The hardest part of the work is deciding what not to do

Every interesting person I know has a graveyard of good ideas they chose not to pursue. Not bad ideas, good ones. That's what makes it hard.

Saying no to a bad idea is easy; it barely registers as a decision. Saying no to a genuinely good idea because it isn't the idea is the actual discipline. It feels like loss, every time.

I've started treating my todo list as a list of things I've agreed not to do yet. Three items. If a fourth shows up, something has to leave. The constraint hurts, and that's how I know it's working.