One skill that’s very important for success is knowing when to quit.

Describing how he gets important things done, Cal Newport says:

I drop projects and quit. If a project gets out of control and starts to sap too much time from my schedule, or strays from my results-oriented vision: I drop it. If something demonstrably more important comes along, and it conflicts with something else in my queue, I drop the less important project. Here’s a secret: no one really cares what you do on the small scale, or what things you quit. In the end you’re judged on your results. If something is hindering your production of the important results in your field, you have to ask why you’re keeping it around.

Breaking this down:

1. Figure out what you think the benefits and costs are going to be going into something. Then, if it starts to take too much time relative to the results, quit.

I’m skeptical about a static results-oriented vision, mainly because it’s difficult to know going into something what of value it’s going to produce. Being too stuck on your original results-oriented vision could lead to missing things that are as or more important that start to come out of doing something.

Having said that, I think getting clear on what you expect to get out of something and what you think it will cost, and then periodically reviewing these variables to see if what you’re doing still makes sense, is crucial. In other words, allow your results-oriented vision to change.

What you don’t want to do is drop something just because it’s getting a little tough. Usually, that’s when you should focus more on solving problems, getting progress, and creating momentum.

My guess is that highly successful people tend to have a knack for knowing when to quit quickly, and when to push hard and obstinately. A tricky balance.

2. Prioritize what you’re doing. Then, habitually ask yourself if something is hindering your production of the important results. If yes, quit it.

Quitting includes not tolerating crap that starts occurring in your life. For example, if you notice that you’re spending a lot of time reading news sites and this is interfering with spending time on what is actually important, you need to figure out how to quit the first behaviour. Keep iterating on problem solutions until you find something that works long-term.

My experience is that people under-estimate the seriousness of negative things like this, not allocating sufficient resources soon enough to deal with them. For example, if you’re wasting even just 1 or 2 hours of your day on crap, that’s a huge loss (if you have 14 disposable hours in a day, 2 hours = 1/7 = approx. 15% - if you think of time as a potential investment, that is 15% of your time income you could be investing instead of throwing it away).

Instead, start allocating significant resources to figure out how to quit whatever you waste time on, and replace it with something that has a high chance of returning significant return on your time investment.

3. Forget about people judging you on what you quit. People care much more about what you succeed at.

As a rule of thumb, don’t do something just because of what other people will think. Rather, do something because it’s important.

Have fun doing important things!