Jon > Jon's Quotes

“Remember that if you don’t prioritize your life someone else will.”
― Greg Mckeown, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

“You cannot overestimate the unimportance of practically everything.”
― Greg McKeown, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

“Essentialists see trade-offs as an inherent part of life, not as an inherently negative part of life. Instead of asking, “What do I have to give up?” they ask, “What do I want to go big on?”
― Greg McKeown, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

“Today, technology has lowered the barrier for others to share their opinion about what we should be focusing on. It is not just information overload; it is opinion overload.”
― Greg McKeown, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

“If it isn’t a clear yes, then it’s a clear no.”
― Greg McKeown, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

“Just because I was invited didn’t seem a good enough reason to attend.”
― Greg McKeown, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

“the killer question: “If I didn’t already own this, how much would I spend to buy it?”
― Greg McKeown, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

“The reality is, saying yes to any opportunity by definition requires saying no to several others.”
― Greg McKeown, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

“Every time you check your email or another message service, you’re basically saying, “Does any random person need my time right now?”
― Jake Knapp, Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day

“Every distraction imposes a cost on the depth of your focus. When your brain changes contexts—say, going from painting a picture to answering a text and then back to painting again—there’s a switching cost. Your brain has to load a different set of rules and information into working memory. This “boot up” costs at least a few minutes, and for complex tasks, it can take even longer. The two of us have found it can take a couple of hours of uninterrupted writing before we’re doing our best work; sometimes it even requires several consecutive days before we’re in the zone.”
― Jake Knapp, Make Time: How to focus on what matters every day

“something magic happens when you start the day with one high-priority goal.”
― Jake Knapp, Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day

“Regrets of the Dying.” She shared the five most common regrets of the people she had come to know: 1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. (“Most people had not honoured even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made.”) 2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard. 3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings. (“Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others.”) 4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends. 5. I wish that I had let myself be happier. (“Many did not realize until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits.”)”
― Chip Heath, The Power of Moments: Why Certain Moments Have Extraordinary Impact