Stop Doing List

Overview

The Stop Doing List is a productivity tool that explicitly identifies activities to eliminate or avoid. While to-do lists focus on what to accomplish, stop doing lists focus on what to eliminate, making room for higher-value work.

Core Concept

Time is finite. Adding tasks without removing others leads to:

• Overcommitment
• Stress and burnout
• Reduced quality
• Important work crowded out by urgent trivia

The solution: For every task added, consider what to remove.

How to Create

1. Track Current Activities

• Log everything you do for 1-2 weeks
• Note time spent on each activity
• Include meetings, emails, administrative tasks

2. Evaluate Each Activity

Ask for each:

• Does this align with my goals?
• Am I uniquely suited to do this?
• Could someone else do this?
• What happens if I stop doing this?
• Is this urgent or just habitual?

3. Categorize

• Stop Completely: Low value, no consequences
• Delegate: Valuable but others can do
• Reduce Frequency: Monthly instead of weekly
• Batch: Do less often but in larger chunks
• Automate: One-time setup, ongoing savings

4. Document Your List

Write down:

• What you're stopping
• Why you're stopping it
• What you'll do instead

Common Stop Doing Items

Meetings

• Recurring meetings with unclear purpose
• Meetings where you're not needed
• Status meetings that could be emails
• Meetings without agendas

Communication

• Immediate response to every email
• Participating in every Slack thread
• CC'ing everyone "just in case"
• Checking email first thing morning

Administrative

• Manually creating repetitive documents
• Tracking things that don't matter
• Reporting metrics nobody uses
• Perfecting documents before sharing

Professional

• Projects misaligned with strategy
• Networking events with no clear purpose
• Committees providing little value
• "Staying on top of" things tangential to your role

Personal

• Social media scrolling
• News consumption beyond minimal awareness
• Saying yes to social obligations out of guilt
• Volunteer commitments that no longer resonate

Implementation

Start Small

• Pick 1-3 items to stop
• Test for a month
• Observe consequences (usually minimal)
• Add more items

Communicate

• Tell stakeholders what you're stopping
• Explain why
• Suggest alternatives
• Be firm but kind

Review Regularly

• Monthly review of stop doing list
• Add new items as they emerge
• Ensure you're actually stopping
• Resist tendency to resume

Benefits

• More time for important work
• Reduced stress from overcommitment
• Better focus on priorities
• Clearer boundaries
• Strategic clarity about what matters

Essentialism Connection

From Greg McKeown's "Essentialism":

• Do less, but better
• Eliminate the non-essential
• Create space for what matters
• "If it isn't a clear yes, it's a clear no"

Common Obstacles

FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)

• What if something important happens?
• Reality: Important things surface

Guilt

• People are counting on me
• Reality: Others adapt; new solutions emerge

Identity

• This is part of who I am
• Reality: You're not your activities

Comfort

• I've always done this
• Reality: Habits aren't justifications

Questions to Ask

• If I wasn't already doing this, would I start today?
• What's the opportunity cost of continuing?
• Am I doing this from habit or intent?
• What would happen if I stopped?
• Is this the best use of my time?
• Could I spend this time on something with 10x impact?

Examples

Personal:

• Stop checking news more than once daily
• Stop attending networking events with no clear goal
• Stop working past 6pm on weekdays

Professional:

• Stop attending weekly status meetings (get async updates)
• Stop manually creating the same report (automate)
• Stop participating in projects outside core focus

Team:

• Stop holding meetings without clear outcomes
• Stop requesting reports nobody reads
• Stop CC'ing entire team on everything