This book is all about doing the hardest thing in your day first so that if you don't get to much else, at least you've got the hardest things done. While I felt it was a rehash of many of the ideas I've read about in productivity books, there are a few new ideas and it's a relatively quick read.
- [[There will always be more to do than you can accomplish 131020211323]] Loc 116
- You can get control of your tasks and activities only to the degree that you stop doing some things and start spending more time on the few activities that can really make a difference in your life. ([Location 119](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01MYEM8SZ&location=119)) ^024ebf
- Throughout my career, I have discovered and rediscovered a simple truth. The ability to concentrate single-mindedly on your most important task, to do it well and to finish it completely, is the key to great success, achievement, respect, status, and happiness in life. This key insight is the heart and soul of this book. ([Location 151](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01MYEM8SZ&location=151))
- An average person who develops the habit of setting clear priorities and getting important tasks completed quickly will run circles around a genius who talks a lot and makes wonderful plans but who gets very little done. ([Location 174](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01MYEM8SZ&location=174))
- Your “frog” is your biggest, most important task, the one you are most likely to procrastinate on if you don’t do something about it. It is also the one task that can have the greatest positive impact on your life and results at the moment. ([Location 178](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01MYEM8SZ&location=178))
- Successful, effective people are those who launch directly into their major tasks and then discipline themselves to work steadily and single-mindedly until those tasks are complete. ([Location 191](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01MYEM8SZ&location=191))
- A major reason for procrastination and lack of motivation is vagueness, confusion, and fuzzy-mindedness about what you are trying to do and in what order and for what reason. ([Location 235](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01MYEM8SZ&location=235))
- One of the very worst uses of time is to do something very well that need not be done at all. ([Location 245](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01MYEM8SZ&location=245))
- Often, a single task can be worth more than all the other nine items put together. This task is invariably the frog that you should eat first. ([Location 350](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01MYEM8SZ&location=350))
- The fact is, the time required to complete an important job is often the same as the time required to do an unimportant job. The difference is that you get a tremendous feeling of pride and satisfaction from completing something valuable and significant. However, when you complete a low-value task using the same amount of time and energy, you get little or no satisfaction. ([Location 368](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01MYEM8SZ&location=368))
- The mark of the superior thinker is his or her ability to accurately predict the consequences of doing or not doing something. ([Location 384](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01MYEM8SZ&location=384))
- Successful people are those who are willing to delay gratification and make sacrifices in the short term so that they can enjoy far greater rewards in the long term. ([Location 402](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01MYEM8SZ&location=402))
- The fact is that you can’t do everything that you have to do. You have to procrastinate on something. Therefore, deliberately and consciously procrastinate on small tasks. ([Location 469](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01MYEM8SZ&location=469))
- The starting point of high performance is for you to identify the key result areas of your work. Discuss them with your boss. Make a list of your most important output responsibilities, and make sure that the people above you, on the same level as you, and below you are in agreement with it. ([Location 568](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01MYEM8SZ&location=568))
- Your rewards, both financial and emotional, will always be in direct proportion to your results, to the value of your contribution. If you want to increase your rewards, you must focus on increasing the value of what you do. You must dedicate yourself to contributing more results to your company. ([Location 640](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01MYEM8SZ&location=640))
- A major reason for procrastination is a feeling of inadequacy, a lack of confidence, or an inability in a key area of a task. Feeling weak or deficient in a single area is enough to discourage you from starting the job at all. Continually ([Location 762](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01MYEM8SZ&location=762))
- The world is full of people who are waiting for someone to come along and motivate them to be the kind of people they wish they could be. The problem is that no one is coming to the rescue. ([Location 853](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01MYEM8SZ&location=853))
- Note: so what are you going to do about it?
- Most of your emotions, positive or negative, are determined by how you talk to yourself on a minute-to-minute basis. It is not what happens to you but the way that you interpret the things that are happening to you that determines how you feel. ([Location 886](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01MYEM8SZ&location=886))
- Note: so how do you deal with thing
- Technology can be your best friend or your worst enemy. Technology becomes the enemy when we give in to an obsessive need to communicate continually. This compulsion to stay plugged in leaves us all psychologically breathless. We have no time to stop, smell the roses, and collect our thoughts. ([Location 923](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01MYEM8SZ&location=923))
- The purpose of technology is to make your life smoother and easier, not to create complexity, confusion, and stress. ([Location 969](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01MYEM8SZ&location=969))
- The “attraction of distraction,” the lure of electronic and other interruptions, leads to diffused attention, a wandering mind, a lack of focus, and, ultimately, under-achievement and failure. ([Location 1018](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01MYEM8SZ&location=1018))
- Most of the really important work you do requires large chunks of unbroken time to complete. Your ability to carve out and use these blocks of high-value, highly productive time is central to your ability to make a significant contribution to your work and to your life. ([Location 1088](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01MYEM8SZ&location=1088))
- Perhaps the most outwardly identifiable quality of high-performing men and women is action orientation. They are in a hurry to get their key tasks completed. ([Location 1119](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01MYEM8SZ&location=1119))
- The truth is that once you have decided on your number one task, anything else that you do other than that is a relative waste of time. ([Location 1173](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01MYEM8SZ&location=1173))
