THE EXECUTION EXPERT BLOG
Notes on getting it done.
What six years and 700 clients taught me about follow-through, focus, and the stories we tell ourselves about why it isn't finished yet.
The 15-minute weekly review my clients swear by
Your brain doesn't need every task finished. It needs every task decided. The psychology of open loops, and the 15-minute Friday habit that closes them.
AI helps beginners most
A study of 5,000 customer support agents found AI helped beginners far more than experts. Why that matters most for small business owners who are the bottleneck in their own business.
Too many options is why you're stuck
The famous jam study says too many options stop us from choosing. The follow-up research says it's more complicated, and more useful. Why you're really stuck on that decision, and how to decide.
How to delegate without taking it back
You delegate, it comes back wrong, you take it back. Sound familiar? What decades of goal research say about handing off work, and a five-question brief that keeps delegation from boomeranging.
Quarterly planning for people who hate planning.
You're not bad at planning. You're optimistic, like every human. What a study of 37 honors students reveals about why your quarterly plans fall apart, and how to build one you'll actually finish.
Be a "finisher," don't just "finish things"
A famous study said calling yourself a "voter" instead of "voting" changes behavior. Then it failed to replicate. What that means for identity, and how you actually become someone who finishes things.
Make the boring task fun on purpose
You don't need more discipline to do the boring tasks. A Wharton researcher's audiobook experiment shows how pairing what you want with what you should do makes follow-through easier.
You're interrupted every few minutes. Here's the fix.
Interruptions don't just cost you time. They cost you energy. What research on interrupted work and email reveals, and how AI can help you batch the noise instead of reacting all day.
Build your business in 20-minute scraps
You don't need four-hour deep work blocks to build a business. You need a system for the scraps. What "time confetti" means for busy owners, and how to turn 20-minute windows into real progress.
Adding people to a late project makes it later
When a project falls behind, adding people feels like the fix. A century-old rope-pulling study and a famous software rule explain why it usually makes things later, and what to do instead.
Quit the project you've already sunk a year into
"But I've already put so much into it" might be the most expensive thought in business. What a 1985 theater-ticket experiment reveals about sunk costs, and a simple test for knowing when to quit.
Why small wins matter more than big ones
It's not big wins that make your best workdays. It's small progress. What 12,000 workplace diary entries reveal about motivation, and how to start noticing your wins.
I used AI to clear a week of admin. Here's the exact setup.
Admin isn't costing you minutes. It's costing you focus. The research on "attention residue," and the exact AI setup I use to stop switching all day.
Stop announcing your goals
Telling people your goals can make you less likely to reach them, but only if you share them the wrong way. What the research says about announcing versus reporting, and who you should actually tell.
What 700 clients taught me about finishing things
The people who get results aren't the most motivated. Research on the "intention-behavior gap" explains why, and what actually separates the people who finish.
You're not lazy. Your goal is too vague.
"Grow the business" isn't a goal. It's a mood. Thirty-five years of goal research explains why you keep avoiding it, and how to make it something you can do on Tuesday.
How to hold your team accountable without becoming the nag
Your team isn't lazy. A 1979 experiment with blindfolds and a lot of shouting explains why "we should" never gets done, and how to fix it without nagging.
Why you keep starting over, and how to stop
Every restart feels like a fresh commitment. The research says it's often the opposite. Here's why your brain loves a clean slate, and what to do instead.
LET’S GO A LITTLE DEEPER
The honest stuff I only say to subscribers
One brief email each week: a pattern I saw in coaching calls, and what to do about it this week.