Alternating periods of activity and rest is necessary to survive, let alone thrive. Capacity, interest, and mental endurance all wax and wane. Plan accordingly.

I hope you find the strength to say no when it matters most. I’m striving for the same, and only time will tell if I pull it off.

Once you reach a decent level of professional success, lack of opportunity won’t kill you. It’s drowning in 7-out-of-10 “cool” commitments that will sink the ship.

To develop your edge initially, you learn to set priorities; to maintain your edge, you need to defend against the priorities of others.

Saying yes to too much “cool” will bury you alive and render you a B-player, even if you have A-player skills.

I was once refused for a lunch date with a very famous tech investor and he said, ‘Sorry, I’m on a no-meeting diet for the next month and I have a policy of saying no to all meetings’. So I started using a ‘no conference call diet’ and people just rolled with it. It was incredible. There was no feedback, no push-back.

If I’m “busy,” it is because I’ve made choices that put me in that position, so I’ve forbidden myself to reply to “How are you?” with “Busy.” I have no right to complain. Instead, if I’m too busy, it’s a cue to reexamine my systems and rules.

Being busy is most often used as a guise for avoiding the few critically important but uncomfortable actions.

Doing less is not being lazy. Don’t give in to a culture that values personal sacrifice over personal productivity.

People don’t lose in various aspects of their lives because they pursue a lot of bad ideas. They lose because they say yes to too many ‘kinda cool’ things/ideas.

Create slack, as no one will give it to you. This is the only way to swim forward instead of treading water.

The world doesn’t even hiccup, much less end, when you cut the information umbilical cord.

No newspapers, magazines, audiobooks, or nonmusic radio. Musicis permitted at all times. No news websites whatsoever (cnn.com, drudgereport.com, msn.com,10 etc.). No television at all, except for one hour of pleasure viewing each evening. No reading books, except for this book and one hour of fiction11 pleasure reading prior to bed. No web surfing at the desk unless it is necessary to complete a work task for that day. Necessary means necessary, not nice to have.

My agenda became a list of everyone else’s agendas.

What bullshit excuses do you have for not going after whatever it is that you want?

Blaming idiots for interruptions is like blaming clowns for scaring children – they can’t help it. It’s their nature. Then again, I had, on occasion, been known to create interruptions out of thin air. If you’re anything like me, that makes us both occasional idiots. Learn to recognize and fight the interruption impulse. This is infinitely easier when you have a set of rules, responses, and routines to follow.

It’s hip to focus on getting things done, but it’s only possible once we remove the constant static and distraction.

Schedule things in advance, or you might be inclined to quit. A lot of standup comedians do this, because they may have six or 12 gigs before they do their first set well. Commit beforehand; prepay if you can.

In a world of distraction and multitasking, the ability to single task — to genuinely do one thing without getting distracted by push notifications, alerts, email, text messages, social media, whatever it might be — is a super power.

It is imperative that you learn to ignore or redirect all information and interruptions that are irrelevant, unimportant, or unactionable. Most are all three.

If we’re talking about just distractions, we’re talking about prioritization. If you feel like you don’t have time, you don’t have priorities. Everyone has the same amount of time.

I value self-discipline, but creating systems that make it next to impossible to misbehave is more reliable than self-control.

I value self-discipline, but creating systems that make it next to impossible to misbehave is more reliable than self-control.

The decent method you follow is better than the perfect method you quit.