How to Focus on What Matters by Eliminating What Doesn't

What if focus isn't about effort at all?

I spent two years pushing harder on my side project. More hours. More discipline. More forcing myself to care when I didn't.

Then I watched a basketball game.

The commentator said something that stuck: "The best defenders don't try to guard everyone. They take away the one thing you're best at and make you beat them another way."

That's not trying harder. That's choosing what to eliminate.

I wondered: what would happen if I applied that to my business?

What I Was Doing Wrong

I had a side project with four revenue streams, three social platforms, a newsletter, and a vague plan to "do all of it." I was guarding the whole court. Every time I sat down to work, I had to decide what to work on—and that decision exhausted me before I started.

My focus problem wasn't a discipline problem. It was an elimination problem.

So I asked myself a question that felt almost reckless: what if I only did one of these things?

Not "what if I prioritized better" or "what if I batched my tasks." What if I eliminated four of the five things I was trying to do?

The loneliness of solo work had convinced me I needed more—more channels, more offerings, more chances to connect. But more was the thing burying me.

Where Else This Shows Up

• In writing: Focus doesn't mean staring harder at the blank page. It means eliminating the other projects competing for your creative energy. Can you write a novel while also drafting a screenplay and blogging three times a week? Technically. Should you?
• In content creation: Focus isn't posting more consistently across every platform. It's picking the one platform where your work resonates and letting the others go quiet.
• In any creative work: Focus is less about what you add to your attention and more about what you refuse to let in.

Why Elimination Is So Hard

Because it feels like giving up options. And when you're working alone, options feel like safety. If this doesn't work, at least I have that.

But here's what I've noticed: the options you're hoarding are costing you the depth that would make any single one of them work.

I don't have this fully figured out. I'm still learning what's essential and what's just comfortable. Some days I miss the things I eliminated.

But something shifted when I stopped asking "how do I do all of this?" and started asking "what would happen if I didn't?"

Try This Today

Focus isn't a volume knob you turn up by trying harder. It's a filter. And the filter only works when you're willing to block things out.

What's one thing you're doing right now that you could stop—not pause, not scale back, but actually eliminate? What would that free up?

Focus means eliminating. Not trying harder.