Do this now, f*ck the rest of it
- Michael Amenta
- Jun 25
- 4 min read
How a gag gift revealed that what you don't do is the key to doing everything else well.
Ten years ago, I was given a gag gift of a simple notepad with two columns: "Do it now" on the left, and "F*ck it" on the right. No single tool, software or otherwise, has done more for my productivity than this simple notepad.
In a chaotic work environment, task management can be overwhelming, but structured logs, such as those provided by Linear, Asana, or Jira, are often overkill. A physical notepad is perfectly suited to such a job.
The left column ensures focus since the human brain can only work on one item at a time, or face significant consequences for trying to overcome this limit. The right column ensures a calm mind while you're focused on the main task. Without dumping all the things I need to get done in that "f*ck it" list, the tasks are ever swirling in my head, constantly saying: “Don’t forget about me! When will you get to me?”.
The right side of the pad provides the mental clarity espoused by David Allen of Getting Things Done, while the left side represents a strict filter for only letting through a select few. This is what Greg McKeown calls Essentialism: the disciplined pursuit of less. The notepad manifests these grand ideas in one simple product.
Every piece of work is a task
Once the “Do it now” focus task is done, I simply cross it out and find a new item to replace it. Rinse and repeat.
Think of all you've accomplished at work in the last year. Even if it's a sizable amount, if you were to work towards those objectives again starting today, you might complete them in a fraction of the time.
This is partly due to the pernicious effects of time spent in meetings we don't need to be in, managing personalities who are blocking innovation, and making decks, emails, and documents that most stakeholders won't read. These are the forces that make the reclamation of our time so essential, which can be mitigated with how we communicate informally and formally, how we manage, how we design organizations, how we build, and how we manage our emotions.
On top of that, strict definitions of what work we will and won't focus on in each present moment makes a world of difference in personal productivity. The name 'Do this well' eventually arrived from this simple, binary framework.
Every piece of work is writing
The same heuristic for tasks applies to documenting work. No matter the occupation, every piece of knowledge work stems from writing: design requirements, structural specifications, project plans, evidence or research, engineering briefs, support notes, etc.
Digital documentation tools have improved, but it's still helpful to question when they're additive. The alternative of personal note taking aids with memory retention, while still providing a dated library for referencing any meeting from any given day.
On the other hand, too much system documentation reduces personal and team productivity since all ideas, in the process of being validated, evolve and change. As the manifesto for agile software development states: working software over comprehensive documentation.
AI has only made lean practices more important. In a workplace context, the AI models must be trained on "golden data" for context, which means slides or Confluence must archive outdated material, and provide updates and decision logs, to keep context clean. Otherwise, AI responses will be confidently wrong and misinformation will spread at great expense. Generating a higher volume of documentation more quickly through AI can create more work downstream.
Every piece of work is towards a goal
This principle scales further since tasks and documentation are produced to achieve goals. But goals can be just as transient, so it's important they're selected and managed in an equally lean way.
For example, a SMART framework is fairly heavy since it demands measurement frameworks and the establishment of time-bound deadlines. It can be helpful for fixed tasks, like improving efficiency within an existing process, but it can be counter-productive for knowledge work and macro optimization. When trying to master something complex, time-bound milestones can lead to frustrating distractions during inevitably non-linear progression.
In addition, focusing on small, achievable requirements can dictate mediocre improvements (i.e. "local optimizations"), rather than holistic and large "system optimizations". For example, when Stephen Curry chose to develop a new shooting form in high school that temporarily tanked his shot percentage, he wasn't chasing small and measurable improvements in the form of 1 additional point per game. He was unlocking a new system that would allow him to reach higher levels. Goals must be large and ambitious enough that you're willing to temporarily degrade performance to optimize for long-term success.
How you do one thing is how you do everything
Knowing what not to do isn't just for the big decisions of a marketing strategy or market expansion. It applies to everything. To ensure the big decisions are sound, everyday, small decisions must be efficient and effective.
The "Do it now | F*ck it" notepad ensures focus by constraining open tasks. Lean documentation forces clarity by constraining what gets written down. And ambitious goals produce systems thinking by constraining away local optimizations. In each case, the discipline is the same: the constraint provided by choosing what not to do is the condition that unlocks new levels of growth.
Each component of work must face the same binary standard: do this, f*ck that. The constraint is the key.