Quintilian Quotes

I'm usually two projects ahead. It's hard for me because I don't have a really long attention span.

I'll always be working on five things at once, usually with those documents open at the same time because if I get stuck somewhere I'll jump over to something else. That's how my head has always worked.

Even though we think we're getting a lot done, ironically, multitasking makes us demonstrably less efficient.

I have to always make sure I don't stay in one place and spend too much time one subject. I have my wife tell me [through an earpiece], "Come back! You're taking too long on that subject." I need to be reeled in.

I always interrupt work with other work, either in a small way or big way, so that's normal.

The Web forces me to be disciplined and not to waste time - but before the Web was invented, there were plenty of opportunities to do that anyway.

There's no such thing as multitasking.

If you try to multitask in the classic sense of doing two things at once, what you end up doing is quasi-tasking. It's like being with children. You have to give it your full attention for however much time you have, and then you have to give something else your full attention.

I have a short attention span, so when one book isn't working out, I just work on another.

I think that we get so distracted with our smartphones... It takes your body and your brain time to switch between tasks. If we can focus on what we're doing, we'll be more productive at that task.

My biggest hurdle usually has to do with concentration. I have a tendency to kind of start working on something, and then, all of a sudden, I'll totally divert and do something totally different.

A lot of people don't feel like doing very much. Or one project is really all they can do at one time. I can have five or six things going at the same time. It doesn't bother me or tire me, but sometimes it does rattle me.

In effect, dividing your attention means that neither (or none) of the things you're working on is really getting the full effect of your intelligence, and that it in the end takes you longer than it would if you did one thing at a time.

The stuff I do, I do every day, and I've been doing it for long periods of time. I don't start and quit-ever. I start and stay on it.

What I need is a search engine that, no matter what I type in, comes back with GO BACK TO WORK.

When I first started writing, I had a very difficult time switching between projects, but now it's not only second-nature, it's indispensable: If I stall on one project, I can switch to another and stay productive.

Each thing I do, I rush through, so I can do something else.

On a mission your worst enemy is idle time.

I hate wasting time.

I find it so easy to get distracted - I try not to do more than one thing at any one time.

Halfway through any work, one is often tempted to go off on a tangent. Once you have yielded, you will be tempted to yield again and again... Finally, you would only produce something hybrid.

If I leave my computer, I'm probably not going to get back for hours. If I take a few minutes to answer questions and go web surfing, then guilt kicks in and I get back to work.

But I find the best things I do, I do when I'm trying to avoid doing something else I'm supposed to be doing. You know, you're working on something. You get bugged, or you lose your enthusiasm or something. So you turn to something else with an absolute vengeance.

No one would choose to be jerked randomly off task again and again until you have half a dozen things you're trying to get done, all at the same time.

You can't work on 15 problems at the same time.