“Distractions are everywhere. And with the always-on technologies of today, they take a heavy toll on productivity. One study found that office distractions eat an average 2.1 hours a day. Another study, published in October 2005, found that employees spent an average of 11 minutes on a project before being distracted. After an interruption it takes them 25 minutes to return to the original task, if they do at all.” IfsTodayFoundHoursTechnologyStudyMinutesReturnOfficeProjectsTasksOriginalsAverageHeavyProductivityEmployeeDistractionDistractedOctoberTollsInterruptions Author:David Rock
“Who will free me from hurry, flurry, the feeling of a crowd pushing behind me, of being hustled and crushed? How can I regain even for a minute the feeling of ample leisure I had during my early, my creative years? Then I seldom felt fussed, or hurried. There was time for work, for play, for love, the confidence that if a task was not done at the appointed time, I easily could fit it into another hour. I used to take leisure for granted, as I did time itself.” IfsYearsDonePlayFeelingsUsedFeltHoursBehindsCreativeMinutesFitTasksCrowdsGrantedPushingLeisureCrushed Book:Sunset and Twilight: From the Diaries of 1947-1958 Source: Sunset and Twilight: From the Diaries of 1947-1958
“The practice sessions of aspiring champions have a specific and never-changing purpose: Progress. Every second of every minute of every hour, the goal is to extend one's mind and body, to push oneself beyond the outer limits of one's capacities, to engage so deeply in the task that one leaves the training session, literally, a changed person.” MindPersonsBodyMotivationalPurposeSportsGoalHoursPracticeProgressMinutesChangedLimitsSelf ImprovementTrainingCapacityTasksOneselfImprovementChampionMasterySessionMind And BodyExpertiseEvery SecondOuter LimitsChanged Person Author:Matthew Syed
“I love idleness. I love to busy myself about trifles, to begin a hundred things and not finish one of them, to come and go as my fancy bids me, to change my plan every moment, to follow a fly in all its circlings, to try and uproot a rock to see what is underneath, eagerly to begin a ten-years' task to give it up after ten minutes: in short, to fritter away the whole day inconsequentially and incoherently, and to follow nothing but the whim of the moment.” GivingTryingYearsWholeMomentsPlansMinutesRocksTenHundredTasksBusyFancyIdlenessComes And GoesTriflesWhim Author:Jean-Jacques Rousseau
“The idea that we are "stewards of the earth" is another symptom of human arrogance. Imagine yourself with the task of overseeing your body's physical processes. Do you understand the way it works well enough to keep all its systems in operation? Can you make your kidneys function? Can you control the removal of waste? Are you conscious of the blood flow through your arteries, or the fact that you are losing a hundred thousand skin cells a minute?” WayHumansWellsIdeasEnoughFactsBodyEarthProcessImagineBloodMinutesThousandWasteLosingConsciousHundredFlowTasksSkinsFunctionEnvironmentalYour BodyCellsOperationsArroganceSymptomsStewardshipRemovalKidneysStewardsArteriesBlood FlowOverseeing Author:Lynn Margulis
“I always try to do the most important or urgent tasks first, I avoid waiting till the last minute to finish things, and I value my time. I work smarter by valuing my time and doing the things that can't be done without me while hiring a great team around me to do the rest of the things.” TryingFirstsImportantDoneLastsValuesWaitingTeamMinutesTasksMy TimeSmarterUrgentHiringGreat TeamLast Minute Author:Jeet Banerjee
“Observe that for the programmer, as for the chef, the urgency of the patron may govern the scheduled completion of the task, but it cannot govern the actual completion. An omelette, promised in two minutes, may appear to be progressing nicely. But when it has not set in two minutes, the customer has two choices - wait or eat it raw. Software customers have had the same choices.” MayTwoChoicesWaitingProgressMinutesTasksCustomersSoftwareChefProgrammersUrgencyCompletionPatronTwo Choices Author:Fred Brooks
“When I post a review to book-blog.com it probably takes me - apart from writing the review, of course - 20 or 30 minutes to finish all my related tasks.But that's irregular, depending on how quickly I'm reading.” WritingBookCoursesReadingMinutesTasksPostsRelatedReviewsTake MeBlogs Author:Debra Hamel