Starting with the right raw materials

Recently I have been revisiting what I consider to be the "classic" interviews by Tim Ferriss, piecing out the key takeaways that jump out at me time after time with every listen. This past week I played his original interview with Seth Godin several times on our way to Bozeman, Montana, for Thanksgiving, and kept rewinding to this section on Seth Godin's obsession with specialty chocolate - "You can spend a lot of time trying to fix stuff later, but starting with the right raw materials makes a huge difference."

Every day, week, month, and year we are all pushed to do more with our time, energy, and resources, which is a great thing in my opinion. It pushes the least valuable work to an organization down on the priority list, and prompts us to prioritize truly what will move our business forward every day. However, in that environment, it is all to easy to become overwhelmed and start scrambling to get everything done in a day. Sometimes the faster we try to move, the less we get done. The more quickly we try to respond to a fire without planning, the longer it can take to put it out.

Starting with the raw materials doesn't just apply to making high-end, specialty chocolate, as Seth Godin so accurately points out. It applies to every day we spend at work and in life trying to move forward. Spending an extra thirty minutes in the evening preparing for the week ahead, preparing for the next day so our teams can focus on what is most important, will always take less time than the "catch up" time we spend the following day because we haven't prepared adequately.

What are the right raw materials you can focus on today?