Nobody needs a bigger to-do list going into 2026.
They need less weight.
Most people aren’t overwhelmed because they’re doing too little.
They’re overwhelmed because they’re carrying things that should’ve been dropped months ago.
Ready to crush it in 2025? Success isn’t just about what you start doing, it’s also about what you stop doing.
Would it be conceivable to put 15 minutes a day into focusing on something you enjoy?
15 minutes a day for 30 straight days is 7.5 hours of work. Think of how much headway you’ll make on it.
Turn “I need to find time” into “I’m going to make time” and watch your whole world shift.
Maybes and Somedays go away.
Focused effort on the right activities persist.
As the great Jack Nicklaus said, “There’s a difference between being nervous and scared and nervous and prepared.”
I think about this often.
Schedule your job around your kids, not your kids around your job.
Because it goes slow before it goes fast.
I’m surprised more restaurants don’t follow the First Watch model.
They’ve found ways to provide convenience while creating efficiencies for their staff.
How?
93% of the time you’ll spend with your kids is before they graduate high school.
If that’s not sobering enough, I believe the percentage is rising due to screen time, busy work, and the always-on-the-go lifestyles.
I think we’re teaching our kids incorrectly.
Here’s why:
We’ve gotten into this pattern of pushing our kids to become the best at a sport, getting straight A’s, or starting a side business at 14.
Think about the most difficult conversation you’ve ever had. Do you have it?
Who was it with?
What was it about?
How did you show up?
How did it get resolved?
You can invent or you can innovate.
When we are designing the most fulfilling life, innovating on what we are already doing could be the best option.
Humans have this weird way of complicating everything.
But most answers are very simple.
The internet and social media are not bad. They are tools.
The same way a hammer and a chainsaw are. If done right, they are insanely useful.
The question then is how are you using these tools?
I don’t do CrossFit for the physique.
I don’t run races for the fresh air.
I don’t do yoga for the “Zen”.
It’s hard to visualize a long life when it’s split into bite-sized days filled with randomness and chaos.
In today’s ever-connected world, we are plugged in as quickly as we rise in the morning.
Doing anything of relevance is hard.
It takes some time with some level of effort to have the chance to have success.
It takes less time than you think.
→ That’s the punchline.
I often hear the same excuses.
“It’s going to take a lot of work”
“I don’t have the time”
“It’s too hard”
30 years ago I had my first job delivering newspapers for the Press & Sun Bulletin in Endicott, NY.
This was an opportunity to make my own money but what I didn’t realize at the time was the work ethic and life skills I learned along with it.
What I thought a fulfilled life should look like in 2010:
Get married
Have a couple of kids
Watch sports and relax
Play golf on the weekends
Attend kids’ sporting events
Be employed and make some money
We have a hard time getting off the starting line because we haven’t defined what success looks like.
“Success” is often defined in the mainstream as lots of money, a big business, luxury toys, enormous houses, or exotic trips. People who are deemed “successful” may have fame or notoriety.
But is that your definition?
We have to stop saying we don’t have the time.
We have time.
We don’t have it as a priority.
If we did, we’d accomplish it. It’d be the first thing we check off the list.
We get so caught up with big and bold. Be seen, be heard, be cheered.
But it’s actually the moments that most people don’t witness that are the most important to a happy life.
It’s reading a book to your kids and giving them a hug and kiss goodnight.
Most things we deal with on a day-to-day basis do not matter.
They are insignificant in the grand scheme of things.
But, to kids, they might be the most important thing in the world.
When it comes to productivity, there isn’t much better than time blocking. This technique can help keep us on track to complete the work we know we’d like to get done.
What can be said, but said with less? We sit in meetings, read newsletters, listen to podcasts, etc and the ones that do it best eliminate the filler. They get to the point quickly and articulate the real message that is needed to get across.
e get 1440 minutes a day. Every day. It never changes. Well, until we have zero.
When we feel we have so much left we often take it for granted and squander it away. We make some decisions that are questionable even if from the outside they seem so blatantly obvious.
One of the things I’ve pondered recently is how much my time is worth considering the many competing priorities in my life and it always seems to be a balancing act of epic proportions to get everything done I need to get done. However, there are a lot of these items that I either don’t enjoy doing or feel they are repetitive and administrative and it’d be more beneficial to get help to complete them.
When was the last time you quit something? Like realized it wasn’t fitting into your life and just quit it. We all want to do more. Workout more. Make a few more calls. Spend more time with family. If you’re not doing more its said that you are falling behind or missing out.