Busy is not a strategy

Busy feels like progress because it costs the same as progress. The tiredness is identical. The calendar looks the same.

But busy is what happens when you accept every input. Strategy is what happens when you refuse most of them.

The uncomfortable test: name the thing you said no to this week. If nothing comes to mind, you did not have a strategy — you had a queue.

The move this week: decline one thing you would normally accept, and write down what you will do with the hours instead. The second half is the whole exercise.