John W. Rogers Jr. Quotes

I once tried thinking for an entire day, but I found it less valuable than one moment of study.

Focus is a matter of deciding what things you're not going to do.

I procrastinate so much and I get distracted by anything.

Stay focused, ignore the distractions, and you will accomplish your goals much faster.

I just have to be super strong when it comes to my work time. Shut the browser, ignore the email alerts, and just WRITE.

Nothing is more dangerous than to stop working. It is a habit that can soon be lost, one that is easily neglected and hard to resume. A measure of day-dreaming is a good thing, like a drug prudently used ... But too much submerges and drowns. Woe to the intellectual worker who allows himself to lapse wholly from positive thinking into day-dreaming. He thinks he can easily change back, and tells himself that it is all one. He is wrong! To substitute day-dreaming for thought is to confuse poison with a source of nourishment.

You need to get one thing done well, or else you don't have permission to do anything else.

When I'm working, I'm going to avoid all media. No newspapers, no magazines, no movies, no radio, no TV. I'm just going to do creative work.

For writing, getting off our buts means getting on our butts-putting it into a chair and not moving from the chair for a set period of time.

The greatest enemy of good thinking is busyness.

Don't think to hunt two hares with one dog.

People put on their earphones, they lay out their phones, they put - open up their computers, and they convince themselves that they're most productive when they're focused on their e-mail, when, really, they're ignoring the cafeteria, the watercooler, the meetings with colleagues, the times when really the creativity, collaboration happens.

When it's time to focus in and play ball during the season, 100% of my focus is on that. When it's the offseason and I've got time to be away and I can do other interests - they don't conflict. I'm good at compartmentalizing. I can put everything in its appropriate box at the time and open it up when I need to at a later time.

Stop managing your time. Start managing your focus.

I am busy with my work. My path is clear.

I pick what are my priorities and I limit those priorities to less than five in my life and really in those particular areas put in the energy to try to make good choices.

One thing about mildly dyslexic people - they're good at setting everything else aside to pursue one goal.

Don’t let people interfere with you. Boot ’em out, turn off the phone, hide away, get it done. If you carry a short story over to the next day you may overnight intellectualize something about it and try to make it too fancy, try to please someone.

It is better to be fully present and rested and engaged for one thing than rushed, distracted, and scattered for ten.

You've just got to focus on what you have to do.

My writing process has changed because it's harder to find uninterrupted time.

Work on one thing at a time until finished.

Do one thing at a time. Start the day with a list of things you have to do, and do the most important things first.

Staying focused on a project or plan is one of the most difficult challenges we face. There is always the house to clean, calls to make, laundry to fold, deadlines to meet. Actually, there is only one thing that keeps us from our goals - lack of focus. And very often, lack of focus is caused by fear.