Do you have a list of your top priorities? The items you most want to accomplish? Sure you do, if only in your head.

Just as important is the list of what are not priorities for you. Those opportunities or possibilities that can be tempting distractions from your true goals.

That’s what I call the Hell No list. If it’s not something that makes you say Hell Yes, then it’s a Hell No. In fact, you don’t even need to make that list, if you learn to instantly discern the Hell Nos as they occur.

Peter Bregman recently wrote about these two lists on the Harvard Business Review blogsite. Except he called them by different names: Your Focus List and Your Ignore List. His post is titled ‘Two Lists You Should Look at Everyday” and it’s worth the read. Unless blog posts on productivity happen to be a Hell No for you.

Elizabeth Cogswell Baskin is the author of Hell Yes: Two Little Words for a Simpler, Happier Life.