Richard Koch Quotes

Few people take objectives really seriously. They put average effort into too many things, rather than superior thought and effort into a few important things. People who achieve the most are selective as well as determined.

When you want something very dearly, you make the time.

You can always find time to do the thing you really, really want to do.

If you want to accomplish something in the world, idealism is not enough--you need to choose a method that works to achieve the goal. In other words, you need to be pragmatic.

The art of doing science is doing the important things first.

My dad gave me this advice: 'Make what you want to do for the rest of your life the first thing you do in the day and then worry about hanging out with friends.'

I focus just on the important issues, and I know I can make a lot more progress.

There just isn't enough time for everything on our 'to do' list - and there never will be. Successful people don't try to do everything. They learn to focus on the most important tasks and make sure they get done.

Do one thing at a time. Start the day with a list of things you have to do, and do the most important things first. Even if you don't get the list done, you've gotten the most important things done. So many people spend so much time on things that aren't important.

If you waste your time and energy on things that don't matter in the outcome of the game, then when you get to the game you're not going to give your teammates the best that you have to offer.

Focus is more valuable than IQ.

The thing that's important for me is to remember what's the most important thing.

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."

Your life is too important to give it to distractions.

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.

The most important things that one's working on are not necessarily the most important things that one thinks one's working on.

Concentration is the magic key that opens the door to accomplishment. By concentrating our efforts upon a few major goals, our efficiency soars, our projects are completed -- we are going somewhere. By focusing our efforts to a single point, we achieve the greatest results. The first rule of success, and the one that supercedes all others, is to have energy. It is important to know how to concentrate it, how to husband it, how to focus it on important things instead of frittering it away on trivia.

Learn how to separate the majors and the minors. A lot of people don't do well simply because they major in minor things.

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

The mark of a great man is one who knows when to set aside the important things in order to accomplish the vital ones.

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.

the urgent crowds out the essential.

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.

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.