If you break down decisions, thoughts, or actions to an atomic level of existence-
Anything can be classified as either a win or a loss... BE IT ANYTHING!
Humans have a tendency to understand things better in black & white.
It is the way we function.
Anything(out of those mentioned above earlier) Is essentially either Black or white.
This means that while we take an important decision, we should try to break it down and see whether it will result in a win or a loss...
Rest is just clutter.
For example-
If you decide to learn something-
Your every action should be contributing to a small win.
If not so, then don't get MUCH into it
('MUCH' because you still can explore a little, as exploration is key to discovery)
Though Classifying things into black and white is not always feasible.
There are decisions where you need to see the gray as well.
But when it comes to focusing, it is the best way in my opinion.
It reduces the clutter and sharpens your focus more than anything else.
While breaking down things into a win or loss, we also need to focus more on small wins, rather than just the big ones.
Big wins often distract us because of the scale involved.
It is easy to get off-track and hard to achieve more and more of them with consistency.
Small wins on the other hand are very healthy, as they don't distract you, rather they increase your engagement in the process.
Also not to forget, small wins compound easily and are easy to achieve with consistency.
More of them means more awareness about your position & progress.
Classifying things with such a mental model helps you reduce emotional attachments with the things which may affect your focus.
Also, such a classification requires some amount of logical analysis, which means the results in people can vary subjectively.
(Subjectivity in objectivity... Ironic right?)
Similar mental models are used by many successful founders who take a decision by questioning whether this thing will help their company for a certain goal or not.
I am using this mental model for some time now, and like any other thing which generates a positive compound effect, it is indeed helpful.