“Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.”

—  Stephen R. Covey

Last update Nov. 2, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important." by Stephen R. Covey?
Stephen R. Covey photo
Stephen R. Covey 125
American educator, author, businessman and motivational spe… 1932–2012

Related quotes

J. Michael Straczynski photo

“People spend too much time finding other people to blame, too much energy finding excuses for not being what they are capable of being, and not enough energy putting themselves on the line, growing out of the past, and getting on with their lives.”

J. Michael Straczynski (1954) American writer and television producer
Terry Pratchett photo

“I keep vaguely wondering what Macs are like, but the ones I've seen spend too much time being friendly.”

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author

alt.fan.pratchett (5 July 1992) http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.pratchett/browse_frm/thread/6d66f88060364dbb
Usenet

Francis Bacon photo

“To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humor of a scholar.”

Francis Bacon book Essays

Of Studies
Essays (1625)
Context: To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humor of a scholar. They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need proyning, by study; and studies themselves, do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience.

Peter F. Drucker photo

“We spend a lot of time teaching leaders what to do. We don’t spend enough time teaching leaders what to stop. Half the leaders I have met don’t need to learn what to do. They need to learn what to stop.”

Peter F. Drucker (1909–2005) American business consultant

“There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing.”

Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer
Greg McKeown (author) photo

“What if we stopped celebrating being busy as a measurement of importance? What if instead we celebrated how much time we had spent listening, pondering, meditating, and enjoying time with the most important people in our lives?”

Greg McKeown (author) book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

Popular Quotes, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

“Too many people spend too much time trying to perfect something before they actually do it. Instead of waiting for perfection, run with what you go, and fix it along the way…”

Paul Arden (1940–2008) writer
Jet Li photo

“I spend a lot of time with my family. Because I think it's part of my life. I think the time...long or short is not the most important. I think the most important is the quality time...quality time with family.”

Jet Li (1963) Chinese martial artist and actor

As quoted in Jet Li Interview Transcript https://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/01/29/talkasia.li.script/ in CNN (January 29, 2003)

K. Sri Dhammananda Maha Thera photo

“Intellectuals tend to spend too much of their valuable time in study, critical analysis and debate. They usually have little or no time for practice.”

K. Sri Dhammananda Maha Thera (1919–2006) Sri Lankan Buddhist monk

"Is Buddhism a Theory of a Philosophy?"
What Buddhists Believe (1993)

William Penn photo

“Time is what we want most, but what, alas! we use worst; and for which God will certainly most strictly reckon with us, when Time shall be no more.”

William Penn (1644–1718) English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher, early Quaker and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania

The Preface
Fruits of Solitude (1682)
Context: There is nothing of which we are apt to be so lavish as of Time, and about which we ought to be more solicitous; since without it we can do nothing in this World. Time is what we want most, but what, alas! we use worst; and for which God will certainly most strictly reckon with us, when Time shall be no more.

Related topics