The Focus Dividend
I’m reading Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much.
It’s a fascinating dive into how having too little - money, time, connection - reshapes our decisions, thinking, and behavior. Sometimes for the better. Mostly not.
The upside we all felt at some point -
When you’re short on time and your workshop’s tomorrow? You’ll get it done.
I remember speaking at an innovation event. I attended day one, listened to the speakers, watched the audience. And realized, my talk wasn’t quite on theme. I had 6 hours in my hotel room to redo the whole thing.
I scrapped the original. Rewrote it from scratch.
The adrenaline kicked in. Dopamine rushed. Creativity sharpened. Dots connected.
It ended up being one of my clearest, most impactful talks. And the ideas from it are still paying dividends.
That’s the “focus dividend” scarcity sometimes gives us: clarity under pressure.
But it’s not a strategy. Not for the important things.
An Olympic-level performance doesn’t happen in a last-minute scramble. It’s the result of years of training, groundwork, reflection, and preparation.
Brilliance in the moment can happen but only if the foundation is solid.
The real cost of scarcity is what the authors call tunneling.
When you’re chronically short on time, you become hyper-focused on the next urgent thing - emails, calls, meetings, tasks, social obligations.
It feels productive.
It feels necessary. It feels unavoidable.
But it adds up to… nothing worth talking about. (That's how you end up answering "I'm just busy", when somebody asks how you are)
You never get to the book & learning. The deep thinking. The long walk. The body of work. The real growth.
You just keep ticking boxes. Someone else's boxes.
And then you look up and wonder one day, how do they (people you admire) have time to build something meaningful, more rewarding? Must be some genius!
Here’s a radical idea:
Don’t reply to that email.
Don’t buy that thing.
Don’t run that errand.
Wait 24 hours.
You’ll be surprised how irrelevant most “urgent” things become with a little space.
What’s left is time to rest, time to think, time to reinvest in what actually matters.
As Mullainathan and Shafir put it in Scarcity:
The Exit Plan“Scarcity alters how we look at things; it makes us choose differently. This creates benefits: we are more effective in the moment. But it also comes at a cost: our single-mindedness leads us to neglect things we actually value.”
Right now, I’m focused on exiting my own cycles of scarcity - time, money, relationships, work.
How? By minimizing commitments. So things don't own me and I focus on what I choose.
I say no to almost every invitation.
I avoid impulse purchases that feed the ego but drain the soul.
I filter commitments through one question:
Does this add to the body of work I’m here to build?
It’s a harder, yes. But what’s left never feels rushed or wasted.
Fewer needs, fewer obligations - more meaning. More focus.
More life on my terms.
There's another quote I love from modern day money guru - "Spend extravagantly on the things you love, and cut costs mercilessly on the things you don't." - by Ramit Sethi, and it's not just about money.
What’s one thing you’ll say no to this week, so you can say yes to something that matters?Comment and let me know👇 Or share it with someone who needs to hear it.
