Confused not busy with productivity. Appreciate the real work versus fake work distinction. The majority of creatives and productives are busy being busy, but what’s the point of being busy about things that don’t matter? They say, “Oh, I have meetings and this,” and then they’re checking their devices and they’re rushing around like they’re evading or dealing with a five-alarm fire. Take the time to know your priorities. Clarity precedes mastery. Be strategic versus reactive. Know your Mount Everest. Know your priorities clearly. And once you are very clear on your quarterly priorities and your annual priorities and your five-year priorities and your 10-year priorities and your lifetime priorities, then do… Steve Jobs said the key to focus is learning to say no. Just say no to almost everything because you’re so monomaniacally focused on the few things that are really important. Appreciate the big difference between doing real work, heavyweight work and doing fake work, which is just spinning your gears, feeling that you’re… Often when you’re tired, and often, here’s a powerful insight, and often when you’re overwhelmed, you start to do trivial work because it’s very hypnotic, it gives you a sense that you’re producing, but really you’re just spinning your gears and you’re wasting your time. When I mentor the captains of industry, the genuine business titans, the financial tycoons, these people have a bias towards action. They do not waste time on silly things. They have very little need to be liked. They are very clear on their vision. They want to change the world. They want to distribute ridiculous value to as many people as possible. They want to help a billion people because that’s how they know they’re going to get another billion dollars. And they don’t do fake work, they do real work.
