Friday Question & Framework: August 4, 2023

Hello and welcome to the Curiosity Chronicle Friday edition. In three minutes or less, I will give you one question and one framework to leave you thinking Heading into the weekend without further ado, let's dive right in question to ponder what are the thorns that I would choose? There's a common belief that there are two paths in life. One the clean, well trodden, safe path, easy, but perhaps less rewarding. Or two. The messy, untouched, risky path, hard but perhaps more rewarding. The reality there's no such thing as the easy path in life. Every path before you has roses, but also thorns. The question we all need to ask ourselves what are the thorns that I would choose? We cannot hope to avoid the struggle and pain along the way, but we can choose the type of struggle and pain we will endure. The thorns of the safe path may be those of regret of opportunities missed and potential wasted. The thorns of the risky path may be those of fear of safety relinquished and pain of failure. The point here is that we all have to face the thorns, but we get to choose which thorns we encounter. So which thorns would you choose a framework for For Focus the Question of nine if you talk to a group of highly successful people and ask them for their secrets to success, one word will come up again and again. Focus. The ability to focus on the things that matter and ignore the rest is a superpower in the modern era. In a world where every urgent notification threatens to claw at your attention, narrowing your field of vision allows you to stand out and thrive. Whitney Wolfe, the founder and CEO of Bumble, a dating platform worth over 2.5 billion, developed a simple framework for focus that I love. The Question of nine Whenever she is faced by a decision, she asks herself, will this matter in 9 minutes, 9 hours, 9 days, 9 weeks, 9 months, or 9 years? If the answer is yes to all of them, it's very important and requires dedicated attention and focus. If not, the decision can be delegated, eliminated, or batched into a window of time for lower value decisions. My one Edit To Wolff's interpretation, if something definitely matters in nine months but you're not sure if it matters in nine years, you're probably better off assuming it will and acting accordingly. I'm notoriously bad at predicting long time horizons, so I like to lean to the safety of this assumption. I love this framework because because it effectively works as a simple heuristic for determining which items would qualify as important in your Eisenhower matrix. Personally, I find myself using a one year time horizon for my mark of whether something is important. If it will matter in a year. It's important, otherwise it's not. I like the simplicity of one year, but you should find what works for you as you're faced with important tasks and decisions in your professional life. Try using the Question of Nine or your own adapted version and let me know what you think. That's all for today. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope it got you thinking. As always, until next time, stay curious, friends.