The Solution to Spreading Yourself Too Thin

Reading time: 2.5 min

When presented with various opportunities, I find it hard to say no to them. After all, this is a way to maximize my luck and uncover further opportunities in the future.

Yet, there are times when I've clearly taken too many concurrent commitments, to the point where it's hard to balance my time and workload or to not compromise on the outcomes of some commitments.

I detailed the method I now use to evaluate whether I have the capacity (in time, energy, and willingness) to take on new opportunities here in this other post.

But how should one go about prioritizing their time and energy on existing commitments?

The Focus or Avoid Board

My current solution is my “Focus or Avoid” board for projects and goals.

• I first list out all of my goals or overarching commitments.
• Then, I pick out not more than 5 high-importance goals/commitments to place on a “Focus” board. The remaining go into an “Avoid” board. I limit the maximum capacity of the Focus board to 5 (an arbitrary, low number).
• Any projects that are urgent or contribute to these Focus goals/commitments become active projects. I put all remaining projects on hold.

Going forward, only put time