Deciding What Not to Do

Just as it is important to consciously decide what to do first, is it equally important for you to consciously decide what not to do. This is particularly true when you are dealing with too many tasks in your schedule.

Management consultant Ben Tregoe often said that one of the worst ways to waste your time is to do very efficiently that which doesn't need to be done at all.

One of the easiest ways to eliminate a task from your to-do list is to decide that you don't need to do it after all.

You can use the C-D priorities in the ABCD system to help you delay working on tasks that you may not have to do. This is a useful technique called productive procrastination.