You Can Do Anything, But Not Everything
Ramblings on an important lesson I learned from a guy named David Allen.
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Happy Thursday folks :) In today’s newsletter …
💀 Killing your darlings (prioritizing is no fun)
Ok, it’s time to get serious.
A few weeks ago, I sent out a newsletter about the challenge of taking on AI as a non-developer. In it, I highlighted an AI study guide that started with learning the basics of Python.
Well, needless to say, I have yet to learn the basics of Python – and although I’m tempted, I’m not going to try and squeeze that learning into the few hours I have left before I have to schedule send this newsletter.
Last week, we talked about the Duolingo inspired theory of gamifying your learning.
Although we touched on it, the point about actually making time for learning is something I never quite fleshed out in the letter. Gamifying learning may make it easier for you to make time, but it can’t make the time for you; in my experience, that step – the extra 10% of executing on your goals – is all you.
Of course, any discussion about time automatically becomes a discussion of priorities; one cannot exist without the other. Cue my favorite quote by David Allen, creator of the Getting Things Done productivity system.
“You can do anything, but not everything.”
Bolded, for emphasis. Full disclosure, I didn’t know he was attributed to this quote, but it makes a lot of sense.
Prioritization is something I think everyone struggles with, whether we realize it or not. You may not even know what your priorities are, but as long as time keeps moving and you stay … well, alive, you are always prioritizing.
The list usually goes something like …
Friends/Family
Health
Work
Shenanigans ( 🍻 🎉 )
Hobbies/Projects
Learning
etc.
NOT in order of course, because god knows our priorities shift and change and are hardly ever (if ever) in balance.
What I mean to say with all this is whether you list your priorities on a Google Doc down to every hour of every day, or go at your days carefree, you are always choosing to prioritize certain items on that list over others, consciously or unconsciously, because you’re always spending your time on something.
This is where the part comes in about not being able to do everything. It’s a bummer.
Prioritizing means killing your darlings, and it’s not particularly fun. And because I’m not a big proponent of cutting out the fun things in life to make room for more work (at least not to any great extent), that means you’ve got to cut the fat in the hopes & dreams department.
Do I want to study French everyday and revive my long lost semi-conversational abilities? Ya. But it’s not in the top priorities, so it’s gotta go. Those 15 minutes on Duolingo will have to do for now.
I don’t really know why I’m writing about this, because I’m not half decent at it.
In fact, it’s probably one of my weakest life skills. I get so caught up in all the things I could do that, eventually, it all becomes too much. Ironic, since I’m much better at it at work.
So, I spent some time today treating it like work. I mapped out my time and slimmed down my priorities. Killing my darlings ended up being weirdly freeing, because now I don’t have to feel guilty about things like not sitting down to study French. Now I know I just don’t have time for it.
For now, French is out and Python is in. That and a few other things … ya, we’re still working on killing those darlings.
Nevertheless, here’s to time well spent. 🍻