Ruthless Focus for 2024

Introduction

• Aim: Achieve laser-like focus
• Personal struggle: Frequently getting distracted and drifting through the year
• Examples of focused individuals: Kobe Bryant, MrBeast, Mark Zuckerberg

Key Visual: Focus Cone

• Different distractions represented by various activities (news, social media, side hustles, etc.)
• Blue focus is the main goal you wish to achieve by the end of the year
• Target: Narrow the focus cone

Steps to Achieve Focus

1. Raise the Yes Threshold

• Current Yes Threshold: Saying yes to many things, leading to distractions
• Goal: Only saying yes to “hell yes” activities
• Action: Bring awareness to your current threshold and raise it to “hell yes” levels
  • Example: Accept only activities or projects that align deeply with your goals and interests

2. Manager vs. Maker Schedule

• Manager Schedule: Filled with frequent, short activities and meetings
  • Ex: 9:00, 9:30, 10:00 AM meetings
  • Leads to stress and not achieving meaningful work
• Maker Schedule: Long, uninterrupted blocks of focused time
  • Ideal: Two to three hours of uninterrupted work, followed by a break
  • Achieve flow states, higher productivity
• Implementation: Switch to maker schedule to utilize creative and productive energies effectively

Pyramid of Clarity (Adapted from Asana)

1. Mission

• Big, motivating reason for existence (e.g., Elon Musk's SpaceX mission, Tesla mission)
• Importance: Be honest about the mission to ensure emotional resonance
• Exercise: Write down your mission clearly
  • Example: Build a company that enables an amazing lifestyle for its owners

2. One-Year Goal

• Set an ambitious goal and a floor goal (range)
  • Goal: Optimal achievement (e.g., double revenue)
  • Floor Goal: Minimum acceptable outcome to avoid disappointment

3. Inputs for One-Year Goal

• Break down one-year goal into actionable steps
  • People: Hiring needs
  • Product: Benchmarks to achieve (e.g., faster than a Porsche, better for environment than a Prius)
  • Finances: Capital needs, profitability targets

4. Monthly Breakdown

• Digest the one-year goal into monthly actionable chunks
• Regular check-ins to evaluate progress and adjust actions

Example from Joel Omen

• Goal: Build a creatively fulfilling cash machine
• Framework: Set a clear mission
  • Personally fulfilling and financially beneficial
  • Inspiration and Motivation
• Action Plan: Define what to say 'Yes' and 'No' to
  • Yes Examples: Consistent high-quality content creation, guest outreach
  • No Examples: Starting new businesses, avoiding hard conversations

Reflections on Focus

• Importance of self-awareness and understanding personal tendencies
• Aim: Leverage focus as a superpower to achieve meaningful goals
• Continuous improvement in focus as a key goal

Closing

• Encouragement to share what works for others
• Focus enables extraordinary achievement and clarity