The barbell of effort

My friend works as a chef. He spends 95% cooking, and 5% marketing on social media for his private dinners and to find catering clients. He used to work in marketing, a useful past expertise, but he doesn’t really focus on it. He makes videos for Instagram, reposts them to LinkedIn. That’s it. I found this approach refreshing (though I’d suggest he set up a guestbook during dinners and have people sign with their emails, just to keep in touch). A project can be important, overhead, or a distraction. Important projects need focus, and a lot of effort. Cooking is important. Energy focused on practicing is time well spent. Overhead tasks need to get done, with as little effort as possible. Marketing is overhead, it helps pay the bills. It needs to get done, but it doesn’t need to be optimized to the maximum. Distractions need to be acknowledged, at most. If something seems important but doesn’t fit into overhead, maybe it’s a distraction. Be mindful of putting a medium amount of effort…