There are two pieces of advice that can benefit any business, in any industry. They’re timeless, effective, and will make your productivity soar. But here’s the catch: no one wants to hear them.
Ready?
1. Prioritize your work.
2. Focus on your top priority. Say ‘no’ to everything else.
That’s it. Prioritize and focus. Sounds simple, right? So why does no one do it?
The short answer: it’s hard.
Prioritization means deciding that X is more important than Y—and that can ruffle feathers. People are often personally invested in their ideas, and when you de-prioritize their work, it can feel like a personal rejection. This dynamic fuels pettiness and internal competition, where “winning” takes precedence over delivering real value to customers.
Focusing on what matters most also means spending your time on difficult or tedious tasks, rather than the easy or fun ones. It limits your freedom, and let’s face it: freedom is addictive.
Another major challenge? No one gets promoted for saying no. But both prioritizing and focusing demand that you do just that, over and over. You must protect your time relentlessly, which often means disappointing people.
Saying yes to your top priority means saying no to every other project that might add value or reduce waste. And when you do, expect pushback. Leaders, peers, even your own team will pressure you to take on more. They’ll argue you’re choosing the wrong priority or underestimating the team’s ability to multitask.
These aren’t just logistical problems. They’re cultural ones. Many workplaces reward competition and speed over strategy, which breeds reactive, short-sighted environments. If you’re a leader who wants to do things differently, you’ll need the courage to model a more deliberate, focused approach.
So Why Bother? Because the rewards are absolutely worth it.
- Eliminate context switching.
Gerald Weinberg, in Quality Software Management: Systems Thinking, explains that with each additional project, team members lose about 20% of their productivity to context switching. Focusing on a single priority allows you to deliver faster—one project at 100% completion beats two at 40%, or worse, four at 10%. - Reduce meetings.
Most meetings exist to align and provide updates. When everyone is immersed in the same project, alignment becomes organic. Everyone understands the work’s history, progress, and goals. - Move faster.
With less context switching and fewer meetings, you’ll get things done more quickly. - Deliver more value.
When you’re intentional about prioritizing high-impact work, you produce better outcomes. You’re not drained by distractions or side projects that don’t move the needle.
If you want to unlock these benefits, you need to gear up. You’ll have to say no a lot, support your teams when they say no, constantly communicate the top priority, and celebrate focus like it’s a superpower. Because it is.