Latest / Work-Life Balance with Fexingo: Boundaries, Time Management, and Avoiding Career Overload / The Stop Doing List That Boosts Your Career
Transcript
- Lucas: So I had a conversation last week with a product manager — she told me she reclaimed about 30 percent of her workweek by making one simple shift. She started a 'stop doing' list. Luna: A list of things to stop? That sounds almost too easy. What was on it? Lucas: Mostly meetings where she was just listening. She realized she was attending eight hours of recurring meetings where she never spoke and had no action items. So she started declining anything that didn't require her direct input. Luna: That's brave. I think a lot of us worry we'll be seen as disengaged or miss something important. Lucas: Right. But she tracked it for two weeks — she found that in those meetings, the decisions were always recapped in a Slack channel or email. She missed nothing. And her boss actually noticed she was getting more deep work done. Luna: So the key is having a system — a stop doing list — rather than just winging it. How do you decide what to stop? Lucas: I like a simple two-metric audit. For one week, log every activity and rate it on two scales: impact from one to ten, and energy drain from one to ten. Then anything that scores low impact and high drain becomes a candidate for the stop doing list. Luna: Low impact, high drain — that's the danger zone. I bet a lot of reporting, status updates, and even some recurring tasks fall in there. Lucas: Exactly. The Pareto principle comes into play — 80 percent of results come from 20 percent of activities. The stop doing list helps you ax the other 80 percent that consume energy without moving the needle. Luna: I remember reading that Harvard Business Review did a study on top performers — they found that the best ones actually spent 50 percent more time on their top priorities. They weren't just doing more; they were doing fewer things better. Lucas: That's the data. And it's counterintuitive because our instinct is to add — take on a new project, attend a new meeting, learn a new skill. Subtraction feels like regression. But it's often the smartest career move. Luna: What about things you can't just drop? Like mandatory compliance training or a direct report's weekly one-on-one that could be biweekly? Lucas: Great question. The stop doing list isn't always about elimination — sometimes it's about reduction or delegation. For the product manager, she couldn't stop all meetings, but she switched two from weekly to biweekly, and shorted one from an hour to thirty minutes. That alone freed up two hours a month. Luna: So it's about being intentional with your time. I think we get into habits and forget to question them. Lucas: Exactly. The stop doing list should be reviewed quarterly. Every three months, sit down and ask: what am I doing that no longer serves me? A lot of times, a task existed because of a past project that's now finished, but we keep doing it out of inertia. Luna: Inertia is a huge one. I once kept archiving old emails into folders for years because I thought I'd need them. Then I realized the search function made folders obsolete. Lucas: That's a perfect example. The mental load of maintaining that system was real. Once you stop, you feel lighter. Luna: I want to try this. But I'm worried I'll make the wrong call and later regret dropping something. How do you mitigate that? Lucas: Start with a trial. Tell yourself you'll stop doing X for two weeks and see what happens. If nobody complains and your output stays steady, make it permanent. If something breaks, you can always revert. Luna: That's a low-risk approach. And it takes the fear out of the decision. Lucas: Right. And remember — your stop doing list isn't just about tasks. It can include behaviors. For example, I stopped checking email before noon. That one change boosted my morning writing output dramatically. Luna: I should consider that. I always answer DMs right away, but I bet they can wait an hour. Lucas: Probably. And then you can batch those communications instead of context switching all day. Luna: This is the kind of advice that actually sticks with me. Lucas: Glad to hear it. And honestly, that kind of feedback is why we keep doing this — that and the handful of listeners who chip in monthly through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It keeps the show ad-free and independent. Luna: Yeah, it really does. If you've found value in episodes like this, and you want to see more, that link is there. Lucas: So back to implementation — once you have your stop doing list, how do you make sure you actually stick to it? I think accountability helps. Share it with a colleague or mentor. Luna: I like that. Or set a recurring calendar reminder every quarter to review the list. Lucas: Yes. And one more thing — don't forget to celebrate the stops. When you cut a low-value meeting, take that reclaimed time and do something meaningful. That reinforces the habit. Luna: I think that's key. We tend to focus on what we're giving up, not what we're gaining. Lucas: Exactly. The stop doing list is ultimately about making space for what matters. And in a world that constantly asks for more, learning to subtract is a career superpower. Luna: Alright, I'm going to start my own stop doing list today. Thanks, Lucas. Lucas: Good luck. Let us know how it goes — we're always curious to hear what you drop.