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- Do less. Achieve more.
Do less. Achieve more.
Real success starts with ruthless prioritization.
Nathan Kochera
October 28, 2025
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Setting priorities is hard.
It’s especially hard if you’re an ambitious optimist.
When an ambitious optimist starts the day with a long list of to-dos, their first thought isn’t:
“What’s most important to finish today.”
It’s more like:
“I have a lot to get done today.”
What does this lead to?
A day full of stressing and scrambling around, desperately trying to get everything done. In my experience, being in this chaotic state leads to an implicit prioritization of the easy tasks to feel like you’re gaining momentum and getting stuff done, while leaving the harder tasks for later.
See the problem?
When an ambitious optimist sets out to finish everything without prioritizing the most important work, they end up implicitly prioritizing certain tasks. And often, it’s the easier, less important ones.
While it’s good to set ambitious goals, they need to be set realistically so that you don’t overextend yourself. That’s how you end up burnt out, stressed, and discouraged.
Recently, I’ve been that ambitious optimist. Setting far too many goals and scrambling to achieve them. Now, it’s time to prioritize. I have to start giving time to the most important tasks and taking time from the less important ones.
If it feels like you’ve been that ambitious optimist too, take a step back and set some priorities.
Ask yourself:
“What are the one or two most important things to get done today?”
And then go do them.
Until next week.
Step by step,
Nathan
P.S. Here’s a great quote from Mark Twain on priorities along with a few others
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