The fortune of American entrepreneur Warren Buffett exceeds Warren Buffett / Bloomberg Billionaires Index 100 billion dollars. He is always included in the lists of the richest people in the world. He is also the most successful investor of the twentieth century.
Obviously, Buffett is very good at managing his time. That's why the story that his employee shared with my good friend caught my attention. It's about a three-step productivity system that Buffett uses to help subordinates determine priorities and further actions. Or about the strategy of two lists.
Mike Flint worked as Warren Buffett's personal pilot for ten years. One day he got into a conversation with an entrepreneur about professional priorities. And Buffett advised him to do a two-part exercise.:
Now Flint had two lists: of the 5 items that he considered the most important, and of the 20 remaining ones. The pilot decided to start working from the first list. Buffett then asked him, "What about the others?" Flint replied: "I will focus on the 5 main goals. The remaining 20 are in second place. They are also important, and I will work on them in between. These goals are not so urgent, but I still plan to make efforts to achieve them." Buffett reacted to this as follows: "No, Mike, you misunderstood everything. Goals that you have not selected in the top five automatically fall into the list of things that you need to avoid at all costs. Forget about them until you realize the five main ones."
I believe in minimalism and simplicity. And I really like getting rid of unnecessary. I believe that removing unnecessary things is one of the most effective ways to make our lives easier, automate habits and experience a sense of gratitude for what we have.
Getting rid of useless things or solutions is relatively simple. It is much more difficult to give up what matters to us. Many tasks that slow down our progress seem important to us, although this is not the case at all.
Every behavior has its price. Even a neutral attitude towards something is not truly neutral. It takes away our time and energy, which can be spent on what is really important. More often than not, we move in a circle instead of starting to act.
That's why Buffett's strategy is really brilliant. Goals 6 through 25 are things that you care about. Therefore, it is very easy for you to convince yourself to spend time on them. However, compared to the main five goals, they are nothing more than distractions. You devote time to them, so you have 20 unfinished projects, not 5 completely finished ones.
Ruthlessly remove unnecessary things from your life. Force yourself to focus on the main thing. Finish projects or cross them off the to-do list. The most dangerous distractions are those that we love, but that don't reciprocate.
