Stop being busy and start being valuable by working on the vital few

Being busy feels productive, but it often hides that you’re avoiding the work that actually moves the needle. The vital few principle says a small set of activities creates most of your results. The trick is to define your Big Three, price your time, and plan your day so gravity pulls you toward high value.

Start by listing everything you do. You’ll see the truth: a lot of motion, not much meaning. Then ask the value question—if you could only do three things that create 90% of your impact, what are they? Circle those. Now compute your hourly rate. If you make $80,000, that’s roughly $40 an hour. Doing $15‑an‑hour tasks while your A‑level work sits is a hidden pay cut.

A micro‑anecdote: a founder I advised moved his inbox to two 20‑minute windows and added a “Back to Work” watch alarm at 9:10, 10:40, 1:10, and 2:40. He said it felt silly. His revenue per hour rose within a month.

Daily, use the ABCDE method to triage by consequence. Start with A‑1 and refuse to touch B while A exists. Single‑handling A‑1 builds momentum and trains your brain to love finishing. The “Back‑to‑Work” cue is a small, repeatable nudge that rescues minutes you’d otherwise lose to drift. This is less about squeezing time, more about protecting value.

Write down your weekly tasks, identify your Big Three by asking what truly creates 90% of your value, and compute your hourly rate so you can stop doing or delegate the low‑value items. Each morning, label tasks A through E, start with A‑1, and single‑handle it, using a Back‑to‑Work cue whenever you drift. Keep the system light and repeatable. Try labeling tomorrow’s list tonight.