3 Frameworks to Help You Stay Focused, Avoid Overcommitting, and Make It Easier To Say No

Read time: 5 minutes

Opportunity is kryptonite to focus.

Here’s the problem: I crave opportunity.

I’m always on the hunt. And when I find a sliver of it hiding where no one else sees it…dopamine overload. If you’re reading this, I’m sure you relate.

Opportunity is not a bad thing, it just diverts attention.

If you have committed to a craft, goal, or strategy, then you need focus, not opportunity.

It’s just hard because there’s this fear that if you don’t act on it now, it’s gone forever. And that might be true, but it’s also true that saying “yes” to opportunity means you’re saying “no” to everything else.

I’m highlighting this so we can both get better at picking the right opportunities and focusing intently on them.

Here are 3 mental frameworks to help you stay focused, avoid overcommitting, and make it easier to say “no” to mediocre opportunities.

Gary Keller’s “Focusing Question” Framework

This framework is all about honing your focus to achieve extraordinary results.

Gary Keller is the co-founder of the largest real estate company in the world, Keller Williams Realty. He attributes his success to his ability to ignore “what I could do” and focus on doing “what I should do.” It starts with a simple question:

“What’s the one thing I can do such that by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary?”

This question helps you determine what matters and identify your highest leverage activity.

While it’s a big-picture question, you can also use it to find the tiny, actionable first step. Keep asking yourself the question to find the one thing you can do right now to lead you to the next. Find the action that starts the first domino.

It’s about finding the one action that makes the rest easier.

How I use Gary’s framework?

I use this question during my yea-end business review and goal-setting process.

Let’s rewind the tape…

My first full year in business was 2020 (great timing…I know). I generated $48,953.32 in revenue – a fraction of my salary as an employee. The truth is, I was lucky even to generate that much.

I knew something had to change.

So on January 4, 2021, I carved out the morning to reflect on what happened in my first full year as a business owner (and what I could do moving forward).

I sat down, plugged in my microphone, and recorded a conversation with myself. I realized I was over-optimizing my fulfillment process (pricing, service, systems, value) and did nothing to attract new clients.

2021 started with a dry pipeline.

So, I asked myself “the focusing question”:

"What’s the one thing I can do [for my business in 2021] such that by doing it, everything else will become easier or unnecessary.”

The answer was to find a way to attract so many potential clients I’d have to push them away. Spoiler alert…that didn’t happen, but my head was in the right place. My “one thing” was to focus on fueling my marketing engine.

If I could bring people to me, it would make building my business easier!

I now ask myself the focusing question every year.

The answer has been marketing since then. But as I get more experienced and clearer on my strategy, I drill down deeper to find the first domino. It’s the reason why I’m writing on the Internet.

And have made it my top priority.

Kyle Maynard’s “No Seven” Framework

This framework is all about preventing overcommitment to mediocre opportunities.

Kyle Maynard is an entrepreneur, author, athlete, and the first quadruple amputee to climb Mount Kilimanjaro (without prosthetics). Like many successful individuals, Kyle learned the importance of protecting his time. While you nod your head in agreement (you and I both know), we still overcommit to tasks that bear little fruit.

Kyle learned that the only way to build better was to do the right work was to protect his time by saying no more often.

In the book Tribe of Mentors (by Tim Ferris), Kyle shared how he does it:

Rate an opportunity on a scale from 1-10, with the stipulation that you cannot choose 7.

Kyle said:

“If I thought something was a 7, there was a good chance I felt obligated to do it. But if I decide between a 6 or an 8, it’s a lot easier to quickly determine whether to not I should even consider it.”

It’s a framework that forces you to commit to high-valued opportunities – and ditch the rest.

How I use Kyle’s framework?

I use this framework to determine when my writing is “good enough” to hit publish.

I am a recovering perfectionist.

I would wait until everything was just right before acting. I’ve let countless opportunities slip by. And for the longest time, it’s prevented me from putting my work out on the world.

The worst part was I was aware of my problem.

Let’s rewind the tape…again.

The story above points out marketing was my “one thing,”…but it was my “one thing” for my business. I was missing a key ingredient – building a personal brand. I didn’t realize how doing so builds credibility and attention.

Plus, it demonstrates how I can provide value to the world.

I came to an important realization this year:

“I’m in the business of thinking. And if my goal is to deliver and share high-value, I’d better also be in the business of writing and editing.”

And that meant sharing knowledge, documenting insights, and publishing often.

It also meant realizing I needed to combat my perfection and ship less-than-perfect work.

Every time I edit my work, I will ask myself:

“How would I rate this from 1-10 without using 7?”

If it’s a 6, I need to do more work. If it’s at 8, it’s time to do final tweaks and get ready to go. It’s the filtering framework for my creative work.

Derek Sivers’ “Hell Yeah” Framework

There’s an extreme variation of Kyle’s framework – that I would call the holy grail of protecting your time by making it easier to say “no.”

It’s Derek Sivers’ “Hell Yeah” framework.

But it only applies to people who have had some success and receive a constant stream of inbound opportunities.

Derek Sivers is a former musician turned entrepreneur who sold his company CD Baby for $22 million in 2008.

For every opportunity that comes your way, if you don’t immediately say “Hell Yeah!”, the answer is a “No.”

Derek believes it's important to say "yes" to opportunities early in your business (or career). It provides the experience and enables you to figure out what works.

And, to be quite frank, it helps you survive early on.

I first read this in Tools of Titans (Tim Ferris), but Derek has written more about the framework.

While it’s super clear, I'm not in a position to use it yet.

I’m making progress on my business, but I'm still hunting for opportunities, not beating them away with a stick.

That said, you can use it to protect your time.