Quotes About Focus

If you care about what you do and work hard at it, there isn't anything you can't do if you want to.

No time is wasted time

There are three particularly important issues involved in delivering customer value: focusing on innovation rather than efficiency and optimization, concentrating on execution, and lean thinking.

When project leaders focus on delivery, they add value to projects. When they focus on planning and control, they tend to add overhead.

The agile value "Delivering Value over Meeting Constraints" provides a focus for rethinking how we measure performance on projects.

Project leaders need to focus on value in several ways: value determination (with product owners), value prioritization (backlog management), and value creation (iterative development).

If you want to be fast and agile, keep things simple. Speed isn't the result of simplicity, but simplicity enables speed.

Large portions of the productivity gains from agile methods come not from doing things better, but from not doing them at all.

Effective project leaders focus on people, product, and process—in that order. Without the right people, nothing gets built. Without a laser focus on product value, extraneous activities creep in. Without a minimum process framework, there can be inefficiency and possibly a little chaos.

Be quick, but don't hurry.

Paint the painting in front of you- not the one in your head.

Hard work isn't just a means to an end—it's an obsession.

Don't wait to be reminded to focus on your own development.

And what's the point of doing something just to do it?

The skillful management of energy, individually and organizationally, makes possible something that we call full engagement. To be fully engaged, we must be physically energized, emotionally connected, mentally focused and spiritually aligned with a purpose beyond our immediate self-interest.

We focused instead on helping them to manage their energy more effectively in the service of whatever mission they were on.

At a practical level, they build very precise routines for managing energy in all spheres of their lives—eating and sleeping; working out and resting; summoning the appropriate emotions; mentally preparing and staying focused; and connecting regularly to the mission they have set for themselves. Although most of us spend little or no time systematically training in any of these dimensions, we are expected to perform at our best for eight, ten and even twelve hours a day.

Sprinters typically look powerful, bursting with energy and eager to push themselves to their limits. The explanation is simple. No matter how intense the demand they face, the finish line is clearly visible 100 or 200 meters down the track. We, too, must learn to live our own lives as a series of sprints—fully engaging for periods of time, and then fully disengaging and seeking renewal before jumping back into the fray to face whatever challenges confront us.

During those 41/2 hours of focused morning work, Peter was able to write nearly twice as much as had sitting at his desk for up to ten hours a day in previous years.

We are machine-centered in our thinking—focused on the optimization of technology and equipment—rather than human-centered—focused on the optimization of human alertness and performance.

We grow the aspects of our lives that we feed – with energy and engagement – and choke off those we deprive of fuel. Your life is what you agree to attend to.

Energy, not time, is the fundamental currency of high performance.

To be fully engaged, we must be physically energized, emotionally connected, mentally focused and spiritually aligned with a purpose beyond our immediate self-interest.

Energy, Not Time, Is Our Most Precious Resource