In a few hours, Apple’s Tim Cook will hit the stage in San Francisco to deliver this year’s WWDC keynote. I know a slew of people that will be in San Francisco — several of them are past and current colleagues and friends — while this keynote takes place. As I sit here on Sunday night writing this and listening to the penultiamte episode of The 512 Podcast (since rechristened as The Prompt over at the mighty 5by5 network), I realize that while I do care about what goes on during WWDC, I’m done chasing what happens there.
That’s by no means a discredit to those that care more than I do — and will spend their time keeping as up-to-date as possible with the goings on during WWDC. Far from it — I’ve been there myself. But I’m not going to be able to keep up with Apple news and keep up with the niche realm I write about — productivity and workflow — and do either very well. So I’m choosing to chase productivity and workflow “news” rather than the news that comes out of — and is impaced by — Cupertino. I’m going to let those that want to do that — and those that do it well like Viticci, Hackett, et al — keep me informed with breaking news on that front.
Sure, I’ll dive into the apps and devices that are related to what I’m focussing on…but beyond that I’m sticking with what I know best. That way I can get even better at writing about it.
While my choice (in this case) was between focusing on writing about Apple and focusing on writing about productivity, yours will be different. You can’t chase more than one thing well because that won’t just split your focus — it will split your effort.
After all, you’ll need both of those things if you want to go from chasing to the one that is being chased.
Photo credit: maxpate (CC BY 2.0)
