The Power of Deleting 99% of Your To-Do List
This will seem crazy. Good. Life-changing results lie on the other side.
To-do lists are where dreams go to die.
Goal lists aren’t much better. Recently, I found myself overworked and exhausted from all the task-switching.
I looked at my daily operating system and realized it had become uncontrollable. So I got my samurai sword out and started chopping it to pieces.
The result? 99% of my to-do list disappeared.
In each main area of my life, I’ve selectively narrowed it down to one action. One thing I’m going to do that’ll help me accomplish 80% of the results. You can steal this strategy too. Here’s how.
Doing too much = Doing nothing
Most people are busy doing nothing.
Their life is dictated by the notifications that pop up on their phone screen. They attack the most urgent one at any one time.
Their attention is a ping pong ball controlled by a 3rd party – and the scary part is they don’t even realize. They treat domestic chores the same way religious folks treat Jesus’s 10 Commandments. The focus on housework makes no sense.
You do too much because:
1. You don’t have data
The internet gave average people access to data.
The next step of any project or goal doesn’t require you to guess anymore. You can say stuff on social media and collect thoughts, opinions, engagement. This helps you know what to focus on rather than solving problems people don’t care about.
2. You jump from one thing to another
You’re impatient.
You don’t stick to one goal. You’re always chopping and changing what you’re going to do rather than going all in for 5 years – or if you’re insane in the brain like me, committing to decades.
So you never have enough time to get feedback and work out the nuances and 1-percenters that’ll get you to the next level.
This is why most of society stays stuck on the beginner level of life where they struggle to pay bills, experience boredom, feel lost, and don’t reach their potential.
Sad but true. If you only show up and do the thing for 30 days, what the hell do you know?
A new thing is never as good as mastering the current thing.
3. You’re not following your obsession
A common question I get is, what do I write about?
I don’t have this problem anymore. Why? I write about what I can’t NOT write about. I let my obsession with a topic drive my habits. I do the work that feels effortless and is led by my curiosity.
When you start to think this way, everything gets easier. Creativity is the result of chasing your obsession. Everything else is bullsh*t.
Obsession infects your brain. It keeps you awake at night. It forces you to wake up early and start the project before the bill-paying work takes over.
All of us have an obsession. Most of us are too scared to admit what it is out of fear it’s not monetizable, popular, or interesting enough.
The internet turned every obsession into a possible career path.
“The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing” — Stephen Covey
Is this a shiny object?
This question has changed my life.
I secretly love shiny objects. I want to optimize every tiny thing until I squeeze the life out of it. I can’t resist.
Whenever I find myself wanting to do something new or adding another task to my to-do list, I ask myself “Is this a shiny object?”
9 times out of 10 it is. Scary.
Our brain loves shiny objects because often they’re a distraction from doing hard work or addressing a painful task we’ve been putting off.Shiny objects help us escape the unknown. If you’re not careful, you can chase shiny objects your entire life across endless rainbows with no pot of gold.
You don’t need more time, you need more focus
People love to tell themselves how busy they are.
But busyness is a lie. Busy people are just unfocused. They don’t have a purpose in life so they take on whatever tasks other people give them and fill up their calendars with bullsh*t.
We all have the same number of hours in a day. Why is it that some people can use those same hours and go to the moon or earn $1B, and others can’t?
The answer is focus.
When you’re focused you can achieve what society says is impossible. I’m not the most skilled writer, but my ruthless focus has helped me reach the top 1% in my field.
If you’re telling yourself you’re busy or need more time, you’re being forced down a path that’ll guarantee you waste your life building other people’s dreams instead of your own.
Focus comes from eliminating as many requests of your time as humanly possible.
You must become so ruthless with your time that it borderline pisses people off. Otherwise, all you are is a people pleaser.
Less is more
Real focus is built on a foundation of ruthless prioritization.
A week ago I felt overwhelmed. I was trying to build a complex new landing page, host my first Twitter (X) Space, take my bad neighbor to court, and hire a $35,000 business coach.
I wrote down a pros and cons list and realized the only task that’d move me forward with my goal to build an online writing movement is the business coach. Because of the price tag of $35,000, I found myself trying to procrastinate.
On the other hand, the biggest cause of my stress was the court battle with the bad neighbor, so I told myself “That’s it…no more.” The bad neighbor court case is over. I will grow my business, make more money, and move house. The end.
Right after this revelation I went into my to-do list and nuked everything I was working on. For the foreseeable future, the only project I have is to work with this business coach.
I felt like the Titanic was lifted from my shoulders. I could suddenly breathe. I had enormous clarity. This is what the unstoppable power of deleting 99% of your to-do list does.
When you get real with yourself and pay attention to what’s controlling your psychology, you start to see a whole new world. Surprise, surprise it’s fear that forces us to chase shiny objects and paper over the cracks.
Shiny objects are convenient distractions that help us escape doing hard tasks, making hard decisions, and facing the prospect of rejection/failure.
But if you don’t wake the f*ck up and get these shiny objects out of your day, you’ll wake up in a decade and wonder where your life went.
Tell me in the comments below if you’ve fallen for any of these bad behaviors above and why.
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Tim, the part about focus reminded me of high school.
I still don't know how but I made a decision at 16 that I wanted to study natural sciences. I remember standing near my house with a friend, smoking. I said I was going back home to solve physics problems. He said I was turning into a nerd. Why the heck didn't I want to join him and chase girls and booze?
That was in 2003, I'm glad the world didn't know what a smartphone is. It took me one year of focus to enroll in a university (for free). I've never regretted not joining my buddy's escapades that evening.
Oh and my mother is proud of me haha :)
Agree - I recently told my son’s (soon to be) fiancée to consider if she wanted to spend the psychic energy required to fight for some scraps from the employer who had just let her go or invest that energy in finding a new job. She focused on the new job. And now she has one.