A

LIMIT YOUR INPUTS

A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.

—HERBERT SIMON

s a general, Napoleon made it his habit to delay responding to
the mail. His secretary was instructed to wait three weeks before
opening any correspondence. When he finally did hear what was in a
letter, Napoleon loved to note how many supposedly “important”
issues had simply resolved themselves and no longer required a
reply.
While Napoleon was certainly an eccentric leader, he was never
negligent in his duties or out of touch with his government or his
soldiers. But in order to be active and aware of what actually
mattered, he had to be selective about who and what kind of
information got access to his brain.
In a similar vein, he told messengers never to wake him with
good news. Bad news, on the other hand—that is to say, an unfolding
crisis or an urgent development that negatively impacted his
campaign—was to be brought to him immediately. “Rouse me
instantly,” he said, “for then there is not a moment to be lost.”
These were both brilliant accommodations to the reality of life for
a busy person: There is way too much coming at us. In order to think
clearly, it is essential that each of us figures out how to filter out the
inconsequential from the essential. It’s not enough to be inclined
toward deep thought and sober analysis; a leader must create time
and space for it.