A Tiny Habit That Improved My Focus

Recently, I’ve realized that “small decisions” in my daily life can have a surprisingly big impact. For example, if I spend just five minutes in the morning deciding “what I won’t do today,” it makes a huge difference in my focus for the rest of the day.

What I do is simple:

• Choose just one task I won’t do today

• Write down the reason in a single line

That’s all.

What’s interesting is that the act of “deciding what not to do” actually brings the “things I should do” to the surface naturally. In the past, I tended to fill my task management app with a huge number of items, only to end up making no progress on any of them.

However, when I decide “what not to do” first, the remaining options decrease, my indecision diminishes, and I take action more quickly.

While topics like decision-making and attention resources come up frequently on LessWrong, I feel like this “reverse approach” isn’t discussed very often.

Do any of you have the habit of “deciding what not to do” in your daily lives?
If so, I’d love to hear how you put it into practice.