If you’ve ever stared at your to-do list and felt a pang of anxiety, you’re not alone. The sheer volume of things you could do—big ideas, small errands, everything in between—can feel paralyzing. Somewhere in that overwhelming mass of possibilities, we convince ourselves there’s hidden treasure. A brilliant idea we haven’t noticed yet. A task we’ve overlooked. A diamond in the rough.

The trouble is, that thinking leads us down an endless rabbit hole. We start to believe the pile itself is the work. We think the more we analyze, groom, and categorize, the closer we’ll get to clarity. But clarity doesn’t come from staring at the pile. It comes from letting it go.

Why the pile feels safe

Here’s the thing about the pile: it’s comforting. Seeing everything laid out gives us the illusion of control. It’s why we meticulously log tasks, tag them with labels, assign priorities, and group them into categories. We feel productive because we’re engaging with the work, even if we’re not actually doing the work.

But the pile is deceptive. The more we interact with it, the harder it is to let go. What if we miss something important? What if today’s low-priority idea becomes tomorrow’s breakthrough? That fear keeps us tethered to the pile, spending more time managing our tasks than completing them.

The cost of trying to do it all

This isn’t just a personal problem. It’s baked into how teams operate, too. Look at the tools we use—JIRA, Asana, Monday, ClickUp, Linear. They’re designed to capture- and display- everything. Every idea, every task, every edge case. These tools don’t help us focus; they invite us to fixate on the pile.

Think about how much time is wasted in meetings dedicated to backlog grooming. Entire teams spend hours debating the worth of every item, scanning for hidden opportunities, and second-guessing priorities. That time could’ve been spent on the work itself.

Less is more

The real epiphany here is this: we don’t need to see everything. In fact, seeing everything is what keeps us stuck. The most productive people—and teams—focus on a small number of high-impact tasks. They commit to moving those forward and let everything else fade into the background.

Here’s a challenge: limit yourself to five things. Not five lists, not five categories. Just five tasks. These should be the most valuable, impactful things you could be doing right now. Trust yourself to get these done, and trust that what’s left in the pile will wait.

What happens when you do this?

1. You’ll get more done. When the options are limited, you’ll stop waffling and start executing.

2. You’ll stop worrying about what you’re missing. With fewer choices, you’re forced to focus. And focus has a way of clarifying what actually matters.

3. You’ll create momentum. Finishing even one meaningful task is far more energizing than staring at a well-organized backlog.

Letting go is progress

Letting go of the pile isn’t easy. It feels risky to archive, delete, or ignore tasks. But here’s the truth: if an idea or task is valuable enough, it’ll find its way back to you. The real risk is spending all your energy maintaining the pile instead of moving the work forward.

What’s more important—doing great work or making sure no idea ever slips through the cracks? You can’t have both. And the truth is, you don’t need to. Great work comes from focus, not from scouring the depths of a to-do list for a needle in the haystack.

So let go of the pile. It’s not where the magic happens. The magic happens when you pick the right few things and pour yourself into them. Everything else can wait.