Much of the stress that people feel doesn't come from having too much to do. It comes from not finishing what they've started.
Interpretation
Stress often arises not from having numerous tasks but from the inability to complete them.
This quote by David Allen emphasizes that the stress experienced by individuals is often not due to the volume of tasks they face, but rather from the frustration of not being able to finish what they have begun. It suggests that a lack of closure on projects or responsibilities can lead to overwhelming feelings, and addressing this unfinished business is key to reducing stress and maintaining a sense of control and accomplishment.
In practice
During a workshop about productivity, you can quote this to emphasize the importance of finishing tasks.
Isn't it interesting that people feel best about themselves right before they go on vacation? They've cleared up all of their to-do piles, closed up transactions, renewed old promises with themselves. My most basic suggestion is that people should do that more than just once a year.
It is a tricky business to know when you should set goals and objectives in order to achieve a focus, and when you would be better off dealing with the acceptance and management of your current reality so you can later step into new directions and responsibilities with greater stability and clarity. Only you will know the answer to that, and only in the moment.
Most of the stress people experience comes from inappropriately managed commitments they make or accept.
Once a week, do a thorough review of all your projects in as much detail as you need to. If you do, your systems will work. If you don't, no system will work.
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.
Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.
I've learned that many of the worst things lead to the best things, that no great thing is achieved without a couple of bad, bad things on the way to them, and that the bad things that happen to you bring, in some cases, the good things.
When I was little there was a picture in one of our books, a dark place into which a single weak ray of light came slanting upon two faces lifted out of the shadow.
People have no idea what one saint can do: for sanctity is stronger than the whole of hell.
Everyone can recognize history when it happens. Everyone can recognize history after is has happened; but only the wise man knows at the moment what is vital and permanent, what is lasting and memorable.
There is nothing more hateful than bad advice.
Since, according to me, your life is going to be a gradual process of becoming kinder and more loving: Hurry up. Speed it along. Start right now. There’s a confusion in each of us, a sickness, really: selfishness. But there’s also a cure. So be a good and proactive and even somewhat desperate patient on your own behalf - seek out the most efficacious anti-selfishness medicines, energetically, for the rest of your life.
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