Markus Lautenbach > Markus's Quotes

“Once upon a time, there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work.

One day, as he was walking along the shore, he looked down the beach and saw a human figure moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself at the thought of someone who would dance to the day, and so, he walked faster to catch up.

As he got closer, he noticed that the figure was that of a young man, and that what he was doing was not dancing at all. The young man was reaching down to the shore, picking up small objects, and throwing them into the ocean.

He came closer still and called out "Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?"

The young man paused, looked up, and replied "Throwing starfish into the ocean."

"I must ask, then, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?" asked the somewhat startled wise man.

To this, the young man replied, "The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don't throw them in, they'll die."

Upon hearing this, the wise man commented, "But, young man, do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile? You can't possibly make a difference!"

At this, the young man bent down, picked up yet another starfish, and threw it into the ocean. As it met the water, he said,
"It made a difference for that one.”
― Loren Eiseley

“In a gentle way, you can shake the world.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

“The purpose of life is to contribute in some way to making things better.”
― Robert F. Kennedy

“Do more than belong: participate. Do more than care: help. Do more than believe: practice. Do more than be fair: be kind. Do more than forgive: forget. Do more than dream: work.”
― William Arthur Ward

“If you have to say or do something controversial, aim so that people will hate that they love it and not love that they hate it.”
― Criss Jami, Killosophy

“I believe in work. If somebody doesn't create something, however small it may be, he gets sick. An awful lot of people feel that they're treading water -- that if they vanished in smoke, it wouldn't mean anything at all in this world. And that's a despairing and destructive feeling. It'll kill you.”
― Arthur Miller

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

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

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

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

“Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.”
― Marilyn Monroe

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
― Albert Einstein

“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”
― Thomas A. Edison