Two people can work equally hard and end up with completely different results because one is focused and the other is spread too thin.
It's worth pausing on that. Two of the most successful people in the world could have chosen intelligence, talent, luck, or hard work.
Instead, they chose focus.
Focus Is Saying No to Good Ideas
Most people think focus is about avoiding bad choices. That part is usually easy. Most of us can recognise an obvious distraction.
The harder part is turning down good opportunities because you've already decided what deserves your time and attention.
I see the same challenge with students.
Few people struggle to reject an obviously bad choice. The harder part is avoiding a pile of short-term certifications, trendy skills, and random courses that all seem useful on their own but leave no room to build real depth.
Knowing what to leave out matters as much as knowing what to learn. Without depth, your learning never really compounds.
Focus In The Workplace Too
This applies to working professionals just as much as students.
At work, it's easy to let the day take over. You answer emails, reply to messages, join meetings, and handle one request after another. By the evening, you've been busy all day but may not have done anything that really mattered.
The same idea works outside the office.
If you're going out to meet people, try to plan three or four meetings together. You're already out and in that part of the city. If you're staying in, group similar tasks together — reading, writing, calls, or research. This helps you stay focused instead of constantly switching between tasks.
The Discipline of the Empty Hand
A good example came from Berkshire Hathaway in 2026.
Holding on to that much cash takes discipline. The company had the money, the opportunities, and constant pressure to invest. Even so, it chose to wait until something met its standards.
That patience also meant watching others report stronger short-term returns, but Berkshire has never believed that making more moves automatically leads to better results.
I often see the opposite approach among students.
They sign up for the CFA, add several certificate courses, pick up the latest trending skill, and take on another project. Every commitment looks useful on its own, but together they divide attention so much that real progress becomes difficult.
Learning what to leave out is just as important as deciding what to take on.
Focus Is a Filter
Many people think focus appears when it's time to study or sit an exam. It doesn't. Focus depends on the choices you make throughout the day, and it's surprisingly easy to lose.
Gloria Mark has spent more than two decades studying attention. Her research found that after an interruption, it takes about twenty-three minutes, on average, to fully return to the original task.
She has also shown that our ability to stay focused on screens has fallen over the years. What we often call multitasking is really moving quickly from one task to another, and every switch comes with a cost.
A student studying with constant phone notifications and a dozen browser tabs open is never fully settled into the work. Their attention keeps shifting, and each interruption makes it harder to concentrate again.
I often use this image in my seminars when talking about multitasking and focus.
It captures the problem better than any explanation. Your attention is always being pulled somewhere else, even when you think you're focused.
In our app, when you're in a study session, no other platform can be opened. That's a deliberate design choice. And regardless of the app, I always tell students to assume you're sitting in a classroom with no phone and no tabs. Even though you're studying from home, the standard doesn't change.
In my earlier letter on the OODA Loop, I wrote about separating signal from noise. Focus is what helps you keep your attention on the signal, and every unnecessary distraction makes that harder.
Why Focus Is the Rarest Edge
There's a reason focus is such a powerful advantage.
Because real focus is hard, most people won't sustain it.
A student who concentrates on truly understanding one area — reading it, questioning it, connecting it — doesn't only learn that area. They build the depth that lets them see how it links to everything else.
Because I teach every subject across every CFA level, I see this every year.
Knowing a little about many topics is rarely enough. A deeper understanding of a few is far more valuable, both in the classroom and in the boardroom.
Start Here
This week, find your version of Buffett's no.
List everything you're currently trying to do — every course, project, commitment, skill you're learning, and obligation pulling at your time. The full, honest list.
The goal is to do fewer things properly rather than many things poorly.
Then protect your filter while you work. Keep your phone in another room, or if that's not possible, at least keep it behind you so it's not in your line of vision. One task at a time, no switching.
And when you're planning your day or your week, batch similar things together. Meetings and calls in one block, deep work in another, reading and research in another. Each time you switch between types of tasks, you pay an attention cost. Batching reduces that cost and keeps you in flow longer.
Guard those twenty-three minutes.
One deliberate no will do more for you than three enthusiastic yeses.
Invest in yourself,
Aswini Bajaj