Increasing Capacity for What Matters

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We can only hold so much. Our brains process incoming information 200 times per second and over create over 17.2 trillion action potentials it can inform you to take. But, there is a point at which our capacity for the daily loads we create will be realized. Having a better understanding of that and awareness to it is key at you maximizing your potential, knowing what’s essential, and what’s not essential.

The good news, you can grow your capacity or limit by decreasing your load. Picking what goes and what stays, is a moment in reflection. So, for this to work, you have to make space to reflect and really figure out what your days are filled with. Below will be some practices from the top experts on how to accomplish this. The best case scenario is to reduce your hours and increase your capacity for what really matters.

For a start its important to state that most masters at this work will tell you there are things that really matter in this work to us:

• Time: Managing it
• Mental: Working smarter
• Physical: Attention and energy

Time is only one we can’t do anything about. We have to be better stewards of it. It is not renewable as a resource. We know when it is gone, it is gone. We can accomplish this through focus on the other two.

Most of us would align that productivity success to us is that big honking list of stuff everyday we are able to check off. The bigger the list and more checked off the better. The experts actually say the opposite. That’s a mindset change we have to understand more. Getting the most important things done is where it’s at and where we mentally/physically feel more rewarded in our work. We need to engineer the right pace.

Most of the experts I have reviewed and studied tell us the best alignment to what real productivity potential realization could be is when it is closely matched with our values as well as what matters most to us. Finding our purpose and motivation will help us create the right routines. This will create a pace towards the real goal you want to achieve.

Here’s a simple exercise to start with:

If you were given two additional hours to your day, what would you do with this extra time?

Most of the time we will pick what we’ve not been able to do, but have really, really, really wanted to with extra time gifted. Read that book. Create the podcast. Edit that video. Start getting healthier at the gym. These things that you put down on paper you would do are very closely aligned with your true purpose, values, and motivation.

Now that you’re reset with that in mind. Time to look at the ugly, what are you doing instead? Why is that being prioritized over what you really would like to do? This is getting you closer to what truly motivates you, most important, and meaningful. And, it is the first step.

I see this rule of three concept a lot in my studies. I even use it myself. That’s how I found the space and time to add this blog addition to IBtP. J.D. Meier is one of the earliest masters of this concept that I could find. His book Getting Results the Agile Way is a great read if you want to pick it up. He states we should start every week with three goals we want to achieve. These are goals that are closely tied to the first exercise we did above. The ones that align to your values and motivations. Then your daily scheduling is filtered through those three to help you achieve them in the work you are doing everyday. Simple. But, that’s why I’ve found it so effective.

Those are two ways to start. It will create space for what really matters and building a strategy to actually achieve it. I’ll take another post this weekend in part two to talk through some deeper work to achieve a deeper capacity in our daily lives. You will find what I did, which was more time in my schedule by saying no to certain tasks or responsibilities so you can reclaim what really matters.

Hope your Saturday is fantastic! Thanks for reading!

✌🏻 Shawn