“Pay appropriate attention to what has your attention, so you can pay attention to what really has your attention.”

— David Allen

15 September 2011 https://twitter.com/gtdguy/status/114341777418354689
Official Twitter profile (@gtdguy) https://twitter.com/gtdguy

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Pay appropriate attention to what has your attention, so you can pay attention to what really has your attention." by David Allen?

David Allen 119

American productivity consultant and author 1945

Related quotes

“Do stuff. be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration's shove or society's kiss on your forehead. Pay attention. It's all about paying attention. attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. stay eager.”

Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist

“A lot of what acting is, is paying attention.”

Nancy Reagan (1921–2016) actress and first lady of the United States

Robert Redford, as quoted in Hollywood's All-Time Greatest Stars : A Quiz Book (2003) by Andrew J. Rausch, p. 216
Misattributed

“Your attention will continue to be grabbed by anything until you give it the appropriate attention.”

David Allen (1945) American productivity consultant and author

18 September 2009 https://twitter.com/gtdguy/status/4084592042
Official Twitter profile (@gtdguy) https://twitter.com/gtdguy

“Pay attention to your enemies, for they are the first to discover your mistakes.”

Antisthenes (-444–-365 BC) Greek philosopher

§ 12
From Lives and Opinions of the Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laërtius

“From the simplest lyric to the most complex novel and densest drama, literature is asking us to pay attention. Pay attention to the frog. Pay attention to the west wind. Pay attention to the boy on the raft, the lady in the tower, the old man on the train. In sum, pay attention to the world and all that dwells therein and thereby learn at last to pay attention to yourself and all that dwells therein.”

Frederick Buechner (1926) Poet, novelist, short story writer, theologian

Whistling in the Dark: A Doubter's Dictionary (1988)

“Things hold your attention hostage until you give them the appropriate attention.”

David Allen (1945) American productivity consultant and author

27 June 2011 https://twitter.com/gtdguy/status/85187098725974016
Official Twitter profile (@gtdguy) https://twitter.com/gtdguy
Variant: Your attention will continue to be grabbed by anything until you give it the appropriate attention.