Week 17, 2022 — Issue #201
Reading Notes VII — Jack Dorsey, Jeff Bezos, and Steve Jobs On How To Balance Your Time
Each week: three ideas on the future of work and organization. This week: three ideas for better time management.
I’ll be honest. At times it’s hard to balance time and attention between family, work, and writing on the one hand, with health and well-being on the other. It’s all important. But it’s easy to underestimate and overcommit. Perhaps you feel the same? If so, it can be helpful to know you’re not alone:
1. Dorsey on Editing
“By editing, I mean there are a thousand things we could be doing. But there [are] only one or two that are important. And all of these ideas…input from engineers, support people, designers, are going to constantly flood what we should be doing…I am constantly taking these inputs and deciding the one, or intersection of a few, that make sense for what we are doing.”
Jack Dorsey is the co-founder and former CEO of Twitter as well as the co-founder and ‘principal executive officer’ of Block (formerly Square). This quote comes from Greg McKeown’s Essentialism.
2. Bezos on Decisions
As a senior executive, what do you really get paid to do? You get paid to make a small number of high-quality decisions. Your job is not to make thousands of decisions every day.”
Jeff Bezos is the founder and chairman of Amazon as well the founder of BlueOrigin. This quote comes from Walter Isaacson’s introduction to Bezos’ Invent and Wander.
3. Jobs on Focus
People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying ‘no’ to 1,000 things.
Steve Jobs was the co-founder and CEO of Apple as well as founder and chairman of Pixar. The quote comes from FarnamStreet, it’s a version of Jobs’ remarks at WWDC97.
I would submit that our ‘common struggle’ has a two-fold solution:
- First, we need to decide what’s important.
- Second, we need to commit by saying ‘No’ to everything else.
The first part is the most challenging by far. It requires self-awareness and clarity of thought. Yet I suspect we often focus and stumble on part two. It’s hard to say no, especially when we aren’t committed and don’t know what else we should be doing.
McKeown’s Essentialism is a great read that helps with part one. For part two, I suggest listening to Tim Ferris’ How to Say “No” Gracefully and Uncommit.
That’s all for this week.
Until next time: Make it matter.
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