10/31/2010

Focus!

A small story...


There is a famous story about a gentile who approached the two great Rabbis of the time and asked each, "Can you teach me all of Judaism in the time I can stand on one leg?"

The first Rabbi chased him out of the house, however, the second Rabbi answered: "Don't do unto others what you don't want done to you. That is all of Judaism, the rest is just derivatives. Go and learn."

Can we do the same; can we condense all of TOC into one sentence? I think that it is possible to condense it to a single word - focus.

Eliyahu M. Goldratt in Theory of Constraints Handbook

About this blog

Focus is the base of a lot of theories and methods, may it be the theory of constraints, lean management, the "Engpasskonzentrierte Strategie" (EKS), the pareto principle and many more. Even agile software development methods like scrum would not work at all if there would be no focus on the removal of impediments.

This blog will concentrate on theories and methods which will bring focus to your work and to your life. I will also report about my personal experiences with all this stuff here; about benefits and advantages as well as about pitfalls and problems.

How to focus?

All of the theories follow the same simple steps:
  • Bring to light the main problems. Prioritise them and build up an explicitly ranked list. Plan your actions.
  • Say "no!" to insignificant things. Even if it sometimes feels hard - remember that you cannot do everything.
  • Focus on the main things. This may be just 2 or 3. But work hard on them and bring them to an successful ending.
  • Never sleep. Always look out for the next problem to enhance.