Gail Godwin Quotes

There are different usage patterns - I never do email during the day. I don't multitask well at all. I don't know how to be in a meeting and participate and be on email at the same time. I do see some people do it more effectively. I've never quite figured that out.

When I usually go to my studio to work, I start with something that is going to take two minutes just to put some idea down and the next thing I know, ten hours have gone by and my family is screaming at me because they want me to come up to have dinner with them.

It's incredibly hard to get meaningful work done when your workday has been shredded into work moments.

Sometimes I am glad I am not a philosopher - how would I ever complete a single chain of thought when someone is constantly asking me to do something? I don't think Plato would have been able to write his dialogues if he had a wife who kept bugging him to pass the pita bread.

The bane of Americans is overwork-and the ruin of any work is a divided interest. Concentrate-concentrate. One thing at a time.

It is better to be fully present and rested and engaged for one thing than rushed, distracted, and scattered for ten.

If I know somebody is coming 'round, it is incredibly difficult for me to work because I'm waiting for this interruption - even the children's comings and goings are interruptions. Cake-making is a good way of coming out of that space.

I'm better when I'm busy. I am happier. I am a bit useless when I'm not busy. I start thinking too much, which is never a good thing. When I'm busy I have a better perspective on what really matters - the priorities.

I never think at all when I write. Nobody can do two things at the same time and do them both well.

I don't mind being distracted. I don't want to sit there in utter silence and type. If the phone rings, I usually answer it, speak for a few minutes and return to writing, or go for a walk in and out of the rooms. I don't mind a break.

I can multitask like crazy. I'm riddled with ADD - a blessing and a curse.

I always interrupt work with other work, either in a small way or big way, so that's normal.

Don't worry about breaks every 20 minutes ruining your focus on a task. Contrary to what I might have guessed, taking regular breaks from mental tasks actually improves your creativity and productivity. Skipping breaks, on the other hand, leads to stress and fatigue.

I couldn't understand why my productivity went down when I had deliberately made more time available to write. Then I realized it was because I wasn't flying as much.

If you try to multitask in the classic sense of doing two things at once, what you end up doing is quasi-tasking. It's like being with children. You have to give it your full attention for however much time you have, and then you have to give something else your full attention.

I write in cafes, never at home. I cannot focus at home, am forever getting off my chair to do other things. In a cafe, I have to sit still, or I'll look a bit unhinged.

A lot of people don't feel like doing very much. Or one project is really all they can do at one time. I can have five or six things going at the same time. It doesn't bother me or tire me, but sometimes it does rattle me.

One can either work or meet. One cannot do both at the same time.

I can multitask very well. But I know exactly when to block off anything coming in from the outside and just stay focused on the film.

I write at high speed because boredom is bad for my health.

To focus our mind on the task at hand-with fierce concentration-m akes for a productive use of time.

Devoting a little of yourself to everything means committing a great deal of yourself to nothing.

All profound distraction opens certain doors. You have to allow yourself to be distracted when you are unable to concentrate.

How can you expect someone to get a good day's work if they are interrupted all day?

But as the business grows, you get more attention, and then you realize that the whole world is trying to get time from you. Which is amazing. But every time you give it to the world, you give less to what you’re doing.