The Simple System That Changed Everything#

This straightforward to-do list system is the exact method used to go from making $30,000 a year to over a million dollars annually, eventually building a business worth more than$300 million. It might not look super fancy, but trust me, it’s simple, and it really works.

Unlike what you hear from some productivity experts who just show you how to make your list look nice but still leave you clueless about what to actually do, this system genuinely tells you what tasks matter most if you want to dramatically increase your income and productivity, whether you’re a business owner or not.

If you put this into action today, you can immediately cut down on feeling overwhelmed, focus on the tasks that actually make money, and perform at your best without burning out. And it’s not just me – some of the wealthiest people use this same approach.

Here’s how this little system works, broken down into five simple steps (though we’ll really cover more like six steps in action).

Step 1: The Right Tool (Hint: It’s Simple)#

The beauty and effectiveness of this system lie in its simplicity. You only need one tool:

• A simple piece of paper.

Seriously, that’s it. For the video example, an iPad using an app called Notability was used, which is essentially like a digital piece of paper.

You might wonder why no fancy apps, automations, Notion dashboards, phone alerts, or notifications are needed. While those things are fun to watch on YouTube, if your real goal is to stop feeling overwhelmed, make more money (as a business owner or employee), and be more productive, the truth is simplicity works best.

This simple approach is what helped start a business from nothing after making just $15 an hour working in a paper shredding factory, leading to running a business now valued at over$300 million. There was never a need for a super advanced Notion setup, automations, or a robotic system managing the day. Those complex systems are often overwhelming and leave you juggling too many things, unsure where to look. One piece of paper is enough to clarify your day, figure out your priorities, and decide exactly what you need to do.

Step 2: Know Your Value - Set Your Hourly Rate#

The first thing you put on that piece of paper, right at the very top, is your hourly rate. It’s crucial to keep this in front of you always.

How to figure it out:

1. Take what you currently make in a year (e.g., $50,000).
2. Divide that by 2,000 hours (roughly the number of working hours in a year).
3. This gives you your current hourly rate ($50,000 / 2,000 =$25/hour).

Recommended approach: Instead of your current rate, put your desired hourly rate. If your goal is to make a million a year, divide $1,000,000 by 2,000, which equals$500 an hour. Write this desired rate ($500/hour in this example) on your paper.

Why do this? It’s a constant reminder of how valuable your time is, or how valuable you want it to be. The rule is: you will not do anything that falls below this hourly rate. These are tasks you should ideally outsource or that just aren’t important for making significant progress (“needle-moving”). If you want to be worth $500 an hour or make a million a year, you can't spend time on tasks you could pay someone$10 an hour for, or tasks only worth $20 an hour to you. You’ll never reach your goal that way.

Step 3: The Brain Dump#

Now for the core exercise that makes this system powerful: the Brain Dump.

On your piece of paper (maybe on the right-hand side), list out everything that’s currently taking up space in your head.

This includes:

• Things you need to do.
• Things you want to do.
• Items already on existing to-do lists.
• Incoming messages.
• Requests from others.

Literally anything, from paying taxes or bills to launching a new project or fixing a website. Everything goes onto this brain dump list.

The goal is to get everything out of your head. Writing it all down provides crucial mental clarity. You won’t wake up at night worrying about forgetting something because it’s all documented in one place. Getting it onto one simple piece of paper takes that mental load off your shoulders from trying to remember and juggle everything at once.

Examples from the text (listed in the brain dump):

• Mow the lawn
• Get a haircut
• Oil change
• Make dinner
• Emails to answer
• Mail + bills to pay
• Need to fix our website
• Run this new promo
• Check on our ad campaign
• Create new product
• One-on-one meetings
• Little guy’s baseball game
• Golf outing on Friday
• Seminar I have to go to
• Create a meal plan (mentioned later as not being circled, implying it was on the initial list)

So, that’s the full list, everything from personal errands to major business tasks, all documented.

Step 4: Identify “Operation Money Sucks” Tasks#

Now for the productive part. What do you do with this big list? This step is key and is considered a secret used by many successful people who can focus on the big things that drive revenue, create value, and increase their own worth.

Based on a concept from John Carlton (a highly paid copywriter who wrote a recommended book), this is called Operation Money Suck (though it seems the concept is more about getting rid of tasks that suck time/money and focusing on tasks that make money/increase value). John Carlton realized he needed to clear his plate of distractions that kept his business from growing and him from charging more.

He identified three types of tasks to focus on, getting rid of everything else. If you stick to just these three types, your income (as an employee or business owner) will likely increase significantly because you won’t be bogged down by things that don’t make money, don’t increase your value, or drain your energy.

Using a green marker (or just circling), identify the tasks on your brain dump list that meet these criteria:

1. They make you money.
2. They increase your hourly rate (make you more valuable).
3. They give you energy (to then go do tasks from points 1 & 2).

Circle only these tasks. Everything else gets dealt with differently.

Examples from the text (tasks that were circled):

• Fix our website (It’s argued this will make money)
• Run this new promo (Makes money)
• Check on our ad campaign (Likely makes money or informs money-making strategy)
• Create new product (Makes money)
• One-on-one meetings (For someone with a team, these can make the business money by training/coaching)
• Attend a seminar (Increases hourly rate by learning new skills - this includes reading books, meeting a coach, etc.)
• Golf (Gives energy/allows escape to then do money-making tasks)
• Cooper’s baseball game / Kids’ activities (Give energy, are fulfilling, important not to miss - fall under ‘gives energy’)

Note: “Create a meal plan” was specifically mentioned as not being circled, illustrating that not everything from the brain dump makes the cut.

After this step, your effective to-do list is already much shorter – often cut in half. These are the only things you will worry about doing yourself (initially).

Step 5: Find “The One Thing”#

This concept comes from a great productivity/business book called “The One Thing.”

Think of a line of dominoes where each one is twice the size of the last. You can start with a tiny 1-inch domino and, by arranging them correctly by ascending size, eventually knock down a domino the size of the Eiffel Tower.

The principle is: there’s usually one small task that, if done first, can significantly impact or even eliminate many other tasks on your list. Your job is to identify this “one thing.”

• Example (Fitness): If your list includes: take care of health, make a meal plan, pick a gym day, join a gym, get accountability, figure out exercises, plan food/intervals, etc. The “one thing” might be hiring a personal trainer. They take care of everything – telling you what to eat, when and how to work out – knocking down that whole set of health tasks with one action.
• Example (Business): Looking at circled tasks like website work, running a promo, managing ads, creating a product. The “one thing” could be hiring one person (e.g., a skilled marketer or project manager) who can handle or coordinate all of these tasks for you.

The mental exercise is: “What is this one thing, which task that I can accomplish, can eliminate all of the other tasks or make them way easier?” Go through this process, and you’ll often discover a single task that, if focused on, knocks down a bunch of others on your list.

Step 6: Outsource or Ignore Everything Else#

Now, look at all the items on your original brain dump list that you did not circle in Step 4 (the ones that don’t make money, increase your rate, or give you energy). For these remaining tasks, you have two options:

1. Outsource: Pay someone else to do it.
2. Ignore: Decide it’s not worth doing at all.

Using markings (like a black arrow for outsource and a red X for ignore), go down the uncircled items.

You might not be able to afford to outsource everything right away, especially if you’re on a lower salary. But the advice is to start looking for things to outsource, even small tasks.

For the uncircled items that are perhaps high-value or urgent but don’t meet your hourly rate goal, put the potential dollar amount it would cost to outsource them or the estimated hourly rate someone else might charge for that task.

Examples from the text (uncircled items and estimated outsourcing costs):

• Mow the lawn: Cost someone $50/hour (based on$200/month for 2 cuts, taking 2 hours total/month). Speaker hasn’t mowed in ~10 years.
• Get a haircut: Estimated cost $60/hour (based on a haircut cost). (Speaker mentions most people don’t cut their own hair anyway).
• Oil change: Estimated cost $100 (total cost, not hourly, but could be converted).
• Make dinner: Estimated cost $30/hour (based on$12/meal for 5 people = $60 total, taking perhaps 2 hours for prep/cook/clean, dividing$60 by 2 hours). Or using a meal service ($12/meal).
• Manage email / Answer mail and pay bills: Could find someone on Fiverr for $5/hour, maybe round up to$20/hour.
• Fix our website: Could find a great web designer for $50/hour.
• Run this new promo: Could hire a fantastic marketer/copywriter for $200/hour, maybe even$500/hour (still worth it compared to a high desired rate).
• Check on our ad campaign: A cost per hour could be calculated for outsourcing this.
• Create meal plan: Similar outsourcing possibilities exist.

Go through every uncircled item. Compare the potential outsourcing cost or hourly rate for that task back to your desired or current hourly rate (from Step 2). Ask yourself why you are doing any of these tasks if your goal is to reach that higher hourly rate. Do everything possible to get tasks below your target rate off your plate, either by outsourcing or ignoring them completely. Keep your focus firmly on tasks matching your desired hourly rate.

Taking even just a few of these things off your plate, as the speaker has done (e.g., mowing the grass for a decade), frees up significant time and mental energy for the high-value tasks.

Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pV95GXTClI

Why You Need to Ruthlessly Outsource and Focus#

Okay, so even now, you know, somebody actually comes right to the house just to take care of my haircut. This is purely to save me that 30 minutes it would take every couple of weeks to actually go drive and get it done myself.

We also spend, honestly, an obscene amount of money on food. The last time I checked, it was $5,500 a month**. This covers things like meal delivery, meal prep, or just having someone else handle a bunch of the food we need here in the house. Now, I know that might sound completely insane to you. But seriously, when your time becomes incredibly valuable, these kinds of things are tasks you **can**, and in my opinion, **should**, take off your plate. This lets you only focus on the tasks that are worth somewhere like **$500 to $1,000 to even$5,000 an hour. This becomes more and more true as your business keeps getting bigger.

What To Do After Outsourcing#

So, once you’ve done this exercise to figure out what you can actually outsource, honestly, my very best advice is simple: everything else on that list, you just ignore.

Now, I know that might sound completely crazy, just flat out ignoring these things. But let me tell you two things about that:

1. You’re Not Really Ignoring Them: They are now written down on a piece of paper. You should do this exercise, thinking about your tasks and outsourcing, at least every two weeks. Doing it every week is probably even better. So, you’re not truly ignoring them; they’re written down. You won’t forget them… well, you might forget them, but at least you have them somewhere! Keep them in a notebook or right near your desk.
2. Even If You Forget, It’s Not The End Of The World: Seriously, it’s okay.

There’s actually a running joke inside of Sam Cart that I am one of the least responsive people on our company’s internal Slack channel, and definitely the least responsive via email. Almost everybody who works here knows not to send me emails. Why? Because frankly, I don’t even check my Sam Cart email anymore. It’s just completely chaotic. It takes me way too much time just to go in there and even get a sense of what’s going on at this point.

So, I just decided, “Look, I’m going to focus only on the tasks that are worth thousands of dollars an hour to this business. That’s what I’m worth, and those are the things I should be focused on.”

How Truly Important Things Surface#

I think you should be doing the exact same thing. If something is genuinely urgent, even if you’re ignoring a bunch of Slack messages or emails amidst all the noise and those thousands of other incoming alerts and notifications you’re probably getting (just like I am), the things that are truly urgent and important, the ones that are really high value, will surface.

Somebody will bring them to you. They’ll pick up the phone and call you. They’ll keep sending you messages (“pinging” you) until you just get so annoyed that you actually answer and pick up the phone. It’s not going to be the end of the world.

What will be the end of the world – the worst possible scenario – is if you actually pay attention to all this extra noise and you don’t focus on the critical few things.

The Three Things To Focus On#

So, what are those critical things? Here they are:

1. What is actually going to make you the most money?
2. What’s going to increase your hourly rate?
3. What’s going to give you energy?

Ranking Your Core Tasks#

To take this strategy one step further, here’s what I do:

After I’m done with the outsourcing exercise, I look at what tasks I have left (the ones I’ve maybe circled on my list). Then, I rank each one based on two things:

• How easy it is.
• What the actual payoff is.

I often think of the payoff like this (I put a dollar amount next to them kind of as a ranking):

• Maybe a promotional activity (“promo”) might be a $1 activity (lower value).
• Updating the website might be another $1 activity.
• But an ad campaign might be a super high-value $3 activity.
• A new product idea might be a $2 activity.
• One-on-one meetings might be a $1 activity.
• A seminar might be a $2 activity.

That’s kind of how I rank them. And guess what? I’m going to either ignore or delegate these low-value ones (the $1 tasks in this example).

The “Never More Than Three” Rule#

Then, I’m just going to focus on the top few things. Here’s your goal: You should never have more than three things on your to-do list.

Seriously, if I were to show you what your goal should be, it’s this: Identify the three things that you absolutely need to focus on right now because they are high-dollar activities. And that is the only thing you should be working on.

You should be unapologetically focused on these things.

Handling External Pressure#

If your team comes to you and is upset because you’re not focused on something else, look, here’s the deal: Unless you genuinely made a mistake and completely forgot about something important that should replace one of the three things you’re focusing on (mistakes happen!), then fine, maybe reconsider.

But for the most part, as the owner of your business or the person in control of your own destiny, if your main goal is to increase what you are worth and make more money, this list (of your top 3 things) is your responsibility. You are the owner, and you know best what needs to be on your list. You should be unapologetic about the things that are on this list and not worry about anything else that somebody else might have as their priority.

Just because it’s on their list does not mean it needs to be on yours. Focus on this.

How You Get So Much Done (Spoiler: You Don’t)#

If you do this, you will become more productive than you ever thought possible. And people will ask you, the same way they ask me, “How do you get so much done?”

The truth is, I don’t get so much done. I’m not putting in 150-hour work weeks, like, it’s just not possible. I don’t have the time for that. I have three kids! I’m about as busy as it gets. I have the same amount of time as everyone else.

What I do is relentlessly prune what is on my list and only focus on the things that make our business the most money, that generate the most revenue for every single hour that I put in.

The Energy Factor#

And critically, I make sure that I always have enough things in the “gives energy” category. This is so I can always be at my peak performance. The harder things you do, the things that are most valuable to your business (like that ad campaign in our example – the highest value one), those things take the most creativity and the most energy. You need a lot of time to really think about them, to get creative, and to solve those problems.

That’s why I have one day right in the middle of my week that is entirely for meetings. Every other day is wide open. Because when tasks this important and this “needle-moving” are on your to-do list, you need entire days to really think about them, to do the research, and to actually complete them. You don’t want to end up (we tell the “bridge story” all the time) with a bunch of uncompleted bridges because you were trying to work on 15 different things at once.

You need to keep your list simple.

It’s Simple, Not Sexy, But It Works#

Now, this is probably not the “sexiest” to-do list strategy you’ve ever heard of. But it is simple, and it will make sure that you are focusing on the absolute right things. These are the things that are going to:

• Drive up what you are worth.
• Make you and/or your business the most money.
• Fill you back up to give you the energy you need to actually get the most important, high-priority activities completed.

So, look, I know simplifying isn’t glamorous or “sexy,” but it scales, and this works. It’s how we’ve gotten Sam Cart to the point where it is today. And it’s a big reason why I still use the exact same process today that I used 15 years ago when I was just starting out.

Give it a try. Let me know what you think down in the comments below. And I’ll see you in the next video.