Fewer Things, Done Better
Gregg Blanchard •
The theme of the week was definitely focus.
It started about two weeks ago when I found out a few things would be landing on my plate. I am already busy, so as I chewed through the implications I was mostly debating two alternatives:
- Find a way to somehow get it all done.
- Cut out a few things to keep my project list from growing.
The process of deciding what I might say “no” to was where the wheels began to turn. Because I wasn’t just putting the new stuff on the chopping block, I had to consider axing the things I was currently working on as well if one of the new things had more potential.
But as I thought through what was already working, somewhere along the way I started to see potential that I simply wasn’t tapping. And I wasn’t taking advantage of it for a dead-simple reason: I didn’t have the time.
Which means I found myself with one more idea:
- Do fewer things, but do each of them better.
Right now I have about 7 areas I work on. These changes would add another 3 or so to that list. But instead of trying to do all 10 or find a new set of 7 from those 10, I’m thinking more and more about narrowing down my focus to a core group of 3 or 4 instead.
It doesn’t necessarily play to my strengths and I don’t know if that’s my final answer or what the smaller list of things would be if I did, but I feel more and more like it might be the right thing to do.