Narrowing Scope
Rome wasn’t built in a day! And if we try to build it all in a day, we won’t build anything. Lately I have felt overwhelmed by wanting to work on every single component of my long term vision for every single one of my projects. New, interconnected ideas that build on each other are constantly popping into my head.
I want to do everything. I try to do everything. I wind up doing nothing.
How to prevent this overwhelm? Narrowing scope.
Staying within scope is harder than picking the right scope. A clear objective means nothing if new ideas and adjacent problems keep pulling you away before you’ve made real progress. Three things I did this week that helped:
- Getting Ideas Out of Your Head - Maintain focus and priorities even when new ideas tempt otherwise.
- Three Priorities With Done Criteria - Complete three things instead of expanding the scope of ten things.
- Naming the First Thing - Spend less time deciding where to start and more time starting.