Do One Thing, Stupid (DOTS)

Friends, Romans, Startup Junkies, lend me your ears: I think I have discovered the cure for my chronic misery. And no, I'm not trying to sell you some overpriced mindfulness course. In fact, I have nothing to sell. I am just overexcited about my new discovery and would like to share it in the hope it could help others too (or myself in the future when I undoubtedly forget).

Confessions first: I am a COW (Chronically Overwhelmed Workaholic). And when I say workaholic I don't just mean "work" work, i.e. not just the stuff I get paid to do. Work is everything that I plan to do. Ought to do. Want to do. Finishing that creative project is, in my book, work. Learning Spanish is work too. Even putting this website up is work. It is mighty enjoyable and I am excited to do it, but I think it's work nonetheless.

So here is a definition:

work is anything that hurts if it is left undone

Now, with confessions and definitions out of the way, let's talk about misery. For us overexcited COWs, the cycle of misery tends to look like this:

1. Wake up with a hangover of 8 things that were not done yesterday and they still hurt.
2. Write down a list of 17 things to do today. Including yesterday's 8 and some new ideas that came overnight.
3. Start with the first thing and get distracted with some messages. Oh, hello 3 new things on the list that people need from me today.
4. Drink coffee. Look at the list. Cry a little. Take a break on TikTok for 10 minutes.
5. Three hours and hundreds of unrelated videos later, get out of slumber and look at the list again. Cry some more.
6. Get on with it and make some progress. Maybe cross out one or two small things. Or make progress on a big one, but not quite finish it.
7. Sweet Jesus, need some rest. A little more TikTok.
8. Feel guilty. Fall asleep on the couch.
9. Repeat.

Ok, this description may have been a bit overdramatic, but you get the point: overplan ⇒ fail ⇒ feel guilty ⇒ repeat. If this sounds oddly familiar, let's be friends.

Now, friendo, here is the thing. Just like you, I've tried a million times to break out of this loop of self-inflicted misery. I tried GTD and the Eisenhower method and all the to do list apps and habit trackers and Agile Results and even goddamn Zettelkasten (I know it's not the same thing, ok, but it sounds cool). Short-lived improvements may have followed, but in the long run none could put me out of my groundhog day misery. Until a few weeks ago I could finally see the bloody obvious: this misery was not a function of HOW I was trying to get my shit done. But a function of HOW MUCH shit I was trying to get done in one day. Duh. I know.

Now that the cause was found, the cure became obvious. Like a doctor fearlessly cutting out the identified tumor, all I needed to do was cut out the cancerously growing To Do list at the start of each day. Yes, you heard that right. Fuck to do lists. I decided that if I needed a list - I was planning to do too much. And, being a feeble-minded and weak-willed man of passion, I knew I couldn't realistically hold on to more than one thing at a time (for if I allowed for just one more - soon there would be a legion).

So, here is the final solution:

1. At the start of each day, think about ONE thing that would make this day worthwhile, even if nothing beyond it was accomplished.
2. Formulate it in a way that you know is doable in a day. A large project can't be done in a day, but there must be some kind of progress on it that can be done in a day. And that's how your thing for the day needs to be framed.
3. Say this ONE thing out loud. As a prayer. Or a swear. Or whatever. But say it. And better still, say it to the camera, and send it to someone, for accountability comes from commitment.
4. Get your ONE thing done. However small it is. And record proof. A github commit. A photo. An email sent out. Whatever it is, the artifact of DONE is magical and will become more magical as time goes on, just like any artifact of having lived.
5. That's a Bingo! You are done. You are not guilty. Your day was not a failure. You can rest. Walk. Read a book. Or if you have spare energy after resting - you can do some bonus things. But they are only bonus tracks. They don't cause task hangover.

Now, you may think at this point: boy, but wouldn't I get terribly behind if I only do one thing a day? Wouldn't people doing 15 things a day outperform me and leave me in the dust?

The short answer is no. To paraphrase Bruce Lee: fear not the man who practices 10,000 tasks at once. Such a person won't do any of the tasks too well. Such a person will burn out. Such a person will run fast, but in circles. Such a person will always be unsatisfied with themselves for there could have been 10,001 tasks. Such a person is not to be copied or chased for they are only chasing their own tail.

I've been practicing DOTS for a few weeks now. I know it's a short time, and this may still go to hell. But it does feel, for the first time in years, that I am both happy and productive sustainably rather than in a manic-depressive way. Maybe going slow is indeed the best way to go both fast, and far.

Now, to the future. With the first short one-man test of DOTS out of the way, it's time to do some proper long-term trials. So for 2026, I'm going to commit to the DOTS philosophy. And if you've read this far - I'm inviting you to join me.

I promise you'd be surprised at what you can achieve in a year, if you only do one thing a day, every day. Stupid.