Shelby Steele Quotes

First things first, second things never.

Learn to differentiate between what is truly important and what can be dealt with at another time.

Goals help you keep in perspective what's really important so you don't spend all of your time doing what seems urgent.

Eat that frog! If you have to eat 3 frogs, eat the biggest and uggliest one first.

The easiest thing to do in the world is to neglect the important and give in to the urgent.

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

Because, as we all know, it’s easier to do trivial things that are urgent than it is to do important things that are not urgent, like thinking. And it’s also easier to do little things we know we can do than to start on big things that we’re not so sure about.

As all entrepreneurs know, you live and die by your ability to prioritize. You must focus on the most important, mission-critical tasks each day and night, and then share, delegate, delay or skip the rest.

Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.

Otherwise, my whole career has just been flinging myself at whatever is most overdue first and letting everything else stack up.

All urgent calls he shall hear at once, but never put off; for when postponed, they will prove too hard or impossible to accomplish.

In promotional mode, every day is a series of decisions. You can easily fill up your day with checklist stuff.

You can make more money - you can buy a new body - but you can't buy time. If you are wasting it, make different choices. Don't wait.

Perhaps the very best question that you can memorize and repeat, over and over, is, 'what is the most valuable use of my time right now?'

You can't waste time and you can't save time; you can only choose what you do at any given moment.

You have to ruthlessly prioritize.

No two things differ more than hurry and despatch. Hurry is the mark of a weak mind; despatch of a strong one.

Control your time. If you're working off your in-box, you're working off the priorities of others. Be sure the staff is working on what you move to them from the President, or the President will be reacting, not leading.

Your ability to select your most important task at each moment, and then to get started on that task and to get it done both quickly and well, will probably have more of an impact on your success than any other quality or skill you can develop.

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

Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all.

Cecil's dispatch of business was extraordinary, his maxim being, "The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at once."

As in all things, it is terribly important to have a sense of priorities in what you do. And to make certain that priorities do not clash.

I don't have time for any nonsense.

You must distinguish between what is urgent and what is important. You could accomplish all of the urgent things that you desire without accomplishing anything that is important.