Atom Egoyan Quotes

Lack of clarity is the number-one time-waster. Always be asking, 'What am I trying to do? How am I trying to do it.

I think long and hard about what it is I'm actually trying to do, and then I kind of have to narrow my focus into that. If I don't, I'm too all over the place.

The challenging thing from a work perspective is just the range of things on any given day that you're dealing with and making sure you have the head space to really be giving them the thought and consideration you'd like, too.

You have to ruthlessly prioritize.

There is great power in focusing on what you want..... The person who tries to do everything accomplishes nothing. Most people try to be all things to everyone. And so they end up being nothing to anyone. Confucius nailed the point: "Person who chases two rabbits catches neither."

If there are nine rabbits on the ground and you want to catch one, just focus on one.

There are many things I can do, but I have to narrow it down to the one thing I must do. The secret of concentration is elimination.

When you cannot be deceived by men you will have realised the wisdom of strategy.

What is urgent will always take precedence over what is important.

From a productivity perspective, prioritization is key. And it's very easy to focus on clearing the decks of minutia, especially when one's very busy. It's almost easy to want to sit down at your desk when you have a free five minutes and try to clear out some of the incoming emails rather than strip things strategically and foundationally and ask about what the most important objectives for you and the company are.

I think ultimately it's just time management. You're just doing a lot more stuff. You're doing the same stuff, you're writing and you're producing, but it just comes with a lot of other things. A lot of long term thinking and plotting things out for the future, bringing elements together. I have a lot of support.

There are twenty ways of going to a point, and one is the shortest; but set out at once on one. A man who has that presence of mind which can bring to him on the instant all he knows, is worth for action a dozen men who know as much, but can only bring it to light slowly.

I don't have a belief problem, I have a focusing weakness. I focus on what's loudest instead of what feels best.

It is not true that people who accomplish things don't waste time and that people who waste time don't accomplish things. The very concept is ill-informed. You can't waste time and you can't save time; you can only choose what you do at any given moment.

The fact is that you can't do everything that you have to do. You have to procrastinate on something. Therefore, procrastinate on small tasks.

You have to commit to the what, before the how shows up.

You need to figure out what the 2 or 3 most important things are, and then just do those.

I tend to not have to handle things that are probably gonna end up being irrelevant, that aren't gonna have much to do with the film. I have probably a better understanding of really what does matter, when to pick my battles and when to kind of let them go.

I need to solve the problem. It's no different from how am I going to get my son out the door when he needs to go to school. It's a bigger version of that same type of problem.

The biggest mistakes I've ever made are when I've been rushed. If I'm overwhelmed, I slow down. It's more effective.

Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do.

There's always a project around, but you have to pick and choose.

There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing.

If I have three ideas and I'm working on one more than the others, that sort of tells me that I should work on that one.

He who puts off nothing till tomorrow has done a great deal.