This year I’ve been working on a lot of different things, at all times of the day and the week. I’ve been simultaneously producing several units of coursework, completing economics work, attending college night classes for Accountancy, writing for this blog, and working on a project ready to release next year, as well as the daily needs eat, drink and sleep!

And whether this sounds to you like a lot or not, for me it’s been a lot of little tasks week after week. I guess you could say I’ve been a multitasker, simultaneously working on a variety of different projects and goals, giving each an even priority of importance in my to-do list and aiming to accomplish them all at the same time.

The Realisation: Focus & Be More With Less

However, this week, with a little spark of thought and the process of contemplation that came thereafter, I realized that I’m not a multi-tasker, but in fact a focuser and that I could be more with less. It’s got nothing to do with gender, as men are well known as bad multi-taskers anyway, but I’m just good at obsession and focus. It’s something that defines me and actually, it’s what has been the starting point of all the great things I’ve done in the past.

I’ve been feeling a little ‘sluggish’ about my work so far this year and each day I think about how much I’ve done and whether it’s enough. But perhaps this is because I’ve being doing lots of little steps of work, towards different things entirely rather than the one or two big and noticeable steps towards my main goals in focus, which I’m so accustomed to taking.

As well as my sluggish feelings towards this way of work, I also feel less prone to doing anything more. And doing more, going that extra mile on my projects is exactly what I should and need to be doing.

So what do I intend to do to reverse this pattern of sluggish feeling, week after week of un-rewarding work and lack of extra, highly un-motivated action?

Intentions from Here on Forward

Over the next few weeks and months, I intend to change the ways of the past month and cut down on the variety. I’ll intensely focus on one or two projects for a month, and then move onto the next, thus completing more over the year by focusing on less right now. I’ll be more with less.

Of course, I’ll still have to keep some things running in the background, but I’ll reduce their priority and increase that on something else, making them just that, running in the background.

So, instead of completing 10% of each project month after month, till they are all complete together by the end of year, I will instead focus to complete half of two projects this month, while keeping the rest running in the background, and waiting for their time of focus to come. Again, being more with less.

Is this the Strategy for Everyone?

Well, of course not! You may be a multi-tasker, in fact I see it everyday and most people are. Most people are happy and able to complete little mundane parts of each of the life focuses day after day, without seeing or feeling their results for months.

However, for both me and some of you out there, less IS more and you can be more with less by focusing on less in the short term, and producing more over the long one. You’ll produce more, to a better quality, in less time and with a smile and full sense of being still intact.

So think about it, are you a focuser or a multi-tasker? Does juggling your projects and tasks make you feel fulfilled at the end of your day or not? If you’re like me and lay in bed at night wondering if you’ve done enough and why not if you haven’t, then maybe this new approach is for you.

Good luck in realizing your ways and perhaps a new strategy of less is more, is in fact the right way to your better life. Be more with less!

Wrote by Joe Brown