Most people say they need more time. I’ll suggest they might just need more focus. Before you put up some defenses about how busy you are, please hang with me.
Your inbox. Endless social media feeds from “friends” who may never call, listen, or show up. Notifications for every. little. thing.
I’ve managed to quiet down my inbox so I can pay attention to what actually matters: client notifications in the project management system, or GitLab issues for CiviCRM.
Jonathan Haidt has written about how smartphones and social media have especially affected younger generations in The Anxious Generation. But adults are not immune to the same attention economy.
All of that keeps you in consumer mode. That, my friend, holds back your superpowers.
Producer mode is where the magic happens. Practicing the skill. Improving the process. Getting genuinely good at one or two things. Repetition through iteration is the path to mastery.
Purpose usually comes from that kind of effort.
Here’s the bottom line:
If you want to excel, it may actually be easier than ever to outpace your nonprofit peers. AI can make your work easier, but focus is the real advantage because so many people are living from distraction to distraction. AI will become table stakes, much like knowing how to Google did. It will make your work easier, but it will not be the real differentiator. Gold ‘ole time management and focus will.
Look, we are all both producers and consumers. We all need to “unwind” and “re-charge”. But maybe take a moment to measure the balance between the two and what consuming activities are actually “recharging” versus draining you.
You do not need more hours in the day. That’s just a throw away line for something that will never happen.
You need more control over your attention.