So, you’re wondering about Mike McClendon, huh?
Yeah, a lot of folks get him mixed up, or they’ve only heard bits and pieces. Some think he’s all about complex theories or some high-flying corporate strategy. Nah, not the Mike McClendon I’m talking about, anyway. Not some big shot you see on TV.
The Mike McClendon I stumbled upon was way more down-to-earth. His whole deal, if you boil it down, was about figuring out what not to do. Sounds simple, almost like an excuse to be lazy, right? That’s what I thought at first, to be honest.
My Journey with McClendon’s Way
You see, I wasn’t always this… well, let’s just say, selective with my energy. I used to be one of those guys who believed more hours meant more success. Burning the midnight oil? That was my jam. My calendar was a chaotic mess of back-to-back tasks, always chasing the next shiny thing, always trying to impress someone.
And where did that get me? Burnt out, mostly. Stressed to the max. I remember this one gig, a flashy startup, full of buzzwords and promises of “disruption.” We were all supposed to be changing the world, day in and day out. In reality, we were just changing text on slides in endless, soul-crushing presentations. The actual important work? Buried under layers of office politics and massive egos. It was a classic case of everyone running around like headless chickens – all motion, no real movement forward.
Then things took a nosedive for me. The big project I poured my heart and soul into for over a year got suddenly shelved. Just like that. Poof. Months of late nights, sacrificed weekends, all gone. They had some fancy corporate explanation, “a strategic realignment of resources” or some other garbage like that. The plain truth was, they just didn’t have a clue what they were doing. So, I was out on my ear, feeling like a total chump, wondering what the heck I was going to do.
That’s when I found McClendon. Not in some fancy seminar or expensive workshop, mind you. It was an old, dog-eared pamphlet I picked up for a quarter at a dusty second-hand bookstore, tucked away in a box of forgotten self-help guides from the 70s. “The Quiet Art of Deliberate Omission” by a Mike McClendon I’d never heard of. Corny title, I know, but I was pretty desperate for anything at that point.
Putting “Deliberate Omission” into Practice
I was pretty skeptical, to say the least. “Omit” things? My whole life had been about adding things – more skills to my resume, more projects on my plate, more connections on LinkedIn. But with a lot of unexpected free time on my hands and not much else, I figured, why not give it a shot? What did I really have to lose?
- First, I started small. I took a hard look at my daily to-do list, which usually had like 30 items. Instead of trying to cram everything in and feeling like a failure, I asked McClendon’s big question: “If I could only do one thing today that truly mattered, what would it be?” It was surprisingly hard to answer.
- Then, I started applying it to bigger stuff in my life. Commitments I’d half-heartedly made. Side projects I was vaguely pursuing but making no real progress on. I started saying “no” a lot more. Man, that was tough. I felt guilty, like I was letting people down or missing out.
- The trick, according to this McClendon fella, wasn’t just about doing less, but about being super intentional and focused with what you did choose to do. Focus like a laser beam on that one important thing until it was done, and done well.
It wasn’t an overnight miracle, far from it. There were plenty of days I slipped back into my old habits, trying to juggle a dozen things at once, getting stressed out. My old boss from that startup would have loved that version of me. He was the kind of manager who thought being “busy” was a badge of honor, even if you were just spinning your wheels and not producing anything useful. I clearly remember him praising folks for staying late, even if they produced absolute garbage the next day because they were so tired. Total madness, if you ask me.
That whole experience at the startup, actually, was a masterclass in what not to do, just like McClendon was saying. They had all the resources, supposedly smart people, but zero focus. Everyone was pulling in completely different directions. It was like a band where every single member is playing a different song, at full volume, all at the same time. McClendon’s ideas about “deliberate omission” felt like the exact opposite of that chaotic mess.
So, What Happened in the End?
Slowly, but surely, things started to shift for me. By consciously cutting out the noise, the distractions, the unimportant tasks, I found I had more clarity. The things I did choose to work on, I did them much better. I wasn’t as stressed all the time. And ironically, I started getting more meaningful stuff done, real achievements, than when I was frantically trying to do everything under the sun.
This whole “practice” with Mike McClendon’s ideas, it wasn’t about finding some magic bullet or a quick fix. It was about a fundamental mindset shift. It’s funny, because now, people sometimes comment on how I seem to manage my time well or how I stay focused on what’s important. They don’t see the messy middle part, the burnout, the feeling lost, or the weird little pamphlet from a forgotten author that totally changed my approach to pretty much everything.
And that old startup? Heard through the grapevine it went under about a year after I left. Not surprising, really, given how they operated. They were just too busy being busy. As for that “strategic realignment” that cost me my job back then? Well, I guess my own “deliberate omission” of them from my life was my own strategic pivot, and it worked out a heck of a lot better for me in the long run.
