Cut the list in half

William Liao
Dec 5, 2023

If you have more than 10 things on your priority list, you probably won’t complete them.

Cut the list in half.

And for good measure, cut it in half again.

Aggressively subtract.

A former colleague famously set up a calendar event titled “Good Idea Cut Off Date” — his way of saying that he didn’t want to consider any other good ideas after that date.

He wasn’t trying to stunt progress; he was ensuring that we stayed focused on our core mission and accomplished what we set out to do.

Just because something is valuable to do, doesn’t mean it’s worth doing.

Read that twice.

It’s easier to produce faster and higher-quality outputs when we’re focused on a few important things.

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William Liao

Taiwanese American, daily blogger of ideas about impactful work in service of others, photographer (ephemera.photography)