Eliminate the clutter, release your focus
ET115: When everything’s a priority, nothing gets done
You’re at your desk. It’s 7:30 p.m. The to‑do list on your laptop glares back at you.
Every task feels urgent; every unanswered email feels personal.
Your chest tightens, breathing shortens—your nervous system is firing on all cylinders.
Nothing gets ticked off.
Instead, the list grows.
You close the laptop, exhausted—despite trying to be productive–and frustration and overwhelm pull up chairs beside you.
Sound familiar?
A client of mine found herself here last week.
She’s smart and capable: give her something brand‑new and she’ll figure it out while others crumble.
Yet she was consistently stuck–without even trying.
When we think about getting work done, we often assume that greater productivity comes from shaving time off each task—minimising the time we “waste.”
Yet what happens when we try to stop time-wasting and be more productive?
Here are three classic examples:
Colour‑coding calendars until the palette is perfect instead of moving the needle on real work.
Endlessly tweaking slide decks for fonts and spacing that no client will ever notice.
Scrolling “just for inspiration” on social media and falling into a 20‑minute rabbit hole.
[Note to self: I'm convinced that social media algorithms are more effective at creating addiction than cocaine …]
When optimisation isn’t enough
Yet as the urgency cranks up, sometimes even this approach doesn't quite deliver either.
You see, it’s tempting to double‑down on optimisation, but even the smartest people sometimes overlook a brutal truth: resources—energy, will‑power, time—are finite.
So instead we experimented with subtraction.
The elimination routine
List absolutely everything on your mind.
Circle the few essentials.
Create a visible “Not Right Now” list for the rest—parked, not forgotten.
Within days she knocked out tasks that had haunted her for eight months.
What had changed for this client?
Visual simplicity – only essentials stayed in direct sight.
Psychological off‑loading – the Not Right Now list removed background noise without losing track.
A calmer nervous system – clarity let her pre‑frontal cortex, not adrenaline, drive the show.
The Effortless advantage
That last one–a calmer nervous system–can be transformational.
When you combine elimination with solid brain foundations for focus and flow, you give your nervous system the breathing room it needs to tackle what matters most.
Solid foundations come from evidence-backed practices. Here are some of my favourites:
Sleep well
Eat well
Sharpen your mind
Each of these pillars calms the nervous system and frees up mental bandwidth for meaningful work.
👉 Over to you
Write down everything on your mental desk.
Identify the essentials.
Move the rest to a visible Not Right Now list.
Notice the relief–and what actually gets done?
I’d love to hear what shifts for you.
Let me know!
PS: If you're a lawyer or high-performing professional ready to show up with clarity and presence—without the grind—let’s chat about how the right conditions can make your leadership feel effortless, every day.
That’s it for this week!
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To your health, joy, and success—one step at a time!
Eric
Thanks, Eric!
…i like this idea bud…kind of like to don’t lists…take everything you “need to do” and put it on a list…the prioritize it backwards in order of least importance…move as many things as you can to the to don’t list and don’t think about those things anymore…