Sturgeon’s Law and Your To-Do List

Sturgeon’s Law states that 90% of everything is crap. 

It applies to books, restaurants, movies, TV shows, tweets, YouTube videos — everything humans create. When I first heard it, I spent some time reflecting on whether it felt true in my own life. And… I tend to agree.

Think about it.
When was the last time you experienced something outstanding — so unexpectedly good that it made your entire day? It doesn’t happen often.

Most restaurants are average at best.
Most books recycle the same ideas.
Most movies feel predictable and risk-averse.
Most clothes fall apart after one wash.
And modern architecture… let’s not even go there.

The uncomfortable twist

However, before judging the world around us, it’s important to admit that Sturgeon’s Law applies to us just as much. It applies to the ideas we have about how we should spend our time — our to-do lists.

Whenever I look at my backlog (an Agile version of a to-do list), I remind myself that 90% of those tasks are crap:

• They don’t meaningfully improve my life.

• They don’t make me happier.

• They don’t support deeper relationships.

Most likely, I’ll be completely fine not doing them — or doing them imperfectly. Furthermore, I definitely don’t need habit trackers, productivity apps, or elaborate systems for that 90%.

Sturgeon’s Law is the cure for overwhelm

Overwhelm occurs as a result of putting too much focus and importance on the numerous non-essentials.

We run like hamsters in a wheel — busy, exhausted, and yet not seeing meaningful progress. If 90% of my backlog items are meaningless noise, then the remaining 10% is what I should focus on. Therefore, the 10% is what I should plan, track, and execute.

I design my productivity system around those 10% tasks.

A good system ensures that:

• the most impactful tasks are identified, and the rest are ignored

• those tasks are thoughtfully planned

• daily and weekly routines support the execution of those goals

Agile and Sturgeon’s Law work beautifully together

This is exactly why Agile has been such a game-changer for me.

Only 3–5 sprint goals fit on my sprint board each month. The physical limit protects my focus. Those goals are what I obsess over — not the 50 other things my brain tells me I “should” do.

Students of the Monthly Method fight this at first. Their to-do lists feel urgent and important. Their brains negotiate:

“How about 6 goals this sprint?”
“What about 5.5?”
“What if we do 7 goals this sprint and 3 next sprint?”

I get it. My brain still tries to negotiate too. However, limiting goals is where the magic happens.

The benefits of pursuing fewer goals

Having a strict limit on monthly goals is the single most powerful move you can make:

• It simplifies everything — no fancy apps required.

• It forces you to choose what is essential.

• It drastically reduces “productive procrastination.”

For example, you can clean your bathroom instead of working on your PhD dissertation, but you don’t get to move a sticky note to Done. Most productivity tools give the same dopamine reward for any task, which is a flaw. Agile does not.

What about everything else in life?

Of course, there are more than five things that must get done each month:

• dinner still needs to be cooked

• laundry still needs to be washed

• emails still need responses

• admin work still accumulates

However, your system for these tasks should be different from your system for life-changing goals.

Personally, I don’t track them. There is no point. I don’t want a false sense of progress when I’m avoiding the meaningful work that actually moves my life forward.

Laundry gets done when it gets done.
Emails get answered eventually.
Admin work happens in batches.
Blog posts like this get written when I have something worth saying.

Meanwhile, I reserve discipline and deep-work capacity for my carefully selected sprint goals. I also limit how many checkboxes I get to complete each month.

The mantra that guides me here is:

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”

The humbling wisdom of Sturgeon’s Law

If 90% of everything humans produce is mediocre, then 90% of our ideas and tasks are mediocre too. Accepting this makes life dramatically easier. Suddenly:

• not every idea becomes urgent

• not every task becomes a priority

• not every backlog item deserves attention

We stop chasing completion for completion’s sake and start pursuing meaningful completion.

If you are new to Agile philosophy, you can find the core principles on the Start Here page. 

If you need guidance applying Agile and Scrum to your personal goals and projects, check out the step-by-step process I created for planning and running your first sprint. 

You might enjoy this:

1. My 9-step decision-making framework
2. How to prioritize goals
3. Don’t break the chain rule with an Agile twist
4. Mind trick for starting new habits and building consistency
5. The Happy Path Concept