When I landed as a 1st year student in IIT, I imagined that the all-India toppers would be obsessive bookworms. But not only did they study the same hours as everyone else, the were also involved in a lot of extra curricular activities.
In that case, what explained their superlative academic performance?
Raw intelligence played a big role — no doubt. But there was another huge factor — they wasted very little time multitasking, switching attention randomly or doing low-value activities.
When they studied, they were focused, and though I can’t prove this — I believe that their brains were naturally wired for deeper and prolonged focus. And of course, they were efficient — instead of boiling the ocean, they would find the fastest way to solve the assignment problems. 😊
In this world, if there is one level playing field, it is THIS — everyone has only 24 hours, and everyone is busy.
A manager of one McDonald’s outlet has 24 hours. So does the McDonald’s CEO, who oversees 40,000 outlets. Then how can the CEO outwork his way out of this — it is not even possible!
Instead, the CEOs focus on higher level problems, and hopefully, give chunks of undistracted time to the most important ones.
Working longer hours as a general solution is just as dumb as trying to work 40,000 times harder than a McDonald’s store manager.
Identify the right problems, prioritize ruthlessly, and focus. This is the recipe. There is no other magic.
– Rajan