Adam Grant Quotes

We must use time creatively.

I think that 60 percent of inspiration is organization.

It's always good to have a limit because it forces you to think about all the ways to get what you want.

It should take you 15 minutes to make a song, and then get out of there.

In producers, loafing is productive; and no creator, of whatever magnitude, has ever been able to skip that stage, any more than a mother can skip gestation.

I'm very comfortable with being productive. I like doing things, and I like creating things. As far as being powerful, I guess I'm comfortable with it. It's not really how I think of myself.

Don't equate activity with efficiency. You are paying your key people to see the big picture. Don't let them get bogged down in a lot of meaningless meetings and paper shuffling. Announce a Friday afternoon off once in a while. Cancel a Monday morning meeting or two. Tell the cast of characters you'd like them to spend the amount of time normally spent preparing for attending the meeting at their desks, simply thinking about an original idea.

I guess I would say, it's okay to put things off until the very last minute as long as you know you've got them under control.

I am most drawn to writing when I have something else urgent to do.

I don't really manage my time. I really just wait until I'm inspired to do something. And when I'm inspired to do something, it just happens.

Leverage your time more by spending a little more time every day imagining and a lot less time every day doing. Do a little more imagining and a little more less doing. Until eventually most of what's happening is happening in the cool, calm, anticipatory state. Just imagine yourself into the successes, and watch what happens. Imagine a little more and act a little less.

I've found that there isn't any correlation whatsoever between the hours put in and the quality of what comes out. Most of the Beatles' songs probably originated in about five minutes.

It's hard to say how time factors into your work, because sometimes things will come to you very quickly, but it will take years for the ideas to be gestating in your mind.

I used to think that when I set out that doing the research was enough! But then the gaps would emerge that could only be filled by the imagination. And imagination only comes when you privilege the subconscious, when you make delay and procrastination work for you.

Never do today what you can put off till tomorrow. Delay may give clearer light as to what is best to be done.

On a mission your worst enemy is idle time.

If you're not creating, you're waiting.

I write pretty fast, probably faster than most people. But I might think about something for six hours, then write it in 20 minutes. So did I write for six hours and 20 minutes, or just 20 minutes? I used to write absolutely every day, except for days when I had to travel or something.

I procrastinate, and I push writing to the last available moment, because I don't like to settle on anything. I guess you can call it indecision or you can call it holding out for inspiration.

Procrastination is the kidnapper of souls and the recruiting-officer of hell.

The real key is time management and being able to focus on what you need to, on using every available minute to accomplish something that needs to be done.

Every idea occurs while you are working. If you are sitting around waiting for inspiration, you could sit there forever.

Procrastination is a deadly weapon of human progress.

The cost of procrastination is generally far greater than the cost of making mistakes.