Paul Graham on Focus Quotes

"If you want to be a successful founder, you have to be able to focus on one thing for a long time."

"If you want to do great work, you have to be able to ignore the world."

"Focus on the product, not the competition."

"For a maker, a meeting is a disaster. A single meeting can blow a whole afternoon, by breaking it into two pieces each too small to do anything hard in."

"Make something people want."

"The most dangerous thing about schleps is that your unconscious mind will edit them out of your vision."

"The most dangerous distractions are the ones that look like work."

"The way to get big things done is to make them the only thing you do."

"The key to productivity is to have a long-term goal and a short-term focus."

"The problem with distractions is not that they take time, but that they take over the top of your mind."

"The best protection against copycats is to ignore them and focus on making your product better."

"The cost of a context switch is much higher than most people think."

"A visionary isn't someone who sees the future, but someone who sees the present more clearly than others."

"You can't do great work if you're constantly being interrupted."

"The best way to increase your focus is to decrease your options."

"The most productive people are those who can spend hours in a state of flow."

"The most dangerous form of procrastination is 'perilous procrastination'—the kind that doesn't look like procrastination."

"You can't do great work if you're always busy."

"The best protection against copycats is to ignore them and just make the best product."

"The best way to stay focused is to work on something you're passionate about."

"The most important thing is to keep the main thing the main thing."

"One meeting can blow a whole afternoon."

"If you want to do good work, you need to have the right things at the top of your mind."

"If you want to do something hard, you have to be able to concentrate."

"The most successful founders are the ones who are most obsessed with their product."

"You need long, uninterrupted blocks of time to do anything hard."

"The most important thing for a startup is to not let its definition of itself slide."

"Startups don't win by being better, they win by being faster and more focused."

"Managers' schedules are like the command line... Makers' schedules are like a text editor."

"The most important thing is to be able to think."

"Work hard on things that matter."

"You have to be able to spend a lot of time on a single problem."

"Relentlessly prune bullshit, don't wait to do things that matter, and savor the time you have."