Today I am attending the Chick-Fil-A Leadercast along with the entire Rocket Company team. The following series of posts will be the leadership learnings from the day. The second speaker was David Allen, author of Getting Things Done.

The following are his thoughts:

  • Space is what we are after.  Room.
  • When you are in a crisis there is a kind-of peace that shows up there.
  • In a crisis you are focused on a very specific outcome.
  • Getting things done is not about getting things done.
  • Everyone of you today are not getting a lot of things done because you are sitting right here.
  • Appropriate engagement is the key.  Are you appropriately engaged with your staff, health, spiritual life, etc…?
  • You can only feel good about what you’re not doing when you know what it is.
  • There is an inverse relationship about what is on your mind and getting it done.
  • Chaos is in the world.  Not in your head.
  • Einstein had 24 hours.  So did Mother Teresa.  So did Bach.
  • If you had just two more hours what would you fill it with?  Probably more stickiness like email.
  • How much does it take to have a good idea?  Zero.  You don’t need time.  You need room in your head.
  • You are most productive when you have freedom to make a mess.
  • The freedom to make a mess starts when you are clean enough to make a mess.
  • Perspective and control are the two ingredients to time management.
  • No perspective and no control was a micro-manager.
  • Perspective and no control is a mad scientist.
  • A lot of stuff gets done that is not in a hurry.
  • Water doesn’t get mad at you because you destroyed its calm.  It has appropriate engagement.
  • You want things to be direction correct.  Not perfect.  You want to be able to steer as you going along.
  • Multi-tasking is driving home and wondered who drove.
  • Martial arts people fight four people at a time by fighting one at a time.
  • If it’s on your mind, get it out of your mind.  Write it down…Then takes what’s on your mind and get things done.
  • A to-do list is a list of uncompleted things.
  • The way out is through.
  • You are not your work but your work will run you if you let it.

Would you like to hear how Andy Stanley, Steven Furtick, Louie Giglio, and Mark Driscoll prepare their messages?

All of this happens on Wednesday, May 16 at 4pm EDT.  And best of all, it’s 100% free. Preach Better Sermons is a free, four-hour, online conference focused on helping communicators prepare and deliver messages that matter.  Some of the best communicators in the world will unpack preaching principles you can use right away.

It’s 100% free and since it happens online, there are no travel costs.  Click here to register for the event now.

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