The balance you have between drive and patience may be your master key to success.
Focusing on values does not simplify your life. It gives meaning and direction-and a lot more complexity.
If you’re at zero backlog, it’s a whole lot easier to change priorities.
The hardest thing about being productive is not the work, but the split second it takes to decide to take control.
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.
If the only tool you have is a hammer, it’s hard to eat spaghetti.
You don’t manage priorities, you have them.
Why do people complain that there’s no time to get their work done? Because there is more work to do than the work they think they have to do.
There is no reason ever to have the same thought twice, unless you like having that thought.
Distracting reactions about anything undermine a clear mind about anything else.
In Ireland we have a very old saying, When you can see the mountains it’s going to rain and when you can’t see the mountains it’s raining.
The great secret about goals and visions is not the future they describe but the change in the present they engender.
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.
It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires a great deal of strength to decide what to do. – Elbert Hubbard.
Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win. – Jonathan Kozol.
You must use your mind to get things off your mind.
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.
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.
The beginning is half of every action.
You are the captain of your own ship; the more you act from that perspective, the better things will go for you.