Quotes About Prioritization

thousand details aligned in his head—things he'd see to, people he'd call, decisions he'd make—to

what leads us to procrastinate is not just the actual pleasure from those activities, but more importantly, the pleasure we expect to feel in choosing those activities over another. This is the scientific explanation behind procrastination—we anticipate we're going to feel better doing something else, so we go ahead and do it.

It is essentially an act of avoiding discomfort (i.e. the trouble of doing the intended task) and pursuing pleasure instead (i.e. substituting more enjoyable activities, plus the relief of not having to engage in the intended task).

Finally, one great benefit of mastering "no" is that you give yourself so much more time and energy to pursue what you really care about, i.e. all those things you can say a hearty and resounding yes to!

executives must put the needs of the higher team ahead of the needs of their departments.

If everything is important, then nothing is.

Arthur had been, at best, an indifferent father. When Denise, his daughter with Marietta, was in high school, she had to "make an appointment" with his secretary if she wanted to speak to him,

I don't think the Palestinian people or Afghan children or some other things I'm concerned about are at the top of other people's agendas - not right now, when America is going through such a recession and people are suffering across the board financially. But I think all that will change.

I'm more materialistic about myself than I am about objects

Life got in the way -- two years in the army, work, marriage, family responsibilities, the need to earn more and more money, all the muck that bogs us down when we don't have the balls to stand up for ourselves -- but I had never lost my interest in books.

How much money and time—and attention and emotional energy—should we spend on ourselves, on those close to us, and on strangers?

This perverse moral mathematics is part of the reason why governments and individuals care more about a little girl stuck in a well than about events that will affect millions or billions. It is why outrage at the suffering of a few individuals can lead to actions, such as going to war, that have terrible consequences for many more.

If our concern is driven by thoughts of the suffering of specific individuals, then it sets up a perverse situation in which the suffering of one can matter more than the suffering of a thousand.

Our selectivity in who to care about makes a difference. About twenty years ago, Walter Isaacson expressed his frustration over the American public's focus on the crisis in Somalia and relative disregard of the (objectively greater) tragedy in the Sudan, when he plaintively asked: "Will the world end up rescuing Somalia while ignoring the Sudan mainly because the former proves more photogenic?" Before

Baumeister and John Tierney called Willpower. One piece of advice they offer is that one should be careful not to use up one's willpower on unnecessary tasks. You wouldn't tire out a muscle before a weight-lifting competition, would you?

I carry too much of the week into the Sabbath , and too little of the Sabbath into the week. John Quincy Adams

You have to set limits with "getting there" people, or they will tend to take increasingly large amounts of the energy, time, money, and talent God gave you to accomplish his purposes.

If you put too many things in your need category, you will end up frustrated with life, hurt by others, and doubting God's goodness.

That one special thing that you always wanted to accomplish never gets done because you lived each day under the tyranny of the urgent.

We often think about small decisions more than we need to and about big decisions much less than is optimal for our happiness, such as spending days looking at what colors to paint the walls but only a couple of hours visiting the house we buy.

In general, you should not give up too much happiness for too long (clinging to the mistaken belief that you will be able to recoup the loss at some point later on in life). Don't put off until tomorrow happiness that can be experienced today.

If the bath water is dirty, it can be thrown out without losing the baby!

Everyone by now presumably knows about the danger of premature optimization. I think we should be just as worried about premature design - designing too early what a program should do.

Do you need to "find time to teach"? Of course not---you have a teaching schedule, and you never miss it. [...] Finding time is a destructive way of thinking about writing. Never say this again. Instead of finding time to write, allot time to write.