Ruthless prioritization
I felt overwhelmed and stuck recently, so I tried out ruthlessly prioritizing and I now feel a lot better.
I took some inspiration from Warren Buffett’s 5/25 rule. Warren Buffett’s 5/25 rule involves 3 steps. First, write down 25 professional priorities. Then, circle the 5 most important items. Finally, the 20 items that weren’t circled becomes the “Avoid at all costs” list.
Why does the 5/25 rule work?
- I have accept the reality that I don’t have enough time to do everything I want to do
- I know I have too many goals because I roughly tracked my time and I worked the whole day, but I still felt like I was behind
- I know I have too many goals because I felt paralyzed when choosing what to work on and felt overwhelmed by my todo list
- Every goal on the list has value to me, but I get more value out of focusing on a few goals instead of jumping around between many goals
- Acknowledging that all the goals are valuable feels important to me
- I’m optimizing my brain for certain situations
- Knowing the Japanese word for computer won’t help me when programming
- Cross-domain knowledge is valuable, but I gain cross-domain knowledge by becoming an expert in one area first
Difficulties with the 5/25 rule
- I need to fight my natural inclination to keep my options open
- I’m overly optimistic about how many goals I can handle at one time, so I’m tempted to have more than 5 goals
- Do I really have to be so brutal? Yes. I’m going to ask this question countless times over the coming weeks and the answer is yes because I easily feel overwhelmed.
- The “avoid at all costs” list is going to make be feel bored often. I still allow myself to watch a small number of YouTube channels, but I will run out of new content quickly. When I’ve been bored in the past, I’ve given up and watched more YouTube and I’ve gotten up and decided to create my own entertainment by working on a project. I need to choose to get up and work on a project every time.
- I allow myself a small number of YouTube channels to watch because sometimes I want to feel a simple emotion.
- I’m going to mess up. When that happens, focus on the times I did things right and try to replicate that. Focusing too much on how I messed up leads to me feeling demoralized.
- My “avoid at all costs” list is incomplete. I’m going to run into things that don’t align with my goals, but isn’t on my “avoid at all costs” list. I’m going to continue to add to the “avoid at all costs” list as I go about my day.
My values and goals
Goals
- Work - impact the world as a team
- Self-improvement - understand myself
- Socialize - understand others, understand myself, build bonds
- Performance - understand the world, lead others, build communities
- AI - understand the future
Values
- Impact the World
- The World is Made of People
- More People, More Impact
- People Love Stories
- Know Theyself
In other words, I want to make an impact on the world. To make an impact in the world, I need to understand what the world is like and understand how to make an impact. The world is comprised of people and their varied perspectives, so to understand the world, I need to listen widely. One of the best ways to make an impact involves creating a core team and a community to support the team. As a member of the team, I want to be a helpful member of the team, doing my part. I think my role on a team will involve communication and technical skills.