The Overcommit Trap: Why Focus on One Goal Works

It’s January 1st, and if you’re like me, your mind is already spinning with possibilities, travel plans, a next-level project at work, a skill you’re itching to learn, maybe even deepening a handful of connections you keep promising will happen “this year.” The fresh calendar feels like permission to be ambitious, and suddenly the list gets crowded.

I’ve fallen into this pattern countless times. A dozen goals laid out, only a handful halfway finished by spring, and way too many more abandoned before summer even hits. The intentions are good—chasing everything that inspires you—but the execution gets messy. Instead of feeling proud, you’re left staring at unfinished to-dos, wondering where all that New Year enthusiasm vanished. Maybe you recognize this too. The heavy pressure of missed milestones and that familiar question, “Am I just taking on too much?”

This isn’t just about personal resolutions. In engineering work and any builder’s world, the real unlock is to focus on one goal. The “more is more” approach. Stacks of concurrent projects, skill tracks in every direction, constant pings to partner on someone else’s thing. Unless you curate an intentional information diet that reduces inputs, overwhelm is almost inevitable. Not that I always notice it in the moment. I’ve started years with five separate work initiatives and three learning sprints, convinced multitasking would bring more results. In reality, they trip over each other, fragmenting focus and slowing everything down.

The switch didn’t happen overnight, but it started with one decision. Simplify and pick just one thing that matters most. This year, I’ve shifted to what I call “going 1 for 1”—one single highest-impact goal, deliberately chosen and anchored in every weekly plan.

So here’s what we’ll do together. Find that guiding question—the one that can shape every priority and cut the overwhelm. One question really could make 2025 your best year yet.

The Mechanics of Scattered Focus

Let me lay out how scattered focus actually works—and how to reduce context switching. Think of your brain like a computer running too many background processes. Every time you jump from a pull request to a feature spec, then skim a research paper before bouncing to Slack for someone’s integration question, it’s not just task hopping. You’re loading up new mental environments each time, which chews up memory and leaves little bandwidth for deep work—so you deliberately protect your deep work blocks and avoid unnecessary switches. In code, it’s the difference between chipping away at five modules in parallel versus bringing one to production-ready status.

Models and product builds work exactly the same way—every switch means picking up context, recalling what got left unfinished, and remembering the small details you haven’t touched in hours. I used to think switching kept me sharp. It mostly kept me shallow. The blunt truth is, all that context switching breaks momentum, fragments creative flow, and slows down everything we’re actually trying to ship.

Picture a classic weekday split. I’d wake up aiming to get through open PRs by noon, squeeze in two hours of reading on a new ML technique, try to crank out launch copy for a half-built feature by afternoon, and finish with a couple LinkedIn outreach messages. By Friday, I had 80% on everything and a knot in my stomach about shipping nothing. The surface-level busyness felt productive, but almost nothing got finished.

Here’s the shift I needed to see: picking a single highest-impact priority isn’t about ignoring everything else you care about. It’s about choosing what gets your full focus first, and deciding to sequence the rest. This doesn’t mean you can’t work on other goals.

That kind of clarity gives you permission to let the rest take a back seat if needed. You can confidently say “later” to non-critical tasks and protect your execution speed—and your peace of mind. The feeling of chasing everything at once flips into real momentum when you finally start finishing the stuff that matters most.

From Many to One: A Simple System for a Focused 2025

Grab some paper or open a blank doc. Write down three goals you’ve actually been considering—no judgment, no constraints. Look at them honestly and make a top priority decision—circle the one that, if you finished nothing else, would move the needle furthest in your work and life this year. Don’t chase the most impressive or the most urgent; pick the one you’ll feel proud to have stuck with. You’re going 1 for 1.

Now, let’s put that single goal to work. First, write a one-sentence outcome statement—what will be true if you achieve it by December? Choose the right outcome first and balance effectiveness with efficiency before optimizing execution. Next, pick a couple of lead indicators to measure along the way (for example, “feature shipped monthly” or “hours spent in code review”). Block out weekly time for this goal just like you’d book a critical meeting. Clear, non-negotiable.

Align your weekly backlog so that the tasks tied to this outcome go to the top—nothing else steps ahead. Finally, set up a review cadence (Fridays, end-of-sprint, whatever fits your world) so you can adjust if things drift. This isn’t about rigid routines or perfect execution; it’s about keeping your one goal in focus through real, messy weeks.

Here’s where I admit my bias—years ago, I labeled my guitar strings with masking tape so I’d never second-guess which was which. I do the same for Git branches on pet projects. Why? Clarity beats guesswork. A single goal label on your year does for priorities what a label does for strings or branches: makes the next step obvious, even when you’re in the weeds.

Translating this to team life, goal prioritization for engineers means running every decision through that chosen goal. Your backlog grooming gets easier—if a ticket doesn’t support the goal, it waits. Sprint planning gets clearer, and daily time-boxing stops leaking into side quests. I notice that when I gate tickets behind the top goal, my sprint stops leaking. When backlog and sprint goals line up, teams get sharper at prioritizing, tracking progress, and changing course when needed Sprint Goal, Scrum Alliance.

Don’t let the focus fade when Monday hits. Put that one-line question—your 2025 filter—at the very top of your board, your workspace, or your daily notes. Visible cues—like a single question front-and-center—activate the behavior we want, turning intentions into real choices when the moment comes up Frontiers in Psychology. There’s a simple visual overview in the referenced carousel attached to this post, if you want an artifact to anchor you.

That’s the goal prioritization framework: one question, one choice, one clear signal. Not because you can’t handle more, but because focus flips scattered effort into momentum you can build on, week after week.

Handling the “What Ifs”: Resolving Real Objections to One-Goal Focus

Now, you might be worried that picking a single goal turns you rigid. Locked in even if priorities change next quarter. Honestly, I’ve needed a reality check here plenty of times. What saved me was putting a recurring “review and reset” on my calendar. Once a month, I take stock, and every quarter, I ask if my top goal is still the highest-leverage thing. A simple calendar prompt has pulled me out of stubborn grooves more than once. You adjust, but you’re not flailing. There’s built-in space to course-correct without chaos.

Working on a team? Alignment isn’t always instant, but you can connect your “one thing” directly to the group’s OKRs or sprint objectives. When you map your goal to team OKRs, include every group needed and spell out each team’s role in their own OKRs for clear alignment Google OKR Playbook. This makes compromise way smoother—I’ve had more productive scoping conversations once my priority was explicit, because stakeholders could see exactly where our goals intersected.

And yes, the itch to chase secondary ambitions never really goes away. That’s normal. What helps: keep a running “parking lot”—one page or list where you drop every tempting idea or maintenance task. When thoughts pop up (“Should I add a feature to that abandoned tool?”), they go there, not on your active plate. I time-box the must-do maintenance and revisit the list during my reset windows. Just knowing the list exists calms that urge to context switch, so you can go deep without anxiety sneaking in.

I’ll be honest, even with all this, I haven’t cracked the code on not feeling a little twitchy when other people seem to balance more. Maybe I never will, and that’s okay. The itch doesn’t stop—just gets quieter when I’m making progress on my main thing.

It’s not about closing doors or locking into a path forever; it’s about choosing to focus on one goal right now. Single-goal focus is just a system to do your best work now, while making sure there’s room to pivot, align, and revisit dreams when you need to. That’s how the big goals actually get done.

Make Your Move: Pick, Frame, Align

Pause for a minute. Write down three goals you’re considering for 2025—just jot them out, no second-guessing. Now circle the one that, if you nailed it, would make everything else easier or more rewarding this year. Take that goal and turn it into your guiding question—write it big at the top of your backlog, fit it into your workspace, make it the first thing you see every Monday. That act, circling just one, felt like dropping a sandbag off my shoulders.

Ready to make it real? Tell someone. Add a comment below or like this post if you’re committing—sometimes putting your choice out there makes it stick more than silent intention.

If you’re in, let’s keep it visible: add hashtag#YourMove, hashtag#GoalSetting, hashtag#FocusOnWhatMatters, or hashtag#SmallStepsBigImpact when you share your goal or update. I’ll be scanning for others walking this same path. If you’re choosing to focus, say so—I’m right there with you.