Quotes from Jason Fried

Being comfortable in your zone is essential to being calm.

Management scholar Peter Drucker nailed it decades ago when he said "There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all." Bam!

Questions bring options, decrees burn them.

Whoever managed to rebrand the typical open-plan office—with all its noise, lack of privacy, and resulting interruptions—as something hip and modern deserves a damn medal from the Committee of Irritating Distractions.

Questions you can wait hours to learn the answers to are fine to put in an email. Questions that require answers in the next few minutes can go into an instant message. For crises that truly merit a sky-is-falling designation, you can use that old-fashioned invention called the telephone.

Motivation is pivotal to healthy lives and healthy companies. Make sure you're minding it.

It's not worth trading sleep for a few extra hours at the office. Not only will it make you exhausted, it'll literally make you stupid

The answer isn't more hours, it's less bullshit. Less waste, not more production. And far fewer distractions, less always-on anxiety, and avoiding stress.

When someone copies you, they are copying a moment in time. They don't know the thinking that went into getting you to that moment in time, and they won't know the thinking that'll help you have a million more moments in time. They're stuck with what you left behind.

Because let's face it: Goals are fake. Nearly all of them are artificial targets set for the sake of setting targets. These made-up numbers then function as a source of unnecessary stress until they're either achieved or abandoned. And when that happens, you're supposed to pick new ones and start stressing again. Nothing ever stops at the quarterly win. There are four quarters to a year. Forty to a decade. Every one of them has to produce, exceed, and beat EXPECTATIONS.

Stress is passed from organization to employee, from employee to employee, and then from employee to customer. Stress never stops at the border of work, either. It bleeds into life. It infects your relationships with your friends, your family, your kids.

The best companies aren't families. They're supporters of families. Allies of families. They're there to provide healthy, fulfilling work environments so that when workers shut their laptops at a reasonable hour, they're the best husbands, wives, parents, siblings, and children they can be.

What you do is your legacy.

When companies are in the red, employees worry about their jobs. People aren't stupid—they know that burning cash means the good times won't last. The possibility of layoffs is always nagging. CVs are always at the ready.

Not doing something that isn't worth doing is a wonderful way to spend your time.

Without profit, something is always on fire. When companies talk about burn rates, two things are burning: money and people. One you're burning up, one you're burning out.

If you are going to do something, do something that matters.

Most of the time, if you're uncomfortable with something, it's because it isn't right. Discomfort is the human response to a questionable or bad situation

what doesn't get done in 40 hours by Friday at 5 picks up again Monday morning at 9.

Don't fill your day with five more just to stay busy or feel productive. Not doing something that isn't worth doing is a wonderful way to spend your time.

Stop equating work ethic with excessive work hours. Neither is going to get you ahead or help you find calm.

You have to keep asking yourself if the way you're working today is the way you'd want to work in 10, 20, or 30 years. If not, now is the time to make a change, not "later.

Taking someone's time should be a pain in the ass. Taking many people's time should be so cumbersome that most people won't even bother to try it unless it's REALLY IMPORTANT! Meetings should be a last resort, especially big ones.

Workaholism is a contagious disease. You can't stop the spread if you're the one bringing it into the office. Disseminate some calm instead.