The Case for Narrow Focus

Every few months I catch myself with six half-started projects and a nagging feeling that none of them are moving. The fix is never a new productivity system. It's cutting the list down to one thing and staying on it past the point where it stops being fun.

Breadth feels like progress because it's full of beginnings, and beginnings are the easiest part of anything. Depth feels like stagnation because it's mostly middle — the long stretch after the novelty wears off and before the results show up.

Narrow focus is a bet that the middle is worth sitting through. So far, it always has been.