S.J. Scott > Quotes

“If a task will take you two minutes or less to do, deal with it immediately and move on.”
― S.J. Scott, Habit Stacking: 97 Small Life Changes That Take Five Minutes or Less

“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it’s all within yourself, in your way of thinking.” – Marcus Aurelius Ever”
― S.J. Scott, Declutter Your Mind: How to Stop Worrying, Relieve Anxiety, and Eliminate Negative Thinking

“In other words, our willpower works like a muscle and it weakens throughout the day, since it’s used constantly. We all have a limit to our willpower, and once we’ve reached the limit, it becomes very difficult to focus.”
― S.J. Scott, Habit Stacking: 97 Small Life Changes That Take Five Minutes or Less

“It’s hard to be happy in a relationship unless we are first happy with ourselves. That’s why it’s important to take a few moments every day to do something we thoroughly enjoy, whether it’s a quick five-minute meditation or maybe listening to your favorite song. When we are happy, we can make others happy, improving our social lives and relationships immensely.”
― S.J. Scott, Habit Stacking: 97 Small Life Changes That Take Five Minutes or Less

“Never let motivation become the determining factor for getting exercise.”
― S.J. Scott, Exercise Every Day: 32 Tactics for Building the Exercise Habit

“Numerous studies have indicated that people who put in too many hours at their jobs, either by choice or by requirement, become inefficient. With rare exceptions, they burn out and lose their creative edge.”
― S.J. Scott, Declutter Your Mind: How to Stop Worrying, Relieve Anxiety, and Eliminate Negative Thinking

“Many entrepreneurs have a “can do” attitude, which is often a requirement if you want to succeed. Unfortunately, this attitude often leads to a dangerous mindset where you feel like you need to do everything yourself.”
― S.J. Scott, The Daily Entrepreneur: 33 Success Habits for Small Business Owners, Freelancers and Aspiring 9-to-5 Escape Artists

“the ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness.”
― S.J. Scott, Declutter Your Mind: How to Stop Worrying, Relieve Anxiety, and Eliminate Negative Thinking

“Be regular and orderly with your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.”
― S.J. Scott, Level Up Your Day: How to Maximize the 6 Essential Areas of Your Daily Routine

“Getting rid of unnecessary stuff (also known as “decluttering”) is the simplest way to minimize your daily obligations.”
― S.J. Scott, Level Up Your Day: How to Maximize the 6 Essential Areas of Your Daily Routine

“Meditation is not a way of making your mind quiet. It’s a way of entering into the quiet that’s already there—buried”
― S.J. Scott, Declutter Your Mind: How to Stop Worrying, Relieve Anxiety, and Eliminate Negative Thinking

“** Take up meditation. Set a timer for 15 minutes, close your eyes and focus on your breathing. When your mind wanders, redirect your thoughts to your breathing. Increase your time spent meditating until you can meditate for a full hour each morning.”
― S.J. Scott, Wake Up Successful: How to Increase Your Energy & Achieve Any Goal With A Morning Routine

“Write a short story every week. It’s not possible to write 52 bad stories in a row.” ~ Ray Bradbury”
― S.J. Scott, Writing Habit Mastery - How to Write 2,000 Words a Day and Forever Cure Writer’s Block

“If you have a willingness to carve out time to work on a skill every day, you’ll slowly make that transition from novice to expert!”
― S.J. Scott, Novice to Expert: 6 Steps to Learn Anything, Increase Your Knowledge, and Master New Skills

“When you organize and eliminate clutter, you free yourself from stress and anxiety by eliminating feelings of overwhelm.”
― S.J. Scott, 10-Minute Declutter: The Stress-Free Habit for Simplifying Your Home

“Now, I’m not a fan of fad diets. They simply don’t work long term because they’re either too restrictive or they don’t emphasize a lifestyle that can be maintained. The truth is that the people who follow fad diets do so in a “yo-yo” fashion. They lose weight and then put it back on. Sometimes they’ll even gain more weight. In my opinion, fad diets are usually one step forward, two steps back. Really, the only way to maintain an optimal weight is to focus on lifestyle modification. Weight loss is a simple equation, but is hard to do in the real world. The “magical” formula is to expend more energy than you take in.”
― S.J. Scott, 10,000 Steps Blueprint - the daily walking habit for healthy weight loss and lifelong fitness

“Routines limit the number of decisions you have to make, increasing your odds of doing the right thing.”
― S.J. Scott, Level Up Your Day: How to Maximize the 6 Essential Areas of Your Daily Routine

“Look at your list of MITs and underline the one that you know you’d put off indefinitely if you had the chance. Get started on this task before you have a chance to think about it. Don’t work on your other tasks until it’s finished.”
― S.J. Scott, Habit Stacking: 97 Small Life Changes That Take Five Minutes or Less

“#13. Make a “real people first” rule Consider making a personal commitment to avoid social media when you are in the presence of friends and family. If your spouse or kids are around, no checking Facebook. If you’re out to dinner with friends, no sneaking a peek at the Instagram that just popped in. Be fully present with the real people in your life rather than distracted by your virtual friends.”
― S.J. Scott, 10-Minute Digital Declutter: The Simple Habit to Eliminate Technology Overload

“Change is good…sometimes. Too much change causes unnecessary stress and anxiety. You only have so much “stress capital,” so spend it on the things that truly matter, rather than on trivial day-to-day living.”
― S.J. Scott, Level Up Your Day: How to Maximize the 6 Essential Areas of Your Daily Routine

“In fact, nearly every negative thought you have relates to the past or future. It’s common to find yourself trapped in a looping cycle of regretful thinking or worry thoughts, even while feeling desperate to escape the never-ending tape playing in your mind.”
― S.J. Scott, Declutter Your Mind: How to Stop Worrying, Relieve Anxiety, and Eliminate Negative Thinking

“the simplest way to create a lasting change is to set a goal that is easy to complete on a consistent basis.”
― S.J. Scott, Novice to Expert: 6 Steps to Learn Anything, Increase Your Knowledge, and Master New Skills

“Even mild dehydration can cause headaches and fatigue, affect your concentration, impair short-term memory and impede mental function. If you want to be at your most productive, it’s important for your brain to be firing on all cylinders. Therefore, you should make sure you are sufficiently hydrated before starting work.”
― S.J. Scott, Habit Stacking: 97 Small Life Changes That Take Five Minutes or Less

“It doesn’t matter why you procrastinate. What’s important is to recognize that you’re making excuses, and then do something about it.”
― S.J. Scott, Novice to Expert: 6 Steps to Learn Anything, Increase Your Knowledge, and Master New Skills

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
― S.J. Scott, Level Up Your Day: How to Maximize the 6 Essential Areas of Your Daily Routine

“Humans are curious creatures, and most people find it almost impossible to ignore their email and social media notifications until the end of their work sessions. If you’re being interrupted every few minutes by a ping or flashing browser tab, it will greatly reduce your productivity and concentration. Additionally, these social activities are pleasurable—they give our brains a little hit of dopamine, otherwise known as the happy hormone. In other words, social media can be addictive. A quick five minutes on Facebook can easily turn into an hour, as many of us can attest to. Rather than struggling against your brain’s natural inclination to procrastinate, save yourself a lot of time and hassle by simply closing your email tab and banning social media during work time.”
― S.J. Scott, Habit Stacking: 97 Small Life Changes That Take Five Minutes or Less

“Those are pretty telling numbers. Those results are based on 30 minutes of walking a day (about 4,000 to 5,000 steps). Plus, the positive benefits (according to the study) increase when participants added more distance and speed. And finally, this study showed that walking has a positive impact on all of the following: dementia, peripheral artery disease, obesity, diabetes, depression, colon cancer and even erectile dysfunction.”
― S.J. Scott, 10,000 Steps Blueprint - the daily walking habit for healthy weight loss and lifelong fitness

“To better understand people and interact with them socially, it is important to spend some time thinking about their lives and what they are going through. You will be able to better relate to people when you think about things from their point of view.”
― S.J. Scott, Habit Stacking: 97 Small Life Changes That Take Five Minutes or Less

“Energy is usually at its peak during the first part of your day, which means you should be completing habits that inspire or excite you about the day ahead.”
― S.J. Scott, Habit Stacking: 97 Small Life Changes That Take Five Minutes or Less

“Awareness is always the first step toward change. We”
― S.J. Scott, Declutter Your Mind: How to Stop Worrying, Relieve Anxiety, and Eliminate Negative Thinking