There’s a lot of people out there trying to sell you simple solutions to productivity, as well as their advice, usually involving their latest book, podcast, or video series. They might not be millionaires, but they’ve found the secret to making millions — order now!
Jason Fried, CEO of Basecamp — a company that makes project management and communication software — is different. Fried is honest about what it takes to get work done and keep your sanity while doing it. He’s the author of several books, including It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work; Rework; and Remote: Office Not Required.
Fried has earned the trust of many because of his straightforward takes on productivity and the unhealthy sacrifices some people make in an attempt to get more done. If you want to work smarter, not harder, listen to Jason Fried.
Here are 25 of his best quotes on productivity, focus, and decision-making.
Work smart, not hard
Jason Fried’s advice stands out because he advocates for a healthy approach to work. Overwork is a consistent problem in the tech industry, and it often earns Fried’s ire. Rather than spending hundreds of hours a week on your job, your side hustle, and your passion projects, Fried advises you to work smart, not hard. He says this not only to keep you from getting exhausted — though that’s important, too — but to enable you to focus on what really matters.
1. “Workaholics aren’t heroes. They don’t save the day, they just use it up. The real hero is home because she figured out a faster way.”
2. “Working without a plan may seem scary. But blindly following a plan that has no relationship with reality is even scarier.”
3. “Find a judo solution, one that delivers maximum efficiency with minimum effort. When good enough gets the job done, go for it.”
4. “What I like about the GTD [Get Things Done] is that it forces you to really figure out what you really need to do. And this whole thing about knowing what you don’t need to do right now, like Someday/Maybe — I like that but, in general, I’m not a big fan of set systems as I think people are sometimes too religious about them. And they become so enamored with the system itself that they actually create more work for themselves because they have this system they want to fill up with things to do.”
5. “If you have a bookshelf, you have to fill it with books. If you have getting-things-done-like system, you have to fill it with tasks. So sometimes you create more work for yourself than you actually have to. That’s been my experience. I like forcing myself to not keep track of everything. If I don’t have a system in place, I can’t remember a lot of things, so I tend to have only a few things that I need to do. I don’t have day-long lists, I have short lists.”
Get focused and stay focused
Distractions are a productivity killer. Without focus, it’s impossible to immerse yourself in deep work, and build up enough momentum to get a lot done. Jason Fried’s approach to focus isn’t about discipline, but about making hard decisions about your priorities. There’s a lot to worry about in the working world, but if your focus is split, you’ll never get anything done. The better you can figure out what motivates you, the more you can organize your work around your goals.
6. “Figure out what objects and places inspire you and immerse yourself in them. Pay attention to those details. Then, instead of imitating competitors, you just might find your voice.”
7. “We aim to do a good job. Because that’s the satisfaction of putting in a good day’s work, and then you line up a bunch of good days in a row and then you have something there. You’re excited about the work, and sometimes you think you’re really onto something and you’re motivated by that. But that’s all intrinsic motivation. It’s not some number, some target you’re supposed to hit for someone else for some other reason. I’ve never been driven by that, really. I don’t think it’s really healthy.”
8. “If you’re opening a hot dog stand, you could worry about the condiments, the cart, the name, the decoration. But the first thing you should worry about is the hot dog. The hot dogs are the epicenter. Everything else is secondary.”
9. “Instead of saying “Yes, we’ll do that also,” you have to practice saying “Sure, we can do that instead.” “Or” always forces a choice, and that’s a good thing.”
10. “Eight hours a day is plenty of time to get great work done; if you have eight hours a day to do that work. The problem is when you have an eight-hour day, but you only have two hours to yourself. And those two hours are made up of eight 15-minute chunks. It doesn’t work. There’s not enough time.”
11. “A tremendous amount of work gets done when no one talks to each other. This is when people actually get stuff done, is when no one’s bothering them or interrupting them. Giving someone four hours of uninterrupted time is the best gift you can give anybody at work. It’s better than a computer, better than a new monitor, better than new software, or whatever people typically use. Giving them four hours of quiet time at the office is going to be incredibly valuable.”
Make efficient, effective decisions
Decisions, decisions. You’d get nothing done if you just counted all the decisions you make in a day. Your productivity can be completely halted if making decisions is difficult for you. Jason Fried doesn’t have a simple trick — perhaps because one doesn’t exist. Instead, in these quotes, he recommends finding the beliefs and principles that undergird your decisions. Once you clarify those, the decisions will come more easily. Once you have clarity, commitment and follow-through become practical.
12. “When you don’t know what you believe, everything becomes an argument. Everything is debatable. But when you stand for something, decisions are obvious.”
13. “Standing for something isn’t just about writing it down. It’s about believing it and living it.”
14. “Whenever you can, swap “Let’s think about it” for “Let’s decide on it.” Commit to making decisions. Don’t wait for the perfect solution. Decide and move forward.”
15. “When you look at something real, everything gets much clearer very quickly. You can freethink, you can brainstorm, you can make decisions. When you finally shatter that illusion of agreement, you can arrive at an actual agreement.”
Get it done
Let’s be frank: half of productivity advice amounts to this: “Do the work.” Jason Fried doesn’t steer away from this honesty, but offers advice on how to actually get the work done. Being productive requires going beyond ideas, and embracing execution — as well as the possibility of failure. Fried says you need to find internal motivation that pushes you beyond your setbacks. Every day is a chance to improve upon the previous day. Getting it done isn’t about proving yourself to anyone or racking up attention on social media — it’s about working a little better and making a little more progress toward your goals.
16. “The numbers and the figures are not the things that are pulling you forward. What’s pulling you forward, hopefully, is your intrinsic motivation and your desire to do a better job and what you’re doing and that sort of appreciation of the craft and the respect of the work that you’re doing and who you’re doing it for and that’s kind of enough.”
17. “Until you actually start making something, your brilliant idea is just that, an idea.”
18. “We all have ideas. Ideas are immortal. They last forever. What doesn’t last forever is inspiration. Inspiration is like fresh fruit or milk: It has an expiration date.”
19. “Small is not just a stepping-stone. Small is a great destination itself.”
20. “Don’t let yourself off the hook with excuses.”
21. “Problems can usually be solved with simple, mundane solutions. That means there’s no glamorous work. You don’t get to show off your amazing skills. You just build something that gets the job done and then move on. This approach may not earn you oohs and aahs, but it lets you get on with it.”
Do it all while being a good person
Productivity is a hollow goal if you don’t have a reason behind it. If you don’t stop to ask yourself why you want to work, or what work you want to do, all the productivity tips in the world won’t make you happy. Doing great work is about the effect you have on the world, not simply doing more of it. Keep Jason Fried’s advice in mind — work hard, yes, but make sure the work you do is creating positive change.
22. “What you do is what matters, not what you think or say or plan.”
23. “I just want to do the right thing and do the best work I can on balance. Not every day is going to be that day, and not every decision I make is going to be the right one. I’m going to make mistakes and screw some stuff up. But on balance, I want to make sure that I’m trying to do the right thing as often as I possibly can, and making sure that I create an environment where other people who work here can do the best work of their careers.”
24. “A great work ethic isn’t about working whenever you’re called upon. It’s about doing what you say you’re going to do, putting in a fair day’s work, respecting the work, respecting the customer, respecting coworkers, not wasting time, not creating unnecessary work for other people, and not being a bottleneck. Work ethic is about being a fundamentally good person that others can count on and enjoy working with.”
25. “Coding, or designing, or writing pitch decks, or making sales calls, or preparing spreadsheets, or writing blog posts, or social media marketing, or buying ads, or choosing the right color, or picking the right paper, or making a layout responsive, or investing in companies, or doing due diligence, or making decisions, or coming up with a strategy, or allocating capital, or figuring out how to spend the budget, or reading up on a subject is not hard work. That’s just work. If you can do it in an air-conditioned room, with no physical threat to you or someone else, while seated, it ain’t hard work.”
Who else inspires you to be productive? Let us know in the comments below!
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