One-And-Done

Several phenoms in the game of basketball were able to jump directly from high school into the National Basketball Association (NBA) draft. These include notable names such as Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James. In 2005, the NBA established the “one-and-done" rule for players wanting to enter the league. Essentially this became a check the box exercise where athletes must play one year of collegiate basketball before becoming eligible for the NBA draft. One year of collegiate competition and they are “done” with that obligation and can turn their attention to bigger and better things that have a higher (monetary at least) return on their athletic investment. 

Regardless of the pros and cons of the one-and-done rule, the concept is helpful in the lives of mere mortals who are not blessed with professional athletic talent. By prioritizing the completion of things that must be completed once and then that obligation is considered “done” we can greatly reduce the number of to do’s we are holding onto. How often do we procrastinate on these things when doing them would make them go away forever?  

What things are on your to do list that are one-and-done? How much mental and emotional energy are those tasks taking up in your brain? Can you complete or delegate those one-and-done tasks so that you can move on to bigger and better uses of that brain space? Or can you be the exception to the rule, as if you were the next Kevin, Kobe or LeBron, and eliminate the need for them to be done at all? 

A lot of things on our to do list are not actually needle movers. We need to be ruthless with how we invest our time and understand what return we will receive based on our investment in completing a particular task. Question the status quo and figure out if that task really MUST be done. What are the real consequences (if any) of just crossing it off the list? 

Time is limited. It is the one resource we can’t make “more” of; we can only protect the minutes we have and find ways to use them more efficiently. Most people would feel lucky to live to see 100 years of age. That is equal to just over 52.5 million minutes; which sounds like a ton! But here is the rub, best case scenario most of us spend at least the first 22 years of our lives in primary school and undergraduate universities learning how to be a grown up. Then we likely spend the last 20 years at least of that centenarian life in full-on retirement mode and/or possibly in cognitive or physical decline. That leaves approximately 58 potentially productive, hopefully healthy years to create and contribute your mark on society, your family and yourself.  

Granted we must also sleep, eat, and use the bathroom. Most of us need to work, which may or may not be related to our life’s purpose.  We will want time to spend with loved ones, perhaps travel and generally have fun. I am also guessing you are not reading this post on your 23rd birthday, so some, if not a lot, of this precious time is already behind you or already earmarked for basic living and loving obligations in the future. Consider that the average American spends 4 hours a day watching TV which equates to 5 million minutes (about 9 and a half years) over just the timespan of those 58 key years. You can see how rapidly those minutes whittle away.  

I don’t mean to create existential dread, but rather highlight how precious our time is and realize just how many minutes we waste each day or spend on things that don’t really matter to the quality of our life. Therefore, be ruthless with your to do list! Be savage with what you say yes to and where you invest your precious minutes. Delegate and eliminate things until just before the point where the kids think they are next. Afterall, we don’t want to inadvertently create any trauma in our kids that will result in more of their precious minutes being used in additional therapy when they reach adulthood. 

So, take out a piece of paper or the notes app on your phone and start making two “to do” lists. One list is for your “one-and-done" tasks. The second is for tasks that must be done frequently or repeatedly. Dump all the stuff you can think of on to that physical or electronic paper and get it out of your head. You don’t want to waste brain space on remembering things that can easily be tracked for you with prompts to complete them when the time is right. 

For the one-and-done list, now rank that list based on the return on investment for completing that task. Follow the Pareto principle which says that 20% of your efforts contribute to 80% of your results. Which 20% of that list is really meaningful? Can you ditch the 80% that is not significantly contributing to your results? 

For the repetitive tasks, set that list aside and we will revisit that in another post.  For those tasks we will still apply the Pareto principle and look at options for delegating or deleting them; but we will also look at how to make those tasks more efficient by putting systems in place for each one that remains after we ruthlessly hone that list. 

What were your key takeaways? What tasks make it to the top 20% that will drive results? What did you cross off your list forever? Let us know in the comments!