My Run-in with the ‘Bo Brinkman’ Idea
Alright, let me tell you about this ‘Bo Brinkman’ thing. It’s not like some big secret technique or anything, just something I sort of stumbled into and found useful down the line. I don’t even know if Bo Brinkman is a real guy, honestly. Heard the name thrown around a while back, maybe from an older colleague, just in passing conversation. Didn’t stick at the time.
At first, I kinda just brushed it off. You know how it is, people mention names, methods, theories all the time. Sounded like just another name for something, maybe some consultant’s fancy term. I didn’t really dig into it or anything. Just filed it away in the back of my head, didn’t think much more about it.
Then came this one project. Man, it was a mess. We were drowning in details, features creeping in, everyone pulling in different directions. Nothing was getting done, felt like we were just spinning our wheels. Stress levels were high. I remember sitting there, feeling totally stuck. And somehow, that name ‘Bo Brinkman’ popped back into my head. Specifically, I recalled the gist associated with it, which was something about keeping things dead simple, focusing only on what truly matters.
So, I thought, what the heck, might as well try something different. This is what I did:
- Stepped back: I physically pushed my chair back from the desk. Needed a different perspective.
- Grabbed paper: Ignored the computer screen full of complicated plans. Took a plain sheet of paper and a pen.
- Wrote the core goal: Just one sentence. What was the absolute main thing this project had to achieve? Stripped away all the extras.
- Listed essentials: Underneath that goal, I listed only the absolute bare minimum steps needed to get there. No ‘nice-to-haves’, no ‘maybe-laters’. Just the skeleton.
- Picked the first step: Found the very first, simplest action on that list.
- Did just that: Put all my focus into completing only that one small step. Ignored everything else.
- Moved to the next: Once step one was done, truly done, I moved to the next essential step on my short list.
It felt a bit weird at first, almost too simple. Like I was ignoring important stuff. But you know what? Things actually started moving. Completing that first small, essential task gave a bit of momentum. Then the next one. Slowly, the core of the project started taking shape.
What I realized was this: This ‘Bo Brinkman’ approach, or whatever you want to call it, wasn’t some revolutionary concept. It was just common sense hitting me over the head. It was about cutting through the noise and complexity we often create for ourselves. Focus on the absolute must-do parts first, get them working, then worry about the rest if needed.
So yeah, that’s my experience. Maybe Bo Brinkman is a real person who preached this, maybe it was just my colleague’s shorthand for simplifying things. Doesn’t really matter to me. The practice itself – stripping things down to the essentials and tackling them one by one – that’s what worked. Helped me get unstuck on that messy project, and I still try to remember it when things start feeling overly complicated.
