Having a well manicured to-do list is a fantastic thing. Keeping tasks front of mind will help you to not miss anything as your day goes by.
Taking it further, though, some people have “not to-do” lists as well. It could be to not turn on the television, or to not eat any snacks between meals. There are a lot of things you could put on that list.
You can take it even further. In the book “The Coaching Habit“, author Michael Stanier pulls in a great quote from Michael Porter:
The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.
Porter’s quote isn’t really about “don’t turn on the TV”, though. Porter is viewing it through the lens of being a great company.
He has used the example of Southwest Airlines before. They can turn a gate around very quickly and they can offer great pricing, but it’s because of what they choose not to do: no seat assignments, no meals, etc. Those are things that are generally a good idea to include, but leaving them out was the best way for Southwest to achieve their goals.
We have similar discussions at our agency. While it’d be great to be the “one-stop shop” for everything, it would lead to a degradation of our main service offerings. By staying focused on our core strengths and intentionally avoiding some types of work (media placements, for example), we’re able to keep our main services incredibly strong.
What are you not doing?
