Quotes About Focus

The point we're emphasizing here is that certain circumstances demand attention

Research tells us that brainstorming becomes more productive when it's focused. As jazz great Charles Mingus famously said, "You can't improvise on nothing, man; you've gotta improvise on something.

finding the core," and expressing it in the form of a compact idea

The destination was crystal clear:

Grit is not synonymous with hard work. It involves a certain single-mindedness. An ungritty prison inmate will mount a daring new escape attempt every month, but a gritty prison inmate will tunnel his way out one spoonful of concrete at a time. Grit

And when people exhaust their self-control, what they're exhausting are the mental muscles needed to think creatively, to focus, to inhibit their impulses, and to persist in the face of frustration or failure. In other words, they're exhausting precisely the mental muscles needed to make a big change.

Kahneman says that we are quick to jump to conclusions because we give too much weight to the information that's right in front of us, while failing to consider the information that's just offstage.

Make it concrete: Look back over your schedule for the past week and ask yourself, What, specifically, would I have given up to carve out the extra three or four or five hours that I'll need?

Peter Bregman, a productivity guru and blogger for the Harvard Business Review, recommends a simple trick for dodging this fate. He advises us to set a timer that goes off once every hour, and when it beeps, we should ask ourselves, "Am I doing what I most need to be doing right now?

Deadlines focus our mental spotlight on a choice. They grab us by the collar and say, If you're gonna do this, you have to do it now. In

Be simple. Not simple in terms of "dumbing down" or "sound bites." You don't have to speak in monosyllables to be simple. What we mean by "simple" is finding the core of the idea.

Or you could focus on the Path, in which case you would disregard hearts and minds entirely. In fact, suppose you stipulated outright that your workers are hopeless, that they're irredeemable daredevils who are determined to waggle their fingers in the machine's danger zone for the sheer sport of it. Could you still keep them from dismembering themselves?

If Palmer wants to persuade the professors, he needs them to trip over the truth. And that starts with a focus on the problem, not the solution.

In looking for a goal that reaches the Elephant—that hits people in the gut—you can't bank on SMART goals. (There are some people whose hearts are set aflutter by goals such as "improving the liquidity ratio by 30 percent over the next 18 months." They're called accountants.)

When it comes to performance, strong purpose trumps strong passion.

You say 10 things, you say nothing.

You don't have to speak monosyllables to be simple. What we mean by simple is finding the core of the idea.

Chip Heath and Dan Heath

The first problem of communication is getting people's attention.

and "What can we do to help keep you fresh and renewed so you can better handle the challenge of dealing with customers all day?" Remember that focus groups can be virtual online, not just face to face.

I found the only time I had to shut down—to become mindful of nothing more than the present moment—was whenever I was peeing.

Tomorrow is another day. I've got plenty of things to worry about right now.

Because a trained mind is your strongest ally—and an untrained one your worst enemy.

diligent focus on the task at hand.