One Focus: Doing Less to Do What Matters
How narrowing your attention becomes an act of self-respect
The High-Achiever’s Fog
If you’re anything like me, your to-do list reads like a résumé.
Every line whispers the same promise: Do it all, and you’ll finally feel enough.
But the math never works.
More goals multiply faster than meaning.
You can’t build clarity on divided attention.
Focus is how alignment breathes.
When I Was Everywhere and Nowhere
At my last corporate job, I wore multitasking like armor.
Inbox open. Slack pinging.
Three decks, half-built, and one masterclass started.
I told myself I was managing “complexity.”
Really, I was avoiding decisions.
Doing everything felt safer than choosing something.
Because choice exposes preference, and preference reveals identity.
If I picked wrong, maybe I’d lose the proof that I belonged.
That’s when I learned: indecision is just fear with good time-management skills.
The Coordinate: One Focus
In the ENOUGH Compass, One Focus means choose what actually matters.
It’s the discipline of selective attention.
The refusal to confuse importance with immediacy.
Ask yourself:
What deserves my full presence right now?
What can wait until it genuinely matters?
What would happen if I did one thing beautifully instead of five things adequately?
Focus isn’t restriction. It’s relief.
It’s the moment you stop scattering and start aligning.
The Myth of Balance
You’ve probably been told to “balance it all.”
But balance implies you can keep everything in motion without dropping anything.
That’s physics, not peace.
Life doesn’t balance. It needs your attention.
Some things deserve center stage. Others belong backstage.
Most were never meant to be in the play at all.
A Real Example
This newsletter is my current One Focus.
Every week I feel the temptation to branch out: launch new projects, record videos, chase ideas.
Each one looks shiny, justified, productive.
Then I ask my Compass question: Does this deepen my purpose or dilute it?
Most of the time, the honest answer is dilution.
Focus has a sound.
It’s quieter than ambition, steadier than motivation.
It’s the hum of alignment.
What the Culture of More Gets Wrong
We glorify multitasking as mastery.
But attention isn’t infinite; it’s currency.
And every time you spend it on distraction, you underfund what actually matters.
When you stop treating focus as scarcity and start treating it as sacred, you’ll notice how much of your “urgency” was just background noise stealing your attention.
Where are you still scattering yourself to prove you care?
What would shrink if you finally chose what deserves to expand?
Practice for the Week
Today, pick one thing that truly matters.
Give it your undivided attention for 30 minutes.
No toggling. No half-presence.
Afterward, pause.
Notice how clarity feels in your body.
That’s alignment.
Data you can trust.
That’s your compass.
You’re already holding it.
Exhale.
P.S. Tell me what you chose as your One Focus this week? How did it feel to give it everything and nothing else?