Intending to be more intentional

I’m someone who loves working on multiple things at once. But I’ve learned that the processing power required to do this leads to ineffective performance.

You quickly reach a point where you’re using your resources badly, and wasting time, energy and money.

Personally, I’ve been running my own experiment: What happens if I direct my energy towards fewer things, and build the habits and systems to support that? Will targeted effort lead to better outcomes and greater impact?

I keep coming back to the idea of intentionality. Thinking ideas through more carefully, assessing the likely lift required, and figuring out if they can be executed well against the backdrop of everything else happening.

Essentially, prioritising, planning, and then delivering against the plan.

This isn’t productivity or hustle culture.

It’s about having a work life that generates energy and meaning - which, in turn, gives you agency over your time, energy and money. And leads to a better quality of life.

The same thing applies in early stage companies. You feel like you need to be doing everything. Everything’s on fire at the same time. But you end up doing many things badly, when you need to be doing a few things well. This approach increases the chances of failure.

The best founders and leaders are those who can:

1. Prioritise effectively

2. Filter through the noise (investor feedback, tech hype, competitor news etc)

3. Come back to their North Star and clearly demonstrate progress against their overarching goal

Let’s be clear; this is really difficult. And it’s especially hard to do once your business is already operating in a relatively chaotic way. It’s why OKR setting is usually a significant attempt to focus efforts, and explains why getting OKRs to work takes a while to truly embed.

It’s also one of the reasons why OKR setting and ownership falls to the Chief of Staff - but that’s for another day.

Curious to understand how people are feeling about how they’re spending their time at the moment - intentionally, scrambling, something else…?

Hello, I’m Bhakti. I’ve worked in high-intensity environments, launched onyx (a fintech startup), built Money Brunch, and am now growing a Fractional Chief of Staff consulting business. I’m doing something scary and uncomfortable: sharing thoughts publicly. Hashtag personal brand.