Fire and Knowledge

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.
It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning a lion wakes up.
It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.
It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle.
When the sun comes up, you better start running.

—An African proverb as quote in Thomas Friedman, The World is Flat (2005), p. 114.

If you’re into productivity blogs, be sure to check out What’s Best Next. The author, Matt Perman, was my boss for four years — and he’s the most organized guy I know.

A task will swell in (perceived) importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted for its completion. It is the magic of the imminent deadline…. The end product of the shorter deadline is almost inevitably of equal or higher quality due to greater focus…. Identify the few critical tasks that contribute most to income and schedule them with very short and clear deadlines.

—Timothy Ferriss, The 4-Hour Workweek (2007), p. 75.

Being overwhelmed is often as unproductive as doing nothing, and is far more unpleasant. Being selective—doing less—is the path of the productive. Focus on the important few and ignore the rest.

—Timothy Ferriss, The 4-Hour Workweek (2007), p. 73.

Now do this is the simplest task site I’ve ever seen, but extremely useful for a today list. I normally use Things for my general task management and a sheet of paper for my daily list, but I really like the idea of Nowdothis.com…

1. Specialize in a very small niche; develop a core skill.
2. Choose a niche that you enjoy, where you can excel and stand a chance of becoming an acknowledged leader.
3. Realize that knowledge is power.
4. Identify your market and your core customers and serve them best.
5. Identify where 20 percent of effort gives 80 percent of returns.
6. Learn from the best.
7. Become self-employed early in your career.
8. Employ as many net value creators as possible.
9. Use outside contractors for everything but your core skill.
10. Exploit capital leverage.

—Richard Koch, The 80/20 Principle: The Secret of Achieving More With Less (1998), p. 188

The key to earning more and working less is to pick the right thing to do and to do only those things that add the highest value.

—Richard Koch, The 80/20 Principle: The Secret of Achieving More With Less (1998), p. 188

It is often easier to make an enthusiasm into a career than to become enthusiastic about a career dictated by others.

—Richard Koch, The 80/20 Principle: The Secret of Achieving More With Less (1998), p. 167