Jim Kwik explains how a not-to-do list fights opportunity stress by helping you say no to good things so you can say yes to great ones. He recommends avoiding your phone for the first and last 30 to 60 minutes of the day, since your brain is most creative when you wake up and checking devices trains distraction instead.
Chapters
You should have a not-to-do list. That's what successful people do. Because that's the thing, as you become more successful, there's this opportunity stress. Yes. Where you get more and more invitations to do more and more things. So you have to say no to good so you can say yes to great. And on top of the not-to-do list, I would suggest don't touch your phone the first half an hour or an hour of the day and the last half an hour or an hour of the day. Why? Because when you wake up first thing in the morning, from a brain reason, you're extremely suggestible. That's when you're most creative, right? When you pick it up out of habit, like not for purpose, but just out of habit, technology is a tool you're supposed to use. Yep. Wow. We become the tool. Yeah. So number one, you don't pick up your phone first thing, it trains you to be distracted. Number two, when you're in that pressure state, is what you talk about, it trains you to be reactive. All of a sudden you get one email, one voicemail message, it ruins your day. And we've all had that. You're fighting fires and you're on the defense.
