Whenever I write on a sheet of paper “The ONE thing I want to focus on…”
I end up with five different projects for the day, week or year.
After much pondering I can cut it back to three.
But how one?
Impossible.
So I end up doing all three at the same time.
Sometimes results are good, sometimes bad.
I will never know, had I avoided a split mind, would any have been outstanding?
The truth is I want to do all three.
Unfortunately my time, physical energy and mental bandwidth are limited.
Therefore I cannot possibly do them at the same time and also to the best of my ability.
Three fallacies trap us into doing all three with a split heart:
- Prioritizing means doing only one of them and forgoing the rest… this is hard, so we don’t.
- Or that it means doing one primarily, another secondarily, another… so we excel at none.
- Or that we are diversifying risk… when in fact it lowers chances across the board.
The insight is that very often you can do all three – but one, after, the other.
You cannot flourish in 3 professions at the same time, but you could within 3 decades.
You cannot get 3 creative projects up and running this year, but you could in 3 consecutive years.
Prioritizing does not mean you say never, it means “not now, yes later”.
Putting your ducks in a row is not just for preparation – but also execution.
Focus is saying “yes, now“. Sequence is saying “yes, when the time is right“.
Questions for reflection:
-Am I tackling more than one main project? (different categories may be ok: eg. health & work)
-If so, which projects could be postponed without permanently hurting their odds?
-If I postpone all except one, how much more likely is it to flourish to its full potential?
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