You’ve committed to embracing The Terrible Ten. You’re going to push through the messy first attempts. You’ve internalized the JGSD mindset. You’re going to stop planning and start shipping.
You can’t do this for everything on your list.
The Energy Tax of Actually Executing
Let’s be honest about what we’ve been advocating in this series:
The Terrible Ten is exhausting. Those first 10 attempts at a new skill require massive psychological overhead. You’re fighting imposter syndrome, pushing through discomfort, and forcing yourself to do something your brain screams is “not working yet.”
Getting Shit Done is draining. Shipping rough work, learning from real feedback, and iterating rapidly takes focus, courage, and sustained energy. It’s the opposite of coasting.
Building to 1,000 reps takes time. As we covered in From 10 to 1,000, mastery comes from consistent iteration. That’s hundreds of hours of deliberate practice.
Now look at your to-do list. You have 37 items. Three “urgent” Slack threads. Five “strategic initiatives” your CEO mentioned. Two “quick wins” your team proposed. And that side project you’ve been “meaning to get to.”
If you try to apply the Terrible Ten + JGSD framework to all of that, you will burn out by Tuesday.
This is the trap that ambitious people fall into: They treat execution like a superpower they can apply to everything, when it’s actually a finite resource they must deploy strategically.
The Sunk Cost Trap: Why We Do Work That Doesn’t Matter
Here’s a psychological quirk that destroys productivity: We stubbornly finish tasks just because we already started them.
The sunk cost fallacy is the irrational tendency to continue investing in something because we’ve already invested time, money, or effort—even when it no longer makes sense to continue.
In practice, this looks like:
- You’ve spent 4 hours on a presentation that you now realize nobody will act on. But you finish it anyway because “I’ve already done most of the work.”
- You’re 6 reps into a 10-rep sprint on a skill that you’ve discovered isn’t actually critical to your role. But you complete the sprint anyway because “I said I’d do 10.”
- You’ve been building a feature for 3 weeks that users don’t want. But you finish it anyway because “we’re almost done.”
The sunk cost fallacy whispers: “Don’t waste the work you’ve already done.”
The truth is: “The work is already wasted if the outcome doesn’t matter. Stop doubling down.”
JGSD Is Not Busywork at Scale
The “Just Get Shit Done” philosophy is not about finishing everything faster. It’s about executing ruthlessly on the things that matter and abandoning everything else.
If you’re using JGSD to ship low-value work at high speed, you’re not being productive. You’re just being busy.
Busy looks like:
- Attending every meeting you’re invited to
- Finishing every task on the list (regardless of impact)
- Responding to every Slack message within 5 minutes
- Saying yes to every “quick favor”
Productive looks like:
- Attending only the meetings where you change the outcome
- Finishing only the tasks that move the needle
- Responding to the messages that unblock critical work
- Saying no to everything that isn’t a clear strategic priority
The difference is strategic abandonment.
The Art of Strategic Abandonment
The concept of strategic abandonment was popularized by management thinker Peter Drucker, who argued that one of the most important decisions a leader makes is what not to do.
Greg McKeown builds on this in Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, where he argues that the way to true productivity is not to do more things faster, but to do fewer things better.
The core principle: If you don’t actively kill low-value work, it will consume your time by default.
What Strategic Abandonment Actually Means
It does NOT mean:
- Giving up when things get hard (the Terrible Ten is supposed to be hard)
- Quitting before you learn (iteration requires feedback loops)
- Abandoning commitments to your team (integrity matters)
It DOES mean:
- Stopping work that no longer aligns with your goals
- Killing projects that made sense 3 months ago but don’t today
- Declining new commitments that don’t move the needle
- Deferring good ideas that aren’t the right ideas for right now
The question is not “Can I do this?” It’s “Should I be doing this at all?”
The Task Triage Framework: Three Questions Before You Execute
Before you commit to a new project, push through a 10-rep sprint, or ship another iteration, run it through this filter:
Question 1: Does This Actually Move the Needle?
What it means: Will completing this task create a measurable, meaningful change in the outcome you care about?
Red flags that it doesn’t:
- “It would be nice to have…”
- “We’ve always done it this way…”
- “It’s on the roadmap, so we should finish it…”
- “I’m 80% done, might as well complete it…”
Examples:
| Task | Needle-Mover? | Why? |
|---|---|---|
| Rewriting internal documentation that nobody reads | ❌ No | No one’s behavior will change |
| Running 10 critical feedback conversations with underperforming team members | ✅ Yes | Directly impacts team performance |
| Redesigning the logo | ❌ No | Your customers don’t care about your logo; they care if your product works |
| Building the feature your top 3 customers are asking for | ✅ Yes | Retention and revenue are at stake |
| Attending a recurring status meeting where you never speak | ❌ No | You’re not influencing the outcome |
If the task doesn’t move the needle, stop. Don’t optimize it. Don’t defer it. Kill it.
Question 2: Is This the Right Time to Do It?
What it means: Even if this task matters, is now the moment when it will have the highest impact?
Red flags that it’s not:
- “We should probably start thinking about this…”
- “It’s important, but not urgent…”
- “Let’s get ahead of this before it becomes a problem…”
Examples:
| Task | Right Time? | Why? |
|---|---|---|
| Building a feature for a customer segment you don’t have yet | ❌ No | Solve for the customers you have, not hypothetical ones |
| Fixing the production bug that’s blocking 40% of users | ✅ Yes | Urgent and high-impact |
| Documenting the process for scaling to 100 employees when you have 12 | ❌ No | Premature optimization; the process will change before you hit 100 |
| Hiring a VP of Engineering when your eng team is overwhelmed | ✅ Yes | You need leverage now, not in 6 months |
| Creating a crisis management plan after your last outage caused customer escalations | ✅ Yes | The pain is fresh; momentum exists |
If it’s not the right time, defer it. Add it to a “revisit in Q3” list. Let it go for now.
Question 3: What Is the Absolute Smallest Useful Version of This?
What it means: If you must do this task, what’s the minimum version that delivers value?
Red flags that you’re over-scoping:
- “While we’re at it, we should also…”
- “Let’s make sure it’s perfect before we ship…”
- “We need to handle every edge case…”
Examples:
| Task | Smallest Useful Version |
|---|---|
| Building a new onboarding flow | A single welcome email with a 3-minute product tour video (not a 12-screen interactive wizard) |
| Improving team communication | 10 one-on-ones over 3 weeks (not a team offsite retreat with hired facilitators) |
| Documenting a new process | A 1-page checklist in Google Docs (not a 40-page wiki with embedded videos) |
| Getting customer feedback | 5 phone calls with power users (not a comprehensive survey with 30 questions sent to 1,000 customers) |
| Launching a new service | Manually fulfill the first 10 orders yourself (not building automated infrastructure before you have product-market fit) |
If you can’t define the smallest useful version, you’re not ready to execute. Go back to Question 1.
When to Abandon Mid-Sprint
Here’s the hardest part: Sometimes you should quit even after you’ve started.
You’re 5 reps into a 10-rep sprint. You’ve learned that this skill isn’t as critical as you thought. Or the business priority shifted. Or you discovered a better way to solve the problem.
The sunk cost fallacy says: “You’re halfway there! Finish the sprint!”
Strategic abandonment says: “You’ve learned what you needed to know. Stop now and redirect that energy to something that matters.”
The Abandonment Decision Tree
Ask yourself:
- Has the goal changed? (If the outcome you’re working toward is no longer relevant, stop immediately.)
- Have you learned enough? (If 5 reps taught you what you needed to know, you don’t need 10.)
- Is there a higher-leverage alternative? (If a better opportunity emerged, shift focus.)
If the answer to any of these is yes, stop. You’re not quitting. You’re redirecting finite resources to higher-value work.
Real-World Examples: What Strategic Abandonment Looks Like
Example 1: The Feature Nobody Wanted
Your team spent 2 sprints building a feature based on a customer request. You ship it to beta users. Nobody uses it.
Sunk cost thinking: “We already built it. Let’s add more onboarding, send emails, run a webinar to drive adoption.”
Strategic abandonment: “We learned that the problem we thought existed doesn’t. Kill the feature. Redirect the eng capacity to the top 3 requests from our power users.”
Example 2: The 10-Rep Sprint That Doesn’t Matter Anymore
You’re 6 reps into a 10-rep sprint on “running better all-hands meetings.” Your company just went fully remote. All-hands meetings are now async video updates.
Sunk cost thinking: “I committed to 10 reps. I’ll finish the remaining 4, even though the format changed.”
Strategic abandonment: “The skill I was building is no longer relevant. I’ll start a new 10-rep sprint on creating compelling async video updates instead.”
Example 3: The Project That Made Sense Last Quarter
You committed to rewriting the internal documentation site in Q2. It’s now Q3. Your roadmap shifted. The documentation is functional, even if it’s not pretty.
Sunk cost thinking: “We said we’d do it. Let’s carve out time to finish it.”
Strategic abandonment: “The business priority changed. This is no longer a needle-mover. We’re closing the project and reassigning the resources.”
Permission to Stop: The Liberating Framework
Here’s what nobody tells you about productivity: Your most impactful move might be crossing something off your list without doing it.
The “Stop Doing” Exercise
Right now, open your to-do list. Find one task that:
- You’ve been putting off for weeks
- You secretly hope will just go away
- You can’t articulate why it actually matters
Now cross it off. Not “defer to next week.” Not “delegate to someone else.” Just delete it.
How does it feel?
If the answer is “liberating,” that task was noise. You just freed up mental bandwidth for work that matters.
If the answer is “terrifying,” ask yourself: Is the terror because the task is critical, or because you hate the idea of “giving up”?
Warren Buffett’s 25-5 Rule
Warren Buffett famously told his pilot to write down his top 25 career goals, circle the top 5, and avoid the remaining 20 at all costs.
Why? Because the 20 goals that didn’t make the cut aren’t bad goals. They’re distracting goals. They’re good enough to tempt you, but not important enough to deserve your finite energy.
Apply this to your task list:
- Write down everything you’re working on or planning to start.
- Circle the top 5 that actually move the needle.
- Everything else? Kill it, defer it, or delegate it.
If it’s not in the top 5, it doesn’t deserve your focus.
JGSD + Strategic Abandonment = Leverage
The most productive people aren’t the ones who finish the most tasks. They’re the ones who ruthlessly eliminate low-value work and execute relentlessly on the few things that matter.
The formula:
- JGSD on the right things = High impact, compounding results
- JGSD on everything = Burnout, busywork, mediocre outcomes
Strategic abandonment is not laziness. It’s discipline.
It’s the recognition that your time, energy, and focus are scarce resources, and the highest-leverage move you can make is to stop wasting them on work that doesn’t matter.
Your Challenge: Cross One Thing Off Today
Right now, you have something on your list that you know, deep down, doesn’t matter.
Maybe it’s:
- A meeting you’ve been meaning to schedule
- A “nice to have” feature on the backlog
- A side project you started 6 months ago and haven’t touched
- A process improvement that sounded good in theory but never got traction
- A skill you thought you should learn but isn’t critical to your role
Find it. Cross it off. Don’t do it.
Feel the weight lift. That’s what strategic abandonment feels like.
And then take the energy you just freed up and redirect it to the one thing on your list that will actually move the needle.
Because that’s where the Terrible Ten should go. That’s where JGSD should be applied. That’s where your 1,000 reps should be invested.
Not on everything. On the thing that matters.
What are you abandoning this week? I’m on LinkedIn—I’d love to hear what you’re giving yourself permission to stop doing.
References & Further Reading
- The Terrible Ten: Why Your First 10 Attempts Must Suck - Why execution is energy-intensive
- Stop Talking About It: Just Get Shit Done - The JGSD framework
- From 10 to 1,000: How Repetition Becomes Second Nature - Why mastery requires focus
- The Sunk Cost Fallacy - Why we finish work that doesn’t matter
- Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less (Greg McKeown) - The philosophy of “less but better”
- Peter Drucker on Strategic Abandonment - Harvard Business Review on what not to do
- Warren Buffett’s 25-5 Rule: Focus on What Matters - The prioritization framework from James Clear