Question 144: How can I be more intentional with my time and energy?

Sunday, August 30th, 2026

When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, the company was struggling. Apple was losing money, morale was low, and its product strategy had become confusing.

At the time, Apple was selling a crowded mix of computers, including multiple versions of the Macintosh, along with printers, servers, peripherals, and other projects that pulled the company in too many directions. Some accounts describe Jobs cutting Apple’s product lines by roughly 70%, narrowing the company’s focus from about fifteen product lines to just four core machines.

Jobs looked at the clutter and saw a deeper problem. Apple was not lacking talent. It was not lacking ideas. It was lacking focus.

So he walked to a whiteboard and drew a simple grid. Across the top, he wrote two audiences: Consumer and Professional. Down the side, he wrote two categories: Desktop and Portable. That was it. Four boxes. Apple would focus on one great product for each: a consumer desktop, a professional desktop, a consumer laptop, and a professional laptop.

That meant saying no to products, projects, and distractions that may have had merit on their own but did not fit the future Apple needed to build. The company stopped trying to be everything and began concentrating its best time, talent, and energy on the few things that mattered most.

The lesson is not that we should all become less ambitious. The lesson is that ambition without intention can become scattered motion.

We often think being more intentional with our time and energy means finding a better calendar system, waking up earlier, or squeezing more into the day. But sometimes the real question is not, “How do I fit more in?”

It is, “What deserves less of me?”

Every yes carries a cost. Every distraction takes energy from something else. Every unclear priority quietly pulls us away from our possibility.

Being intentional is not about doing more. It is about giving the best of yourself to what matters most.