What are you working on?
What meeting Sweden's most important man told me about prioritization.
Hi friend,
Hope this find you well.
I’m writing today’s edition from a cozy Swedish coffee shop with 300ml of black coffee in my hand, Deep Techno in my ears, and a middle aged couple intensely making out right up my face.
With that said, I wanted to share a lesson with you today.
And it’s not about why you shouldn’t make out in cafés…
(That goes without saying - it’s because you might disturb small children and newsletter writers)
It’s about what you work on.
Two days ago…
…I sat and worked from my favourite Espresso House coffee shop in central Stockholm.
For any Americans reading this:
Espresso House is like the Swedish Starbucks, but without overpriced lattes.
Because they’re affordable & offer free WiFi, Espresso House cafés attract many budget remote workers.
I’m one of them.
In either case, as I sat there and wrote my first educational email course for solopreneurs (which I’ll release this week), a massive man walked into the café.
This man looked like a living image of a classic 1970s American corporate CEO:
He was a white man in his fifties, wearing a grey suit with a red tie and a white shirt, and he carried a big, black leather suitcase with him.
His dark-grey, well-groomed hair blended in well with his suit.
And he was a GIANT.
I do not kid you when I say that this man must’ve been over 195cm (6 ‘ 4) tall.
All in all, he was one of those people that give you the impression that they’re important.
After a second of astonishment, I went back to writing my email.
But after only a minute…
The giant sat down right next to me.
Slowly, he began unpacking his working setup from the leather suitcase.
First, a laptop.
Second, a mouse.
Third, a second screen for his laptop.
Fourth, a portable keyboard.
Wow.
“This isn’t only the biggest man I’ve ever seen in a café, he’s also has the biggest portable setup I’ve ever seen at a café”
As he started up his ASUS laptop, I started to make up theories in my mind about who this man was:
Was he going to host a billionaire expo from the café?
Was he a business angel about to talk to his portfolio companies?
My excitement grew further when the man opened up Youtube & put on a particular Techno live set by what appeared to be his favourite artist.
“Wow, he really has a working ritual”, I thought.
With precision, he adjusted the size of the Youtube tab so that it took up EXACTLY a quarter of his second screen.
To finish up his setup, the giant pulled up an empty Excel sheet on his laptop, and a text document on the right screen.
Now, he was ready to dig into life-changing DEEP WORK…
…or at least, so I thought.
The giant started to copy the text from the text document and pasted it into the excel sheet word by word.
He did so for about 2 hours, then took his things, and left.
…
The English language lacks words to express the disappointment I felt in that moment.
Sweden’s most influential man after the prime minister and the founder of IKEA spent 2 hours copy-pasting text into an Excel sheet.
Excuse my Swedish but…
What the fuck?
But this reminded me of something important…
What you work on is 1000 times more important than how you work on it.
These days, it’s easy to get caught up in the “best” morning routines, the quirkiest productivity hacks, and the optimal work setup.
I’m writing this letter to remind you:
Don’t forget that 1 step into the right direction brings you closer to the end location than 1,000 steps into the opposite one.
If you feel hurried, take a break.
Ask yourself:
What’s the MOST important right now?
And work towards that one thing only.
Another way you can use this in your day-to-day business:
Whenever an opportunity comes up, rate it from 1-10.
If it scores any lower than 9, don’t take it.
Our schedules and lives tend to get clogged up with endless things to do because we don’t say no to mediocre opportunities.
This makes us feel hurried, busy, and unproductive at the same time.
With that said, friend…
I’m confident you can avoid the “busy-trap” better than Sweden’s most important man, if you just take 10 minutes NOW to think about what’s really important right now.
And if you need anyone to guide you, I’m always up for a chat.
Appreciate you,
Nils
