**[Download here.](http://traffic.libsyn.com/shawntoday/shawntoday-2015-03-09_tyranny-of-choice.mp3)** (19:39)
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In all the feedback I’ve been getting regarding people’s biggest challenges, it all boils down to five primary themes.
1. Distractions
2. Options: too many options of what I could or should be doing
3. Paralysis : I don’t even know where to begin
4. Motivation (lack thereof)
5. Time (lack thereof)
For those who’ve filled out the application to do the Focus Course Pilot, the top two answers which make up 63% of the total answers are
1. Too many options of what I could or should be doing (36%)
2. Distraction (27%)
Which means that for most people, the thing which is most likely holding us back is not all the distractions, but rather all the options.
## The Tyranny of Options
At the end of the day, we’re talking about the Tyranny of Choice, or the Tyranny of Options. When we have too many good things to choose from, we will often choose none.
Oftentimes the easiest, laziest thing we can do is just accept the choice that’s been made for us. Which is why if you’re waiting until it’s time to begin work before you make a choice about what to work on, the choice is much harder. Instead, make the choice for yourself ahead of time and capitalize on your own laziness. Why not!?
Try this:
1. Today, at the end of your day, write down the one thing you need to get done tomorrow. Not necessarily an “urgent” task with a deadline, but rather an important one. A task you need to accomplish in order to keep making progress on a project.
2. Now, decide when you’re going to do that task. Preferably, it will be the first thing you work on tomorrow.
See? Now your current self is making the choice for your future self. Right now, when you can think clearly and make an unbiased decision about tomorrow, is the perfect time to make a decision about the first thing you’re going to do.
If your biggest challenge to focus is the tyranny of choice, then make the choice ahead of time. Then, stay true to your choice.
If you have trouble keeping your own commitments, and following through with your own choices, then re-read the previous chapter on getting back your own personal integrity.
Which brings us to this week’s question. It’s from Pete:
> My biggest challenge to gaining/maintaining focus is being sure I have picked the right thing to focus on. While some might say this relates more to priorities – to which I don’t disagree, the simple fact is, if I know I have picked the right task or project, my focus can be unwavering for hours. If the seed of doubt is there, I’ll start planning or going over the other projects in my mind – certainly not for the betterment of what I am currently working on. My very own internal distraction.
This is something I can relate to. Right now I have 4 significant projects I’m working on: Finishing the writing of my book, The Power of a Focused Life, building out the Focus Course, writing another book for The Sweet Setup, and helping some friends to do marketing for a conference they’re putting on.
All of these projects line up with my goals and values and principles. They are all interesting and important to me. And at any given time I could / should be working on any of them.
When there is a bit of urgency around an upcoming deadline or there is an extra boost of momentum to one of the projects, then I get quite a bit of motivation to work on that one. And so, in those times when I know that I’m working on the right project at the right time, I can literally get lost in it for hours and hours and make significant progress.
But if there’s this feeling of not quite knowing for sure that I’m working on the right project at the right time, then it’s very difficult to focus on any of the projects.
[Loren Brichter’s approach](http://www.objc.io/issue-20/loren-brichter.html) to projects is that he works on one main theme for at least a week. In an interview on objc.io (object.io?) Loren shared that he has many projects going in parallel that are related to one another, but the cost of switching between those projects comes at a cost.
And so he aims to focus on one project per week. Also knowing that when he is focusing on one project at a time, his sub-conscious is likely working on solutions and ideas to the other projects.
## Sprints
In my limited understanding of the Agile Method, I do know a little bit about a thing called Sprints. A sprint is where your team identifies a particular goal, and gives itself a set amount of time (usually one month) to accomplish that goal.
Then, after that sprint, you do another. And then another.
Let’s say you had 3 primary objectives to complete before your project was ready to ship. The idea is that by focusing on each one in isolation, you’ll make faster overall progress with higher quality end results than if you had focused on each one in parallel.
The challenge to this approach is that our lizard brain freaks out. We presume that anything which is important should be worked on every day. But that’s working without the big picture in mind.
If we pull back to say “I want to ship this project in 3 months from now and these are the 3 big things I have to have done in order to ship” then why not work one one thing for a month?
## A game strategy
The best strategy when it comes to Ticket to Ride is that every turn you take, you’re making a move that involves progress.
You could be drawing a card to see if it helps you build a route, you could be playing your trains to complete a route, you could be drawing new destination cards.
I found that the best strategy is to make sure each turn is spent making guaranteed step forward towards my goal.
I only ever draw cards when the card I need is available. Otherwise, I am playing a route. I don’t build my strategy on the all the “what-if” scenarios. If I know that I need to play the route between Denver and Salt Lake City, and I have the cards to do it, then I play them. It will have to be done at some point in the game, and so why not do it now when I have the opportunity and the means? What advantage is there to putting off that play in order to take a gamble on drawing a card?
Well, we like to take risks? We like to keep our options open. We like to see “what could happen”.
## Take Action
One of the key values of the Agile Method to personal results is “**Action over Analysis Paralysis**”.
J.D. Meier, author of “Getting Results the Agile Way” (which is not a book about software development, FYI), writes this:
> Taking action is the best antidote for Analysis Paralysis. Rather than over-engineer or try to figure out everything up front, start taking action. Your results will inform your thinking, and you can change your course as needed.
And this value correlates with one of the key principles of the Agile Method which is “80/20” action. Instead of spending 80% of your time stuck in analysis and only 20% of your time doing, shift that to spend 80-percent of your time in action.