Delete Half Your To-Do List
Three prompts that separate the tasks that matter from the ones past-you added and never questioned.
Your list isn't a list, it's a graveyard.
Half the things on there were added by a version of you who had different priorities and more energy. They're not tasks any more, they're headstones.
Every dead item costs you something each time you read past it. You reread it, feel a flicker of guilt, skip it, and move on. Do that 15 times a day and the list is actively making you worse at your job.
I cull mine every fortnight. It's the only reason it stays under 10 items.
The prompts
1. Start here
Puts every item on trial before it gets to stay.
Here is my to-do list: [paste]. For each item, ask me one question: what actually happens if I never do this? Then tell me which to delete, which to defer, and which are real.
2. Go deeper
Finds the tasks that were quietly handed to you.
Now find the items that are only on this list because someone else expects them, and tell me which ones I could hand back, renegotiate, or let go quiet.
3. Bonus
Rewrites what survives so it stops reading like chores.
Rewrite what's left as 5 items maximum, phrased as outcomes not chores, and tell me which single one I'd regret not doing.
Bonus: Make it yours
Tell Claude which items you've moved forward more than 3 times. Those are the ones to interrogate hardest.
Do this today: run the cull once. Deleting 12 things feels better than finishing 2, and it takes 4 minutes.
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