Don't be a Swiss Army knife

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Pascal understood something that many (including myself) need to take to heart. Powerful results do not come so much from quantity as from quality. "But," one may argue, "a great quantity of quality work will create even more powerful results!"

This is true. However, there also are 24 hours in a day, into which we must divide our time. Most people are free to work only about 8-10 hours per day. The rest of their time is divided into sleep, eating, family, driving and other daily necessities.

Another argument is: "Corporations that have put into place systems for creating a great quantity of quality services or products have defied the quality over quantity premise." True. However, until robots replace us, corporations are dependent on human labor. As long as that is the case, the quality and quantity human effort can create will impact corporate systems.

So, in essence, this article is about ME; it is about YOU. It is about humans. As such, here is a helpful analogy.

The Swiss Army knife is one of the most nearly-useless tools ever conceived. It is a weak tool-like implementation epitomizing mediocrity in all its intended functions. Its knife isn't good for any serious cutting. Its screwdriver will break under minimal strain. Its file ... well, does not file. And its toothpick is not good at picking teeth.

Is the Swiss Army knife totally worthless? Not at all! If you want to store all that mediocre functionality conveniently in your pocket, it is the tool for you. But if you want to cut well, use a knife. If you want to drive a screw, try a screwdriver. If you want to file something, a real file works better. There is power in the purpose-built simplicity of a dedicated tool. There is weakness in the tool that tries to be all things to all functions.

As humans, it is to our advantage to not take on too many endeavors. Rather we should be smart about what we add to our plate, and take things off our plate that are not serving our goals. Given our limited time each day to devote to our work, we should strive for quality first. Once that quality is achieved, the quantity of work we can do AT THAT QUALITY LEVEL will become obvious to us. And that algorithm is the recipe for a simple, powerful focused life.

When we push ourself past this limitation, quality drops, as does our health and mental well-being. It is not up to US to do it ALL or even MOST of it. Our job is to do as much as we can do well.

In summary, think strategically about what new endeavors you will take on and find a way to integrate them into your best life. Cull the rest. Avoid activity-clutter as great writers eliminate unnecessary words. Just as they strive for concise, powerful sentences, strive for a concise, powerful life.