The Strategic Edge

Tayla rose

For as long as I can remember I’ve been the all-rounder.

The good at everything, amazing at nothing child.

I got good grades but I wasn’t a genius.

I played the viola but I wasn’t a prodigy.

I was obsessed with netball but was never going to the next level.

I remember the first time I heard the concept of ‘going all in’.

Picking one thing
Eliminating everything else
Working at it until you see success

Sounds easy enough.

But I got stuck.

Because I didn’t know what to pick.

I didn’t know which path to go down
I didn’t want to eliminate everything else
I didn’t desire to crush my multi-passionate spirit

I realised. I didn’t want the success if it meant I could only pursue one thing.

The same thing happened when I was starting my business.

I fell into the ‘pick a niche’ trap.

One specific person
One specific problem
One specific message

It worked… until it didn’t.

Because there was one thing I couldn’t stop thinking about.

I don’t follow people solely for what they sell, what problem they solve or what they offer me.

I follow people for who they are.

Their interests
Their personality
Their perspectives
The unique lessons

We are not one dimensional.

I can talk about self development, mindset, health and high performance

I can offer Notion builds, organisation services and productivity coaching

I can share the music, books and podcasts I love.

Because they all contribute to who I am.

And my guess is that you're not following me purely for productivity or Notion talk.

So, in today’s newsletter, we’re diving into how to gain a strategic edge by seeking growth, NOT going all in.

The issues with going all in

You eliminate opportunities for growth
Parkinson's Law means you're being less productive
Your interests, passions and goals won't stay the same forever

1. You eliminate opportunities for growth

I’m taking on a full time internship this summer.

Even though I didn’t directly apply for it.

Even though it’s an area I didn’t know existed (cloud & engineering consulting).

Even though I’m building my own business and know I won’t work a 9-5.

Why? Because it’s an opportunity for growth.

To see things from a new perspective
To observe what other high performers do
To gain the skills to balance a 9-5 with growing a business
To improve my consulting skills to bring into my own work
To learn how big companies approach their technological change

Some of the best skills you learn come from opportunities you don’t seek out.

Going all in is saying no to all opportunities outside of your direct focus.

Seeking growth is looking outside the obvious to the benefits that lie deeper within.

2. Parkinson’s Law

Work expands to fill the time you give it.

Forcing yourself to sit down and grind out work all day isn’t smart.

Even more so when that work is all focused on one area.

When you go all in, you’re essentially allocating all your time to one thing - you're in the 8 hour curve.

The result: that one thing will take up all your time

You spend time on trivial things that don’t move the needle
You procrastinate because you know there’s always more time
You begin to believe that you need that much time to complete the task

You're not being productive because you don't have the urgency.

And so procrastination and stagnation slowly eat away at the excitement you felt for the thing in the first place.

When you seek growth and opportunity, you’re allocating your time to multiple things - you're doing multiple tasks, each using the 2 hour curve

The result: you’ll work more effectively on each thing when you have the chance

You do what’s most important to create the results
You eliminate dragging it out because of a lack of pressure
You develop strategies and unbreakable focus that prove you do have enough time

If something is a priority to you, you will get it done.

3. Is that the way you want to live forever?

This was a big turning point for me when looking at my approach to business and social media.

I was getting so caught up in the desire for growth, money and success.

What I didn’t think about was whether I could, or wanted to sustain what created that success.

As I mentioned earlier, humans are not one dimensional.

I’m obsessed with productivity, performance and Notion right now.

But in 5 years’ time, maybe my perspectives will have changed.

Maybe I’ll have different priorities, different interests.

Maybe Notion won't even be around anymore.

When you go all in, you build a life, a brand, an image around one thing.

Your self worth becomes tied up in it.
It becomes your identity.

When you seek growth, you build a life, a brand, an image around a way of living.

Your self worth comes from living and acting in line with your values.
Each thing you’re seeking becomes just one part of your identity

You remain a multi-faceted human.

You give yourself the freedom to become engrossed in different interests.

You stop creating a box and expecting yourself to live in it forever.

How to get the ‘all in’ results, without going all in

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you can live a life that lacks focus, prioritisation and consistency and still achieve big goals.

No one in life has achieved success without these traits.

What I am saying, is that success isn't limited to those who apply these traits to only one area.

Here's how I get all in results

Without burning out
Without sacrificing what matters
Without limiting myself to just one thing

The 90% Rule

Moving yourself towards any goal requires intention and clarity.

If you focus on 100 things, you’ll move 1 step forwards in 100 different directions.

You won’t see the results you’re looking for.

When you go all in, you might move 100 steps in 1 direction.

The issue comes when you realise that's not the direction you wanted to go.

The solution: choose your 10%

1. Write a list of all the things present in your life right now

All your relationships
All your obligations
All your interests
All your goals

Everything that takes up a part of your time (think of a typical week in your life)

2. It's a hell yes or a no

It’s time to work out the things that matter most to you.

What do you absolutely love?

Go through each item on your list and use the 90% rule: If something doesn’t score 90 or above on a scale of 0-100, based on how much it matters to you, eliminate it.

Examples:

Scrolling TikTok before bed is typically a 10/100 for me — it’s gone.
Going on long walks in a 95/100 for me — it stays
A footy night with my family is a 90/100 for me — it stays

Use this rule for all the decisions in your life.

3. The elimination

Eliminating what doesn’t matter is difficult. But it’s essential.

It’s how you produce all in results, without choosing only one thing.

Find the discipline to say no.

Put measures in place to reduce the attraction of temptation.

Establish a clear vision that you’ll achieve from focusing on the top 10% — this is why you’re saying no.

Make time for deep work

All work falls into one of two categories:

Deep work: focused, uninterrupted, undistracted work
Shallow work: work that can be done while distracted

I spend the first 60-90 minutes of every day writing. A form of deep work. What do I write?

Captions
Newsletters
Social media posts
Courses and programs

This is something I’ll make time for before starting work at 8.45am come my internship.

Why?

Writing is the 20% of my work that creates 80% of my results.

Online growth requires capturing attention so people read and like your posts — writing allows this
Taking productivity concepts and distilling them to my audience and clients through my own lens, in a way that makes sense, requires me to connect the dots between what I learn and my own experiences — writing allows this

If I didn’t make time for deep work, writing would take me double the time, I wouldn’t do it effectively, and I wouldn’t get results.

So, this 60-90 minutes is how I go ‘all in’ on my business, without having my business be my whole life.

In fact, I don’t need to, and shouldn’t write all day.

Most people can handle a maximum of 4 hours of deep work each day.

Anything above this and it’s no longer effective.

So, if you want to maximise your focus to create all in results:

Make deep work a daily non-negotiable (whether it’s 60 minutes or 4 hours)
Allocate your deep work time effectively (what is the 20% of each of your projects that creates 80% of the results?)
Save your shallow work (emails, meetings, admin) for times where you have low energy and less concentration

A focused 60-90 minutes each day is all it takes to make real progress on a project.

Create systems that maximise your effectiveness

I started a job at the beginning of last year that had no processes.

No handover.

No initial training.

No systems to follow.

In an industry I’d never worked in.

I spent most of the first month just finding my way around, working out what I was supposed to be doing, researching how to do things, and looking for documents and passwords.

It was a nightmare.

But it taught me an important lesson.

You are only as effective as your systems.

Developing systems to manage my:

Health — meal prepping, daily routines, workout plans, non-negotiable habits
Content creation — idea generation, idea development, format outlines, repurposing
Workflows — brain dumping, weekly reviews, linking projects and tasks, simplifying daily planning

Is what has really elevated my effectiveness.

I don't have to constantly question how to do things.

I don't use to allocate extra brain power or mental space to recurring routines.

They’re how I seek growth, and track that growth, in multiple different areas of my life — how I put my goals on autopilot.

The more you can simplify, streamline and organise...

The more you can get out of your head and into a system...

The more time, energy and attention you’ll have to create the ‘all in’ results you want.

Stop Limiting Yourself

If you’re a multi-passionate human.

If you want the flexibility to explore more than one passion

If you have a vision for an identity and a life that’s bigger than a single thing.

Stop going all in.

Start seeking growth, and start doing it effectively

Focus on the ‘hell yes’ decisions
Make time for deep work
Optimise your systems

It’s the only path to long-term fulfilment, consistency and satisfaction.

And it’s how you create a life you don’t need a break from.

See you next week!

Tay

Whenever you’re ready, there’s 3 ways I can help you:

Custom Notion Builds: Have the vision but lacking the time or expertise? I build your vision to life, you receive a digital environment optimised for your success.
1:1 Coaching: Design your life and environment, master your time, energy and attention and finally make progress towards your goals with 1:1 support.
Organisational Assistant: Have a strategic partner in your back pocket to organise and systemise, upgrade your planning and accountability, and remove the subconscious stress from your life and business.

Tayla Rose