A Single Focus

I’m a fan of David Allen.  In his book  Ready for Anything he talks about how a single focus is infinitely more productive than a split focus.  “Much like decreasing the diameter of a pipe will increase the strength of the water flowing out of it, the ability to think and do is optimized when focus is concentrated. Trying to focus on two things at once will diminish the results by much more than half.  ‘Multitasking’ only works when all but one of the ‘tasks’ is on automatic."

All of the important and permanent health changes that I have made over the years have started as a single goal. I knew, for example, that giving up carbonated and caffeinated drinks might be difficult for me. So I cut myself some slack. I didn’t demand perfection from myself and I allowed myself to switch to water gradually a decade ago. Now it’s a cinch to choose to drink pure water rather than anything else.

As I see it, the value of a single focus in goal-setting is allowing myself to experience the victory of reaching a small goal before moving on to another goal. I know myself well enough to know that I’m raising the odds for success when I do it this way. The challenge is to cease and desist from beating yourself up for not being perfect.

Best wishes for your success!