Quotes About Efficiency

most cold calls didn't get to the intended person for one reason: gatekeepers. If I simply made all my calls from 8:00–8:30 A.M. and 6:00–6:30 P.M., for a total of one hour, I was able to avoid secretaries and book more than twice as many meetings

What would this look like if it were easy?

Being busy is a form of laziness—lazy thinking and indiscriminate action. Being busy is most often used as a guise for avoiding the few critically important but uncomfortable actions.

What would this look like if it were easy? "This" could be anything. That morning, it was answering a laundry list of big questions. What would this look like if it were easy? is such a lovely and deceptively leveraged question. It's easy to convince yourself that things need to be hard, that if you're not redlining, you're not trying hard enough. This leads us to look for paths of most resistance, often creating unnecessary hardship in the process.

La visión consiste en entregar la responsabilidad a los trabajadores, darles toda la información sobre lo que ocurre para que puedan hacer más de lo que han hecho hasta el momento.» BILL GATES,

When in doubt or overwhelmed, take a break and 80/20 both business and personal activities and relationships.

Different is better when it is more effective or more fun. If

Before spending time on a stress-inducing question or problem, consider this: If you can't define it or act upon it, forget it.

This is very similar to Derek Sivers's (page 184) "Don't be a donkey" rule. In a world of distraction, single-tasking is a superpower.

OrbiTape One-handed Tape Measure

Perfection is not when there is no more to add, but no more to take away." –Antoine de Saint-Exupéry French writer, author of The Little Prince

This doesn't mean you want to spend your time doing it. If you spend your time, worth $20–25 per hour, doing something that someone else will do for $10 per hour, it's simply a poor use of resources. It is important to take baby steps toward paying others to do work for you.

It is vain to do with more what can be done with less. —WILLIAM OF OCCAM (1300–1350), originator of "Occam's Razor

THE KEY TO having more time is doing less, and there are two paths to getting there, both of which should be used together: (1) Define a to-do list and (2) define a not-to

In my case, I use spam filters, autoresponders with FAQs, and automatic forwarding to outsourcers to limit my e-mail obligation to 10–20 e-mail responses per week. It takes me 30 minutes per week because I used systems—elimination and automation—to make it so.

The really efficient laborer will be found not to crowd his day with work, but will saunter to his task surrounded by a wide halo of ease and leisure. There will be a wide margin for relaxation to his day. He is only earnest to secure the kernels of time, and does not exaggerate the value of the husk.

What might you do to accomplish your 10-year goals in the next 6 months, if you had a gun against your head?

La gente lista debería hacer cosas».

many forms of meditation in the world. Like when I study and work really hard, where it takes the ultimate amount of concentration, I can only do it for 45 minutes, maybe an hour. "I also figured out that I could use my workouts as a form of meditation because I concentrate so much on the muscle, I have my mind inside the

expulsamos a un par de jefes de cada equipo SEAL por su incapacidad para mandar.

First of all, if we're serious all the time, we'll wear out before we get the truly serious stuff done. Second, if this book were all stern looks and no winks, all productivity and no grab-assing, you'd remember very little. I agree with Tony Robbins (page 210) that information without emotion isn't retained.

Then, I did what I often do—whether considering a business decision, personal relationship, or otherwise—I asked myself the one question that helps answer many others . . . What would this look like if it were easy?

Ramit builds checklists for as many business processes as possible, which he organizes using software called Basecamp. Google "entrepreneurial bus count" for a good article on why checklists can save your startup.

Effectiveness is doing the things that get you closer to your goals. Efficiency is performing a given task (whether important or not) in the most economical manner possible. Being efficient without regard to effectiveness is the default mode of the universe.