Oldie but Goodie – The Stop doing list
Fabulous article from 2003 by the author of Good to Great and Made to Last, Jim Collins.
She then gave me what I came to call the 20-10 assignment. It goes like this: Suppose you woke up tomorrow and received two phone calls. The first phone call tells you that you have inherited $20 million, no strings attached. The second tells you that you have an incurable and terminal disease, and you have no more than 10 years to live. What would you do differently, and, in particular, what would you stop doing?
That assignment became a turning point in my life, and the "stop doing" list became an enduring cornerstone of my annual New Year resolutions — a mechanism for disciplined thought about how to allocate the most precious of all resources: time.
This sentiment is also echoed in The Dip by Seth Godin. Starting something is just as important if not more important than knowing when to stop.
What are you going to stop this year?
