Prioritize Better by Asking the Focusing Question
By Stefano Marra
Making things happen requires focus, especially when you’re a creative professional. But in a world of increasing distractions and multiple competing priorities, achieving focus is often easier said that done. Being overwhelmed paralyzes our productivity.
In The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results, Gary Keller says that you only need to ask one question in order to move in the right direction. The Focusing Question “helps you keep your first step from being a misstep,” writes Keller. Ask yourself:
What’s the one thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?
The Focusing Question requires you to identify a single action, and helps you to see how it helps to advance a larger project. It’s important to know what you must focus on, and what your next action needs to be. What’s your one thing?
