Last Updated on August 26, 2024

The power of clarity

You can do 100 things.

But if you try to do 100 things at once, you’ll have a lot harder time completing them.

That’s how we all tend to do things nowadays.

We are constantly distracted by email, messages, social media, and more.

We have dozens of active projects that we’re all trying to make progress on.

As a result, almost everyone seems busy and overwhelmed.

Batch processing

This week, I took a day to focus on one project.

I booked four 50-minute Focusmate sessions.

Then I worked on that one project all day long.

By the end of the day, I was months ahead of schedule.

By deciding what I wasn’t doing to do that day, I was able to make much swifter progress.

And it felt quite relaxed too!

Because I was only doing the one thing.

And now I don’t have to think about it!

One of the most popular personal development books of all time is Atomic Habits by James Clear.

It’s a pretty solid book on how to create new habits.

I’ve found a lot of value in cultivating habits myself.

But not everything is best done a little every day.

Sometimes it makes more sense to go deep for 2, 4, or even 8 solid hours on something.

Or even to take a few weeks or months to really emphasize one project.

This is what Cal Newport calls “Deep Work.”

Sometimes by simplifying, we can make huge progress in a short amount of time.

We start to get into an extremely focused zone where we can go deeper and deeper into the topic.

As a result of getting so absorbed into it, it feels like a flow state.

And we end up doing deeper, more meaningful work too.

What’s most important to accomplish in your life this week?

How might you clear out some less important things to really focus on it?

Take care,

~Duff
(they/them)