Focal Point

The first requisite of success is the ability to apply your physical and mental energies to one problem without growing weary.

Good habits are hard to develop but easy to live with; bad habits are easy to develop but hard to live with. The habits you have and the habits that have you will determine almost everything you achieve or fail to achieve.

form our habits, and then our habits form us.

The law of increasing returns says that the more you focus on doing the few things that represent the most valuable use of your time, the better you become at those activities and the less time it takes you to accomplish each one.

When you observe yourself engaging in any activity, you become more conscious and aware of that activity, and you do it better.

Your ability to divert your attention from activities of lower value to activities of higher value is central to everything you accomplish in life.

You do not escape responsibility by attempting to pass it off onto other people. You are still responsible. But you give up a sense of control over your life. You begin to feel like a victim and see yourself as a victim. You become passive and resigned rather than powerful and proactive. Instead of feeling on top of your world, you feel as if the world is on top of you. This way of thinking leads you into a blind alley from which there is no escape. It is a dead-end road on which you should refuse to travel.

Today, you are paid for accomplishments, not activities. You are paid for outcomes rather than for inputs, or the number of hours you work. Your rewards are determined by the quality and quantity of results you achieve in your area of responsibility. This change in the paradigm of work opens up unlimited opportunities for creative people who recognize it and capitalize on it.

Effective people plan their time in tight time segments. They think in terms of ten- and fifteen-minute blocks

The daily habits of planning, setting priorities, and then starting with your highest-value task will do more to help you than perhaps anything else in time management