Here is a powerful lesson in focus and getting things done, from an age-old army tactic – ‘bayonet-charge’.
During a bayonet charge, army units are trained to scream their war cry like maniacs. Why is that?
Because if they attacked silently, the enemy soldiers may keep their cool and mow down the attackers with gunfire, one by one. But the massive screaming drives the enemy soldiers into a panic, making them scatter their bullets aimlessly.
In our busy lives, we face EXACTLY the same situation. When faced with a huge list of urgent tasks, we feel like each task is screaming a war-cry. Instead of knocking off the tasks one by one, in panic, we worry about all of them at the same time.
In the process, we scatter our attention, jumping from one task to another. And nothing gets done. Had we focused, we might have gotten 2 out of 10 things done, which is infinitely better than zero.
Here is my recommendation: Always do things sequentially, one at a time. No parallel processing, no switching, no multitasking. And when working on one thing, stop worrying about all the other tasks.
Remember, you can only do what is possible.
Next time when in panic, remind yourself – there is only one way to shoot the enemy: one at a time.