Q4 is here. Teams are chasing this year’s goals and stressing about next year. Before you add another initiative, ask the uncomfortable question:
What will we stop doing?
Every business says it has too many priorities and too few resources. Yet leaders keep feeding the problem. They plan, schedule, and hold meetings around 25 “priorities,” then wonder why little gets finished.
Here is the blunt truth: If everything is a priority, nothing is.
The problem is rarely a lack of effort. It is a refusal to choose. Leaders fear missing an opportunity, disappointing someone, or admitting that the organization cannot do everything—even with better delegation, longer hours, or AI.
Try the 25/5 exercise:
1. List 25 important goals, projects, or opportunities.
2. Select the five that would create the greatest impact.
3. Put the other 20 on an “avoid-at-all-costs” list until one of the top five is complete.
The exercise is often called Warren Buffett’s 25/5 rule, although Buffett says it was not his idea. Whatever its origin, the lesson is sound: Your biggest distractions are not bad ideas. They are good ideas that steal time from the best ones.
Then use one word aggressively: NO.
NO to the project that does not support the five. NO to the meeting without a decision. NO to the “quick favor” that quietly becomes a commitment.
Focus is not deciding what matters. Most leaders can do that. Real focus is starving everything else.
Which “good” priority will you kill before it steals another quarter? Make a decision—then stop feeding it.
