I Had 120 Items On My To-Do List. They All Felt Important.

Last updated: 2026-09-09

I used to run my business by doing every role myself. I wrote the content. I uploaded the posts. I made the graphics. I handled marketing. I did SEO. I maintained the website. I created courses. I launched a podcast. And I tried to keep up with a 120-item to-do list where everything felt important.

Does this sound familiar?

A 120-item list. I know. Makes no sense when you say it out loud. When you’re in it, every item has a reason. This post needs uploading. That graphic still isn’t done. Bookkeeping is sitting there. The website needs attention. Marketing can’t wait. SEO can’t wait either. So you shuffle the list. You highlight things. You ask what should come first. You still end the week tired, and the work that actually required you is still sitting there.

The bottleneck was never a lack of effort. I was putting in the work. Hard work. Lots of it. The problem was that I was doing every role. Every project waited on me because I had never stopped long enough to ask a simple question:

What can only I do?

That question is what made focus possible. I call the answer a life leverage.

Unique-to-you versus transferable

A life leverage is any task that only you can do because it depends on your voice, your judgment, your experience, your relationships, or your identity. The episode you have to record. The decision only you have the authority to make. The piece of writing that has to sound like you. The relationship you have to show up for.

Around those tasks sits a pile of work that still matters. Uploading. Formatting. Bookkeeping. Graphics. Research. Scheduling. Support work is still important. I used to treat “important” as the same thing as “I have to do this.” That was the trap. Support work can be important and still not require your unique brain, your face, or your lived experience.

This sits inside AE’s 25X productivity thinking, and the distinction that actually matters is unique-to-you versus transferable. Most people already know how to sort important from unimportant. That’s useful until your list hits 120 items and they all look important.

Here’s my hot take. Prioritization alone breaks down at that point. I used to ask “What should I do first?” Better ordering of the same 120 items was never going to save me. I needed leverage. The better question became:

What should I be doing at all?

The filter I run on every task

When I look at a task now, I run a simple filter.

If it requires my unique brain, voice, face, lived experience, or decision-making authority, I keep it.

If it supports the work but does not require me specifically, it’s a candidate for delegation, automation, or process documentation.

That’s the whole filter. Keep the unique work. Move the rest.

I used to carry every operational task myself. Once I stopped, I could spend more time on the few contributions that were uniquely mine. Overwhelm went down. Energy came back. Work started feeling enjoyable again.

I used to think delegation was just a way to get more done. Now I treat it as a way to make work enjoyable again. Focus. Free time. The hours you get back don’t have to get filled with more work.

Are you living in a 120-item list because you’ve never given yourself permission to put the support work down?

What parallel progress actually looks like

Once you protect the unique-to-you work, something else becomes possible: parallel progress.

While you do the work only you can do, other people or systems handle the surrounding work at the same time. You record. Someone else creates the graphics. You make the decision. Someone else handles the bookkeeping. You write. Someone else uploads, formats, and schedules.

You save time. You also multiply output without personally touching every step.

That’s why repeatable workflows, SOPs, and team systems matter. Document the support work once and you stop being the person who has to remember how to do it again next week. The unique work stays with you. The transferable work can run while you’re busy being useful in the way only you can be useful.

Do a Life Leverage Audit before you plan the week

Try this before you plan your next week. I recommend it as a weekly exercise, before you start rearranging the list.

1. Start with the unique work

Ask: “What are the few tasks this week that are genuinely unique to me?”

Write those down first. Be strict. If someone else could do it with your notes, a recording, or a documented process, it does not belong on this list.

2. Scan everything else

Look at the rest of the list and ask whether each item can be delegated, documented, automated, or delayed. Uploading, formatting, bookkeeping, graphics, research, and scheduling almost always land here.

3. Put every task in a bucket

Two buckets:

Unique to me. Voice, judgment, experience, relationships, identity, decision-making authority.

Transferable. Important support work that does not require you specifically.

Then, for every transferable item, pick one next move: delegate it, document it as a process, automate it, or delay it.

You can do this on paper. You can do it in whatever list you already use. The tool doesn’t matter. The question does.

If you already live inside to-do lists and still feel overwhelmed, this is usually why. You got better at capturing work. You got better at ordering it. You never got clear on which work should be yours.

One thing to do this week

Before you plan your next week, sit down with your current list and ask: what can only I do?

List those few tasks. Then scan everything else and decide what gets delegated, documented, automated, or delayed.

One audit. Then plan the week around the unique work, and let the surrounding work run in parallel.