Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
People who claim to be busy often accomplish the least.
In plain terms
Constant busyness is a sign of inefficiency.
What can you take from it?
Focus on output, not on being busy.

Where it applies

  • workplace
  • personal organization
  • leadership

Putting it to work

  • scheduling tasks
  • setting priorities
  • delegating

Questions to consider

  • When did busyness stop you from working?
  • How do you measure productivity?

Another view

Some high-demand roles require constant time investment.

More from Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

  1. There is a great difference between still believing something and again believing it.

    Permalink to quote #158
  2. We live in a world in which one fool makes many fools but one wise man only a few wise men.

    Permalink to quote #160
  3. There can hardly be stranger wares in the world than books: printed by people who do not understand them; sold by people who do not understand them; bound, rev…

    Permalink to quote #157

Related quotes

  1. Father, I scarcely dare to pray, So clear I see, now it is done, How I have wasted half my day, And left my work but just begun.

    Helen Hunt JacksonHelen Hunt Jackson quote #4
  2. Perhaps, after all, there is something in the theory that only the ultra-busy can find time for everything.

    James AgateJames Agate quote #4
  3. There is time enough for everything, in the course of the day, if you do but one thing at once; but there is not time enough in the year, if you will do two th…

    Philip StanhopePhilip Stanhope quote #8