I had just finished a keynote presentation and was at the book table set up by the client. Participants were invited to pick up one or more of my books, and the company would pay for them.

One excited audience member quickly made their way to the table and was perusing their possible choices. They asked, “Which one should I read first?”

“It depends on what problem you most want to solve in your work or life right now,” I said. “If it’s ‘struggling with too much to do,’ Juggling Elephants is my recommendation. It teaches you how to manage your work and life like a circus.”

“If your biggest challenge is ‘failing to focus on what is most important,’ start with Focused As a Bee. It shares insights from the life of honeybees to give you a framework to make every moment in your day count.”

After a second of reflection, they picked up both books. Wanting to know their reasoning, I asked, “What made you choose both of them?” The response was priceless: “For me, the reason I am juggling elephants is because I’m not focusing on what is most important.”

The same is probably true for you. It’s not an “either or” situation.

I like to think of it this way: Failing to focus and feeling overloaded are like a match and gasoline—one sparks the other, and together they create an explosion of stress and feelings of hopelessness. When you struggle to focus, tasks pile up unfinished, decisions take longer, and distractions pull you in every direction. That scattered energy overwhelms you, making it feel like there’s too much to do and no clear way forward. The more overloaded you feel, the harder it becomes to concentrate, and the cycle continues, burning through your time and energy. Without intervention, the fire of high stress only spreads, leaving you exhausted and unproductive.

In full disclosure, one of the reasons I wanted to write Focused As a Bee was to help people build on the ideas from Juggling Elephants to achieve even higher levels of success. I could see that the gap between awareness and action for some people was too wide. They needed more. Using the principles from Juggling Elephants will help you identify what needs to change; the ideas from Focused As a Bee will teach you how to work and live differently every day.

To better understand the power of the messages when you put them together, here are seven of the many correlations I see between the two books.

1. You have three rings that are best managed with six permissions.

Juggling Elephants teaches that life is like a circus with three rings: work, relationships, and self. Managing these rings effectively means knowing when to shift focus.

Focused as A Bee shares six permissions that help you to make that shift in focus by giving yourself the freedom to prioritize, plan, be unavailable, recharge, change, and be consistent. Without focus, your circus turns into chaos.

2. Being the ringmaster means prioritizing like a bee.

In Juggling Elephants, you are the ringmaster of your circus, responsible for deciding which acts go into each ring. Without clear decisions, the wrong acts consume your limited time and energy.

Focused As a Bee reminds you that bees don’t waste time on distractions—they focus on activities can best help the hive to thrive. If you don’t prioritize, you’ll constantly be in reaction mode instead of investing your time in ways that create a better future for yourself and others.

3. Managing your acts is best accomplished by planning with purpose.

The circus can’t run smoothly if one act dominates the show for too long. In Juggling Elephants, you learn to use your resources more wisely in the right ring at the right time.

Focused As a Bee reinforces this idea by showing how honeybees get so much work done. They don’t try to do everything at once; they focus on one key task at a time, such as gathering nectar or building honeycomb. You should approach your day in a similar way, which is possible when you invest time to plan before all the distractions start coming your way.

4. Intermissions are key to recharging your energy.

A great circus has intermissions, allowing the audience and performers to reset. In Juggling Elephants, these pauses prevent burnout and help sustain a meaningful circus performance.

Focused As a Bee teaches us that bees know when to rest because exhaustion leads to inefficiency in their work. Without breaks, your focus fades and your work suffers.

5. Eliminating distractions is possible when you create boundaries.

If the wrong act crashes into your ring at the wrong time, it disrupts the entire performance. Juggling Elephants emphasizes the importance of eliminating distractions.

Focused As a Bee helps you execute this by teaching the value of boundaries—being available when necessary to protect your priorities, just like honeybees fiercely guard their hive from intruders.

6. Saying no to the wrong acts means being unavailable.

In Juggling Elephants, the ringmaster must decide which acts belong in the show and which ones don’t. Trying to fit in too many acts results in chaos.

Focused As a Bee reinforces this idea by teaching that bees don’t chase after every flower—they focus on the best nectar sources. If you don’t learn to say no, your time will be filled with low-value tasks, preventing meaningful progress.

7. Knowing when to move to another ring is like adapting to change.

In Juggling Elephants, successful ringmasters know when it’s time to move on from a task, project, or responsibility. Staying too long in one ring at the expense of the others creates an unhealthy imbalance.

Focused As a Bee takes this principle to the next level. Honeybees constantly adapt. Before a nectar or pollen source is depleted, they are already scouting new areas to forage. When the queen bee starts laying fewer eggs, they are already making plans to hatch out a new queen. If you hold on too long to outdated priorities, you’ll drain your energy and miss better opportunities.

Ultimately, I believe Juggling Elephants helps you see the problem—too much to do and too many priorities in conflict. Focused As A Bee provides the solution—learning to zero in on what matters most and take consistent action to achieve success.

Ultimately, I believe Juggling Elephants helps you see the problem—too much to do and too many priorities in conflict. Focused As A Bee provides the solution—learning to zero in on what matters most and take consistent action to achieve success.

I hope my new friend at the book table will soon learn that when you master the key ideas from both books, you won’t just get a standing ovation from your circus performance. Your hive will really thrive, too.

Published Feb. 12, 2025, by Jones Loflin’s blog.