Focus: Make Sure You’ll Have Kept It

We’re spoiled that we can learn from some top-notch productivity principles.

Here’s a list.

Getting Things Done by David Allen taught me about always identifying, in a project, the immediate next step.

Tim Ferriss taught me about Parkinson’s Law. You’ll take as long as you give yourself. There’s also the Pareto Principle, that there’s usually a small thing that makes the most impact, the 80/20 rule.

But then, two authors spoke about similar principles, and they’re about focusing.

Dick Bolles, in What Color is Your Parachute?, spoke about finding a priority among a list. If you were to choose only one thing that was done, and none of the other, at the end of the deadline, what would it be?

Stephen Covey takes that same idea with his First Things First principle, the idea that you better hurry to do the main thing, to leave room for the rest. Covey had a second principle, that together with the first, summarizes the one from Bolles. It’s Covey’s famous Start with the end in mind principle.

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Can we summarize that entire list into a single trick? Can we start with the end in mind, by doing the smallest thing that’ll have the biggest impact, giving us a short deadline, finding the absolute priority that trumps all others that can wait, and doing that first thing first?

Yes, I call it the “have-done list” technique.

Let’s suppose that this week you need to 1) work for your clients and 2) you hope to write an article.

First, write down this title for your list: “By the end of this week, I’ll have:”. It’s a long title, but there’s no getting around its effectiveness for the rest of the exercise.

Second, change imperative verbs like “work” and “write” into past participles like “worked” and “written”.

“By the end of this week, I’ll have: Worked for my clients. Written an article.”

Third, let’s tweak those statements until they’re worth having them celebrated when we get to the end of the week. You picture yourself at the end of the week, celebrating that you’ll have succeeded in having had… then finish the sentence so that the first item listed is the absolute most true thing you’ll have made sure to have done.

“By the end of this week, I’ll have (celebrated that I’ll have): Ensured that I kept my word with my clients (done the minimum). Prepared and scheduled the sendout of a first version of that article (another minimum). Worked some more for my clients to go beyond my commitment (going beyond the minimum). Improved the article a bit more before it’s out (rewarding yourself with a chance to optimize).”

Fourth, give yourself a tighter timeline. This will not only help get quick wins, but it’ll force you to quickly get to the heart of what needs done. Embrace that constraint. So instead of “By the end of this week”, do the same for “By the end of today”, or “Before suppertime”.

“Before suppertime, I’ll have: Advanced for my client commitments. Listed down some ideas for the article (the absolute next step). Advanced some more for my clients. Posted a small new insight on Twitter (Huzzah! at least I posted something!).”

Focus gets easier to do when you look back, from a perspective of being at the end and celebrating, and identifying the central intent. That central intent is your backbone, but it’s not a single thing. It really is, however, a single intent: in this case, and usually in most cases for me, keeping a promise to others, and then to yourself. It’ll feel great when you cross that line, and you’ll cross it early in the week.

What this have-done list is implictly creating is this beautiful side-effect: you’ll have given yourself room to compose with unforeseen changes. That’s because by using the rigor required for this technique, you’ll have naturally kept some slack, a side-effect of the gift of your focus. You’ll have hurried to do the 20% that yields 80%, the first thing, the priority, the thing that, truthfully, you’ll be celebrating having absolutely crushed, early this next week.