Every day we get asked to do more. Our email is bursting with things to do, the phone keeps buzzing with news of another thing added to the list and that’s all on top of what we are already working on. The result is an attempt to rise up to the challenge of doing everything. Tools and productivity methods for trying to cope with doing everything seem to abound. To do lists, one touch methods, the concept of Inbox Zero and others all expect that everything will be dealt with. Either do it, calendar it, file it or delete it seems to be the approach for doing everything. But in the process of trying to do everything, do we lose focus on the things that really matter?
Another approach is to do one thing, and ignore the rest. There is surely an argument that focusing our time, our energy and our resources on a single most important thing will deliver a bigger, better result. After all, spending time on the right tasks is one of the secrets to effectiveness.
And at the end of the day, what really matters – getting everything done or getting the right thing done?
Every day we all get 24 hours to choose. Do you choose to do everything, or do you choose to do the one important thing really well?
