I believe that a successful startup is built on three fundamental pillars: direction, speed and focus.
They all matter, direction is the grand vision you are taking part on, and obviously speed should be maximised. But these two don't matter if you aren't actually focused on the most important things.
If you focus on the wrong things with a maximised speed, you end up doing work that wasn't actually important. It might be even irrelevant to your company.
And it's usually ok to be wrong if you iterate quickly, but that means you have to be able to give self-critique, which most people find hard.
Focus is a force multiplier on work.
I highly believe that 98% of the work we do simply doesn't need to be done.
It is highly valuable and underappreciated to think about what to focus on. It is much more important to focus on the right thing than to work for many hours.
I've found Sam Altman's prioritization algorithm pretty good:
The decision stack should be something like:
Grand vision → yearly plan → quarterly bets → weekly → daily top three.
But to know what to write on those lists, you need to think independently about:
What is your actual goal?
What are the next steps to getting there?
And then execute those steps. If you don't, you might as well go play volleyball.
Once you get this figured out, be unstoppable about getting these steps accomplished quickly. Then step back, take a look where you're going, ok direction is good, and figure out the next steps.
Also, try to become a really good delegator on tasks that need to be done but don't need your attention.
Good note to mention, good focus means you need to be ruthless about saying no to stuff that doesn't align with your priorities. I am pretty sure some people think of me as a rude person when replying to their emails or wishes.
I try to keep a funeral list of killed ideas and tasks and go back to them once in a while to see if I had miscalculated something.
I personally know that I can't focus on things I don't care about or don't like. It's painful to carry a bag of milk to the mountains if you're lactose intolerant.
So try to find something you really care about and have a unique view on.
I've seen that the best founders have strong beliefs about the world, found a niche from that world that tickles their pickle and then put all in on that grand vision.
Also, don't fall into the trap of productivity porn. I know a lot of people who spend too much time thinking of optimizing their systems and habits instead of just asking if they're working on the right problem.
But some things help me focus, and it is mostly related to brain activity.
Having a clear and sharp mind helps a lot, and here are some things I've found useful:
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