Jason Fried Quotes

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

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 don't consider myself a great multitasker, so I try to do one thing at a time, even though there were opportunities when I was wrestling.

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.

The average American worker has fifty interruptions a day, of which seventy percent have nothing to do with work.

I can't really work on more than one thing at a time.

Work is hard. Distractions are plentiful. And time is short.

There are different usage patterns - I never do email during the day. I don't multitask well at all. I don't know how to be in a meeting and participate and be on email at the same time. I do see some people do it more effectively. I've never quite figured that out.

Working in an office with an array of electronic devices is like trying to get something done at home with half a dozen small children around. The calls for attention are constant.

If I was at home, I'd find myself checking email and looking at the Internet when I should be working. In the library, I can get an awful lot done in a couple of hours, but it can become quite sociable, which you have to watch out for. There are a lot of people you can pop out and have a coffee with.

He that pursues two hares at once, does not catch one and lets the other go.

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."

How can you expect someone to get a good day's work if they are interrupted all day?

I'm always aware that I risk being taken for a neurasthenic prima donna when I explain to someone who wants 'just a little' of my time that five minutes of the wrong kind of distraction can ruin a working day.

Person who chases two rabbits catches neither.

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

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.

I procrastinate all morning. That's when I get my office work done and answer e-mails and see what's on the Internet and do laundry.

I'm usually working on eight or 10 things at once.

If I know somebody is coming 'round, it is incredibly difficult for me to work because I'm waiting for this interruption - even the children's comings and goings are interruptions. Cake-making is a good way of coming out of that space.

I'm a full-time writer, which means I have the entire day to get my work done. But that can also be bad, because that means I have the entire day to get in my way.

The work is getting the work.

I tend to write in coffee shops and restaurants with friends of mine because if I'm at home, I get distracted by the television or the cats or my husband, or... you know - all of those things that make it easy to procrastinate.

I procrastinate so much and I get distracted by anything.

My lab and academic work fill my day from about 9 am to 7 p.m. Then I zoom out the lens to work on my other writing.