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Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most QUOTES

Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most QUOTES

1 " What job have I hired this grudge to do? "

― Greg McKeown , Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most

2 " Life doesn't have to be as hard and complicated as we make it. Each of us has -- as Robert Frost wrote -- "Promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep." No matter what challenges, obstacles or hardships we encounter along the way, we can always look for the easier, simpler path. "

― Greg McKeown , Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most

3 " Perfectionism makes essential projects hard to start, self-doubt makes them hard to finish, and trying to do too much, too fast, makes it hard to sustain momentum. "

― Greg McKeown , Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most

4 " Strangely, some of us respond to feeling exhausted and overwhelmed by vowing to work even harder and longer. It doesn’t help that our culture glorifies burnout as a measure of success and self-worth. The implicit message is that if we aren’t perpetually exhausted, we must not be doing enough. That great things are reserved for those who bleed, for those who almost break. Crushing volume is somehow now the goal. Burnout is not a badge of honor. "

― Greg McKeown , Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most

5 " the complexity of modern life has created a false dichotomy between things that are “essential and hard” and things that are “easy and trivial. "

― Greg McKeown , Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most

6 " Past a certain point, more effort doesn’t produce better performance. It sabotages our performance. Economists call this the law of diminishing returns: "

― Greg McKeown , Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most

7 " If you want to make something hard, indeed truly impossible, to complete, all you have to do is make the end goal as vague as possible. "

― Greg McKeown , Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most

8 " By pairing essential activities with enjoyable ones, we can make tackling even the most tedious and overwhelming tasks more effortless. "

― Greg McKeown , Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most

9 " Do not do more today than you can completely recover from today. Do not do more this week than you can completely recover from this week. "

― Greg McKeown , Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most

10 " In order to succeed at something, you have to get it done. "

― Greg McKeown , Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most

11 " To avoid diminishing returns on your time and effort, establish clear conditions for what “done” looks like, get there, then stop. "

― Greg McKeown , Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most

12 " A Done for the Day list is not a list of everything we theoretically could do today, or a list of everything we would love to get done. These things will inevitably extend far beyond the limited time available. Instead, this is a list of what will constitute meaningful and essential progress. "

― Greg McKeown , Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most

13 " What if, rather than fighting our preprogrammed instinct to seek the easiest path, we could embrace it, even use it to our advantage? What if, instead of asking, “How can I tackle this really hard but essential project?,” we simply inverted the question and asked, “What if this essential project could be made easy? "

― Greg McKeown , Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most

14 " There is no such thing as an effortless relationship. But there are ways we can make it easier to keep a relationship strong. We don’t need to agree with the other person on everything. But we do need to be present with them, to really notice them, to give them our full attention—maybe not always, but as frequently as we can. "

― Greg McKeown , Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most

15 " What is the Effortless State? The Effortless State is an experience many of us have had when we are physically rested, emotionally unburdened, and mentally energized. You are completely aware, alert, present, attentive, and focused on what’s important in this moment. You are able to focus on what matters most with ease. "

― Greg McKeown , Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most

16 " Getting more sleep may be the single greatest gift we can give our bodies, our minds, and even, it turns out, our bottom lines. "

― Greg McKeown , Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most

17 " aspects of health; even if we manage a full night’s sleep, unless enough of that sleep is in a deep state, we’ll suffer from sleep deprivation. Unlike in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, in the deep sleep stage, your body and brain waves slow down. This is the stage where information is stored in long-term memory, learning and emotions are processed, the immune system is energized, and the body recovers. Healthy adults spend an average of 13 to 23 percent of their night in deep sleep. So if you sleep for seven hours, that translates to just fifty to one hundred minutes in a deep state. Each minute, in other words, is precious. "

― Greg McKeown , Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most

18 " Reading a book is among the most high-leverage activities on earth. "

― Greg McKeown , Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most

19 " Gaining unique knowledge takes time, dedication, and effort. But invest in it once, and you’ll attract opportunities for the rest of your life. "

― Greg McKeown , Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most

20 " Remember: When you focus on what you lack, you lose what you have. When you focus on what you have, you get what you lack. Use this "

― Greg McKeown , Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most