My friend and business partner, Mark Nottoli, mentioned a business tool called the "stop doing" list. It's a list of tasks we are NOT going to do anymore. I've found it invaluable to help prioritize and even more importantly keep a distinct focus. A list is also great to share with the team so they know what NOT to do as well. In the startup world it's all about progress towards definitive goals. Living and dying by key performance indicators (KPIs). The limiting factor is often energy (not time) and most tasks (even the small ones) that don't drive a KPI are distractions that bleed precious energy from the team.

Here are some recommendations to start a "stop doing" list from the CEO's perspective:

• Tasks one of your team members can do;
• Preparation for a task that someone else is doing later;
• Tasks unrelated to existing clients or clients you're signing up in the next 90 days;
• Tasks that should be done by a professional (e.g., accounting, legal, HR, IT support, etc.

Try generating your own list and update it every couple of weeks. Post it publicly so everyone on your team knows you've thought about this stuff and decided "I'm not going to do that right now" and encourage them to copy the approach.

One of the great things about not doing something is that those undone tasks _never_ become huge arguments/debates within the company. Too often I see teams make the excuse "We're going to do X because it's not that hard/complicated" only to find themselves buried in the task because complexity arises halfway through.

Hoard your energy and put it towards goals that really matter!