The 5/25 Two Lists

The focus exercise attributed to Warren Buffett, laid out as the derivation it is. Step 1: write down 25 goals — career, life, the next five years — without filtering. Step 2: circle the five that matter most. Then the twist that makes the exercise work: the other twenty don't become a someday list. They become List B — avoid at all costs — because they're the goals seductive enough to steal time from the five. The sheet shows the whole exercise on one page: the numbered 25-slot brainstorm up top with your picks circled, List A below with the top five in full weight, and List B struck through in a dark panel beside it, where you can see exactly what you're refusing. Star your picks with a leading !, or print it blank and do the circling by hand — the discipline isn't picking the five, it's refusing the twenty.

• Portrait
• 1 page
• Vision

Best for: Cutting a sprawling list of ambitions down to the five that get your actual time — and making the refusal of the rest explicit.