299. The Question That Cuts Through Everything

Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] Joel: Hey, Joel Miller here today you are going to hear a voice that does not belong to Marissa Hyatt. Marissa has unfortunately injured herself. She dislocated her shoulder and she’s outta commission for a little while. She’ll be back. But in the meantime, I have brought on my colleague Hannah Williamson, and I’m excited to share her mind and voice with you on this episode.

[00:00:25] I hope you enjoy it. What if all your productivity hacks and tools are actually just helping you do the wrong things faster? And what if there were one simple question that has the power to reorient everything. It’s the question behind every great decision, every meaningful day, every life well lived, and most of us, I would assume, never stop long enough to actually ask it.

[00:01:01] Welcome to Focus on This, the most productive podcast on the whole entire internet. I am Joel Miller.

[00:01:08] Hannah: And I’m Hannah Williamson,

[00:01:09] Joel: and this is where we remind you of something you already know. It’s not about getting more things done, it’s about getting the right things done,

[00:01:17] Hannah: both at work and in life. And today we’re talking about a question that cuts through the noise and helps you focus on what really.

[00:01:26] Matters.

[00:01:27] Joel: What I love about this episode is when we talk about getting more things done versus getting the right things done, this is the question that actually helps you sort between those two things.

[00:01:37] Hannah: And to understand it, we really have to contrast two views on productivity. So there’s a version of productivity that says something like Fit more in, do more and less time defy your constraints, optimize everything, always.

[00:01:55] Don’t disappoint anyone, and it kind of creates this experience of anxiety and shame and burnout because you’ve given yourself an impossible task. You’ve created a game that you can’t possibly live, and that is just a recipe for feeling like failure.

[00:02:13] Joel: I mean, aside from that, it’s awesome. I mean, I think like a lot of basic productivity advice kind of assumes this model.

[00:02:22] Yeah. That if you just look for the right hack, the right tip, the right strategy, you can optimize your situation such that you can really fit it all in. And it’s a fool’s errand. It’s not possible. But thankfully there is another way to think about productivity, and that looks like living within your actual constraints, you know?

[00:02:43] The week is 168 hours, and it doesn’t matter how much you optimize, you’re not gonna get any more than 168 hours and a bunch of those hours. You’re gonna have to be sleeping and a bunch more of those hours. You’re gonna have to be talking to the humans that matter to you.

[00:02:56] Hannah: Yeah.

[00:02:56] Joel: And a bunch of those hours, you’re gonna have to be doing things like resting and having self-care and.

[00:03:02] Reading a great novel and doing other stuff. You have to live within your constraints.

[00:03:06] Hannah: You can’t pretend you’re a machine.

[00:03:08] Joel: No. ’cause like last I checked, none of us are.

[00:03:11] Hannah: Yep.

[00:03:11] Joel: Along with that, you need to focus on a few key priorities.

[00:03:16] Hannah: Yep.

[00:03:16] Joel: You need to do less and do it better. And that’s why we say it’s not about getting more things done, it’s about getting the right things done.

[00:03:24] Hannah: You know, I feel like the. Unpopular, but actually really freeing reality that’s we have to be willing to face is this idea that our demands, the demands on our life, the things that other people are asking of us, that our work is asking of us. Those demands will always outstrip our capacity. True. Even if, even if you’re a high capacity person.

[00:03:45] What you want to do, what other people want you to do will always demand more of your limited finite time, energy, and attention than you actually have. And so it’s this shift from thinking that. Your job. It’s not to fit it all in, it’s not to do it better and faster, it’s to decide what belongs, or as Megan has been saying in in a, a training, right?

[00:04:12] It’s this idea that you can’t optimize and organize your way out of over commitment. You can’t square that circle or circle that square. What? What’s the phrase?

[00:04:21] Joel: Square the circle. But I like circling the square. That’s fun. You

[00:04:24] Hannah: can’t do either. And so then the question becomes, well, how do we decide what deserves that time, energy, and attention?

[00:04:31] And that is where we have a question to help you. Joel. What’s that question

[00:04:35] Joel: before we get there? Actually. I think it’s worth pointing out that this ties back to our last episode on assumptions, because a lot of times what happens is we. Default to thinking other people can read our minds or that we can read their minds.

[00:04:54] Instead of asking this question, we wanna basically use the shortcut of not communicating in order to accomplish what this question very simply will actually help you do.

[00:05:07] Hannah: Yeah.

[00:05:07] Joel: So if you haven’t heard that episode, it’s worth going back to listen to, but the question to ask. It’s like stupidly obvious.

[00:05:16] Hannah: Mm-hmm.

[00:05:17] Joel: But like a lot of stupidly obvious stuff, me being kind of stupid, I don’t pause to do this enough. And that is simply to ask what’s the most important thing to do? Right. Now

[00:05:28] Hannah: and again to your point, just because it’s simple doesn’t always make it easy. This is actually, I also, in addition to doing a lot of the writing for full focus, I coach in our double and coaching program.

[00:05:38] And one of the most common questions I get from clients is how do I know what to focus on? Like how do I know what deserves my time, energy, and attention? And so I think this kind of, when we’re, when we’re talking about importance, there’s a few things that come to mind for me. One is that it’s high leverage, right?

[00:05:58] It has a high ROI. It’s like if I do this thing, it can be a kind of like. First domino that makes other things easier or makes more possible, right? It opens, it expands possibility, but there’s also sometimes this piece that I feel like doesn’t get talked about enough about it being values aligned, like it’s something.

[00:06:17] Mm-hmm. That really matters to who you are, which is particularly important when you’re thinking about how to decide what to do in your personal life. How do you spend those hours when you’re not at work thinking about, well. What is true of who I am and who I’m becoming, and how do I wanna marshal my resources to support me in that task?

[00:06:36] So as I’m thinking about some kind of good signs that like, yes, that is important, do those things right, that it expands possibility, I mentioned that, but maybe it solves an important pain. It requires your best, like creative thinking or it helps you make progress on something bigger that matters that you’re committed to.

[00:06:57] Whether that’s a goal or a project. Something that you know, hey, I’m pointed that direction and so work that helps me make progress. That’s the kind of work that I wanna prioritize.

[00:07:08] Joel: It’s easy in a work environment to sometimes default to what we sometimes call downhill work.

[00:07:14] Hannah: Mm-hmm.

[00:07:15] Joel: Like these are. Things that we all need to do to one degree or another, answering our email, checking slack, filling out a report.

[00:07:24] It doesn’t really require your highest and best thinking. It’s not gonna be your greatest contribution. And sometimes when we’re distracted or tired or whatever, we just default to filling half a day with that kind of stuff. And. That’s like the opposite of productive. You’re not really moving anything meaningful forward.

[00:07:45] And so as you’re thinking like about these good signs, like Hannah said, on what is gonna move you forward, it’s like what actually does move you forward if it is not something that is advancing a goal, if it’s not something that is. Making real progress on an actual project that matters. It should be demoted in our priority list because it just doesn’t matter that much.

[00:08:10] Hannah: And I think about. What gets in the way sometimes for people focusing on what’s important is actually that sense of overwhelm, right? It’s like this sense of like, I feel like I’m already behind. I feel like there’s too much that I could possibly do. So you just jump right into it, right? And

[00:08:28] Joel: right.

[00:08:28] Hannah: What’s the, the thinking then becomes like, well, I need to get some momentum, so I’m just gonna try to check as many things off my list as possible.

[00:08:35] So where do you start? You probably start with the easiest stuff, right? You like, like, okay, I’m just gonna knock a few of these things out, and then the day is gone and you haven’t actually touched the thing that is most important. And so it feels like it’s a counterintuitive move to stop when you feel overwhelmed.

[00:08:53] To stop and say, okay, I actually need to take a moment to plan. To say what is? To assess what is the most important thing right now? That’s what I’m gonna move toward. Even if, to what you were saying, it’s actually the hardest thing I could be doing. It’s the most challenging, but it’s also the most important.

[00:09:10] And so rather than let myself kind of procrastinate to go back a couple episodes and do this downhill work, I need to center. This really important work.

[00:09:20] Joel: I think this also goes back to the episode that Marissa and I did the two episodes on Planning 1.0 versus planning 2.0.

[00:09:27] Hannah: Mm-hmm.

[00:09:28] Joel: Planning 1.0 is that state where you got the big list and you just start hacking away at it.

[00:09:34] You know, you get the machete out and you just start going. It’s just, it’s like not proactive. It’s not strategic and. It’s not like the list is actually gonna get any smaller. ’cause while you’re busy chopping down part of that list, other people continue to add to it.

[00:09:48] Hannah: Yep.

[00:09:49] Joel: And so you have to get yourself to a place of planning 2.0 thinking where you’re being strategic, where you’re intentionally procrastinating some things, you’re eliminating, you’re automating, you’re delegating, you’re getting stuff off your plate so you can actually do the most important work.

[00:10:04] Hannah: Yeah.

[00:10:04] Joel: And that means fundamentally that we need to like not be in a reactive state.

[00:10:09] Hannah: Yep.

[00:10:10] Joel: If you think about. Like work. It really comes down to two basic categories. There’s the stuff you want to do and there’s the stuff other people want you to do. And not to get like completely recursive here, but the last episode on mind reading.

[00:10:23] There’s no end to the stuff that other people want you to do because they can’t read your mind, they don’t know what your capacity is. So they’re gonna be throwing stuff at you all the time. And if you’re just in this place of urgency mm-hmm. You’re gonna end up putting stuff on your list that. Honestly need to be renegotiated or rethought that maybe need to be completely deprioritized.

[00:10:44] And so we end up like not discerning or stewarding our time, and instead we just get into this mode of whack-a-mole and. We get nowhere.

[00:10:55] Hannah: What I find myself wanting to call out too is like, there are actually two parts to this question. There’s the, what’s most important part, right? Mm-hmm. What’s most important, but there’s also this right now piece, what’s most important right now.

[00:11:09] And so this right now is an invitation into taking seriously the frame, whatever frame you find yourself living within, in that moment. So maybe that’s the specific needs of the situation, but it’s also. Your constraints, right? It’s this invitation to do the math and say, it’s not actually possible for me to do everything on my list, so what will I do?

[00:11:33] Right, right. Like that, that has the opportunity to feel defeating, to feel like I can’t get it all done. Or you can reframe that as an opportunity to say like, because I can’t get it all done, I have an opportunity to figure out what I need to prioritize. Yeah. I have an opportunity to follow through on the things that will actually drive the progress that I’m looking for.

[00:11:54] And I love those words that you use of kind of discerning and stewarding, right? Like if I’m thinking about discernment and stewardship, I’m thinking about discernment as. Hey, I’m gonna determine here’s what matters most, right? And then I’m thinking about stewardship as now I’m going to align my resources accordingly.

[00:12:15] I’m gonna align my resources to reflect what matters most. I think those two words are really at the heart of this conversation.

[00:12:24] Joel: It reminds me of an issue of Rolling Stone Magazine. I read. I don’t know, 15 years ago or something where Neil Pert, uh, the drummer for Rush was being interviewed and he said.

[00:12:37] This statement that I’ve, I’ve never forgotten, which is what is the most excellent thing for me to do today?

[00:12:44] Hannah: Mm-hmm.

[00:12:44] Joel: And that was kind of how he decided to use his time. What is the most excellent thing I could do today?

[00:12:50] Hannah: Yeah.

[00:12:50] Joel: You can apply a version of that to really anything you could ask, for instance, as you consider an important conversation or confrontation.

[00:12:59] Is that really excellent today? As you determine how to develop your career, as you set your goals, as you develop a new project or a new product, as you notice an area of life that really needs your attention as you prioritize your need for rest and connection, is that an excellent use of your time today?

[00:13:17] ’cause you only have today and you’re gonna have to make decisions about it. And so the question is. Is that the right thing now?

[00:13:26] Hannah: Well, and I, I think there’s this social pressure that I’m finding myself wanting to return to again, where it’s like, it’s so easy for us to default to other people’s priorities.

[00:13:37] Right? Right. It’s so easy for us to not want to disappoint someone or not want to, to drop the ball in some way. So that can be one of the things that takes us out of asking this, like what’s most excellent question and into like. How do I keep fires from starting, which is never gonna be a strategic perspective, it’s never gonna support our performance if we are in that place of scarcity and urgency.

[00:14:04] And it really takes me into like this question that we’re asking, this, what’s most important now? It is a simple question. It is a deceptively hard question. Yeah, simple does not mean easy. In fact, like so often it’s actually quote unquote easier to mindlessly overwork to stay that extra hour. It’s easier to say yes because I don’t wanna, you know, have that moment where I have to disappoint you and say, no, it’s easier.

[00:14:36] To be on call and be reactive or to just start without having that moment when we, when we do stop and discern and assess, but that again, like. Easier. Doesn’t mean better. Easier, can actually be really harmful to us.

[00:14:51] Joel: Totally. It’s hard on the flip side of that, it’s hard to say no to things that might be legitimately fun or add value, but that cost you, right?

[00:15:00] Hannah: Mm-hmm.

[00:15:00] Joel: It’s hard to communicate your capacity to others and abide by it.

[00:15:04] Hannah: Yep.

[00:15:05] Joel: Right. Especially when people are leaning on you to to get something done. It’s hard to do things. Very few things excellently.

[00:15:14] Hannah: Yeah.

[00:15:15] Joel: And I may be a nerd, but I love Russia’s music and when I think about that Neil Pert quote, I just always think, what is the most excellent thing I could do today?

[00:15:26] And if it is excellent, isn’t it worth the challenge or the difficulty of taking a stand for it?

[00:15:33] Hannah: Yes.

[00:15:33] Joel: Like isn’t it worth. Playing some defense on that Excellent thing so I can actually get to it.

[00:15:40] Hannah: Yes.

[00:15:41] Joel: If we’re in this position of constantly being reactive and taking other people’s priorities and making them our own, or reprioritizing our own list based on their values, we end up basically winning their game.

[00:15:55] Yes. Not ours and. That’s not only not productive, it’s worse than that because we lose something of ourselves in that process.

[00:16:05] Hannah: It takes me to, when I’m talking to clients about saying no, which is almost universally something that people seem to have a hard time with, is saying no to people.

[00:16:13] Joel: No,

[00:16:13] Hannah: there are some exceptions.

[00:16:14] Joel: I, I just did it. I It’s easier than you think,

[00:16:19] Hannah: but what, what I’ll frequently say to them is. It gets easier when you know your Yes. Right. That’s so

[00:16:27] Joel: true.

[00:16:27] Hannah: This moment of when you know to your excellent question, like what I’m willing to take a stand for, like I am taking a stand. This is my stake in the ground.

[00:16:37] Like I will be home with my family instead of working late every night like I am committed to being around the dinner table. With my family at five 30 or whatever it is. Well then it’s way easier that like is supporting you. When someone comes to you with that ask that, then you need to say, okay, like I’m gonna need to renegotiate some things.

[00:16:59] I don’t know if I can say yes to that. We might need to reprioritize like you need to know what that Yes. Is to support you in saying you no. And even though it is like it will never. It’s a short word to say. It’s, it’s a hard word to say, will never get all the way easy, but I think what’s really important is that it’s worth it.

[00:17:20] Right? Totally. Like there’s this moment of like, what happens when you’re only doing a few things really well? What happens when the best of your time, energy, and attention are focused on what is most important right now? Well, the fruit of that is more clarity. It’s more peace, it’s more joy. It’s, it’s this sense of purpose and this like, I’m living my life intentionally and again, like that’s the kind of stuff that makes it enjoyable to live that makes and makes you an enjoyable person to be in relationship with, right?

[00:17:58] Is is this experience of, you know, what matters to you. You know where you’re going, you follow through on what’s most important. That’s the kind of person who’s trustworthy.

[00:18:08] Joel: Totally. That’s the kind of person that enjoys their life.

[00:18:11] Hannah: Yes. And is therefore enjoyable to be around

[00:18:26] Joel: You will be more productive if you develop this. Question into more than just a question. And I think this is where we have to take this idea of what’s important right now and turn it into a habit. It needs to become just part of the operating system of daily life. It’s not just a question in that sense, it’s really like a mindset.

[00:18:51] Mm-hmm. And I think Neil Pert could wake up and say, what’s the most excellent thing for me to do today? Because he had made it a habit. He like approached his life with that question being the governing question.

[00:19:03] Hannah: Mm-hmm.

[00:19:04] Joel: And that can be true for all of us. Our lives get better when we do it. When it becomes a habit, when it becomes a way of living.

[00:19:11] Hannah: You know, I don’t know if this is a kosher confession to make on this podcast, but we talk a lot about the daily big three. Yeah. There are days that I don’t write down my daily big three. But I set a daily big three every day. It’s like, it’s so in me that the first thing, like when I walk into the office, I’m like, okay, what are the three things I have to do today?

[00:19:33] Even if they never get written down, it has become this internalized,

[00:19:37] Joel: right,

[00:19:38] Hannah: this internalized way of being of like, I need to be asking that question of what’s most important to do today? And I think like it’s that kind of a muscle that you’re looking to develop exactly where it’s almost automatic.

[00:19:50] Joel: Right. I have this thing where sometimes I have a planning moment before my planning where usually what happens is I’ll, I’ll usually do my real planning of the day, the morning of, but very often right before I go to bed, I’ll have. Some clarity about what my day ought to look like. Yeah. And it’ll end up like a Post-it note.

[00:20:11] Hannah: Yep.

[00:20:11] Joel: That I just grab and write the three things that I know are gonna be the things, and I just stick it on my computer. And then the next morning when I wake up and actually set my daily Big three, I know exactly what it is. And I think it’s just because of that what you thing you just talked about.

[00:20:26] It’s this reflex. Yeah. That just gets developed where I know what my daily big three is gonna be, or I have a really clear sense of it. And I put it into my planner. ’cause I’m gonna use my planner that day to help keep me oriented, to keep track of my meetings and all that kind of stuff. But it’s just in my DNA at this point.

[00:20:43] Hannah: Yeah. It’s almost like you’ve installed this kind of filter,

[00:20:48] Joel: right?

[00:20:48] Hannah: Instead of everything goes through, everything ends up on my task list, EV. Its. No, I actually have created this kind of internalized filter so that when things come to me, I’m already asking that question, like, does this belong? Is this worth my time?

[00:21:04] Right. Is this a, a worthy investment? Right. And, and that’s it’s about relentlessly centering your priorities and then taking responsibility. For doing that, for having ownership that you, at the end of the day, you decide what matters. Other people can come to you. They can make requests, they can ask for things.

[00:21:27] But if you are overworking, if you’re doing too much, if you are overcommitting, like it’s because you made those decisions. And so when you have that ownership, there’s first like an oh crap moment, right? Where you’re like, oh, like I got myself into this mess. But there’s also a relief moment where it’s like, if I got myself into this mess, I can get myself out of it.

[00:21:46] And I think that’s this, this moment of freedom.

[00:21:49] Joel: You know, it’s funny, sometimes ideas like this feel fresh or new or whatever, but of course they’re not. 2000 years ago, Seneca wrote a letter in which he described this very dynamic. And the phrase that ends up being popularized out of this letter is, life is long if you know how to use it.

[00:22:10] Hannah: Hmm.

[00:22:10] Joel: But he’s describing in this letter the fact that other people have demands on us, and the only person that can actually determine whether something belongs on our list, quote unquote, to be done is us.

[00:22:23] Hannah: Yep. And at the end of the day, that is a muscle that we have to develop. If you want to live a kind of purposeful, intentional life, you have to develop the muscle of distinguishing between the things other people want you to do and the things that you will actually choose to do.

[00:22:40] Right? And it can be tiring, particularly at first. But it’s also something I’ll frequently tell clients is like it gets easier the more you do it. It really is this muscle where you can internalize it, where it becomes that filter, that automatic reflex that then helps lighten the load of your life.

[00:22:58] Joel: Speaking of our clients, a phrase that I often use, and I believe this actually comes from Anne Lamont, but she says that you need to be militantly on your own side. Yes. And when I think about what we’re talking about here, we’re saying fundamentally you have to be militantly on your own side. You need to take real responsibility for what ends up on your list and taking stuff off of it that doesn’t actually meet your priorities.

[00:23:27] Hannah: Yeah, you’re supporting your priorities. By removing the things that aren’t your priorities.

[00:23:33] Joel: Yeah. So you’re taking responsibility. That looks like taking ownership ultimately, you know, you decide what matters and you’re gonna reap the results of those decisions. Mm-hmm. And if you have any confidence in yourself and.

[00:23:45] All of us have some, what I think we’ll find is that we make the right decisions when we actually do make decisions.

[00:23:52] Hannah: Yeah.

[00:23:52] Joel: But when we’re not deciding, when we’re letting other people decide for us, that’s when we actually have the most regrets.

[00:23:59] Hannah: Yeah. When we’re just defaulting to other people basically.

[00:24:02] Joel: Right.

[00:24:02] Hannah: What’s that line? If you don’t decide what goes on your calendar, other people will decide for you. Something like that.

[00:24:08] Joel: Yeah, totally.

[00:24:09] Hannah: The same thing could be applied to your task list, right. If you don’t decide what you’re gonna do, other people will decide for you. It’s probably just not gonna take you where you wanna go.

[00:24:17] Joel: Exactly. That’s why the words you used earlier, discernment and stewardship. Are like so meaningful because you have to have discernment. That’s the planning 2.0 thing.

[00:24:27] Hannah: Yeah,

[00:24:28] Joel: and then you have to like steward your resources. You have so many hours in a day. You have so many things that you want to accomplish, and your goals are actually.

[00:24:38] One of the things that you need to steward, and if you’re allowing other people to trump that, to sort of take over your to-do list, you’re not gonna have time for the things that you’ve actually said are meaningful to you.

[00:24:50] Hannah: And thankfully, this question is actually a very practical one that you can ask in lots of situations, but as I’m thinking about just a very easy starting point is.

[00:25:03] With your weekly and daily big three, that question is literally guiding and determining what you should set right? And so I think it, it starts with this moment where you actually get honest about your constraints. You begin by looking ahead at your day or at your week and noticing, Hey, how much time, energy, and attention do you actually have now?

[00:25:25] What are the things that I could do? That are Ed, they’re

[00:25:28] Joel: on the list, right?

[00:25:29] Hannah: Yeah. They’re, they’re on the list like that, you know, they’re grappling for my attention. I could do them. But then again, you have this decision moment where you say, okay, now what will I do?

[00:25:40] Joel: That’s the ROI question, right? Yes. Like, what’s high leverage, what’s value aligned?

[00:25:45] What’s gonna like, give me a bigger return for the amount of time I’m putting in? And it’s probably not 80% of what’s on that list.

[00:25:54] Hannah: Yes.

[00:25:55] Joel: Megan tells this story of Warren Buffet’s, where his pilot had come to him and had asked him for some advice. You know, this guy was a very accomplished pilot. He had, he’d flown presidents, you know, here he is flying Warren Buffet around the world and.

[00:26:11] Buffet asked him to basically write a list of 25 goals that he wanted to accomplish. And the guy wrote down this list, big long list of 25 things, all of them, really big and meaningful and important and great and cool and everything else like that. And then he said, alright, now what are the five most important things on that list?

[00:26:28] And the guy took some time and he circled the five things that that mattered the most to him. He basically said, you now have two lists. And the guy sort of assumed like this was a priority list. Like I’ll, I’ll tackle these first five and then I’ll get to the others. Yeah. And Buffet said like, no, no, no, no, no.

[00:26:47] The first five, that’s your goal list. The list of 20, that’s your like never even look at it list.

[00:26:53] Hannah: Yep.

[00:26:54] Joel: Because that’s gonna undermine your ability to actually get focused on the things that matter. And do those things that you’ve said matter to you.

[00:27:00] Hannah: Yeah.

[00:27:01] Joel: And like that’s a really sobering thought because.

[00:27:04] Everything on that other list was good.

[00:27:06] Hannah: Yes,

[00:27:07] Joel: everything on that list was important, but it wasn’t important right now. And that’s why that question, what’s important right now is the critical question.

[00:27:17] Hannah: Yeah, I mean, I think, again, to circle back to saying this is such a practical exercise and then there is, you can apply it in all kinds of situations, but when I’m thinking about where I want people to be asking this question, it’s when they’re sending their daily big three.

[00:27:33] So if I were to give you just a single invitation from this whole episode, it would be this. Set your weekly big three and your daily big three. Asking the question, what’s most important right now?

[00:27:47] Joel: When you ask and answer that question, what you’re gonna find is that figuring out what you will focus on and what you won’t is more than half the battle, not just of productivity, but of honestly a life you love living.

[00:28:04] What’s important right now? What’s most important to you right now? What will you do about it? These questions are what actually produce the kind of, well, I mean, you already gave the list, right? Clarity, peace, joy, purpose, intentionality, that enable us to enjoy our lives, so you will not only be more productive.

[00:28:26] But you’ll be happy about it. You’ll have some joy that you would otherwise miss, and you’ll be able to look back at a week that you’ve lived, a month that you’ve lived, a quarter that you’ve lived, and be proud of what you produced. Nobody’s proud that they got to inbox zero every day for their whole life.

[00:28:45] Like I’ve never heard of anybody on their deathbed saying. You know what was great was I got to inbox zero every day. That’s not a minor accomplishment, by the way. In a world that is full of email, that’s real, but it’s not the most important thing. It’s not like you were not put on this earth to zero out your inbox every day, and I don’t want to denigrate like.

[00:29:09] That, but at the same time, I want to elevate what is more meaningful, and that is that you are put on this planet to do amazing stuff and you won’t, you will never get to it if you don’t ask the question. What’s most important right now.

[00:29:22] Hannah: Yeah. That’s really what we’re promising is a more meaningful life.

[00:29:25] Just that,

[00:29:26] Joel: just that, I mean, it’s small, really just a meaningful life.

[00:29:35] Hannah: Thank you for joining us on Focus on This.

[00:29:38] Joel: This is the most productive podcast on the internet, so share it with your friends and be sure to subscribe wherever you listen or at focus on this podcast.com.

[00:29:48] Hannah: We’ll be here next week where we are going to talk about what to do when life hits the fan.

[00:29:55] Joel: Does it do that

[00:29:56] Hannah: sometimes?

[00:29:57] Joel: Maybe all the time. Until then. Stay focused.

[00:30:04] Stay focused.