Quotes About Focus

Creating "ABC" priority codes and daily "to-do" lists were key techniques developed to help people sort through their choices in some meaningful way.

People think a lot, but most of that thinking is of a problem, project or situation - not about it

you can decide what, specifically, something means to you and what you intend to do about it, if anything; if you can use a placeholder as a reminder of what you need to attend to;

You are powerful all the time, by way of your attention and intention. The question is, Toward what are you pointing that power?

There is too much distraction at the day-to-day, hour-to-hour level of commitments to allow for appropriate focus on the higher levels.

Bailing water in a leaky boat diverts energy from rowing the boat.

There are no interruptions—there are only mismanaged inputs.

Life is denied by lack of attention, whether it be to cleaning windows or trying to write a masterpiece. —Nadia Boulanger It's

No matter how big and tough a problem may be, get rid of confusion by taking one little step toward solution. Do something. —George F. Nordenholt

Funnel all potentially meaningful inputs through minimal channels, directed to you for easily accessed review and assessment about their nature.

Review whatever lists, overviews, and orientation maps you need to, as often as you need to, to get their contents off your mind. After

Clearing the mind and being flexible are key.

capturing all the things that might need to get done or have usefulness for you—

Projects, Waiting For, and Someday/Maybe lists need to be reviewed only as often as you think they have to be in order to stop you from wondering about them.

Thought is useful when it motivates action and a hindrance when it substitutes for action.

Often the only way to make a hard decision is to come back to the purpose of what you're doing.

give all our attention to the opportunity before us.

And if it's just you, attempting to come up with a good idea before defining your purpose, creating a vision, and collecting lots of initial bad ideas is likely to give you a case of creative constipation. The

If your boat is sinking, you really don't care in which direction it's pointed!

It's likely that you also have more internal commitments currently in play than you're aware of.

Getting Things Done is not simply about getting things done. It's about being appropriately engaged with your work and life.

Between the time you woke up today and now, did you think of anything you needed to do that you still haven't done? Have you had that thought more than once? Why? It's a waste of time and energy to keep thinking about something that you make no progress on. And it only adds to your anxiety about what you should be doing and aren't.

In order to deal effectively with all of that, you must first identify and collect all those things that are "ringing your bell" in some way, and then plan how to handle them.

Most people let their reactive mental process run a lot of the show, especially where the too-much-to-do syndrome is concerned.