Our result, focus & productivity Law
The amount of clarity of work we have is the starting point of focus.
Hey everyone👋, welcome to the 5th newsletter.
In the very beginning, we work on a single project all day. But as things go by, we want to be everywhere, trying everything, and doing every possible thing.
Tweeting & networking or creating content online
Writing on Substack & Medium (for me at least)
Building in public/sharing the journey
The founder & startup life - the hack of doing all the things by yourself.
That unlimited small project has no fixed time to be shipped.
Stay updated, collabs, PR, ClubHouse, etc.
Limited focus -> Limited productivity -> Limited outcome
🎯 Focus, productivity & results are correlated
How productive we are on a task depends upon our focus that leads to better results. Most simply: the focused efforts we put into the tasks give x10 better results. Our focus is high at the beginning of something, then it splits depending on the outcome which can change as many times as you try again.
If the outcome is good our focus increases and if the outcome isn't as per our expectation it can slightly decline and affects our productivity. You give it a try again and if the focus fails, the outcome can be more negative.
Struggle & scope of Focus
Our outcome depends on 3 things:
How much importance we give to a task,
how much narrowed focus we have towards a target,
and how much harder we push to complete it.
We struggle to focus because we expand our work list and clutter our surroundings. Having too many things on the desk, again, affects our focus and ability to complete the task.
To meet the end goals, the more narrow your focus is, the more achievable it gets. If you want to be more effective in the beginning narrow down your tasks, market, and audience.
This concept applies everywhere, our day-to-day life or startup, hence the importance of building MVP. Emphasizing on more things & setting higher goals results in declined outcomes & frustration of being unaccomplished. Leading to unproductivity & unhappiness & a cycle of unsatisfying outcomes.
🔓Decluttering = Initial step
The lack of focus & frustration starts with cluttered surroundings. While managing 6 projects at a time it got hard for me to give time to each one of them. And I felt more unproductivity, procrastinate more things, and gradually resulted in slower outcomes.
We begin with having a target but as things start to get cluttered we lose focus & start procrastinating, and we do the task just to complete it or leave it behind.
Understand your work:
List down all the things you’re working on.
Know why you want to do them, are they contributing to your goals (short or long terms).
Especially is there anything that doesn’t contribute to the long-term goal or target?
List out tasks by priority.
Materialistically, not all the things we try don't contribute to effective outcomes. We do things that don't make sense doing in the present time.
Delegate + Manage + Focus = ♻️ Good Outcome
“By knowing what you can ignore, your focus will be on the things that matter most to the most substantial part of your niche.” - Arvid Kahl
With each new task or project, our ability to impactfully complete it reduces. With hundreds of things in the pile:
The best practice that comes to my hand is delegating or automating things.
👩🏻💻 As I’ve decluttered things I know which part needs more focus. I prioritize my tasks or projects, usually by days or depending on the deadline. For instance, I need 1 day to complete & edit my newsletter, so when I feel like I’m in the mood for writing, it just takes me a day to complete & schedule it.
🤯 You focus on an area you’re good at and delegate the rest to the specialists. You’ll be amazed to see how fast and improved the outcome you get. Otherwise, they will repeatedly leave you disappointed, trying to specialize in things.
🏆 Next, I tend to automate work by scheduling as many things as possible, mostly social media.
☹️ One thing, with my first business - Beyond Execute - I usually tried to be on every social media & connect with people, which leads to exertion & lack of time to do other important tasks. Know what to delegate and automate.
By doing three things:
Doing things on a specific day.
Schedule tasks especially social media
Delegating tasks that I don’t enjoy doing or has specialized in.
When you master to narrow the scope of your tasks to reach a target, the outcome will oddly be satisfying.
Until next time! 👋
👋 PS: I’m Ritika founder, product marketer and advisor for early-stage startups, find more here or connect with her here. If you’re a first-time founder looking for curated resources, download here. If you enjoyed this post, read the past issues here. You can also promote your product in this newsletter.
A big thanks for reading & sharing!