James Surowiecki Quotes

I don't need time. What I need is a deadline!

As I get older, the idea of wasting time is becoming more and more abhorrent to me and I can't stand the idea of simply lying in bed.

If we didn't have deadlines, we'd stagnate.

People that don't want to get down to the business at hand. Instead of just doing less, we have to find ways of doing more with less. That's the key to the future.

When we do not do the one thing we ought to do, we have no time for anything else - we are the busiest people in the world.

I understand from my own work that haste makes waste. But I also understand that ... the creative spark dims, and then death puts it out. William Shakespeare, for instance, hasn’t produced a new play for 400 years. That, my friends, is a long dry spell.

People have to decide on priorities if they want to get anywhere. The best lessons I learned was to just do it.

I don't need time, I need a deadline.

I've got a lot of work to do, a lot of people to make proud.

You'll sometimes hear from people that they actually do a better job of getting their work done when they have a lot of other obligations - in effect, it removes the possibility of procrastinating.

Most people spend most of their time on low-priority busywork because it requires no additional knowledge, skills, or imagination-or courage. In a word, it's easier.

People with good work habits have to-do lists that are reasonably prioritized, and they make themselves do what needs to be done. By contrast, people with poor work habits almost randomly react to the stuff that comes at them, or they can't bring themselves to do the things they need to do but don't like to do (or are unable to do).

In the past, people said I wasn't focused and didn't give it the time. That's a bunch of crap. I'm not doing anything different now than I did before.

Deadlines just aren't real to me until I'm staring one in the face.

What motivates people to be late?... Some people are drawn to the adrenaline rush of that last-minute sprint to the finish line. Others receive an ego boost from over-scheduling and filling each moment with an activity.

Everyone procrastinates. The difference between high performers and low performers is largely determined by what they choose to procrastinate on. Since you must procrastinate anyway, decide today to procrastinate on low-value activities.

I am a person who works well under pressure. In fact, I work so well under pressure that at times, I will procrastinate in order to create this pressure.

Have you something to do to-morrow; do it to-day.

half the good intentions of my life have been frustrated by my unfortunate habit of putting things off till to-morrow.

I try to do everything as soon as possible, and not at the last moment. This ensures that, when I am overburdened with work, I will not face the added pressure of knowing that something is still to be done.

I'm a big believer in putting things off, In fact, I even put off procrastinating. -Ella Varner

Oh, they've been putting in the long hours ... But is that because they don't have the skills, and everything takes twice as long? Or do they put in these hours to avoid what they should be doing ... which is stopping and binning a lot of [their work]?

The living are more demanding; the dead can wait.

What has not wasting time impaired?