It isn't enough to think outside the box. Thinking is passive. Get used to acting outside the box.
Tim FerrissRead
Never check email first thing in the morning. Instead, complete your most important task before 11:00 A.M. to avoid using lunch or reading email as a postponement excuse.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Focus on your most important tasks early in the day to maintain productivity.
This quote emphasizes the importance of starting your day by prioritizing your most significant task rather than getting distracted by emails or other less important activities. By completing your crucial tasks before 11:00 A.M., you set a productive tone for the day and minimize potential procrastination during lunch or throughout the afternoon.
Themes
ProductivityMorning RoutinePrioritizationTime ManagementFocus
In practice
Example use cases
This quote is perfect for a motivational speech on productivity at a corporate meeting.
More from Tim Ferriss
All quotes →The way we measure productivity is flawed. People checking their BlackBerry over dinner is not the measure of productivity.
Tim FerrissRead
It's just astonishing to me, but not surprising in some respects, how dependent we are on the somewhat meaningless and certainly ephemeral feedback that we get from strangers on the Internet. I think that's a dangerous dependence to develop.
Tim FerrissRead
I always point people to the article '1,000 True Fans' by Kevin Kelly. If you choose your thousand ideal customers or readers properly and find the single author blog that targets that audience, you never have to do any more marketing. You're done. That is a lesson that very few product developers and marketers have learned, and it's unfortunate.
Tim FerrissRead
By using money as the scapegoat and work as our all-consuming routine, we are able to conveniently disallow ourselves to do otherwise: 'John, I'd love to talk about the gaping void I feel in my life, the hopelessness that hits me like a punch in the eye every time I start my computer in the morning, but I have so much work to do! I've got at least three hours of unimportant email to reply to before calling prospects who said 'no' yesterday. Gotta run!
Tim FerrissRead
Being busy is a form of laziness - lazy thinking and indiscriminate action. Being busy is most often used as a guise for avoiding the few critically important but uncomfortable actions.
Tim FerrissRead
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