The urge to tackle low hanging fruit is strong. People like to see quick results and quick results usually fuel subsequent results. But often people see low hanging fruit in all the wrong places. These may include tidying up loose ends, finishing projects already started, jumping on an exciting new idea, tackling the easy stuff first, and generally getting the house in order.
There is nothing wrong with this impulse and the desire to “check it off the list,” but all that energy needs to be pointed in the right direction. Below are five tips to prevent you from choking on the pits of low hanging fruit.
| 1. Develop Strategic Clarity– Get clear about what is really important, where you need to be a year or more from now, and the critical steps that will get you there. You need to focus on those steps. There is simply too much to do, too many distractions, and too little luck to expect success from fairly random activity. |
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| 2. Avoid the Temptation Zone
– Don’t do anything just because it is easy. Many tempting pieces of low hanging fruit grow in the Temptation Zone. |
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| 3. Dive into the Neglected Zone
– These are the important projects that are neglected because they are hard. They may be ill-defined, demanding, unfamiliar, risky,requiring an investment – whatever makes them hard, you need to get on top of it and start now. Neglected Zone projects are, by definition, important to achieving your goals. |
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| 4. Avoid the Black Hole Zone
– Since these are neither easy nor appropriate, you wouldn’t expect anyone to be slaving away in the Black Hole Zone, but it is not at all uncommon. Picture the person driven to finish because they once committed to a project. Or the person whose identity is at stake. Or maybe it’s an old project that no longer makes sense, but that no one has bothered to stop. |
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| Power struggles, identity crises, consistency for the sake of consistency, an unwillingness to let go, habit, momentum, face-saving, a lack of communication, a lack of well-defined direction – these are all common reasons why unimportant projects stay on the schedule no matter how painful they are. 5. Be Smart about the Low Hanging Fruit Zone – The easy projects with a strong strategic fit may be your source for quick results and building momentum. They may seem like no-brainer first steps. But they may also distract you from tackling critical projects in the Neglected Zone. All the things that make those projects the most neglected almost by definition make them the ones in need of a head start, not a delay. Work these two categories in parallel, making intentional and informed decisions each step of the way. |
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