Start With The Premise That Everything Is Noise
We each know that focus is the most effective way to work, but hearing the mantra to focus doesn’t help narrow our scope. What’s the best way to focus? Start with the premise that everything is noise and then work to find the exceptionally valuable or important things for each day and for each project. That’s the thesis of a book called Essentialism.
Defaulting to the idea that everything as noise simplifies decision-making about time allocation. In many areas of our life, we classify noise unconsciously. Archiving email spam, filtering out irrelevant boarding announcements at airports, and driving by habit. How can we replicate the same idea at work? By asking, is this noise? Is this among my top 3 priorities? Will this effort be exceptionally valuable?
I remember walking through an exhibition at the SF Moma that showcased the design work of Dieter Rams. The SK-4 phonograph player above has become a Bauhaus design icon and embodies a mantra Rams learned from his grandfather, “Less but better.” There’s a wonderful design critique and historical reflection on this record player which marked a critical moment in the evolution of Braun. Seeing this kind of focus embodied in a physical object reminds me to seek it in more intangible places like time allocation.
“Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things”, said Steve Jobs. “The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.” said Warren Buffett. Many masters of their professions have articulated the same idea in slightly different ways.
Framing everything as noise goes a bit farther though. We ask ourselves each morning, before every email and for each request, is this noise? And that small question demands a bit of activation energy, imposes a bit of friction, and pushes us to remember our priorities.
However you say it, I hope this blog post is a reminder of the value of focus.
I help software founders turn tech into profit, clarify the offer & get sales traction. UK-born Silicon Valley refugee & Premier 100 IT Leader, combining strategy & hands-on execution to attract high-value accounts
8 年A good article. I start each day with the question "What is essential to achieve today?" - learned from Patty Azzarello - everything that distracts me from achieving that is noise.
Director-level Design Leader | Driving innovation and development of hardware
8 年Dieter said it best " I do not like the sugar cookies"
Managing Director, Accenture Song
8 年"ignore everything you want to, unless told otherwise" is one of the most empowering concepts for a team. In Data rich companies, people expend so much effort trying to figure out what to "do" and measure. The real skill to improve effectiveness and efficiency of teams is empowering them to figure out for themselves what not to do.
Banking and Finance Professional | Client Relationship Building | Business Strategy & Growth | Operations | Startups | Software Development | Logistics | Analytics | Paid Digital Media & Search | Marketing Analytics
8 年I would like to say that there are many areas in which it is very difficult to distinguish what exactly is noise and what exactly is focus. I say this through much experience with varied perspectives of doers that operate very very differently from one another. Where each person diverges on what they classify as noise and what they classify as something important to them can cause a great deal of friction between peers, friends, family, and colleagues. What one person finds important, another will throw in the trash and act as though they did you a favor by ridding you of what they qualify as "noise" while trying to shift your attention to what they'd like to focus on---typically something you will regard as nebulous and not important. These inherent disagreements make me very skeptical of the value of "focus" and "what is essential" in general terms because it really only works for your own personal work and things---basically what does not come in to contact or control of others that might disagree with you on the deletion, trashing, and focus of them.