Jung’s Secret to Productivity Just Do the Next Necessary Thing

Most founders believe they must solve every problem at once to survive a total collapse. When your company is failing, the sheer volume of disasters can lead to a state of total paralysis. You need a better way to learn how to find focus during work crisis situations.

Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist, offered a surprisingly simple strategy for these moments. He suggested that we should quietly do the next and most necessary thing. This advice sits at the heart of Oliver Burkeman’s book, Four Thousand Weeks.

Burkeman argues that our time is finite and our control is an illusion. We often waste our limited weeks trying to master time itself. Jung’s approach offers a path out of the anxiety of indecision.

Jung’s Antidote to Indecision

In a letter from 1933, Jung explained that there’s no single right way to live. He noted that the individual path only comes into being when you put one foot in front of the other. For a founder in crisis, this means ignoring the ten-year plan for a moment.

Burkeman explains that our struggle with time comes from a refusal to face our limits. We want to know the future will be secure before we act. Jung’s advice forces us back into the present where we actually have power.

This concept is especially vital for overcoming career paralysis and indecision. When the scale of a disaster is too big to comprehend, the brain shuts down. Doing only the immediate task allows the nervous system to settle.

End the Provisional Life

Many professionals live what Jung called a provisional life. They act as if they aren't in their real life yet. They wait for a time when everything is under control before they start living.

Burkeman notes that this state of mind is a trap. The day when all your emails are answered and every crisis is solved will never arrive. If you’re waiting for certainty to act, you’re effectively choosing not to live.

Taking the next right step at work requires accepting that the future is uncontrollable. You don't need a guarantee that the company will survive. You only need to know what the next five minutes require of you.

Focus During Work Crisis for Founders

When a startup faces an existential threat, the founder's instinct is to fix the entire ecosystem. This leads to burnout and poor decision-making. Jung’s method narrows the field of vision to a manageable scope.

Burkeman points out that we are time, rather than having time. We cannot get outside of the river of events to manage them from the bank. We must move with the water by focusing on the immediate current.

This shift in perspective is the most effective way to handle how to find focus during work crisis events. It stops you from ruling over imaginary kingdoms of future possibilities. You focus on the concrete reality of the present instead.

Next Right Step at Work Framework

Burkeman suggests that we often use busyness to avoid the anxiety of our finitude. We take on too many projects to feel limitless. A crisis reveals the truth that we were always limited.

Adopting Jung’s strategy means being willing to fail at most things. You must consciously choose what to neglect. By doing the next necessary thing, you’re admitting you can’t do everything else.

This is not a passive approach but an active choice to commit. It requires the courage to focus on a single brick while the cathedral is on fire. You simply do what is required now.

Real Examples of Micro-Focus in Crisis

In 2020, Brian Chesky, the CEO of Airbnb, saw his company lose 80% of its business in eight weeks. The scale of the global travel collapse was incomprehensibly large. Chesky couldn't fix the pandemic or the global economy.

He focused on the next necessary things: refunding guests to build trust and securing a $2 billion debt facility [VERIFY]. He didn't try to solve the travel industry's future in a day. He took the next right step at work until the company reached a successful IPO.

Howard Schultz faced a similar reality when he returned as CEO of Starbucks in 2008. The brand had lost its soul and the economy was crashing. He didn't start with a global marketing blitz.

Schultz closed all 7,100 U.S. stores for a single afternoon of barista retraining [VERIFY]. This was the next necessary thing to fix the core product. By focusing on the quality of a single cup of coffee, he began the larger turnaround.

Narrowing the Field of Vision

To move through a disaster, you must identify your absolute immediate requirement. This might be a difficult phone call or a simple budget edit. Follow these three steps to implement Jung’s advice.

1. Identify the single most necessary task sitting right in front of you. Ignore any task that is two steps ahead on the timeline. Complete this one task with your full attention.

2. Abandon the need to know how this task will influence the final outcome. Accept that your control over the long-term survival of the company is limited. Focus only on the integrity of your current action.

3. Stop when the task is done and reassess only the next immediate requirement. Do not let your mind race toward the next ten problems. Allow the next necessary thing to reveal itself naturally.

Risks of Short-Term Thinking

Some business experts argue that Jung’s approach can lead to a lack of strategic vision. They claim that focusing only on the next step prevents long-term planning. This can result in a company that survives the day but has no direction.

Burkeman would counter that most strategic planning is just a way to avoid the anxiety of the present. Critics often see this as an excuse for reactive management. They argue that leaders must maintain a macro-view even during a collapse.

However, Jung’s advice is for the moment of paralysis. It is a tool for recovery when the macro-view becomes a source of terror. Strategy is useless if the founder is too overwhelmed to execute a single task.

To succeed, you must face the fact that your company’s future is never guaranteed. This realization is the key to how to find focus during work crisis. It allows you to put all your energy into the only thing you actually control: the action you take right now. Quietly do the next and most necessary thing to move forward through the disaster.