Chris Bailey Quotes

Determine the foremost meaningful tasks in your work and life. Use the Rule of 3 on a daily and weekly basis.

choose a productive or meaningful object of attention; eliminate as many external and internal distractions as you can; focus on that chosen object of attention; and continually draw your focus back to that one object of attention.

the more aversive (unattractive) a task or project is to you, the more likely you are to put it off.

The state of your attentional space determines the state of your life. When your attentional space is overwhelmed, you, in turn, feel overwhelmed. When your attentional space is clear, you also feel clear. The tidier you keep your attentional space, the more clearly you think.

ingredients of productivity — time, attention, and energy

The dread of doing a task uses up more time and energy than doing the task itself.

by focusing deeply on just one important thing at a time — hyperfocusing — we become the most productive version of ourselves.

I learned the hard way how to step out of the time economy and into the knowledge economy to become more productive.

Create a distraction-free mode for your team. Dale Partridge, author of People Over Profit, went as far as to equip his team with lamps and squirt guns to encourage them to focus when he was CEO of Sevenly. As he explained to me, “One of the smartest things I did at Sevenly was to build custom walnut desk lamps for the entire team. They turned them on whenever they wanted to focus, and the rule was that no one was allowed to interrupt them when their lamp was on. All forty-five employees were allowed to have up to three hours of uninterrupted focus time per day — we had to limit it because that uninterrupted time was so addictive! I also equipped everyone with a squirt gun they could spray each other with when they were interrupted.

We are what we pay attention to.

Productivity isn’t about how busy or efficient you are — it’s about how much you accomplish

just because we’re busier doesn’t mean we’re getting more accomplished.

Landscape architects call these paths “desire paths.

Ask yourself: After consuming one of those products, will you be happy with how you invested your time and attention?

Directing your attention toward the most important object of your choosing — and then sustaining that attention — is the most consequential decision we will make throughout the day. We are what we pay attention to.