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Don’t confuse what should be results-driven with routine (e.g., exercise) with something enjoyment- driven that benefits from variation (e.g., recreation). 6. Regret is past-tense decision making. Eliminate complaining to minimize regret. Condition yourself to notice complaints and stop making them with a simple program like the “21-day no-complaint experiment” made famous by Will Bowen, where you wear a single bracelet and move it from one wrist to the other each time you complain. The goal is 21 days without complaining and you reset to 0 each time you slip up. This increased awareness helps prevent useless past-tense deliberation and negative emotions that improve nothing but deplete your attention. DECISION-MAKING ISN’T to be avoided—that’s not the problem. Look at a good CEO or top corporate performer and you'll see a high volume of decisions. It’s deliberation—the time we vacillate over and consider each decision—that’s the attention consumer. Total deliberation time, not the number of decisions, determines your attention bank account balance (or debt). Let’s assume you pay 10% over time by following the above rules but cut your average “decision cycle” time by an average of 40% (10 minutes reduced to 6 minutes, for example). Not only will you have much more time and attention to spend on revenue-generating activities, but you'll get greater enjoyment from what you have and experience. Consider that 10% additional cost as an investment and part of your “ideal lifestyle tax,” but not as a loss. Embrace the choice-minimal lifestyle. It’s a subtle and under-exploited philosophical tool that produces dramatic increases in both output and satisfaction, all with less overwhelm. Make testing a few of the principles the first of many fast and reversible decisions. _—FEBRUARY 6, 2008 The Not-to-Do List: 9 Habits to Stop Now “N ot-to-do” lists are often more effective than to-do lists for upgrading performance. The reason is simple: What you don’t do determines what you can do. Here are nine stressful and common habits that entrepreneurs and office workers should strive to eliminate. The bullets are followed by more detailed descriptions. Focus on one or two at a time, just as you would with high-priority to-do items. 1. Do not answer calls from unrecognized phone numbers. Feel free to surprise others, but don’t be surprised. It just results in unwanted interruption or poor negotiating positions. Let it go to voicemail, and consider using a service like GrandCentral (you can listen to people leaving voicemail or receive them as text messages) or Phonetag.com (receive voicemails as e-mail). HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_014001