How to Micro-Focus as a Polymath
With your macro you are tackling one big thing, and on the side of that you will have a scattering of other interests. They could be hobbies, side hustles, even secondary jobs. Although the point is that they are taking your time, interest, and most importantly focus.
There are two viewpoints I want you to get from this post today:
- The micro-focus as in orbiting interests to your main macro.
- The micro-focus of TASKS that you do on the daily, towards any of your focus goals. Regardless if they are micro or macro.
It is almost two separate definitions, that coincide together, and they both are important to your successful managing of time.
A continuation of the series:
Why the little details matter!
How you plan out your hours, days, weeks, it all comes together to haunt you. If you spend them being productive, then it will compound. Although the converse is true as well.
This is taking the view of the 2nd aforementioned viewpoint, where you have to make sure you can manage all of the tasks around you. Whether they are for your macro goal, or your micro ones. Use the 2 min rule to get yourself started, or find a way to snowball your tasks to completion.
You can't make progress on your big or small goals, if you do not make steady incremental progress towards them almost daily. Even if it is something that seems trivial.
How to determine whether or not something is worth focusing on.
Honestly, probably the more important part, which is prioritizing your micro-goals. So if you have a variety of interests you need to choose what to work on. I'm not saying to let go of the rest, at least not permanently, but you have to let go temporarily.
The way multipotentialites or JoAT's can level up to a Generalist or even future polymath; Is that they allow themselves to focus on just 1-3 things at a time. Giving themselves the bandwidth needed to actually make substantial progress.
Having the decisiveness to ascertain whether or not what you are working on is worth your time or interest is a hard skill to master. I doubt I fully have either, but it something we all can work on!
MICRO - Juggling Vs Serialized
Something I've talked about before is the idea of switching between things, or deep focusing on one thing at time THEN switching. In either case I think it works, but there are caveats to both.
It honestly seems like doing a mix of both is key to a true balance, please go check out the post to learn more, and the same goes for Micro-Focusing too...
Related Post:
Find your balance
Yes, the balance between juggling a bunch of micro-focuses, while simultaneously working on your serialized Macro-Focus. That I believe is the message I am trying to get across in this series.
Look forward to the upcoming next post about the Macro-Focus concept, expanding upon what was talked about in this one, and the last. As with the concept of Phases in your life, or in my case personal brand; There are points where your macro-focus becomes a micro-focus to maintain, then a previous micro-focus for a future endeavor becomes your current one.
Think like a magnifying glass over three dots, the first dot is your previous micro-focus to keep up with, the middle dot is the macro-focus, and the third dot is the upcoming micro-focus you've been preparing.