One of my favorite movies of all time is Forgetting Sarah Marshall. My husband and I have watched it countless times. There are so many good lines that make their way into our daily conversation.
- You want, like, a magazine or something? It’s gonna be boring if you’re just sitting by yourself.
- I was going to listen to that but then … um… I just carried on living my life.
- No! My shirt! Take my eyes but not my shirt!
- Oh, you know what? If they were Sean John sweatpants it would be fine, but because they’re Costco brand it’s the worst thing I could do.
Here’s a scene I think of often:
The less you do, the more you do.
Less.
Do less.
Well, not nothing. You have to do something.
Silly scene; great message.
Let me share a story I read recently on LinkedIn.
When Covid hit, Rhada Vyas and her husband Lee had just had their first child. A few years prior, they had founded Flash Pack, a boutique adventure company which connects solo travellers aged 30-49 across the globe. In March 2020, they lost everything. Their work came to a halt. The company faced bankruptcy.
Today, Flash Pack is back, growing, and stronger than ever.
How did they manage to rebuild at a time when they had no resources, couldn’t sell their services, and had a one year old child at home? The answer: Ruthless prioritization.
There are any number of tasks Radha and Lee could have taken on. But they chose just two. Lee saved the brand. He spent every single day helping customers navigate a painful refund process to make sure no one lost out. Meanwhile, Radha focused on finding a funder, cold calling investors.
These were identified as the two most important items, so it’s all they worried about. Can you imagine how hard it was to make that decision?
That’s what I call ruthless prioritization. And we don’t need a crisis to embody it. (Learn more about this inspirational story by following @radha-vyas-flashpack on LinkedIn.)
Prioritization is hard.
Everything feels important all the time. But if everything is important, nothing is. If you can’t count your priorities on one hand, your efforts are spread way too thin. This is true for your personal priorities as well as your organizational priorities. Can you ask any member of your team to name “the most important things here” and have the answer be consistent? Is each team working towards the same overall goals? Or are their priorities unaligned and, as a result, working against each other?
This week I am asking myself to take Koonu’s advice and do less to do more. What are your ruthless priorities?
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