Less, but Better

“The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” -Stephen Covey

Most of the time, the enemy of our best work isn’t laziness. It’s the pile of perfectly good tasks that crowd it out.

I can fuss over the formatting of lecture slides. I can tinker endlessly with small administrative details in the Jesuit community where I serve as superior.

Such activities are not bad. But they are not the point.

My real work is simpler and more demanding: to love those entrusted to my care and to help my students learn. Everything else — however worthwhile — has to take its place behind that.

The difficulty is that good things rarely announce themselves as distractions. They arrive looking responsible. Soon the calendar fills, the checklist shrinks, and we feel accomplished.

Yet it’s possible to cross off every item on a list and still neglect what matters most.

That’s why clarity matters more than sheer effort. As the entrepreneur Gary Keller puts it, “Success is about doing the right thing, not doing everything right.”

A meaningful life is less about adding more good activities. It’s about having the courage to remove the good things that compete with the best ones. Not doing more — but finally doing what matters.