I always try to avoid the "busy" people - the ones who always seem busy.

They skip lunch (or take it at 4 PM), fill their calendar with back-to-back meetings and constantly talk about how 'full' they are.

These are actually the laziest people around. They avoid the most valuable, but uncomfortable, actions.

Their busyness is just a disguise.

As you move off the IC path, the scope of responsibilities grows massively. There are endless tasks to deal with: meetings, bugs, product, 1:1s, technical debt, infra, sprint planning, performance review-you name it.

But out of this big bag of tasks, only a few truly matter.

Identifying these high-value tasks is usually the easy part. Most of the time "it's just there" - deliver the critical component, fix client issues, support the new hire, etc. Other times, your direct manager or other stakeholders will directly tell you what the priority is.

What I find hard, is maintaining focus over the long run and automating your workflow to focus on what truly matters.

Over the past year, I've experimented with few methods and found this small step useful:

Create two recurring check-in events titled "Are you focused on the important things?". Schedule them for the start of your day as a quick check-in. As part of this routine, review your upcoming tasks and meetings. Cancel anything that no longer aligns with your priorities.

How do you keep being focused?