"By disconnecting from the constant stream of notifications and demands, we give ourselves permission to relax, recharge, and fully engage with our personal lives after work."

- Cal Newport, Digital Minimalism

"Avoid switching between tasks. Focus deeply on one thing at a time."

- Cal Newport, Deep Work

"Because in reality your time is finite, doing anything requires sacrifice—the sacrifice of all the other things you could have been doing with that stretch of time. If you never stop to ask yourself if the sacrifice is worth it, your days will automatically begin to fill not just with more things, but with more trivial or tedious things."

- Oliver Burkeman, Four Thousand Weeks

"Don’t let trivial distractions steal your days."

- Seneca

"Be ruthless about what you ignore. Time, energy, and resources are so precious. Every pretty good, sorta nice, kinda fun thing you abandon is like shedding a weighted vest that lets you move at top speed."

- James Clear

"All that matters in life is doing the work on what really matters. Everything else is just entertainment."

- Craig Ballantyne, The Dark Side of Discipline

"Cut the cord. Free yourself. Set new norms that treat these technologies as what they are: poison. The new cigarettes."

- Max Fisher, The Chaos Machine

"All this noise. All this information. All these inputs. We are afraid of the silence. We are afraid of looking stupid. We are afraid of missing out. We are afraid of being the bad guy who says, ‘Nope, not interested.’ We’d rather make ourselves miserable than make ourselves a priority, than be our best selves. Than be still…and in charge of our own information diet."

- Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key

"I began to view attention as the most important ingredient we can add if we’re to become more productive, creative, and happy—at work and at home."

— Chris Bailey, Hyperfocus

"When there are too many competing demands on our time and attention, our ability to be present is diminished – and with it, our ability to appreciate and enjoy the experience."

- Nobert Schwartz

“Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen.”

- Henry David Thoreau

"Notifications are the gateway drug to distraction. The ability to focus is becoming rare—while being distracted is becoming the default."

- Cal Newport, Deep Work

“Minimizing distractions is an important part of curbing our online procrastination. To stay really connected to our goal pursuit, we need to disconnect from potential distractions like social-networking tools. This means that we should not have Facebook, Twitter, email, or whatever your favorite suite of tools is running in the background on your computer or smartphone while you are working. Shut them off.”

- Timothy Pychyl, Solving the Procrastination Puzzle

“Here is a trick that will give you an extra month of efficiency each year. It’s easy to implement, immediately effective, and doesn’t cost a cent. First, go to your e-mail program. Second, disable all the audio alerts and mailbox pop-ups… That’s it, there is no third step. Banishing e-mail notifications will make you about 10 percent more efficient and over a year that translates into one more month of productivity.”

- Piers Steel, The Procrastination Equation

"Focus is about saying no. No to distractions. No to interruptions."

- Steve Jobs

“Eliminate temptations and destroy distractions.”

- Craig Ballantyne

"Don't waste the rest of your time here worrying about other people — unless it affects the common good. It will keep you from doing anything useful. You'll be too preoccupied with what so-and-so is doing, and why, and what they're saying, and what they're thinking, and what they're up to, and all the other things that throw you off and keep you from focusing on your own mind."

- Marcus Aurelius

“An example of your amazing, but possibly underutilized, ability to control your motivation, not to mention your efficiency, is how you feel right before a vacation. In the time prior to taking a vacation, you're super organized. You edit the things on your to-do list to only the most necessary. You're awesome at managing your time and getting things done. It's almost miraculous how efficient you become. What would happen if you treated each workday as if you had that plane to catch for your vacation?”

- Tim and Julie Harris, Harris Rules

“Focus is a matter of deciding what things you’re not going to do.”

- John Carmack

“When you review your notifications, you’re actually reviewing a list of distractions you have chosen to accept.”

- From Time Management Essentials by Anna Dearmon Kornick