"Focus" by Leo Babauta

• Our ability to focus will allow us to create in ways that perhaps we haven't in years.
• It's not that "less is more", but "less is better".
• Focusing on smaller things will make us more effective.
• With so much competing for our attention, and so little time to focus on real work, it's a wonder we get anything done at all.
• There's instant positive feedback to such constant activities as checking email, surfing the web, checking social networks such as blogs, forums, twitter and facebook. That's why it's so easy to become addicted to being connected and distracted.
• Computers are taking over our lives.
• Being connected all the time, being part of this constant stream of distraction, is an expectation that society now has of us.
• If you're someone who creates, in any way, focus should be important to you.
• Focus is crucial to those who create, because creating is so difficult without it.
• Creating is a completely separate process from consuming and communicating.
• Separate your day: a time for creating, and a time for consuming and communicating. And never the twain shall meet.
• Quiet and solitude and reflection lead to greater happiness when they're a part of our daily lives, at least in some degree.
• A good policy is to leave your work behind when you're done with work.
• Like any addiction, connection has very quick positive reinforcements and only long-term negative consequences.
• If the new habit is something you don't enjoy, you'll quit before long.
• One of the powerful things about rituals is that we often give them a special importance.
• Single-task on this [most] important task as long as you can--ideally until it's done.
• The more connected a person becomes on the internet, the more distractions they face in their day.
• Choose what you consume and how much you communicate carefully.
• Limit your stream to only the most essential information and communications, and you'll free up hours of time for creating and doing amazing things.
• I suggest starting from scratch. Assume that nothing is sacred, empty your plate, and only put back on it what you absolutely need or love. Let the rest fade away.
• It's crucial that you admit to yourself: you can't read and consume everything.
• Try eliminating at least one thing each day.
• Slowly reduce your stream, leaving only the essential.
• Just as importantly, reduce the time you spend using the essentials.
• Place limits on the time you spend reading and communicating--a small limit for each channel. The smaller the overall limit, the better.
• The need to keep up consumes much of our day, and creates a kind of anxiety our minds barely register.
• This obsession with keeping up with information takes away from the things that are most important to us.
• Examine each fear individually and test them.
• When we shine a light on our fears, they lose power. When we test them to see their validity, they will usually fail, and we can overcome them.
• If something really bad is happening, we'll know.
• Get your task list out of your inbox.
• Do your work with your email closed.
• What tasks will have the most impact on your life and work, rather than just seeming urgent right now?
• Remember that urges are only temporary.
• Each distraction fills a need in some way. You do the distraction for a reason.
• The only way to beat fears is to face them, and confront them with facts.
• Slowing down and focusing is always more effective.
• Rushing produces errors.
• When you appreciate things, you enjoy them more.
• Life as a whole is better if you go slowly, and take time to savor it, appreciate every moment.
• Take responsibility for your life.
• Your environment doesn't control your life, you do.
• Do less.
• Meetings are usually a big waste of time.
• Life is better when un-rushed.
• It helps to see things as funny, rather than frustrating.
• Accept that the world is constantly changing, and we are a part of that change.
• Be like water. Flow, respond to the landscape, move around obstacles, and be graceful in your movement.
• Learn to let things unfold naturally instead of pushing them to happen.
• If you have too many tasks, the solution is too simplify your task list.
• Early in the day, focus on the important tasks.
• If you're dreading a task, put it aside for now, and pick something more interesting.
• When you simplify, you remove the extraneous and allow yourself to focus.
• The key is to find what matters most to you, and to eliminate as much of the rest as possible.
• A simpler life probably means fewer possessions.
• You have to learn to say "no" to others.
• Focus on fewer but higher-impact tasks.
• It's crucial that you take a step back and figure out what's most important to you.
• Take 10 minutes a day to simplify your commitments, what you do, and what comes in to your life.
• Every day, first thing in the morning, figure out something amazing that you want to work on today.
• Multi-tasking is less efficient, due to the need to switch gears for each new task, and the switch back again.
• Pick just a few tasks each day.
• Don't do anything else before doing the first thing on your short list of most important tasks.
• Keep things simple, focused and effective by single-tasking. Focus on one task until it's done, then move to the next.
• Keep a very short to-do list, clear distractions, do one thing at a time, until the list is finished. That's single-tasking productivity at its essence.
• The best companies are those with laser focus. They do less, but they do it better.
• A narrower focus allows you to do a better job--to be better than anyone else, perhaps, at the narrower thing that you're good at.
• One of the biggest problems many people have in their careers, with work projects, with their businesses, is too broad of a focus.
• Slowly do less, one thing at a time, and you'll see how it can transform your work.
• There are two keys to reading longer pieces or books: 1) clearing away everything else, and 2) shutting off the internet.
• The simple act of walking can be a tremendous boost to your focus, productivity, clarity of mind, not to mention your health and waistline.
• Staff or coworkers only interrupt you because they have the expectation that you'll respond and that it's OK to interrupt you at any time.
• When we try to push others to make changes, they often resist.
• Busywork isn't important work.
• Create an environment where focus is possible.