success would look, sound, and feel like.
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (2001)
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.
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (2001)
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.
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (2001)
[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.
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (2001)
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.
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (2001)