“Instead of trying to budget your time on the basis of existing commitments, assume that all bets are off. All previous commitments are gone. Then begin from scratch, asking which you would add today. You can do this with everything from the financial obligations you have to projects you are committed to, even relationships you are in. Every use of time, energy, or resources has to justify itself anew. If it no longer fits, eliminate it altogether.”
Greg McKeown, Essentialism (Page 152)
“Half of the troubles of this life can be traced to saying yes too quickly and not saying no soon enough.”
Josh Billings, via Essentialism (Page 145)
“When you say no, there is usually a short-term impact on the relationship. After all, when someone asks for something and doesn’t get it, his or her immediate reaction may be annoyance or disappointment or even anger. This downside is clear. The potential upside, however, is less obvious: when the initial annoyance or disappointment or anger wears off, the respect kicks in. When we push back effectively, it shows people that our time is highly valuable. It distinguishes the professional from the amateur.”
Greg McKeown, Essentialism (Page 138)
“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?’ The cumulative impact of this small change in thinking can be profound.”
Greg McKeown, Essentialism (Page 56)
“Everything changes when we give ourselves permission to be more selective in what we choose to do. At once, we hold the key to unlock the next level of achievement in our lives. There is tremendous freedom in learning that we can eliminate the nonessentials, that we are no longer controlled by other people’s agendas, and that we get to choose. With that invincible power we can discover our highest point of contribution, not just to our lives or careers, but to the world.”
Greg McKeown, Essentialism (Page 25)
“In the same way that our closets get cluttered as clothes we never wear accumulate, so do our lives get cluttered as well-intended commitments and activities we’ve said yes to pile up. Most of these efforts didn’t come with an expiration date. Unless we have a system for purging them, once adopted, they live on in perpetuity.”
Greg McKeown, Essentialism (Page 17)
“When we don’t purposefully and deliberately choose where to focus our energies and time, other people—our bosses, our colleagues, our clients, and even our families—will choose for us, and before long we’ll have lost sight of everything that is meaningful and important. We can either make our choices deliberately or allow other people’s agendas to control our lives.”
Greg McKeown, Essentialism (Page 16)
Essentialism [Book]
Book Overview: Essentialism is more than a time-management strategy or a productivity technique. It is a systematic discipline for discerning what is absolutely essential, then eliminating everything that is not, so we can make the highest possible contribution toward the things that really matter. By forcing us to apply more selective criteria for what is Essential, the disciplined pursuit of less empowers us to reclaim control of our own choices about where to spend our precious time and energy—instead of giving others the implicit permission to choose for us. Essentialism is not one more thing—it’s a whole new way of doing everything. It’s about doing less, but better, in every area of our lives. Essentialism is a movement whose time has come.
Post(s) Inspired by this Book:
23 Greg McKeown Quotes from Essentialism and How To Live Better Via Less
15 Aytekin Tank Quotes from Automate Your Busywork To Help You Reclaim Your Time
Excerpt: So much of our time is lost each day to silly, tedious, annoying busywork. Our quotes from Automate Your Busywork will show you a better way.
Read More »15 Aytekin Tank Quotes from Automate Your Busywork To Help You Reclaim Your Time
Automate Your Busywork [Book]
Book Overview: Do Less, Achieve More, and Save Your Brain for the Big Stuff. In this book, entrepreneur, founder, and CEO of Jotform—Aytekin Tank delivers a can’t-miss blueprint to help you make the most of your most precious asset: time. You’ll explore what’s possible when you offload repetitive tasks, why automation has democratized innovation, and how you can use cheap―or even completely free―no-code automation tools to transform your ability to focus on what truly matters in your business and life.
Post(s) Inspired by this Book:
15 Aytekin Tank Quotes from Automate Your Busywork To Help You Reclaim Your Time
“You can’t necessarily automate your happiness. But you can use automation to give you more time to follow your bliss—whatever that looks like for you.”
Aytekin Tank, Automate Your Busywork (Page 168)
“Climate change, human rights issues, political polarization, loneliness, and isolation. These are just a few of the challenges we need to solve together—and it will take smart, creative, empathetic people to find workable solutions. The less time you spend on mundane tasks like email, the more time you have to unleash your imagination.”
Aytekin Tank, Automate Your Busywork (Page 158)
“There’s a poetic beauty in imagining that all the whispered conversations, cups of coffee, and daily minutiae add up to create a rich and textured story. Then there’s the reality of modern life: emails, chat notifications, system backups, and taxes. Our digital world has empowered us to accomplish so much, yet, many of us are proportionately beholden to electronic tools and tedious processes. My goal [is] to loosen their grip, to help you find more space and freedom.”
Aytekin Tank, Automate Your Busywork (Page 137)
“Know how to leave things alone, for if knowing how to refuse is one of life’s great lessons, an even greater one is knowing how to say no to yourself, to important people, and in business. There are non-essential activities, moths of precious time, and it’s worse to take an interest in irrelevant things than to do nothing at all.”
Baltasar Gracian
“No one will eliminate busywork for you. It’s your responsibility to create space in your work(day), and automation can make it happen.”
Aytekin Tank, Automate Your Busywork (Page 29)