The Inverse Rule of Productivity: Why Doing Less Creates More Results

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Most productivity advice has it backward.

Do more. Work harder. Optimize every minute.

But elite performers across every field—from business to athletics to arts—follow a different rule: Strategic elimination creates exponential results.

Here's how to implement this approach in your life starting today:

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The 80/20 Principle in Action

The Pareto Principle states that roughly 80% of outcomes come from 20% of causes. Apply this to your work and you'll discover:

• 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts

• 80% of your stress comes from 20% of your activities

• 80% of your growth comes from 20% of your habits

The key isn't working more hours—it's identifying and doubling down on your high-leverage 20%.

Action Step: List your 10 most common activities. For each, ask: "If this were the only thing I accomplished today, would I be satisfied with my day?" The ones you answer "yes" to are your 20% activities.

Strategic Elimination vs. Optimization

Most of us try to optimize everything. This is a mistake.

Low-value activities optimized are still low-value. The highest performers first eliminate, then optimize.

Warren Buffett uses a simple two-list method:

1. Write down 25 goals

2. Circle only your top 5

3. The remaining 20 become your "avoid at all costs" list

What's dangerous isn't failure to achieve your top 5 priorities—it's the distraction of the other 20 good-but-not-great options.

Action Step: Create your own "avoid at all costs" list. These aren't bad activities—they're just not your highest leverage uses of time and energy.

The Power of a "Stop-Doing" List

We all have to-do lists. Few have "stop-doing" lists.

Yet what you stop doing often determines your success more than what you start doing.

My own stop-doing list transformed my productivity more than any new technique I've learned:

• Stop checking email before noon

• Stop attending meetings without clear outcomes

• Stop saying yes to projects that don't align with core objectives

• Stop working past 6pm (ironically creating more focus during work hours)

Action Step: Create your stop-doing list with 3-5 items. Post it where you'll see it daily. The best items are specific behaviors, not vague goals.

One-Week Challenge

For the next seven days, try this counter-intuitive approach:

1. Each morning, identify just ONE high-leverage task that would make the day successful

2. Complete that task before doing anything else

3. Eliminate or delegate three low-leverage activities

4. At day's end, note what you accomplished with fewer activities

The goal isn't an empty calendar—it's a calendar filled only with what truly matters.

Remember: We have just one life. The quality of that life depends less on how much we do and more on whether we're doing the right things.

Just one life,

Richard Founder, Elevenstoic

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