Author: Ben Messick

Finding Your “Sweet Spot” of Effectiveness

~ Ben Messick

An excellent episode of the Accidental Creative podcast by Todd Henry: Audio (Overcast) – Transcript

Having worked with and interviewed hundreds of professionals, I’ve come to believe that each person also has a “sweet spot”. It’s comprised of the situations and activities where they are maximally effective, and where they create the most unique value for their effort… Here are a few of the key insights I gained about finding your sweet spot:

  • To find your sweet spot, you must act first and sort later.
  • Your sweet spot is not always something you enjoy.
  • Finding your sweet spot is not necessary, which is why many people never do it.

How to Succeed at Work: Focus!

~ Ben Messick

Shane Parrish for Farnam Street:

The Premise

As I looked around, I noticed that the most successful people I know have one thing in common: they are masters at eliminating the unnecessary from their lives. The French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry hit on the same idea, writing in his memoir, “Perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away.” This principle, it turns out, is the key to success.

The Method

Here’s one method to help you choose what to focus on and how to use your time (it’s a mix of time blocking and a variation of Warren Buffet’s two-list system):

  • Step 1: Change how you think about your day. Think of your day as having 96 blocks of energy, with each block being a 15-minute chunk of time.
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  • Step 2: Write a list of all the goals you have.
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  • Step 3: Circle your top three goals.
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  • Step 4: Eliminate everything else

Conclusion

It’s all about FOCUS.