Stop Trying to Out-Muscle Your To-Do List

You know what’s fascinating about productivity?

Most people think it’s about grinding harder, being “on top of things,” and cramming more into their brains.

But I had a conversation recently that might flip your perspective.

I was talking on my fantastic, world-renowned, legendary podcast about how you can’t outwork a first-generation Gujarati immigrant—these incredible folks who put in 80-hour weeks without breaking a sweat.

It reminded me of my rugby matches against Marines in the Gulf.

Picture this: Navy ships would dock, and we’d face these Marines—absolute specimens of humanity.

Twenty-two-year-old, corn-fed, creatine-fueled savages who’d been confined to a ship for months with nothing to do but work out.

Here’s the thing—you couldn’t beat them by trying to match their raw power. It was physically impossible. These guys had been playing American football since junior high, and they came off the ship just wanting to dig a hole and tackle something violently.

The only path to victory was through technique—playing smarter, leveraging knowledge of the game, and working the angles.

And that’s exactly how we need to think about personal productivity.

You’re not going to outwork every problem.

That’s like trying to out-muscle a Marine.

You’re not going to remember more, juggle more, or grind harder than your brain’s fundamental capacity.

What you need is technique.

What you need is a system.

The goal isn’t to do more things.

The goal is to get things out of your head and into a trusted system so you can think clearly about what actually matters.

I see this pattern all the time when I work with business owners on their organizational systems. They try to muscle through it—remembering everything, keeping their entire operation mapped in their minds.

Habibi, that’s like trying to tackle a Marine head-on. It’s not going to end well.

Instead, here’s a great way to start using some technique:

1. Capture everything in a trusted system (I use Apple Notes).

2. Process regularly—don’t let things pile up.

3. Do a weekly review to step back and focus on what truly matters.

The breakthrough moment?

When you’re lying in bed at night, and you’re not running through an endless mental checklist of “oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.”

Because everything’s captured. It’s in your system. Your mind can finally rest.

When was the last time you were fully present in a conversation? Not just physically there, but mentally present, without part of your brain churning through tasks you’re afraid you’ll forget?

That’s what we’re really after here.

So stop trying to muscle your way through productivity challenges. Stop priding yourself on being a mental juggler. Stop believing you can remember it all.

Instead, learn some technique.

• Capture everything

• Process regularly

• Review weekly

Let your brain do what it’s brilliant at—generating ideas and solving problems—instead of forcing it to be a subpar task list.

I recently started a video series on this.

Here are the first two parts:

• The Surprising Truth About Why Your To-Do List Isn’t Working (And How to Fix It) [Part 1] | Lazy Leverage #38
  Listen here

• The Surprising Truth About Why Your To-Do List Isn’t Working (And How to Fix It) [Part 2] | Lazy Leverage #39
  Listen here

Remember: “Your brain is for having ideas, not storing them.”

Yallah Habibi,

Jon