Merlin Mann Quotes

• Joining a Facebook group about creative productivity is like buying a chair about jogging.

  Merlin Mann

  Creative, Groups, Jogging

  Twitter post from Mar 22, 2009

  49 Copy quote

• The mindless junk of your past crowds out opportunities and sets pointless limitations. Move out the junk, and you create room for the rest of your life. Ultimately, it's not just a question of tidying your house; it's a question of liberating your heart.

  Merlin Mann

  Success, Moving, Heart

  32 Copy quote

• Never let the guy with the broom decide how many elephants can be in the parade.

  Merlin Mann

  Elephants, Guy, Parades

  Twitter post from Apr 20, 2010

  19 Copy quote

• Priorities Are Like Arms; If You Think You Have More Than A Couple, You’re Either Lying Or Crazy.

  Merlin Mann

  Couple, Crazy, Lying

  Twitter post from Apr 10, 2009

  22 Copy quote

• Where you allow your attention to go ultimately says more about you as a human being than anything that you put in your mission statement.

  Merlin Mann

  Attention, Missions, Mission Statement

  22 Copy quote

• Everything takes more time than you thought, everything costs more money than you thought, and almost everything turns out not quite as cool as you expected.

  Merlin Mann

  Cost, More Time, More Money

  22 Copy quote

• Workflow is understanding your job, understanding your tools, and then not thinking about it any more.

  Merlin Mann

  Jobs, Thinking, Understanding

  20 Copy quote

• Although your time and attention are finite, the demands on your time and attention are infinite.

  Merlin Mann

  Marketing, Attention, Demand

  6 Copy quote

• Email is such a funny thing. People hand you these single little messages that are no heavier than a river pebble. But it doesn't take long until you have acquired a pile of pebbles that's taller than you and heavier than you could ever hope to move, even if you wanted to do it over a few dozen trips. But for the person who took the time to hand you their pebble, it seems outrageous that you can't handle that one tiny thing.

  Merlin Mann

  Moving, Hands, Funny Things

  "The strange allure (and false hope) of email bankruptcy". www.43folders.com. May 30, 2007.

  20 Copy quote

• Make the time to be scared of more interesting things.

  Merlin Mann

  Interesting, Scared, Interesting Things

  Inbox Zero theme statement at "Kung Fu Grippe" personal blog, www.kungfugrippe.com. 2012.

  5 Copy quote

• Go a little easier on yourself, and in so doing, be prepared to make and do things that might seem silly at first. Just keep moving: don't ruminate and stare at the wall. Don't just play with your phone: go out and produce something.

  Merlin Mann

  Wall, Silly, Moving

  16 Copy quote

• People with tiny glasses and costly shoes can always find a couple of hours to explain how you did it all wrong.

  Merlin Mann

  Couple, Glasses, Shoes

  19 Copy quote

• I'm a project manager, not a magician. Magicians have way cooler hats.

  Merlin Mann

  Way, Hats, Projects

  9 Copy quote

• Feeling creative produces great work in approximately the same way that "feeling like a doctor" makes you a gifted thoracic surgeon.

  Merlin Mann

  Doctors, Design, Creative

  19 Copy quote

• Thinking can really be the enemy of action, and thinking can be the enemy of reality.

  Merlin Mann

  Reality, Thinking, Enemy

  11 Copy quote

• You're gonna die. You're gonna die. And nobody's gonna care which version of the iPhone you used to make something on Twitter, or to go and post about your bowel movement on Facebook. And I'm not even talking about legacy; I'm talking about the fact that I personally feel most alive when I'm making something, and I feel least alive when I'm being led around by some obnoxious use of my attention that I wasn't aware of. To me, that's the thing. You can buy the jogging shoes and you can buy the Runner's World, but until you put them on and walk out the door every day, you're just a fat man.

  Merlin Mann

  Men, Iphone, Doors

  11 Copy quote

• Everything you agree to do is other things you can't do

  Merlin Mann

  Agree

  4 Copy quote

• You got to be careful to not get too comfortable with incremental improvement. I think sometimes you just got to jump off a ledge.

  Merlin Mann

  Thinking, Ledges, Improvement

  9 Copy quote

• Stop. I’m not going to take any more input until I’ve made something with what I got.

  Merlin Mann

  Input, Made

  7 Copy quote

• Before you sweat the logistics of focus: first, care. Care intensely.... Obsessing over the slipperiness of focus, bemoaning the volume of those devil "distractions," and constantly reassessing which shiny new "system" might make your life suddenly seem more sensible - these are all terrifically useful warning flares that you may be suffering from a deeper, more fundamental problem.... Know in your heart that what you're making or doing matters... First, care. Then, as you'll happily and unavoidably discover, all that "focus" business has a peculiar way of taking care of itself.

  Merlin Mann

  Heart, Sweat, Focus

  13 Copy quote

• A lot of the best work I've ever done started out as something completely different because I gave myself permission to have space around my time and expectations.

  Merlin Mann

  Space, Expectations, Different

  7 Copy quote

• Trying to talk somebody out of the stuff that they enjoy in life is like trying to talk them out of their faith or their sexuality. It’s a pointless exercise that can never be anything but acrimonious and will only highlight unnecessary amounts of difference about things that ultimately don’t really matter. Buy the steak you like, worship the god you love, neck with the people that you treasure and don’t worry about the numbers.

  Merlin Mann

  Exercise, Differences, Numbers

  12 Copy quote

• It's just that it's mind-boggling to me how many people I encounter every day who are struggling to subsist on a diet of bad advice about fake solutions to nonexistent problems.

  Merlin Mann

  Struggle, People, Fake

  "Kung Fu Grippe" personal blog, www.kungfugrippe.com. 2010.

  9 Copy quote

• When you die, no one's going to remember what iPhone you had.

  Merlin Mann

  Iphone, Remember, Dies

  "'Back to Work' Podcast". 5by5 Studios podcasts,

  6 Copy quote

• Creative work only seems like a magic trick to people who don't understand that it's ultimately still work.

  Merlin Mann

  People, Creative, Magic

  7 Copy quote

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