It's all about the little things

_The secret of doing much is actually focusing on the little.

Let me explain. Sometimes in 2011, I walked into the office of my friend Noah Kakai. I noted something, as I always had. His desk was always clean every time he left. No paper. No notebook. Completely cleared. Then I asked him how was that possible because my desk was always full of LPOs and invoices to be signed, books, rough papers as old as months and all manner of litter. He told me that he was taught in business school never to leave any pending work on the desk at the close of the day. So, if it's check to be signed or a report to be cleared, he does it immediately and pushes the papers back to whoever brought them. He never wakes up to office to work or sign anything from previous day. Wow! I picked this immediately and put it to work. I remember after some time my Assistant stepped into my office and exclaimed, "Mr. William, it seems nowadays you don't have much work to do"!. Apparently she was referring to the diminishing clatter on my desk. I have practiced this principle ever since. Sometimes I remember of an email I was to send when am on a lift going home and I go back to office just to send that one email. To me it's a serious matter that will not wait for morning.

Well, to put this into perspective, it does not necessarily have to do with paper work as described above. It's all about the little tasks that we have to accomplish on continuous basis to achieve the big goals. It could be a call you were to make, an email you were to send, a report you were to prepare, a quick trip to meet the client, a shirt you have to iron in the evening instead of morning. Those tiny, nagging tasks that stands on your way. Some people think that big achievements are gotten by executing some mountain of a task. Wrong. Big and great results are achieved by diligently executing the tiny tasks that pulls you closer to your goal. Interestingly, most of these tasks might look mundane to most of us. The discipline to get the little things done in most cases is the key we need to unlock the big things.