Become More Productive. Do. Less.

Cut Scope

When time runs short, don't work longer — find the core feature that delivers 80% of the value and move the rest to a future backlog.

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Align Peers

Make your first allegiance your peer leadership group, not your department, and the downstream friction disappears.

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Define Done

Write your completion criteria before you start; when you hit them, stop tweaking and ship.

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Protect Time

Schedule non-negotiable focus blocks weeks ahead and make people book around them.

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Limit Work

Set a personal work-in-progress limit of one: finish the current task before opening anything new.

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Silent Mode

Turn off notifications, close email and chat for a set block — deep work needs uninterrupted silence.

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True Needs

Don't build the feature as requested; dig for the underlying pain and solve that.

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Mute Devices

Put the phone in another room or on Do Not Disturb, face down, and give yourself undistracted time.

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Slow Down

Match your pace to the season: use quiet periods for deep work or rest so you can accelerate later.

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Take A Step

Stop waiting for perfection; release a draft as a small experiment and get real feedback.

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Embrace Silence

After you ask or present, stay quiet and give people time to respond — talking less makes you a better communicator.

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Kill Zombies

Find the meetings and habits with no heartbeat — "we've always done it this way" — and kill them.

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Validate Fast

Build the smallest thing that tests your assumption and put it in front of a real user early.

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Build Leverage

Spend an hour today on a template, automation or documented process that saves ten hours next month.

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Stop Managing

Provide the context, define the goal, and get out of the way: trust the people you hired to find the path.

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Starve Algorithms

Stop mindlessly clicking and scrolling — every click trains the algorithm to send you more noise; put the device down and choose where your attention goes.

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Embrace Friction

Stop fighting reality: treat resistance as feedback, accept that the plan changed, and adjust without the emotional drain.

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Lead Peers

Make your primary allegiance your peer leadership team (your First Team), not just your direct reports.

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Curate Inputs

Go on an information diet: starve the algorithms and stop piling on other people's noise, so you have bandwidth left to execute your own ideas.

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Prune Processes

Audit any process with a dozen manual steps or three sign-offs and delete the steps that don't improve the outcome.

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Leverage Systems

Find a "force multiplier" (an AI tool, a template, an automated calendar rule) and build a repeatable process instead of doing it by hand.

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Find Quiet

Seek out real silence: turn off the car radio, walk without headphones, or sit in a quiet office for five minutes.

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Say ‘Yes’ Slowly

Don't answer an opportunity immediately. Say "Let me check my calendar and get back to you tomorrow" and decide once the emotion has faded.

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Unplug Completely

Physically separate yourself from your device: put it in another room, close the laptop, shut the door.

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Delegate Outcomes

Delegate the outcome, not the task: tell your team what needs to be accomplished and why, then let them figure out how.

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Shift Focus

Zoom out and ask whether you're working on the right thing today or just the easy thing; put your focus on the one thing that moves the needle.

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Celebrate Failure

Ship the imperfect thing, learn from what went wrong, and adjust.

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Embrace Boredom

Let yourself be bored today: stand in line or sit on the porch without your phone and let your mind wander.

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Trust Process

Stop stepping in to "save" the project: trust your people and the process you've put in place.

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Stay Done

Create a physical or verbal ritual that marks a task as officially finished, so you can focus on the next thing.

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Hide Phones

Put your phone out of sight, in another room or a drawer, during your block time.

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Stop Polishing

Deliver the "good enough" version and get real feedback instead of obsessing over details that add no value.

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Ask, “How?”

Make the "how" of a task 50% simpler; if the process is convoluted, you're doing too much.

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Pick Best

Use the "one thing" rule: pick the single most impactful task and ignore the rest until it's delivered.

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Drop Expectations

Stop trying to be a superhero for everyone; it ends in burnout. Delete one internal "rule" that makes your work needlessly complex.

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Simplify Rules

Audit the "helpful" processes you've added over time that have become barriers to delivery, and delete one rule that makes your work needlessly complex.

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Explaining

Remember that "No" is a complete sentence: you don't owe anyone an explanation for protecting your focus.

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Day One

Don't beat yourself up over yesterday: whenever you read this is Day One, so ask what you do now.

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Skip Day

Take a skip day: missing a day is usually not the end of the world.

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Get Ready

Get ready today: being prepared is what lets you do less. If you're not ready, you'll keep spinning and never get there.

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Time In

Last week was Time Out. This week, ask what "Time In" means to you, and take the time to answer it.

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Time Out

Time flies, and sometimes you need a time out. Take it.

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Force Multiply

Ask where a force multiplier could get you off the hamster wheel, and use leverage to do less.

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Separate Forces

Before you combine forces, take inventory of the skills you and each team member bring to the table.

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Combine Forces

If you want off the island and don't know how, combine forces: with who, or if no one's there, with what?

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Action Hero

Think of the action hero who wowed you as a kid, and be that hero on your next task today.

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In Action

Take the first step today: act on one thing, even if it isn't the right thing.

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No Action

It's OK to take no action, as long as you're deliberate about the decision.

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Action Item

When you're scattered and doing everything, come up with one action item.

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Team Time

If you're unsure what your role on the team is, have a conversation with your team about it, and ask why it matters.

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Team

Ask who YOUR team is today, define it, and get clear on it. It's something you can control, so start there.

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Second Team

As a senior leader, don't spend leadership-team time on your direct reports' day-to-day work (your Second Team); act as a true leadership team.

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First Team

Get familiar with the "First Team" idea and think about what it means for you personally; if you're a senior leader, share it with your leadership team.

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Weather It

Remember that this storm will pass, especially if you're overwhelmed right now.

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Be Resilient

Be resilient when plans change, even on a dime.

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Deep Think

Take time to deep think to pull yourself back to reality: not forever, not belly-button-staring, not analysis paralysis.

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Try Something

Whatever your situation is today, try something instead of staying in the rut.

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Turn Off

Pick one thing you can turn off today, and do what has worked for you in the past.

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Get Public

Get your idea out of your head and share it publicly today, before someone else does.

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Actionable Simplicity

When things get overly complex, get simple again: untangle the workflows that only exist because "we've always done it that way."

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Change Gears

Ask which gear you're in and which you should shift to next, up or down, instead of letting the "automatic transmission" of life decide.

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Ask

Decide what you'll ask, and who you'll ask, today.

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Muffle Echo

Unfollow people, then follow people outside your echo chamber and notice what changes.

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Deliver Deliver

Stop thinking and talking about delivering, and deliver.

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Focus Focus

Stop thinking about focusing, and focus.

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Wants Needs

Check whether what you're working on matches what your customers actually need. Do the two align?

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Seek Clarity

Seek clarity on a request before you keep working on it.

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Create Luck

Look at what really made someone else's success happen, then create that luck for something you're working on today.

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Ask Why

Ask why before you do the next item on your never-ending list.

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Give Up

When a task is unclear or makes no sense, give it up on purpose, not by quiet quitting or going passive-aggressive.

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Move On

If you're stuck on a problem or a past win, walk away for a bit, let it go and move on.

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Rest

Press pause and rest, even briefly; you don't need a vacation to stop being exhausted.

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What Now

When you feel overwhelmed, turn "what now?" into a statement and decide what you do next.

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First Moment

Choose one thing to do in the first moment of your day to turn things on.

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Final Moment

Choose one thing to do as the final moment of your day to turn work off.

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That Moment

Think about the moment you keep replaying, let it go.

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This Moment

Live in this moment: take ten seconds, right now, to be where you actually are.

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Five Seconds

In your next conversation, pause and count to five before you respond.

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Own It

Whether it's good, bad or stuck, own it instead of deflecting.

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Do. The. Work.

When you're overwhelmed, sometimes it really is that simple: do the work to clear your plate, and own it.

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Question It

Question something you do every day; planting the question is enough.

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Final Question

At the end of a conversation or meeting, ask the final question so you know what to expect next.

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Next Thing

Once your current thing is finished, start the next one, even if it's not the "right" thing.

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Current Thing

Do your current thing now, before you move on to the next.

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Be Flexible

Even on auto-pilot, stay flexible. Life, work and stuff change, so ask what your next move is.

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Review Lists

Review all of your lists (to-do, paper, electronic, calendar) so you can decide what to do less of.

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Reboot Often

If you didn't meet all your goals, reboot. Don't wait for a new year; every day is a chance to reboot again.

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Close It

Pick something you have open today and close it.

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Punt It

Your to-do list has probably become noise: punt on the items that keep piling up instead of carrying them all.

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Do It

When you have so much to do that you freeze, pick something and do it.

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Priority One

Don't make everything Priority One: pick your real number one and finish it before you start the next.

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Press Pause

When you can't catch a break, press pause and breathe, then do it a few more times today.

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Be Open

If you're stuck in a rut, think about how "Be Open" differs from "Be Available", then be open to new ideas today.

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Be Available

Even when you're busy, make room to be available to others. It starts with being intentional about your time and getting good at saying no.

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Seven Minutes

When you're slammed, pause for seven minutes and decide how to use them.

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Be Clear

Get clear on what you want or need and say it clearly; it's also how you set and hold boundaries.

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Be You

Stop trying to please everyone; you can't. Be you.

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Teach Someone

Nervous about teaching a room? Teach one person what you're good at instead.

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Teach Something

If you're really good at what you do, teach it to someone, and notice how that helps you do less.

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Set Boundaries

If you're getting walked on, pick one tip from past editions and use it to set one new boundary today.

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Mirror Mirroring

When you're not feeling it, look in the mirror, figure out the ONE next right thing and do it.

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Eliminate Eliminating

Look at the last thing you eliminated: was it actually helpful? If yes, continue; if not, rethink eliminating.

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Touch Base

Touch base with someone you haven't spoken to in a while to break out of the rinse-and-repeat pattern of disconnection.

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Know Stance

Before you answer "What do you do?", think about the stance you're taking for the person asking.

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Your Turn

It's your turn: fill in the scene yourself and take a shot at it.

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Tap Out

Let go of one thing today (skip, cancel, delete or postpone it), block that time on your calendar and spend it somewhere else.

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Tap In

If you feel you don't have a voice, stop complaining and tap in: do something about it.

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Do

Don't know what to do? Do. There is no try.

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Say Something

Stop scrolling and say something: add a comment, or send a direct message.

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Hang Out

Get out and hang out someplace new, or somewhere you haven't been lately, even if it's just out your front door.

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Create Something

Go create something, anything, and don't wait for it to be perfect.

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Skip It

Stop trying to please all of the people all of the time; it's not possible.

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Choose Wisely

Let go of the pressure to make the perfect choice: make one and move on.

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Collaborate

Collaborate on a project with someone, and if fear holds you back, talk with them about your concerns first.

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Do Nothing

Choosing between two options? Remember Option 3: do nothing. You may not need to decide right now.

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Find Patterns

Look at your time audit, notice the patterns, and watch what happens when you start seeing them.

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Audit Time

Today, jot down on paper how you actually spend your time. Awareness is enough.

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Celebrate It

Celebrate what you finish, no matter how small or big.

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Finish It

Get to the finish line: finish it.

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Procrastinate Tomorrow

Pick ONE thing on your to-do list and either do it now or delete it. Either way, it's off your list.

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Reduce Dependencies

If everyone looks busy but nothing is getting delivered, you may have too many dependencies: identify them and reduce them.

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Call Someone

If you're out of touch with old friends or colleagues, call someone: communication works two ways.

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Refine Today

If stuff is never ready to start, refine what you want to do today (in Scrum, Product Backlog Refinement) so you can actually get started.

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Deliver Something

Pick ONE thing you've started and not finished, and deliver it. It won't be perfect, but it will be done.

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Become One

Drop the imposter syndrome and step up: everyone is bad at the beginning, so keep doing.

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Get Out

Get out from behind the screen: join a local meetup or meet someone face to face (or by Zoom or phone if you must).

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Stop Multitasking

Try an experiment: read one article all the way through without doing anything else, and see whether you can.

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Open Eyes

Open your eyes, imagine a walk in nature, pause, and notice the difference from closing them.

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CloseEyes

Close your eyes and imagine a walk in nature (what you see, feel and smell), then open them before you scroll on.

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Create Time

You can't create time, but you can make time to recharge. Decide what you'll do with it today.

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Recharge Often

Make time for self-care and rest, especially when things feel overwhelming, without becoming a hermit.

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Pause Time

You can't pause time, so when things feel out of control, ask what you CAN do.

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Change Organizations

Start from "I can only really change ME": organizational change takes people who want it and the support of the executive team.

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Let Go

Pick one thing you do on autopilot, such as a recurring meeting where you have nothing to add, and decide whether to keep doing it or let it go.

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Clear Desk

Clear off your desk and take a before-and-after photo. Keeping it clear takes daily work, but less clutter makes a difference.

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Stand Up

Stop sitting around: set boundaries and say no, for you, your team and your organization.

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Be Present

Be present: in your next meeting, even with one other person, stop doing everything else and give it your full attention.

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Look Back

Take a quick break and look back at what you've accomplished: today, yesterday, last week, last year.

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Start Finishing

If you can't stop starting new things, start finishing what's already going.

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Detoxify Today

Leaders: if there's a toxic person on your team, fixing it is your job, not your team's. Don't let it run for months or years.

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Go Deep

Go deep on ONE thing you NEED to get done: start it, go deep, finish it, and notice what happens.

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Subscribe OFF

Unsubscribe from emails and notifications that give you no value, and notice the drop in cognitive load.

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Limit Work

Limit work in process to ONE at a time: prioritize today's list and start on the most important thing.

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Do Less

Do less: what's ONE thing you do repetitively that you could stop doing right now?

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Perspective Change

Break "we've always done it this way" by changing one simple thing you do on autopilot, such as your calendar view.

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Stay Small

Even if your organization's goal is to keep growing, stay small. It doesn't mean thinking small.

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Step Off

If you're overwhelmed, step off the hamster wheel and notice what you gain.

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Do Different

Do different: change one thing you do on auto-pilot, such as your route, which wrist your watch is on or which hand holds your toothbrush.

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Sketch Something

Stuck staring at a blank page? Sketch something. It doesn't have to relate to what you need to get done.

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Blank Page

Embrace the blank page: find a blank piece of paper and keep it where you can see it.

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Output Outcomes

Focus on outcomes, not output: what is the ONE outcome you could produce today?

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Mix Ingredients

Look around at what you already have, pick a few ingredients and mix them to make something new.

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Extend Trust

Trust in the gap: acknowledge as a team that everyone has a different point of view, and extend trust.

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Grow Slow

Give yourself permission to grow something slowly, and pick something you'll intentionally let grow at its own pace.

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Fill Hole

Pick a recurring meeting that wastes your time, decline it and all future events, and block that time back for yourself.

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Dig Hole

Start digging: take the shot even if it turns out to be the wrong hole, and don't worry yet about what you'll fill it with.

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Break Often

Break often: try the Pomodoro Technique, and if 25 minutes of focus is too much, start with 5.

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Change Fatigue

Before you introduce your next change, consider the person on the receiving end (timing and context matter), then go ahead or put it on hold.

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Breathe Regularly

Breathe regularly: breathe in, hold it for a comfortable moment, then breathe out, and actually do it.

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Follow-Up

Follow up, with a yes or no, on the ONE thing you've been putting off, and enjoy having one less thing to do.

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One Book

Stop reading everything: remember the ONE book you'd re-read cover to cover to help you get stuff done.

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Pick Something

Too many choices? Pick something and go; there will always be more options later.

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Be Different

You don't need anyone's permission to stand out: be different, then ask what ONE thing you can do with that to do less.

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Fail Fast

Take something you've been stuck on, deliver it and get feedback from real people. Either way, you'll learn.

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Converge Often

After you've diverged, converge: clear out the idea factory, pick ONE thing and do it.

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Diverge Sometimes

Sometimes get messy and diverge to generate ideas, without getting stuck in analysis paralysis.

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Go

Stop constantly stopping: go.

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Ignore People

When you're bombarded with advice, ignore the experts and naysayers, start one new thing and be OK being bad at it.

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Learn Something

To get unstuck, don't go back to the tried-and-true: learn something completely new, and accept that you'll suck at it at first.

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Get Unstuck

Recognize that you're stuck, then do ONE thing. Doing less doesn't mean doing nothing.

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Be Consistent

Before you can be consistent, become consistent: build a routine so you stop reacting to everything, and ask for help if you're stuck.

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Deliver It

You're building stuff, so now deliver it, and discuss with your team the difference between building and delivering.

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Build It

Stop reading and scrolling: build something, even if it's embarrassing, and get feedback on whether it solves a problem.

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Schedule It

Schedule the important-but-not-urgent things you keep putting off.

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Delegate It

Delegate the Urgent-but-Not-Important stuff: define the outcome you want, trust that it'll get done, and still own the result.

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Drop It

Drop what's neither urgent nor important: delete it, say no, and mean it to yourself.

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Delete It

Delete the time-sucking apps, or at least turn off all notifications, to clear out the not-urgent, not-important stuff.

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Get Naked

Get real: not everything is Urgent and Important. See what you can move out of that quadrant this week.

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Urgent Stuff

Stop spinning: draw an Eisenhower Matrix on paper and brain-dump everything you have to do onto it.

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Reach Out

Ask for help well: first check you're addressing the real problem, then write down the solutions you think might work instead of offloading it.

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Pareto Principle

Apply the 80/20 rule: find the vital few causes behind most of your results and focus there so you stop feeling overwhelmed.

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Decide Today

If you're drifting on autopilot, plant your flag: decide the ONE thing you want to be known for.

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What Next?

If you've lost your job, give yourself time to process it, and remember you are not your job or your old role.

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Imaginate

When "we've always done it this way" keeps you on the hamster wheel, ask what ONE thing you could learn and apply today to break out.

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Decline Meetings

Look at your next couple of weeks and decline or delete the meetings you don't need, recurring ones included, then block that time for yourself.

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Connect People

If you're cooked and bad at asking for help, connect people: help others (only when they ask) to move away from a scarcity mindset.

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Take PTO

Take your PTO instead of letting it accrue: it's a liability for your employer, not a gift, and it gives you time to stop.

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Stop Reading

If you start lots of books and never finish them, stop: read less.

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Do Less

There's a difference between saying you'll do less and actually doing it: time to do it.

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North Star

When the hamster wheel keeps spinning faster, stop and ask what your North Star is (in Scrum, the Product Goal), or ask someone to help you.

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Happy Thanksgiving

Take a moment to say thanks to the people who learn alongside you.

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Build Community

If you feel invisible, engage and build community: any meetup or user group depends on you building it with others.

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Reflect Often

Reflect often on where and how you can improve (in Scrum, the Retrospective) so you don't run on autopilot.

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Slow Down

Slow your roll if meetups and networking are burning you out: simplicity, the art of maximizing the work not done, is essential.

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Get Out

Get out of your own head: when you catch yourself telling a story, talk to a friend, a colleague or even your pet to break the cycle.

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Be Concise

Be genuine, keep it simple and get to the point: be concise.

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Context Matters

Context matters: check in constantly when you communicate to adjust for the other person's context, and have empathy for it.

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Stop Estimating

If you spend more time estimating than working, consider stopping: "estimate" appears zero times in the 2020 Scrum Guide (a thought exercise if stopping would be career-limiting).

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Win Time

If you're in meetings where you aren't present, decline them in future, especially recurring ones, and see what happens if you're not there.

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Full Blast

If your attention is everywhere and walking away isn't working, try moving on instead, and think about the difference between the two.

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Thank You

Say a sincere thank you to someone, mean it, and observe what happens.

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Fellow Perfectionist

Admit when you're wrong, let it go and move on: it's a sunk cost.

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Find Balance

Instead of walking the beam, take a stance, so you can say yes or a hard no with integrity.

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Practice Yes

As a thought exercise, say yes to every opportunity that crosses your desk this week, without making any career-limiting moves.

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Practice No

Say no: it's a complete sentence, and every yes that should have been a no pulls you away from something more important.

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Feeling Frozen

Too many ideas? Pick ONE thing from the never-ending list, start it, finish it and repeat.

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Speak Up

Speak up when something is off. It takes courage; don't make a career-limiting move, and if needed walk away and think it through first.

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Shut Up

After you ask a question, be intentionally silent and listen.

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Walk Away

When you're stuck, walk away: take a walk, drink some water or call an old friend instead of staring at the blinking cursor.

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Create Whitespace

Once you've blocked your calendar, create whitespace in that time: turn off notifications, remove distracting apps and observe what happens to your thoughts.

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Meet One

Approach one person, not a crowd: at your next conference, meet one new person or turn your camera on.

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Take It Off

Remove ONE app from your mobile device.

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Eliminate Notifications

Turn off ALL notifications (phone, email, Slack, messages) so you can be present.

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The One Thing

Ask yourself what ONE thing you are known for, or want to be known for, and why.

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BLOCK TIME

Create a calendar entry titled "BLOCK TIME" for heads-down work, and mark it Busy so nobody can steal your time.

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Stop Starting

Stop starting new things all at the same time.

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Stop the Busy

Stop the busy: the next time you catch yourself saying "I am SO busy," stop and think about it.

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Let’s Get Started

Follow along for one actionable tip each week on increasing your productivity by doing less.

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