Eliminate, Instead Of Optimizing
How to cut noise, clarify focus, and learn how to scale.
The combination of focus and limited time produces impeccable work. It generates the momentum to craft a signal among the noise of fake urgencies.
A developer team with a block time of focus could build the next piece of art to push the product forward. A leader can concentrate on envisioning the next company jump. To engage with these flow moments, we learn how to manage distractions.
Today, we understand the consequences of interruptions and multitasking when building something. But, there is a big boss here, like the final boss of our favorite video game: optimization.
What Does Optimization Mean?
We start clarifying that something that doesn't work requires a fix.
We can optimize when a degree of results already exists.
A dictionary definition of optimization is to use a resource in the best and most efficient way.
Constantly applying that definition could create the most dangerous zone for growth because you bet that an improvement will occur again, like in a casino. You invest hours in a row, compromising your energy and money, gaining a sense of progress.
Over time, optimization became your focus, losing the vision to spot valuable opportunities. This kind of entropy starts to produce unexpected and particular shapes of "improvements".