Quotes About Focus

THE PURPOSE OF this whole method of workflow management is not to let your brain become lax, but rather to enable it to move toward more elegant and productive activity. In order to earn that freedom, however, your brain must engage on some consistent basis with all your commitments and activities. You must be assured that you're doing what you need to be doing, and that it's OK to be not doing what you're not doing.

Merely having thoughts is one thing. Consciously feeding them is quite another. You are powerful all the time, by way of your attention and intention. The question is, Toward what are you pointing that power?

Thinking in a concentrated manner to define desired outcomes is something few people feel they have to do. But in truth, outcome thinking is one of the most effective means available for making wishes reality.

Anything that causes you to overreact or underreact can control you, and often does. Responding inappropriately to your e-mail, your thoughts about what you need to do, your children, or your boss will lead to less effective results than you'd like. Most people give either more or less attention to things than they deserve, simply because they don't operate with a mind like water.

This would be a Zen-like state of productivity, in which you deal with what's present from a perspective that is both detached and fully engaged.

That said, there's absolutely nothing wrong with creating a quick, informal, short list of "if I have time, I'd really like to . . ." kinds of things, picked from your Next Actions inventory.

The world itself is never overwhelmed or confused—only we are, due to how we are engaged with it. An

Rule your mind or it will rule you. —Horace

Frankly, as soon as you have two things to do stored only in your mind, you've generated personal failure, because you can't do them both at the same time. This produces a pervasive stress factor whose source can't be pinpointed.

Anything that does not belong where it is, the way it is, is an "open loop," which will be pulling on your attention if it's not appropriately managed. In

I have learned over the years that the most important thing to deal with is whatever is most on your mind. The fact that you think it shouldn't be on your mind is irrelevant. It's there, and it's there for a reason.

What we now mean by knowledge is information in action, information focused on results. —Peter F. Drucker

sort of planning activity: (1) those that still have your attention even after you've determined their next actions, and (2) those about which potentially

contexto, tiempo disponible, energía disponible y prioridad.

Appropriately used, checklists can be a tremendous asset in enhancing personal productivity and relieving mental pressure.

Thinking in a concentrated manner to define desired outcomes and requisite next actions is something few people feel they have to do (until they have to). But in truth, it is the most effective means available for making wishes a reality.

Defining "thinking" in its broadest sense to include any kind of focus and imagery held in the mind, in addition to the cognitive process of logic and rational judgment, means that your feelings will typically be more driven by the thoughts you hold than the other way around.

I have discovered that one of the major reasons many people haven't had a lot of success with "getting organized" is simply that they have tried to do all five phases at one time.

Open loops can include everything from really big to-do items like "End world hunger" to the more modest "Hire new assistant" to the tiniest task such as "Replace porch lightbulb.

Handle what has your attention and you'll then discover what really has your attention.

You have to use your mind to get things off your mind.

You've got to think about the big things while you're doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction.

More often than not, it seems that people are having thoughts, though not really thinking about what they're thinking about—at least not in an effective way that resolves, advances, or manages the content.

Throw away, shred, or recycle anything that has no potential future action or reference value.