Do More by Doing Nothing

Many of the most successful people say that great careers arise out of what you say no to. I think we all agree time and energy is a limited resource for each of us and how we choose to spend that precious resource matters a lot. We have more to do than time to do it all. It is critical to do less low priority things and do more of what will advance you and your goals. The tools in this book will help you create a not-to-do list, and commit to it, to prevent you from wasting precious time. These tools will also help you to continually re-evaluate the tasks you didn't include in your list and whether you should have to better invest your time in the things that matter. The tools and suggestions in this book work for me to navigate through my working day and personal goals, and to avoid falling into a long battle to wade through a to-do list. For me, to achieve success and progress in my career, it is more important to prioritize and identify what I should not do. Often, a to-do list only led me to stress and emotional turmoil. My to-do list, instead of creating more focus, created more distractions. Instead of clarity, it created complexity. And then one day I went the other way. I now start planning every week with writing my not-to-do list, rather than my to-do list. I'm not going to take the time to do that. Not even think or worry about it today. Since starting my days with my not-to-do list, my productivity has gone up significantly!