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Exploring Popular Focus Techniques: 25-5 rule
25-5 Rule, How to increase Focus and achieve goals with simple step.
Warren Buffet is not an unrecognized name in the world of business and finance, he is an American businessman and philanthropist, widely considered the most successful investor of the 20th century. He has amassed a personal fortune of more than $60 billion by defying prevailing investment trends.
As such, whenever one defies expectations and in doing so becomes one of the wealthiest people on earth, people naturally want to know his secrets to success and unfortunately the man himself has never authored a book, but there have been multiple books written about him and his investing principles while others focus on his personal life and habits. The 25-5 rule, which is what we will be looking at today is one such excerpt from a conversation Buffet had with his pilot.
The 25-5 rule, allegedly had its genesis from a conversation Buffet had with his pilot and he walked him through a simple exercise where he asked him to write down his top 25 career goals and asked him to circle the top 5.
Now you’re probably thinking he (Buffet) showed him a way to accomplish multiple goals i.e. killing two birds with 1 stone. However the advice he gave his pilot was much simpler.
Here’s what the investment mogul told his pilot.
- Only focus on accomplishing goals 1 to 5
- Stay as far away as possible from goals 6 to 25
Lesson:
Just like the Pomodoro technique, the 25-5 rule emphasizes the idea that as humans, we will only ever accomplish so much within our lifespans/work-day and as such is it of vital importance to focus your energy on a small set of realistically achievable goals. its all about focus, you’re likely not going to accomplish 25 goals within your career or life for that matter, if you are focused you are likely to achieve 3 or 4 major milestones within your career.
Having established that focus is the key resource in achieving your goals we can clearly see why goals 6 through 25 impede your progress in achieving the main 5, the rest of your goals will only become distractions.
Making a list of five things you truly want to do is simple. But because you get sucked into the excitement, delight, and fleeting pleasure of things that aren't as vital, it's even simpler to become sidetracked from actually achieving those five goals.
Determining items 6 through 25 is crucial because it will help you figure out what is preventing you from moving forward.
Using the 25-5 rule in conjunction with the Pomodoro technique is an excellent way of breaking down even your daily work day into small manageable chunks that you can easily track your progress over. i.e. Identifying 15 tasks you’d like to complete during your day and circling the top 5, you can do the same thing for the week month and so on.
Remember Focus Is Key,
If you can answer the questions below to your satisfaction you’re on the right path.
- Will completing this task allow me to achieve my daily goal?
- Will this project enable me to accomplish my main yearly objectives?
- Will this plan enable me to accomplish my long-term professional objectives?
- Or does it fit the second description—interesting but a diversion?
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