If this pandemic year has taught me anything, it’s the importance of prioritizing. When I suddenly had less time to work, I got much more intentional about how I spend my time and what projects I take on.
And now, we’re in this strange moment where life might (?) be getting back to some version of “normal.” My social calendar is already shifting from totally empty to slightly more filled up. My family is saying “yes” more often. We’re (get ready for this) leaving our house.
So I’ve been thinking about how I carry forward the mindset of ruthless prioritization. It turns out that I like being more intentional about how I spend my time. I like protecting my calendar from too many obligations and protecting my brain from the overwhelm of too many competing tasks.
Here’s what I’m experimenting with. Instead of stressing over all the things I could add back to my to-do list, or the limitless new opportunities I could go after, or the endless marketing tools I could tinker with (Clubhouse, I’m looking at you), I’m going to pick one thing to upgrade.
What’s the one part of my work, or my marketing, or my networking, that I could do 10% better? What could I focus on more deeply? Could I pick one really important task, habit, or activity and prioritize it even more? What could I make really good?
When you pick one thing to upgrade, you stop trying to spread yourself thin among a thousand priorities. You know your focus, and everything else can fall into the background. And I’ve definitely seen that the ability to focus is a competitive advantage in a world where everyone’s too busy and too distracted.
This experiment links back to my seminal framework as a small business owner: “ENOUGH is enough.” When I first started working on my own, I read Paul Jarvis’ “Company of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business” and immediately connected with his vision of “enough.” Enough is the opposite of “more, more, more.” It pushes back against the impulse to keep reaching for “growth” for growth’s sake. It’s a calmer, steadier, more focused way to think about your work life.
If you’re trying to operate from a place of “enough” — a place of plenty, not scarcity; of generosity, not anxiety — what could you prioritize in this season? What one thing could you upgrade?
Here are a couple of examples of how this might play out for you.
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If you’re in charge of your company’s social media strategy, and you find yourself stretched between too many audiences and platforms and content formats, could you choose the one most important social media platform for your brand? Where is your highest-priority audience? Where is the overlap? Could you be 10% more engaging, 10% more innovative and creative, in that space — and spend less time on everything else?
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Or, let’s say you’re in charge of content and your company has always released quarterly reports about the state of the industry. But your team is swamped and it’s always a race to get the reports done and at this point, you’re just copying what you did last quarter with a few tweaks. How could you flip that script and savor your work instead? Could you change the frequency to just two reports a year instead of four, and put more research and creative power into each one? And would your audience miss those other reports? Or would they stop in their tracks when they see your new, more interesting, more exciting reports? How could you upgrade your work, even if it means downgrading or even completely abandoning something else?
My hunch: the upgrade one thing practice could bring you a lot more joy, because you’d get to spend more focused time on something you like and value, and actually spend time understanding the results.
How are you thinking differently about your work these days? What are you prioritizing, and what are you letting go?
