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Productivity Quotes
"If it's important enough, you'll make the time."
148
"Busy hands achieve more than idle tongues."
133
"Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to gain leisure."
83
"Do something instead of killing time. Because time is killing you."
71
"Focus on being productive instead of busy."
64
"I was speaking to Ridley Scott the other day and he makes a film every 18 months. He's amazing really."
62
"Thus every matter, if it is to be done well, calls for the attention of the whole person."
57
"Common people are merely intent on spending time - whoever has some talent, on making use of it."
54
"I have learned how I work best, and that is something that, if you're going to be a professional writer, you should be noticing: under what circumstances you work at your best, and to not get yourself cornered into writing in a way that doesn't let you do your best."
53
"When one has a great deal to put into it a day has a hundred pockets."
52
"Three hours a day will produce as much as a man ought to write."
52
"The most important thing you need to do [in this job] is to have big chunks of time during the day when all you're doing is thinking."
51
"No work is so important you have to do it."
51
"We don't need more time. We need to use the time we already have differently."
50
"Be disciplined enough to choose your network and be willing to sacrifice the circles that reduce your effectiveness and make you unproductive."
49
"How much more than necessary do we spend in sleep, forgetting that the sleeping fox catches no poultry, and that there will be sleeping enough in the grave, as Poor Richard says."
49
"If I should sell both my forenoons and afternoons to society, as most appear to do, I am sure that for me there would be nothing left worth living for. I trust that I shall never thus sell my birthright for a mess of pottage. I wish to suggest that a man may be very industrious, and yet not spend his time well. There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of his life getting his living."
48
"In fact, ambitious tension actually limits our ability to succeed because it keeps us in a state of contraction emotionally and physically. It seems to give us energy but doesn't really. Like the white sugar of mental health, there's a short high followed by a crash. The cultivation of mental rest or surrender is like eating healthy food. It doesn't give us an immediate rush, but over time it provides a lot more energy."
47
"Inspiration comes when you stick your elbows on the table, your bottom on the chair and you start sweating. Choose a theme, an idea, and squeeze your brain until it hurts. That's called inspiration."
47
"Ignoring phone calls leads to a simple life with more free time. Ignoring emails works well also! I do both when I am trying to get things done."
47
"In many ways, September feels like the busiest time of the year: The kids go back to school, work piles up after the summer's dog days, and Thanksgiving is suddenly upon us."
46
"The real problem is not the down time that you experience: it is what you do with it."
46
"The antidote to overwhelm is action."
46
"Complaining is a complete waste of one's energy. Those who complain the most accomplish the least."
45
"Stressing output is the key to improving productivity, while looking to increase activity can result in just the opposite."
45
"He is idle that might be better employed."
44
"One of the reasons to see improved productivity in Agile is because of the simplicity principle."
44
"They laboriously do nothing."
44
"I write seven days a week, starting at 4 o'clock in the morning, including Christmas."
43
"Don't mistake thinking for action & don't mistake action for results."
41
"Never put aside what you can do today. If you keep pushing your responsibilities to the side, one day they will catch up in unfavorable ways. Just do a little bit every day. If you are consistent, you will get the results you want."
41
"Focus is central to everything you do, and where your focus goes, energy flows."
41
"Always allocate enough time to pursue the things that are of value to you."
41
"Barley, where it succeeds, yields a larger weight of feed per acre than any other small grain crop."
40
"The feeling one has no time to get anything done provides the pressure that guarantees one does get some things done."
39
"No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any."
39
"Your time is precious, use it wisely."
38
"You can't manage time. You can only manage your life. You can't strategically plan time, you can only plan your life."
38
"To plan and talk is good but to plan and take action is even greater."
38
"Sometimes a step back or away from an idea, task or project brings even more perspective, insight and clarity."
37
"Stop killing and wasting time. Get something done today."
37
"The only time I waste is time I spend doing something that, in my gut, I know I shouldn't. If I choose to spend time playing video games or sleeping in, then it's time well spent, because I chose to do it. I did it for a reason - to relax, to decompress or to feel good, and that was what I wanted to do."
34
"For you to be able to be fruitful, to multiply and saturate the earth with your products, you have to first know how to properly use the currency of time."
32
"Each day, wake up with a plan. Don't just approach your days in an unfocused void. That state of mind leaves too much room for discontent, opposition, unhappiness and hopelessness."
31
"The concept of work should be understood diligently."
31
"It's either you are converting your time or not."
31
"You can make a board for all the goals you want in your life with the pictures on it, and that's great, daydreaming is wonderful, but you can never plan your future."
31
"The amount of value produced at a certain period depends on the level of focus used to attain it."
30
"To be productive, you have to stop being absent-minded."
28
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